diff --git a/qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests/README.md b/qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests/README.md
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+Test framework sanity tests
+===========================
+
+This folder is intended for sanity tests (self tests) of the test framework.
+
+Tests here are not intended to test Bitcoin functionality, but rather to
+test aspects of the Python test framework.
+
+As such, they are not bound into the regular test suites embedded  in the
+rpc-tests.py test runner, but have to be executed in a special way through
+the `run-self-tests.sh` script in this folder, or executed manually.
+
+There is also not yet an associated build system (Make) target for running
+these self-tests.
+
+To execute, they need the PYTHONPATH to include the qa/rpc-tests/ folder,
+so that they can import the `test_framework` module and friends.
+The `run-self-tests.sh` wrapper takes care of that.
diff --git a/qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests/initialize_direct.py b/qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests/initialize_direct.py
new file mode 100755
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests/initialize_direct.py
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# Copyright (c) 2017 The Bitcoin developers
+# Distributed under the MIT software license, see the accompanying
+# file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
+"""
+Test the initialize_chain function.
+"""
+
+from test_framework.test_framework import BitcoinTestFramework
+from test_framework.util import start_node, stop_nodes, initialize_chain
+
+
+# number of nodes to launch
+NUM_NODES = 4
+
+
+class Direct_Initialize_Test (BitcoinTestFramework):
+    '''
+    This tests the direct use of the initialize function.
+    '''
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        super(Direct_Initialize_Test, self).__init__()
+        self.num_nodes = NUM_NODES
+        # Do not set up chain - we will call initialize_chain to do it.
+        self.setup_clean_chain = True
+
+    def setup_chain(self):
+        print("Setting up chain")
+        initialize_chain(self.options.tmpdir, self.num_nodes,
+                         self.options.cachedir)
+
+    def run_test(self):
+        # Stop nodes which have been started by default
+        stop_nodes(self.nodes)
+
+        # Start them up again because test framework tries to stop
+        # nodes at end of test, and will deliver error messages
+        # if none are running.
+        for i in range(NUM_NODES):
+            self.nodes[i] = start_node(i, self.options.tmpdir)
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    Direct_Initialize_Test().main()
diff --git a/qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests/run_self_tests.sh b/qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests/run_self_tests.sh
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests/run_self_tests.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Copyright (c) 2017 The Bitcoin developers
+# Distributed under the MIT software license, see the accompanying
+# file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
+#
+# Executes the test framework self-tests located in
+# qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests.
+#
+# You should be able to call this script from pretty much anywhere.
+# It takes care of setting up the PYTHONPATH so tests can run.
+
+# Enable exit on any error.
+set -e
+
+# Save folder from which script was called.
+# We may need to return after looking for the base folder.
+start_folder="$(pwd)"
+
+if [ -d qa/rpc-tests ]
+then
+    # called from top level
+    RPC_TESTS_DIR=$(pwd)/qa/rpc-tests
+elif [ -d ../qa/rpc-tests ]
+then
+    # called from out of tree build
+    RPC_TESTS_DIR=$(cd ../qa/rpc-tests && pwd)
+else
+    # chop off the script's filename to get path
+    scriptpath=$(dirname $0)
+    RPC_TESTS_DIR=$(cd $scriptpath/../.. && pwd)
+fi
+
+export PYTHONPATH="$PYTHONPATH:$RPC_TESTS_DIR"
+
+# Go to where the tests are located
+cd $RPC_TESTS_DIR/test_framework/tests
+
+echo "Running test framework self-tests..."
+
+# Run all the Python tests we find there.
+for t in *.py
+do
+    echo "`date -u`: Starting self-test: $t"
+    SRCDIR=$RPC_TESTS_DIR/../.. python3 ./$t
+    echo "`date -u`: Finished self-test: $t"
+    echo
+done
+
+# Return to calling folder
+
+cd "$start_folder"
+
+echo "Completed test framework self-tests."
diff --git a/qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests/simple-initialize-chain.py b/qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests/simple-initialize-chain.py
new file mode 100755
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qa/rpc-tests/test_framework/tests/simple-initialize-chain.py
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# Copyright (c) 2017 The Bitcoin developers
+# Distributed under the MIT software license, see the accompanying
+# file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
+"""
+Test the initialize_chain function by setting up a normal chain.
+This is just to exercise initialize_chain() and some of the node
+start/stop machinery.
+"""
+
+from test_framework.test_framework import BitcoinTestFramework
+from test_framework.util import start_node, stop_nodes
+
+
+# number of nodes to launch
+NUM_NODES = 4
+
+
+class Simple_Initialize_Test (BitcoinTestFramework):
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        super(Simple_Initialize_Test, self).__init__()
+        self.num_nodes = NUM_NODES
+        self.setup_clean_chain = True
+
+    def run_test(self):
+        # Stop nodes which have been started by default
+        stop_nodes(self.nodes)
+
+        # Start them up again because test framework tries to stop
+        # nodes at end of test, and will deliver error messages
+        # if none are running.
+        for i in range(NUM_NODES):
+            self.nodes[i] = start_node(i, self.options.tmpdir)
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    Simple_Initialize_Test().main()