WILLIAM AND MARY
Mary Boleyn was the elder sister of Anne and George Boleyn.
She was likely born sometime between 1499 and 1508, at Blickling Hall in Norfolk.
She was raised at Hever Castle, the Boleyn family home in Kent.
Mary was educated in subjects such as dancing, embroidery, and singing, and also masculine subjects such as archery, falconry, and hunting.
In the early 1500s, Mary Boleyn travelled to France with Princess Mary Tudor.
Princess Mary was to marry the French King, and Mary Boleyn was to become one of her ladies at court.
Rumors followed her throughout her time in Paris, that she was engaging in an affair with King Francis.
There is documentation that the king had a few pet names for Mary, including “my English mare.”
In 1519, she was sent back to England in disgrace.
After her return from France, Mary went to court as a lady to Katharine of Aragon.
It was here she met the dashing Sir William Carey.
William was a handsome young man who had become a gentleman of the privy chamber – he was also a distant relative of Henry VIII.
The young couple started courting, and William asked Mary’s father for her hand in marriage.
Mary Boleyn was considered to be an excellent match for William Carey.
With both families on the rise at court, the marriage solidified a relationship that would see both climb the social ladder.
On 4th February 1520, in the Chapel Royal at Greenwich, Mary Boleyn married Sir William Carey.
All members of the court were present at the couple’s wedding, including King Henry VIII.
The King gave the couple 6s and 8d as a wedding present.
William and Mary attended the Field of Cloth of Gold in June 1520.
William excelled himself in the joust tournaments.
He was reported to be tall, athletic and shared many similar qualities with his distant cousin King Henry VIII – including a great love of sports including jousting, riding and hunting.
Two years later, around 1522, King Henry took a liking to Mary.
An exact date remains unknown, however it is likely that during the Shrovetide jousts of 1522 Henry VIII rode out on his horse wearing the motto –
‘elle mon coeur a navera’
she has wounded my heart.
This may have referred to his relationship with Mary Boleyn.
Whether interested in her ‘unchaste easy ways’ and her previous royal fling with the French king, or simply interested in Mary herself, the King began courting her.
Soon, the two were caught up in a very public affair.
William Carey may, or may not, have known about his wife’s affair with the king.
He certainly seemed to benefit from his wife sharing the king’s bed.
William was given the Buckinghamshire estates that had formerly belonged to the late Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham.
William earned grants and gifts for ‘his good service’, but in all likely, these were given because of Mary’s ‘good service’ to the KIng…..
During this time frame, Mary gave birth to a daughter Katherine, in 1524.
This led to speculation she may have been the daughter of the king, and not William Carey.
By the beginning of 1525, Mary Boleyn’s relationship with the King had fizzled out.
Mary’s son Henry, was born on 4th March 1526, after her affair with the king had already ended.
According to the law of the time, both children were William Carey’s – any child born within marriage legally belonged to the husband, unless argued otherwise.
Although Mary Boleyn’s relationship with the King was over, William Carey’s career was still on the rise.
By January 1526 Carey was listed as one of six gentlemen waiters of the privy chamber, once again giving him personal access to the King.
He had permanent lodgings on the King’s side of court and was also made a keeper of Greenwich Palace in the same year.
Tragically Carey would not live long to see his career continue to flourish.
On the 22nd June 1528, Mary was widowed.
William Carey died during the Sweating Sickness epidemic of 1528.
Both William’s sister in law, Anne Boleyn and his father in law Thomas Boleyn caught the sweating sickness.
Luckily for both they made a full recovery – William Carey was not so lucky.
The location of William’s death and where he is buried, are unknown.
It has been proposed that he was buried in a mass grave with other men and women who were killed by the sweating sickness around the same time.
Whatever property William owned when he died, went to his son Henry.
Mary’s husband left her with a considerable debt.
Mary’s financial circumstances became so desperate, that she was reduced to begging the king’s adviser Thomas Cromwell to speak to Henry and Anne on her behalf.
Anne arranged for Mary’s son, her nephew, to be educated at a respectable monastery.
Anne also secured her widowed sister an annual pension of £100.
Sometime during 1533/1534 Mary married William Stafford.
Stafford was a soldier in the garrison at Calais and later a gentleman usher to Henry VIII.
For not seeking permission from her father or her sister to marry, Mary and her new husband were banished from court.
Mary’s life between 1534 and her sister’s exEcution on 19th May 1536 is difficult to trace.
She was most likely residing at Rochford Hall in Essex.
There is no record of her visiting – or evidence of any correspondence – with her sister Anne or her brother George while they were imprisoned in the Tower of London.
It is also unlikely that Mary had much contact with her niece, Elizabeth I, who was to become one of the most iconic monarchs in English history.
Mary Boleyn lived long enough to see her children gain some royal favour.
Her daughter Catherine was appointed a maid of honor to Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII’s fourth wife.
Sometime in 1540, Catherine married Sir Francis Knollys, a popular member of Henry VIII’s household.
Catherine also became one of her cousin Elizabeth Tudor’s closest friends.
Mary’s son Henry Carey, would be ennobled as Lord Hunsdon in Queen Elizabeth’s reign.
Elizabeth was kind to her Boleyn relatives, especially Mary’s children.
Mary died of unknown causes, on 19th July 1543, in her early forties.
She had outlived her more famous brother and sister, by seven years.
It is not known exactly where Mary is buried, but some assume she was buried at the Boleyn home of Hever Castle in Kent.
❣ William Carey & Mary Boleyn