Mary Boleyn
Encyclopedia
Mary Boleyn was the sister of English queen consort
Anne Boleyn
and a member of the Boleyn
family, which enjoyed considerable influence during the reign of King Henry VIII of England
. Some historians claim she was Anne's younger sister, but her children believed Mary was the elder sister, as do most historians today.
Mary was one of the mistresses of Henry VIII. It has been alleged that she bore two of the King's children, though Henry did not acknowledge either of them as he did with Henry Fitzroy
, his son by Bessie Blount
. Mary was also rumoured to have been a mistress of Henry VIII's rival, King Francis I of France
. She was also the maternal aunt of Queen Elizabeth I of England
.
Mary Boleyn married twice: first to Sir William Carey, whom she wed in 1520, and second to Sir William Stafford, a soldier. This latter marriage to a man so far beneath her station angered King Henry and her sister, Queen Anne, and resulted in Mary's banishment from the royal court in 1534. She spent the remainder of her life in obscurity.
, Norfolk
and grew up at Hever Castle
, Kent
. She was the daughter of a wealthy diplomat and courtier
, Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire
and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, Countess of Wiltshire
, the eldest daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
.
There is no concrete evidence of her exact date of birth, but it was sometime between 1499 and 1508. Most historians suggest that she was also the eldest of the three Boleyn children who survived infancy. The evidence suggests that the surviving Boleyns believed Mary to have been the eldest child; in 1597, her grandson, Lord Hunsdon
, claimed the title of “Earl of Ormond” on the grounds that he was the Boleyns’ legitimate heir. According to the strict rules of aristocratic inheritance, if Anne had been the elder sister, the title would have belonged to her daughter, Queen Elizabeth I
, since a title descended through the eldest female line in the absence of a male line. However, Queen Elizabeth was said to have offered Henry, Mary's son, the title as he was dying, but he declined it. If Mary was the eldest Boleyn, Henry would have inherited the title upon his grandfather's death without the need to claim it. There is more evidence to suggest that she was older than Anne. Furthermore, she was married off first on 4 February 1520, and by tradition an elder daughter would be married before her younger sister. In 1532, when Anne was made marquess of Pembroke, she was referred to as "one of the daughters of Thomas Boleyn." Were she the eldest, that would likely have been mentioned. Either way, most historians now accept Mary as the eldest child, placing her birth some time in 1499.
Mary was brought up along with her brother George and her sister Anne by a French governess at Hever Castle
in Kent
. She was given a conventional good education deemed essential for young ladies of her rank and status at the time. These were the essentials in arithmetic, her family genealogy, grammar, history, reading, spelling, and writing. Mary learned feminine accomplishments such as dancing, embroidery, good manners, household management, music, needlework, and singing, and games such as cards and chess. She was also taught archery, falconry, horseback riding, and hunting.
It was once believed that it was Mary who began her education abroad and spent time as a companion to Archduchess Margaret of Austria; but it is now clear that it was her sister, Anne, who did so. Mary was kept in England
for most of her childhood. She was sent abroad in 1514 around the age of fifteen when her father secured her a place as maid-of-honour to the King’s sister, Princess Mary
, who was going to Paris
to marry King Louis XII of France
. After a few weeks, many of the Queen's English maids were sent away but Mary Boleyn was allowed to stay, probably because her father was the new English ambassador to France. Even when Queen Mary
left France after she was widowed on 1 January 1515, Mary Boleyn remained, joining the court of Louis's successor, Francois I
and his queen consort Claude
.
She returned to England in 1519, where she was appointed a maid-of-honour to Catherine of Aragon
, the queen consort of Henry VIII.
, on 4 February 1520, and Henry VIII was a guest at the couple's wedding. At some point, Henry and Mary began an affair, and although the timing is unclear, some say it began in 1521. The affair was never publicised, and Mary never enjoyed the fame, wealth and power that acknowledged mistresses in France
and other countries sometimes had. The affair is believed to have ended prior to the birth of Mary's second child, Henry Carey
, in March 1526, and thought to have lasted for five years. Her first child, Catherine, was born in 1524.
During the affair or sometime after, it was rumoured that one or both of Mary's children were fathered by the king. One witness noted that Mary's son, Henry Carey, bore a resemblance to Henry VIII. John Hale, Vicar of Isleworth, some ten years after the child was born, remarked that he had met a 'young Master Carey' who was the king's purported bastard child. No other contemporary evidence exists to support the argument that Henry was the king’s biological son.
Henry VIII's wife, Catherine of Aragon, had been briefly married to Henry's elder brother Arthur
, but Arthur had died just a few months into the marriage, when he was a little over fifteen years old. Henry later used that as the justification for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine, on the grounds that her marriage to Arthur (assuming it was consummated) created an affinity
between Henry and Catherine. When Mary became Henry's mistress, a similar affinity was created between Henry and Anne, according to some interpretations of church law. In 1527, during his initial attempts to obtain a papal annulment of his marriage to Catherine, Henry also requested a dispensation to marry his mistress' sister.
Although Mary was alleged to have been more attractive than her sister, Anne seems to have been more ambitious and intelligent. When the king took an interest in Anne, she refused to become his mistress, being shrewd enough to wait and not give in to his sexual advances until it was the most advantageous. By the middle of 1527, Henry was determined to marry her. This gave him further incentive to seek the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. A year later, when Mary's husband died during an outbreak of sweating sickness
, Henry granted Anne Boleyn the wardship of her nephew, Henry Carey. Mary's husband had left her with considerable debts, and Anne arranged for Henry to be educated at a respectable Cistercian monastery. Anne interceded to secure Mary an annual pension of £100.
on a state visit to France, Mary was one of her companions. Anne was crowned queen on 1 June 1533 and gave birth to her daughter (later to become Queen Elizabeth I) on 7 September. In 1534, Mary secretly married soldier William Stafford. Because Stafford was a commoner with a small income, some believe their union to have been a love match. When the marriage was discovered, Anne was furious, and the Boleyn family disowned Mary, probably for marrying without the king's permission and marrying beneath her station. The couple was banished from the royal court.
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. She admitted that she might have chosen 'a greater man of birth and a higher', but never one that should have loved her so well, nor a more honest man. And she went on, 'I had rather beg my bread with him than to be the greatest queen in Christendom. And I believe verily ... he would not forsake me to be a king.' Henry, however, seems to have been indifferent to her plight; so, Mary asked Cromwell to speak to her father, her uncle
, and her brother
, but to no avail. It was Anne who relented, sending Mary a magnificent golden cup and some money, but still refusing to receive her at court. This partial reconciliation was the closest the two sisters came to, since it is not thought that they met after Mary's court exile.
Mary's life between 1534 and her sister's execution on 19 May 1536 is difficult to trace. There is no record of her visiting her parents, nor did she visit her sister Anne or her brother George when the latter was imprisoned in the Tower of London
. There is also no evidence that she sent correspondence. Like their uncle, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke to Norfolk
, she may have thought it wise to avoid association with her now-disgraced relatives.
Mary and her husband remained social outcasts, living in retirement at Rochford Hall
in Essex
, which was owned by the Boleyns. After Anne’s execution, their mother retired from the royal court, dying in seclusion just two years later. Her father, Thomas, died the following year. After the deaths of her parents, Mary inherited some property in Essex. She seems to have lived out the rest of her days in obscurity and relative comfort with her second husband. She died in her early forties, on 19 July 1543.
Mary's marriage to Sir William Stafford (d. 5 May 1556) resulted in the birth of two children:
, and was played by Valerie Gearon.
A fictionalised form of her character also features prominently in the novels The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell, I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles, The Rose of Hever by Maureen Peters, The Lady in the Tower by Jean Plaidy, Mistress Anne by Norah Lofts
, The Concubine by Norah Lofts, Anne Boleyn by Evelyn Anthony
, Dear Heart, How Like You This? by Wendy J. Dunn, Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel
, Brief Gaudy Hour by Margaret Campbell Barnes, and Young Royals: Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer
.
Mary has been the central character in three novels based on her life: Court Cadenza (later published under the title The Tudor Sisters) by British author Aileen Armitage, Karen Harper
's The Last Boleyn
, and The Other Boleyn Girl
by Philippa Gregory
. Gregory later nominated Mary as her personal heroine in an interview to the BBC History Magazine. Her novel was a bestseller and spawned five other books in the same series. However, it was controversial, especially with historians who found the work inaccurate in regards to historical events and individual characterizations.
The Other Boleyn Girl was made into a BBC television drama in January 2003, starring Natascha McElhone
as Mary and Jodhi May
as Anne. A Hollywood version
of the film was released in February 2008, with Scarlett Johansson
as Mary and Natalie Portman
as Anne.
Mary Boleyn became Lady Carey upon her marriage to Sir William Carey in 1520. She then became Lady Mary Carey when her father was granted the titles of Earl of Ormond and Earl of Wiltshire
.
Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
and a member of the Boleyn
Boleyn
Francization of traditional english "Bullen", Boleyn is the surname of a noble English family particularly prominent in the Tudor period, members of which include:*Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII...
family, which enjoyed considerable influence during the reign of King Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
. Some historians claim she was Anne's younger sister, but her children believed Mary was the elder sister, as do most historians today.
Mary was one of the mistresses of Henry VIII. It has been alleged that she bore two of the King's children, though Henry did not acknowledge either of them as he did with Henry Fitzroy
Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset
Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset was the son of King Henry VIII of England and his teenage mistress, Elizabeth Blount, the only illegitimate offspring whom Henry acknowledged.-Childhood:...
, his son by Bessie Blount
Elizabeth Blount
Elizabeth Blount , who was better known by her nickname of "Bessie", was a mistress of Henry VIII of England.-Early life:She was the daughter of Sir John Blount and Catherine Pershall, of Kinlet, Bridgnorth, Shropshire...
. Mary was also rumoured to have been a mistress of Henry VIII's rival, King Francis I of France
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
. She was also the maternal aunt of Queen Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
.
Mary Boleyn married twice: first to Sir William Carey, whom she wed in 1520, and second to Sir William Stafford, a soldier. This latter marriage to a man so far beneath her station angered King Henry and her sister, Queen Anne, and resulted in Mary's banishment from the royal court in 1534. She spent the remainder of her life in obscurity.
Early life
Mary was probably born at the family seat in Blickling HallBlickling Hall
Blickling Hall is a stately home in the village of Blickling north of Aylsham in Norfolk, England, that has been in the care of the National Trust since 1940.-History:...
, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
and grew up at Hever Castle
Hever Castle
Hever Castle is located in the village of Hever near Edenbridge, Kent, south-east of London, England. It began as a country house, built in the 13th century...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. She was the daughter of a wealthy diplomat and courtier
Courtier
A courtier is a person who is often in attendance at the court of a king or other royal personage. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
, Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire
Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire
Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, KG was an English diplomat and politician in the Tudor era. He was born at the family home, Hever Castle, Kent, which had been purchased by his grandfather Geoffrey Boleyn, who was a wealthy mercer. He was buried at St. Peter's parish church in the village of...
and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, Countess of Wiltshire
Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire
Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire , born Lady Elizabeth Howard, was the eldest of the two daughters of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk and his first wife Elizabeth Tilney. Through her marriage, she held the titles of Countess of Wiltshire, Countess of Ormond and Viscountess Rochford...
, the eldest daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal , styled Earl of Surrey from 1483 to 1514, was the only son of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk by his first wife, Katherine Moleyns...
.
There is no concrete evidence of her exact date of birth, but it was sometime between 1499 and 1508. Most historians suggest that she was also the eldest of the three Boleyn children who survived infancy. The evidence suggests that the surviving Boleyns believed Mary to have been the eldest child; in 1597, her grandson, Lord Hunsdon
George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon
George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon KG was the eldest son of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon and Anne Morgan. His father was first cousin to Elizabeth I of England....
, claimed the title of “Earl of Ormond” on the grounds that he was the Boleyns’ legitimate heir. According to the strict rules of aristocratic inheritance, if Anne had been the elder sister, the title would have belonged to her daughter, Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
, since a title descended through the eldest female line in the absence of a male line. However, Queen Elizabeth was said to have offered Henry, Mary's son, the title as he was dying, but he declined it. If Mary was the eldest Boleyn, Henry would have inherited the title upon his grandfather's death without the need to claim it. There is more evidence to suggest that she was older than Anne. Furthermore, she was married off first on 4 February 1520, and by tradition an elder daughter would be married before her younger sister. In 1532, when Anne was made marquess of Pembroke, she was referred to as "one of the daughters of Thomas Boleyn." Were she the eldest, that would likely have been mentioned. Either way, most historians now accept Mary as the eldest child, placing her birth some time in 1499.
Mary was brought up along with her brother George and her sister Anne by a French governess at Hever Castle
Hever Castle
Hever Castle is located in the village of Hever near Edenbridge, Kent, south-east of London, England. It began as a country house, built in the 13th century...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. She was given a conventional good education deemed essential for young ladies of her rank and status at the time. These were the essentials in arithmetic, her family genealogy, grammar, history, reading, spelling, and writing. Mary learned feminine accomplishments such as dancing, embroidery, good manners, household management, music, needlework, and singing, and games such as cards and chess. She was also taught archery, falconry, horseback riding, and hunting.
It was once believed that it was Mary who began her education abroad and spent time as a companion to Archduchess Margaret of Austria; but it is now clear that it was her sister, Anne, who did so. Mary was kept in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
for most of her childhood. She was sent abroad in 1514 around the age of fifteen when her father secured her a place as maid-of-honour to the King’s sister, Princess Mary
Mary Tudor (queen consort of France)
Mary Tudor was the younger sister of King Henry VIII of England and queen consort of France through her marriage to Louis XII. The latter was more than 30 years her senior. Following his death, which occurred less than two months after her coronation as his third wife, she married Charles Brandon,...
, who was going to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to marry King Louis XII of France
Louis XII of France
Louis proved to be a popular king. At the end of his reign the crown deficit was no greater than it had been when he succeeded Charles VIII in 1498, despite several expensive military campaigns in Italy. His fiscal reforms of 1504 and 1508 tightened and improved procedures for the collection of taxes...
. After a few weeks, many of the Queen's English maids were sent away but Mary Boleyn was allowed to stay, probably because her father was the new English ambassador to France. Even when Queen Mary
Mary Tudor (queen consort of France)
Mary Tudor was the younger sister of King Henry VIII of England and queen consort of France through her marriage to Louis XII. The latter was more than 30 years her senior. Following his death, which occurred less than two months after her coronation as his third wife, she married Charles Brandon,...
left France after she was widowed on 1 January 1515, Mary Boleyn remained, joining the court of Louis's successor, Francois I
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
and his queen consort Claude
Claude of France
Claude of France was a princess and queen consort of France and ruling Duchess of Brittany. She was the eldest daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne, Duchess of Brittany....
.
Royal affair in France
Mary was joined in Paris by her father, Sir Thomas, and also her sister, Anne, who had been studying in the Netherlands for the last year. Mary supposedly embarked on several affairs, including one with King Francis himself. Although some historians believe that the reports of her sexual affairs are exaggerated, the French king referred to her as "The English Mare" and as "una grandissima ribalda, infame sopra tutte" ("a great slag, infamous above all").She returned to England in 1519, where she was appointed a maid-of-honour to Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon , also known as Katherine or Katharine, was Queen consort of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Princess of Wales as the wife to Arthur, Prince of Wales...
, the queen consort of Henry VIII.
Royal mistress
Soon after her return, Mary was married to William Carey, a wealthy and influential courtierCourtier
A courtier is a person who is often in attendance at the court of a king or other royal personage. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
, on 4 February 1520, and Henry VIII was a guest at the couple's wedding. At some point, Henry and Mary began an affair, and although the timing is unclear, some say it began in 1521. The affair was never publicised, and Mary never enjoyed the fame, wealth and power that acknowledged mistresses in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and other countries sometimes had. The affair is believed to have ended prior to the birth of Mary's second child, Henry Carey
Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon
Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, of Hunsdon was an English nobleman.He was the son of Mary Boleyn, the sister of Anne Boleyn and also the mistress to King Henry VIII of England...
, in March 1526, and thought to have lasted for five years. Her first child, Catherine, was born in 1524.
During the affair or sometime after, it was rumoured that one or both of Mary's children were fathered by the king. One witness noted that Mary's son, Henry Carey, bore a resemblance to Henry VIII. John Hale, Vicar of Isleworth, some ten years after the child was born, remarked that he had met a 'young Master Carey' who was the king's purported bastard child. No other contemporary evidence exists to support the argument that Henry was the king’s biological son.
Henry VIII's wife, Catherine of Aragon, had been briefly married to Henry's elder brother Arthur
Arthur, Prince of Wales
Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales was the first son of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and therefore, heir to the throne of England. As he predeceased his father, Arthur never became king...
, but Arthur had died just a few months into the marriage, when he was a little over fifteen years old. Henry later used that as the justification for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine, on the grounds that her marriage to Arthur (assuming it was consummated) created an affinity
Affinity (canon law)
In Canon law of the Catholic Church, affinity is a relationship which "arises from a valid marriage, even if not consummated, and exists between a man and the blood relatives of the woman and between the woman and the blood relatives of the man."...
between Henry and Catherine. When Mary became Henry's mistress, a similar affinity was created between Henry and Anne, according to some interpretations of church law. In 1527, during his initial attempts to obtain a papal annulment of his marriage to Catherine, Henry also requested a dispensation to marry his mistress' sister.
Sister’s rise to power
Mary's sister, Anne, returned to England in January 1522; she soon joined the royal court as one of Queen Catherine's Maids-of-Honour. Anne achieved considerable popularity at court, although the sisters are not thought to have been particularly close and they moved in different social circles.Although Mary was alleged to have been more attractive than her sister, Anne seems to have been more ambitious and intelligent. When the king took an interest in Anne, she refused to become his mistress, being shrewd enough to wait and not give in to his sexual advances until it was the most advantageous. By the middle of 1527, Henry was determined to marry her. This gave him further incentive to seek the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. A year later, when Mary's husband died during an outbreak of sweating sickness
Sweating sickness
Sweating sickness, also known as "English sweating sickness" or "English sweate" , was a mysterious and highly virulent disease that struck England, and later continental Europe, in a series of epidemics beginning in 1485. The last outbreak occurred in 1551, after which the disease apparently...
, Henry granted Anne Boleyn the wardship of her nephew, Henry Carey. Mary's husband had left her with considerable debts, and Anne arranged for Henry to be educated at a respectable Cistercian monastery. Anne interceded to secure Mary an annual pension of £100.
Second marriage
In 1532, when Anne accompanied Henry to CalaisCalais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
on a state visit to France, Mary was one of her companions. Anne was crowned queen on 1 June 1533 and gave birth to her daughter (later to become Queen Elizabeth I) on 7 September. In 1534, Mary secretly married soldier William Stafford. Because Stafford was a commoner with a small income, some believe their union to have been a love match. When the marriage was discovered, Anne was furious, and the Boleyn family disowned Mary, probably for marrying without the king's permission and marrying beneath her station. The couple was banished from the royal court.
Mary's financial circumstances became so desperate that she was reduced to begging the King’s adviser Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, , was an English statesman who served as chief minister of King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540....
to speak to Henry and Anne on her behalf. She admitted that she might have chosen 'a greater man of birth and a higher', but never one that should have loved her so well, nor a more honest man. And she went on, 'I had rather beg my bread with him than to be the greatest queen in Christendom. And I believe verily ... he would not forsake me to be a king.' Henry, however, seems to have been indifferent to her plight; so, Mary asked Cromwell to speak to her father, her uncle
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal was a prominent Tudor politician. He was uncle to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of the wives of King Henry VIII, and played a major role in the machinations behind these marriages...
, and her brother
George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford
George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford was an English courtier and nobleman, and the brother of queen consort Anne Boleyn...
, but to no avail. It was Anne who relented, sending Mary a magnificent golden cup and some money, but still refusing to receive her at court. This partial reconciliation was the closest the two sisters came to, since it is not thought that they met after Mary's court exile.
Mary's life between 1534 and her sister's execution on 19 May 1536 is difficult to trace. There is no record of her visiting her parents, nor did she visit her sister Anne or her brother George when the latter was imprisoned in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
. There is also no evidence that she sent correspondence. Like their uncle, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke to Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal was a prominent Tudor politician. He was uncle to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of the wives of King Henry VIII, and played a major role in the machinations behind these marriages...
, she may have thought it wise to avoid association with her now-disgraced relatives.
Mary and her husband remained social outcasts, living in retirement at Rochford Hall
Rochford Hall
Rochford Hall is a manor in Rochford, Essex, England. During the reign of King Henry VIII, it belonged to Thomas Boleyn, then viscount Rochford, and it was the marital home of his daughter Mary Boleyn, sister of Queen Anne Boleyn, and Mary's second husband, William Stafford, Lord Chebsey...
in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, which was owned by the Boleyns. After Anne’s execution, their mother retired from the royal court, dying in seclusion just two years later. Her father, Thomas, died the following year. After the deaths of her parents, Mary inherited some property in Essex. She seems to have lived out the rest of her days in obscurity and relative comfort with her second husband. She died in her early forties, on 19 July 1543.
Issue
Her marriage to Sir William Carey (1500 – 22 June 1528) resulted in the birth of two children (however, there were rumours that King Henry VIII was the biological father):- Catherine CareyCatherine CareyKatherine Carey, often spelt Catherine Carey, after her marriage Katherine Knollys and later Lady Knollys, pronounced "Noles" Katherine Carey, often spelt Catherine Carey, after her marriage Katherine Knollys and later Lady Knollys, pronounced "Noles" Katherine Carey, often spelt Catherine Carey,...
(1524 – 15 January 1569). Rumoured to have been the child of King Henry VIII. Maid-of-Honour to both Anne of ClevesAnne of ClevesAnne of Cleves was a German noblewoman and the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England and as such she was Queen of England from 6 January 1540 to 9 July 1540. The marriage was never consummated, and she was not crowned queen consort...
and Catherine HowardCatherine HowardCatherine Howard , also spelled Katherine, Katheryn or Kathryn, was the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, and sometimes known by his reference to her as his "rose without a thorn"....
, she married a PuritanPuritanThe Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
, Sir Francis KnollysFrancis Knollys (the elder)Sir Francis Knollys , of Greys Court, in Oxfordshire, KG was an English courtier in the service and favour of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth I of England, and was a Member of Parliament for a number of constituencies....
, Knight of the Garter, by whom she had issue. She later became Chief Lady of the BedchamberLady of the BedchamberThis is an incomplete list of those who have served as Lady of the Bedchamber in the British Royal Household...
to her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. One of her daughters, Lettice KnollysLettice KnollysLettice Knollys , Countess of Essex and Countess of Leicester , was an English noblewoman and mother to the courtiers Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and Lady Penelope Rich; through her marriage to Elizabeth I's favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, she incurred the Queen's undying...
, became the second wife of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of LeicesterRobert Dudley, 1st Earl of LeicesterRobert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, KG was an English nobleman and the favourite and close friend of Elizabeth I from her first year on the throne until his death...
, the favourite of Elizabeth I. - Henry Carey, 1st Baron HunsdonHenry Carey, 1st Baron HunsdonHenry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, of Hunsdon was an English nobleman.He was the son of Mary Boleyn, the sister of Anne Boleyn and also the mistress to King Henry VIII of England...
(4 March 1526 – 23 July 1596). Also rumoured to have been the child of Henry VIII. He was ennobled by Queen Elizabeth I just after her coronation and later made a Knight of the Garter. When he was dying, Elizabeth offered Henry the Boleyn family title of Earl of Ormond, which he had long sought, but he declined. He was married to Anne MorganAnne Morgan, Baroness HunsdonAnne Morgan, Baroness Hunsdon was the wife of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, by whom she had a total of 12 children. On 14 December 1595, she was appointed by Queen Elizabeth I of England to the office of Keeper of Somerset House; a post which she held for life...
, by whom he had issue.
Mary's marriage to Sir William Stafford (d. 5 May 1556) resulted in the birth of two children:
- Anne Stafford (?–?), probably named in honour of Mary's sister, Queen Anne BoleynAnne BoleynAnne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
. - Edward Stafford (1535–1545).
Depictions in fiction
Mary was depicted in the 1969 film Anne of the Thousand DaysAnne of the Thousand Days
Anne of the Thousand Days is a 1969 costume drama made by Hal Wallis Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Charles Jarrott and produced by Hal B. Wallis. The film tells the story of Anne Boleyn...
, and was played by Valerie Gearon.
A fictionalised form of her character also features prominently in the novels The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell, I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles, The Rose of Hever by Maureen Peters, The Lady in the Tower by Jean Plaidy, Mistress Anne by Norah Lofts
Norah Lofts
Norah Lofts, née Norah Robinson, was a 20th century best-selling British author. She wrote more than fifty books specialising in historical fiction, but she also wrote non-fiction and short stories...
, The Concubine by Norah Lofts, Anne Boleyn by Evelyn Anthony
Evelyn Anthony
Evelyn Anthony is the pen name of Evelyn Ward Thomas, a British female writer.-Life and work:In her youth during the Second World War she was educated largely at home, rather than at school...
, Dear Heart, How Like You This? by Wendy J. Dunn, Wolf Hall
Wolf Hall
Wolf Hall is a multi-award winning historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a fictionalized biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex in the court of Henry VIII of...
by Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mary Mantel CBE , née Thompson, is an English novelist, short story writer and critic. Her work, ranging in subject from personal memoir to historical fiction, has been short-listed for major literary awards...
, Brief Gaudy Hour by Margaret Campbell Barnes, and Young Royals: Doomed Queen Anne by Carolyn Meyer
Carolyn Meyer
Carolyn Meyer is an author of novels for children and young adults.The typical genre for her work is historical fiction, one of her more popular projects being the Young Royals series, each novel of which tells the story of a different female royal person...
.
Mary has been the central character in three novels based on her life: Court Cadenza (later published under the title The Tudor Sisters) by British author Aileen Armitage, Karen Harper
Karen Harper
Karen Harper is an historical fiction and contemporary fiction author. She is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author.-Writing career:...
's The Last Boleyn
The Last Boleyn
The Last Boleyn is a novel by Karen Harper.Previously published as Passion's Reign in 1983, The Last Boleyn tells the story of the middle Boleyn child: Mary. Unlike her siblings, Anne and George, Mary Boleyn was left wholly forgotten by history...
, and The Other Boleyn Girl
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Other Boleyn Girl is a historical fiction novel written by British author Philippa Gregory, loosely based on the life of 16th-century aristocrat Mary Boleyn. Reviews were mixed; some said it was a brilliantly claustrophobic look at palace life in Tudor England, while others have consistently...
by Philippa Gregory
Philippa Gregory
Philippa Gregory is an English novelist.-Early life and academic career:Philippa Gregory was born in Kenya. When she was two years old, her family moved to England. She was a "rebel" at school, but managed to attend the University of Sussex...
. Gregory later nominated Mary as her personal heroine in an interview to the BBC History Magazine. Her novel was a bestseller and spawned five other books in the same series. However, it was controversial, especially with historians who found the work inaccurate in regards to historical events and individual characterizations.
The Other Boleyn Girl was made into a BBC television drama in January 2003, starring Natascha McElhone
Natascha McElhone
Natascha McElhone is an English actress of stage, screen and television, best known for her roles in Ronin, The Truman Show and Solaris. McElhone also plays a leading role in the Showtime series Californication....
as Mary and Jodhi May
Jodhi May
Jodhi May is an English actress.-Early life:Born in Camden Town, London, May first acted at the age of 12 in 1988's A World Apart. The role earned her a Best Actress award at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, shared with her co-stars Barbara Hershey and Linda Mvusi...
as Anne. A Hollywood version
The Other Boleyn Girl (movie)
The Other Boleyn Girl is a 2008 drama film directed by Justin Chadwick. The screenplay by Peter Morgan was adapted from the 2001 novel of the same name by Philippa Gregory...
of the film was released in February 2008, with Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...
as Mary and Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman
Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...
as Anne.
Non-fiction
Mary is also the subject of three non-fiction books, The Mistress of Kings by Alison Weir, The Mistresses of Henry VIII by Kelly Hart and Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII's Mistress by Josephine Wilkinson.Styles
- Mistress Mary Boleyn (1499–1520)
- Lady Carey (1520–1529)
- Lady Carey; Lady Mary Carey (1529–1532)
- Lady Mary Stafford (1532–1543)
Mary Boleyn became Lady Carey upon her marriage to Sir William Carey in 1520. She then became Lady Mary Carey when her father was granted the titles of Earl of Ormond and Earl of Wiltshire
Earl of Wiltshire
The title Earl of Wiltshire is one of the oldest in the Peerage of England, going back to the 12th century. It is currently held by the Marquess of Winchester, and is used as a courtesy title for the eldest son of the marquess....
.