Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon
Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon KG (March 4, 1526 - July 23, 1596 ) was an English nobleman .
Henry Carey was a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I of England . His mother Mary Boleyn , sister of Queen Anne Boleyn , was the mistress of King Henry VIII for a number of years . Therefore, it has often been speculated that it was not Mary's husband Sir William Carey , but the King himself Henry himself Father was.
Under King Edward VI. he was the Member of Parliament a seat in the House of Commons , he also Queen I. Maria held. Under the rule of his cousin Elizabeth, Henry was bestowed the title of Baron Hunsdon and the Order of the Garter . He held the office of governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed and put down the northern rebellion of the supporters of Maria Stuart . He spent his last years as a member of the Privy Council and as a mediator between England and Scotland. As Lord Chamberlain , he became the first patron of the Lord Chamberlain's Men , William Shakespeare's theater company .
Life
youth
Henry Carey was born on March 4, 1526, the second child of William Carey and Mary Boleyn. William was a favorite of King Henry VIII and served the king as the gentleman of the Privy Chamber , a position of trust. Mary Boleyn first served Queen Catherine of Aragón and later her own sister Anne Boleyn as lady-in-waiting . At an unknown point in time between 1520 and 1525, when she was already married to William Carey, she became Henry's mistress, which led to speculation about the paternity of her children Catherine and Henry. It can no longer be clearly determined when exactly the affair between Heinrich and Mary began and ended. Henry Carey's conception could well have taken place when his mother was still the royal mistress.
There was early speculation about his possibly royal ancestry. In 1535, when Heinrich was already married to Mary's sister Anne Boleyn, John Hale, Vicar of Isleworth , wrote to the council: “Mr. Skydmore showed me the young Master Carey and said he was the son of our Lord King by the Queen's sister, who the Queen will not tolerate at court. "However, Henry's fatherhood cannot be proven, especially since the King is unlike Mary Boleyn's children never officially recognized his bastard son Henry Fitzroy .
Henry's father William Carey died of English sweat in 1528 . He left his son estates in Essex , Wiltshire , Hampshire and Buckinghamshire , making Henry a wealthy but underage heir. As was customary at the time, his guardianship fell to the Crown. Heinrich transferred the guardianship to Anne Boleyn, who had her nephew, along with the sons of Henry Norris and John Dudley, taught by the evangelist Nicholas Bourbon who had fled.
In 1534 Henry's mother Mary secretly married William Stafford and was banished from the court due to this improper marriage and expelled from her family. However, following the execution of Anne and George Boleyn, Henry Carey was the Boleyn's only male heir, which may have been the reason for the eventual reconciliation between Mary and her father Thomas Boleyn . Until her death in 1543, Mary was allowed to use Rochford Hall in Essex for herself and her family.
Early career
On May 21, 1545, Carey, who was already a member of the royal household, received permission to marry Anne Morgan, daughter of Sir Thomas Morgan of Arkstone. In the same year Carey was serving as captain in Portsmouth under John Dudley when the French engaged the English in naval battles. In 1546 and 1551 he traveled to France in the wake of English ambassadors and received in 1547 under King Edward VI. a parliamentary seat for Borough Buckingham. In 1549, the young king gave him the two mansions Little Brickhill and Burton in Buckinghamshire. It is possible that Carey served his cousin Princess Elisabeth as a gentleman in her household from 1551 to 1552 .
In 1553, when Lady Jane Gray and Princess Maria both laid claim to the throne, Carey did not attend parliamentary sessions. When Catholic Mary finally conquered and ascended the throne, Carey's sister Catherine and stepfather William Stafford fled to the continent with their respective families. Carey, however, stayed in England and from 1553 to 1558 exercised the office of precutter in Maria's Privy Chamber .
Despite this honorable assignment, there appears to have been tension between Carey and the government. He left a session of parliament in 1554 without permission, which is why a complaint was filed against him at the royal court King's Bench , which, however, remained without consequences. In addition, Carey voted against a government bill in 1555. During this period, from 1554 to 1555, he again served in Princess Elisabeth's household. In 1557 he was imprisoned in the Fleet prison for having incurred a debt of 507 pounds in 1551. However, on May 19, the sentence was waived by means of a bond.
Cousin of the queen
As soon as Elisabeth succeeded her half-sister Maria to the throne, Carey's career took off. The new queen openly recognized him as her relative and knighted him. On January 13, 1559, barely two months after her accession to the throne and two days before her coronation, Elisabeth named Carey the first Baron Hunsdon. In the same year she also transferred him lands in Essex, Kent and Hertfordshire and the manor house of Hunsdon. All in all, Elizabeth's generosity ensured Carey an annual income of £ 4,000.
On October 13, 1560, he was also given the post of royal falconer , which brought him an additional 40 pounds of annual income. In addition, he took 1559 to 1560 at several jousting part and was in the prestigious on May 18, 1561 Order of the Garter was added. During Queen Elizabeth's visit to Cambridge in 1564, he received an MA and in the same year was made captain of the Gentleman Pensioners , an earlier designation for the Honorable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms . With that he rose to the rank of royal bodyguard. Unlike other courtiers, Carey quickly distinguished himself through his blunt honesty and stayed away from the various interest groups at court. In contrast to Elisabeth, he preferred drastic measures to delaying tactics and waiting. The courtiers therefore observed him at times with suspicion, while soldiers valued and respected him.
Although the queen and her cousin were sometimes tense because of their different temperaments, their relationship with one another was very cordial. When Elisabeth fell ill with smallpox in 1562 and believed she was dying, she asked the council to take care of Carey. She also entrusted him with various missions. Carey was in Scotland for the first time as early as 1560, where he fought together with Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk against the French forces of the regent Marie de Guise . When peace was made with the French, Carey headed a diplomatic mission to France in 1564 and brought it to the young King Charles IX. the Order of the Garter. Three years later he was sent to France again, but the reason for this mission is no longer known.
Diplomatic and military missions
Rebellion in the north
On August 25, 1568, Henry Carey received the office of Governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed , which sent him to the border between England and Scotland. Elisabeth's close advisor William Cecil supported Carey in his appointment, as there were dissenting votes. Carey thanked him from the border and supplied him with important information at the same time. Around this time the border region was in turmoil, as the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart had fled Scotland a few months earlier and sought asylum in England. For the Catholics of England, Maria Stuart, who was also a Catholic, was the great hope, since she had a claim to the English throne due to her descent from Elizabeth's aunt Margaret Tudor and Elizabeth was considered a non-inheritance bastard among the Catholics. Nevertheless, Elisabeth respected Mary as her relative and equal queen, which Carey criticized in September 1568. He also heard rumors that u. a. his brother-in-law Francis Knollys speculated about a possible marriage between Mary Queen of Scots and Carey's eldest son George, which Carey firmly rejected.
After about nine months Carey asked for permission to leave his post. In September he traveled to Scotland on behalf of Elizabeth to find out whether there was a possibility of sending Mary Stuart back to her homeland and at the same time excluding her from the line of succession. A short time later, however, a rebellion in favor of Maria Stuart broke out in the north of England. The aim of the rebels was to free Mary Queen of Scots and proclaim her Queen of England. The rebellious nobles included Leonard Dacre, brother of the 4th Baron Dacre , Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland and Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland. Carey therefore hastily returned to his post by sea to assist Thomas Radclyffe, the third Earl of Sussex and Lord President of the Council in the north. On November 26th his ship docked in Kingston upon Hull and after Carey had convinced Elizabeth of Sussex's loyalty, he worked with him. Days after his arrival, Thomas Percy and Charles Neville fled across the border into Scotland. Carey took the opportunity to secure Percy's forfeited offices as administrator of Middlesbrough and Richmond .
Of the rebellious lords, Leonard Dacre had managed to stay in England and entrench himself in the fortress of Naworth in Cumberland . From here he recruited several thousand soldiers. Carey regularly sent reports to the court, describing the uprising in the north as the greatest conspiracy in the last hundred years. This caused tension with Elisabeth, who ordered the dissolution of the army and, in his opinion, underestimated the danger in the north, which is why he asked Cecil for support. Elisabeth, on the other hand, was indignant that Carey had failed to track down Percy, which led him to the bitter statement that the Queen had to be under a spell and urgently needed good advice and reliable friends, "because she cares little about either". It was only when his wife reassured him that he was still highly favored by Elisabeth that he was appeased.
After the murder of the Scottish regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray in January 1570, the rebellion flared up again, this time with the support of the Scottish clan leaders in the border regions. The queen therefore ordered Dacres to be captured. Carey's forces were vastly outnumbered, but Carey managed to disperse Dacre's foot troops and take Naworth with a violent attack by his cavalry. Dacre escaped and fled to Scotland, while Carey was given the task of bringing captured rebels to justice. Elisabeth sent her cousin a letter of praise, to which she added by hand: “I can hardly say, my Harry, what I am more pleased about: that victory is ours or that God has chosen you as an instrument of my glory. For the satisfaction of my heart I prefer the second. ”She rewarded him in May 1571 with lands in Derbyshire and Yorkshire which Dacre had forfeited by his betrayal and which Carey brought in £ 207 a year. She also visited him at Hunsdon House.
Civil War in Scotland
While Carey was devastating Mary's followers in England, civil war broke out in Scotland. At the time, Maria had been forced to abdicate in favor of her young son Jakob and after the murder of the regent James Stewart, armed clashes broke out between her and Jakob's supporters. Carey and Sussex supported Jacob's troops without Elizabeth's permission and invaded the border regions several times in 1570, taking strategically important castles. Carey also proposed, without consulting Elizabeth, to support the new regent Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, with an army of 1,000 men against the rebellious Scots. However, Sussex felt it was safer to cut the numbers and not send Carey across the border in person.
In July 1570 Carey was allowed to leave his post and he stayed away for a year. On October 23, 1571, he was officially appointed Warden of the East Marches , guardian of the border between England and Scotland. He was no longer only responsible for border security, but also for diplomatic mediation between England and Scotland. This now also included mediating between the followers of Mary and the new regent John Erskine, Earl of Mar , whose conflict mainly concentrated on Edinburgh . Elisabeth supported the regent, but hesitated to intervene militarily. Carey had the difficult task of getting Maria's followers to give up and at the same time negotiating good terms for her with the regent. In case of doubt he should give the regent military support.
Both sides proved unreliable, however, as Maria's party gambled on help from France and Erskine's troops wanted more money before taking action. Carey tried several times to convince Elisabeth that the British involvement in this Scottish conflict was a waste of money. In May 1572 he asked Cecil for help in leaving his post, as he had not been paid a salary for a long time and he could no longer cover the expenses with his own means. The negotiations also dragged on without a result being achieved. However, he managed at least to extradite Thomas Percy. Finally, on July 31, the followers of Mary and Jacob signed an armistice in Edinburgh. Carey left Scotland in mid-August and did not return until three years later.
Mediator between Scotland and England
On November 16, 1577 Elisabeth accepted Carey into the Privy Council. Carey was thus at the center of power, but was still closely involved in the Scottish affairs. From 1578 to January 1579 he tried on behalf of Elizabeth together with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon to secure the rule of the new regent James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton . Elisabeth Carey and Hastings gave permission to invade Scotland with 2,000 soldiers if their agent, Sir Robert Bowes, needed military support. However, Bowes managed to negotiate an agreement between Morton and the rebel lords, so that Carey could leave the border again in January 1579.
Unlike Elisabeth, Carey quickly realized that Morton would not be able to hold out as regent much longer and warned her not to support Morton any longer. King Jacob's French cousin Esmé Stuart quickly gained favor with the young king in 1579 and Morton's influence waned. In November 1579, despite his warning, Elisabeth Carey sent an army to aid Morton and curb French influence in Scotland, but before Carey could reach the border, Morton was placed under arrest. After Morton's execution on June 2, 1581, Carey then refused Jacob's ambassador to enter England, which Elizabeth supported. In September he was able to attend meetings of the Privy Council again.
Nevertheless, there were tensions several times between him and Elisabeth, who disapproved of his long absences from his post and who often had different political views than Carey. On June 8, 1584 Carey defended himself to Cecil that his salary was irregular and that his soldiers had hardly any clothes and enough to eat. Under these circumstances, Carey said, he would have done anything human possible. Also, as a connoisseur of Scottish conditions, he often disagreed with Elisabeth when it came to political alliances. While trying to support England-friendly Scottish nobles in exile, Carey thought King Jacob was a better ally and ignored Elizabeth's orders. Elizabeth's chief intelligence officer, Francis Walsingham, supported Carey and allowed him to bypass the order. In October 1586 Carey was on the Fotheringhay Castle commission which found Mary Queen of Scots guilty.
Due to his frequent presence in the north, Carey gained a certain reputation in Scotland. Jacob regarded him as spokesman for Scotland in the English Privy Council and the council itself treated him as a kind of minister for Scottish affairs. Both Elisabeth and Jacob used it as an interface to communicate with the other monarch. Carey's good standing in the north became particularly important after the execution of Jacob's mother Maria Stuart by Elizabeth in February 1587. Jacob openly explained to him that he had received offers for an alliance with Spain, but that he would be willing to reject them in favor of Elizabeth. Carey warned his royal cousin that he believed Jacob had plans for revenge and that his advisors were "hostile to you". Carey was then given full authority to restore good relations between England and Scotland, and in December 1587 Jacob finally sent an ambassador to England to this end. The relationship between the two monarchs thus remained on friendly terms.
Statesman
In the 1580s Carey received more and more important offices and duties at court. In 1582 he belonged to the English embassy that accompanied François-Hercule de Valois, duc d'Alençon to Antwerp , together with Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and Charles Howard . From 1583 to 1585 he held the office of Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire . In July 1585, Elisabeth appointed him Lord Chamberlain of the Household .
With this office Carey not only had a great influence on which theater group was allowed to perform at court, but was also responsible for the censorship . For an unspecified point in time in the 1560s, he had been the patron of a theater company that with his appointment now renamed itself " Lord Chamberlain's Men ". Your most famous playwright would be William Shakespeare . In 1594 Carey succeeded in allowing the troupe to perform in London. Carey, as Lord Chamberlain, was also responsible for accepting or rejecting petitions for an audience with the Queen, which gave him great influence at court.
When the threat from the Spanish Armada loomed in August 1587 , Elisabeth Carey sent a force to the north to take over command of the northern army in the event of an invasion. In April 1588 he was called back to the south and on July 20 of the same year he was assigned an army of 36,000 men, which acted as the Queen's bodyguard. The threat was averted and Carey spent the next several years in a variety of roles. In 1589 he took over the post from the late Robert Dudley as Justice in Eyre south of Trent . Since many of Elizabeth's old advisers died between 1588 and 1591, he worked closely with William Cecil and, together with him and Howard, signed treaties with France on military operations by the British in Brittany and Normandy . Like Cecil, Carey supported King Jacob's claim to the English throne.
Private life
Henry Carey and his wife Anne were intimately and largely happy married. After the death of her husband, Anne erected a monument to him in Westminster Abbey, although she was in a financially difficult situation. Still, Carey had affairs with various mistresses . The best known is Emilia Lanier , who is considered to be England's first female poet. The two first met in 1587 when Lanier was just 18 years old. Carey was 45 years older than her. The couple apparently enjoyed their time together: Both were interested in art and culture, and Carey also gave his young lover generous sums of money and expensive jewelry. But at the age of 23 Emilia became pregnant by him. Henry Carey then ended the affair, found his young mistress with money and promised her regular payment of 40 pounds a year. As a result, Emilia was married to her cousin, the court musician Alfonso Lanier, on October 18, 1592, to maintain decency. The marriage was not a happy one - Alfonso lived on a large scale and had quickly squandered Emilia's small fortune. Intellectually, too, he probably couldn't keep up with Emilia's lost lover.
Emilia Lanier gave birth to their son Henry in 1593. He was probably named after his biological father.
death
Henry Carey carried out his remaining offices until his death. In June 1596, barely a month before his death, he attended the meeting of the Privy Council for the last time. A little later he fell ill unexpectedly and declared: "Now I don't want to live any longer." He died on July 23, 1596 in Somerset House . According to some sources, Elisabeth visited Carey on his deathbed and offered him the title of Earl of Wiltshire held by his grandfather Thomas Boleyn . However, Carey allegedly refused on the grounds that he did not deserve an honor in death that he was not worthy of during his lifetime.
Carey had appointed his eldest son George as executor, "because I have always found in you a kind and loving son" and his wife "does not know very well how to deal with such cases". George was given the job of caring for his mother and siblings and managing his father's estates, according to Carey's last will. Queen Elizabeth promised to pay Carey's debts and arranged a lavish funeral for her cousin. Carey was buried in Westminster Abbey on August 12, 1596 . His widow and son George erected a magnificent monument over his grave and when Lady Carey died on January 19, 1607, she was buried in her husband's tomb next to him.
progeny
With Anne Morgan, Henry Carey had nine sons and three daughters. Known by name are:
- George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon (February 16, 1548 - September 9, 1603)
- Henry Carey (died 1581)
- John Carey, 3rd Baron Hunsdon (died 1617)
- William Carey (died 1593)
- Edmund Carey (died 1637)
- Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth (1560-1639)
- Catherine (died 1603), married to Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham
- Philadelphia (died 1627), married to Thomas Scrope, 10th Baron Scrope of Bolton
- Margaret (died 1605), married to Sir Edward Hoby
Two sons named Thomas died young.
Carey had a son with a mistress whose name was unknown:
- Valentine Carey (died 1626), Bishop of Exeter from 1621 to 1626
Representation in books and films
In Karen Harper's novel The Last Boleyn , Henry Carey is Mary Boleyn's oldest child. Although she suspects he is the king's son, she officially insists on the paternity of her husband, William Carey. Nevertheless, her scheming father Thomas Boleyn tries to have the boy recognized as the king's son and to influence him accordingly. Only after the death of his children Anne and George Boleyn does his ambition to use Henry die out and he develops a good relationship with his grandson.
In Philippa Gregory's novel The Queen 's Sister , Henry Carey is Mary Boleyn's second child and, like his sister Catherine, a bastard of the king. Heinrich knows that Henry is his son, but shortly after his birth begins his love affair with Mary's sister Anne and ends the affair with Mary. After the death of William Carey, Anne Boleyn usurps Henry's guardianship to secure the king's son. Henry grows up with his sister in Hever Castle and develops a close relationship with his stepfather William Stafford. When Anne is threatened with arrest, Henry is brought to safety by William Stafford and begins a life in the country with his mother, sister and Stafford.
In Margaret George's novel Elizabeth I , which covers the final years of the Queen's reign, Henry Carey is a recurring character and one of Elizabeth's closest confidants.
In The Queen's Sister , Oscar Negus played the role of little Henry Carey. He is portrayed as Mary Boleyn's eldest and only child with Henry VIII. Since Henry leaves Mary while she gives birth to Henry, William Carey is officially named Henry's father.
literature
- Wallace T. MacCaffrey: Carey, Henry, first Baron Hunsdon (1526–1596), courtier and administrator . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press 2004-12, online edition May 2011 , accessed October 23, 2012
Web links
- Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon
- Henry CAREY (1st B. Carey of Hunsdon)
- Mary Boleyn Part Two - The King's Children?
- Did Henry VIII Father Mary Carey's Children?
- Henry Carey's grave in Westminster Abbey
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Wallace T. MacCaffrey: Carey, Henry, first Baron Hunsdon (1526–1596), courtier and administrator . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press 2004-12, online edition May 2011 , accessed October 23, 2012
- ↑ Eric Ives : The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. 'The Most Happy' . Blackwell Publishing, Malden 2004, ISBN 978-1-4051-3463-7 , p. 16
- ^ John Hale, Vicar of Isleworth, to the Council In: Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 8 - January-July 1535 . "Moreover, Mr. Skydmore dyd show to me yongge Master Care, saying that he was our suffren Lord the Kynge's son by our suffren Lady the Qwyen's syster, whom the Qwyen's grace myght not suffer to be yn the Cowrte."
- ↑ Jonathan Hughes: Stafford, Mary (c.1499-1543) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press 2004 Online Edition , accessed October 23, 2012
- ↑ Eric Ives: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. 'The Most Happy' . Blackwell Publishing, Malden 2004, ISBN 978-1-4051-3463-7 , p. 200
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon . Accessed January 24, 2013
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| New title created |
Baron Hunsdon 1559–1596 |
George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon |
| Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex | Captain of the Gentleman Pensioners 1564–1596 |
George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon |
| Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex |
Lord Chamberlain 1585–1596 |
William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham |
| Unknown | Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk 1585–1596 |
Vacant until 1605 |
| Vacant since 1583 | Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk 1585–1596 |
Vacant until 1605 |
| Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester | Justice in Eyre 1589–1596 |
Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Carey, Henry, 1st Baron Hunsdon |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lord Hunsdon |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English courtier and cousin of Elizabeth I. |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 4, 1526 |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 23, 1596 |
| Place of death | Somerset House , London |