Mary Boleyn

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Possible portrait of Mary Boleyn

Mary Boleyn (* 1499/1500 in Blickling Hall , Norfolk , † July 30, 1543 in Essex ) was an English lady-in-waiting and sister of the English Queen Anne Boleyn and George Boleyn . At an unknown point in time between 1520 and 1525, she was the mistress of King Henry VIII of England before turning to her sister. She served both Mary Tudor and her sister-in-law Katharina von Aragón as lady-in-waiting, but fell from grace under her sister Anne Boleyn due to a secret marriage and spent the rest of her life away from court.

Life

origin

Mary was born at Blickling Hall in Norfolk between 1499 and 1500 to Elizabeth Boleyn (nee Howard) and Thomas Boleyn . Through her mother, she was a granddaughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk . Historians believe that she was older than her sister Anne. Proof of this is a petition from her grandson George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, who wrote to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley on October 6, 1597 , claiming the dignity of Earl of Ormond. His great-grandfather Thomas Boleyn had this title and Carey's claim was based on the fact that “my grandmother was the oldest daughter and only heiress”. He described Anne Boleyn as the youngest daughter. Since Queen Elizabeth I was Anne Boleyn's daughter and Parliament had granted her all of her mother's confiscated possessions shortly after her accession to the throne, she would theoretically have had a higher claim to earl dignity if her mother had been the older daughter. However, Carey never submitted his petition, which is why the question of the oldest daughter cannot be answered clearly.

Life as a lady-in-waiting and first marriage

Mary Boleyn's signature as "Mary Carey"

Not much is known about Mary Boleyn's youth. In 1514 she was part of the retinue of Mary Tudor , the sister of Henry VIII , when she was King Louis XII. of France married. When the other English ladies-in-waiting were sent back, she was the only one allowed to stay because of her father's good relations. When the Queen left France after the death of her husband, Mary was taken over into the court of Francis I. It is possible that she became Francis I's lover at the time , but there is no longer any clear evidence of this.

She eventually returned to England and in 1520 became lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine of Aragon . Shortly after her return, on February 4, 1520, she married William Carey , a rising courtier and gentleman of the Privy Chamber , a privileged position in which he had unlimited access to the king. Henry VIII was also present at their wedding. The couple moved into apartments at court. It is very likely that Mary and her husband were present at the Camp du Drap d'Or meeting in France. Around 1522 she and her sister Anne, who had returned to England, her future sister-in-law Jane Parker , the Countess of Devon Gertrude Courtenay and Heinrich's sister Mary Tudor took part in the masquerade Attack on Château Vert , in which she embodied the virtue of kindness . Her husband also received several offices and estates during this time, which may indicate the beginning of Mary's affair with Heinrich.

It was unusual for the time for the affair to take place after Mary's wedding and not before. One theory is that Heinrich wanted to avoid having to recognize bastards as his children because he was hoping for a legitimate son and in Henry Fitzroy he already had an illegitimate son. Around 1523, the king named one of his ships Mary Boleyn . It was around this time that Mary's daughter Catherine Carey was born, which is why she was sometimes mistaken for Heinrich's daughter.

King Henry VIII around 1523

All in all, the affair with Mary Boleyn was very discreet and probably ended around 1525, before the birth of Mary's son Henry Carey in 1526. The king himself mentioned the love only twice. In 1528 he applied for a papal dispensation to allow him to marry a woman with whose sister he had had a relationship, which was forbidden under the law of the time. He also replied in 1535, when rumors spread that he had slept with both Anne's sister and her mother: "Never with my mother."

In 1527 Mary appears to have made contact with Tynemouth Monastery . David Knowles reports that Mary wanted to accommodate a protégé in Tynemouth and that she befriended the new Prior Thomas Gardiner. In A History of Northumberland (in German: Geschichte Northumberland ) it is said that Mary Gardiner purposefully promoted and used her influence to get him the post of prior.

William Carey died in 1528, and the King gave Anne the custody of her two-year-old nephew Henry and his upbringing in a convent. That way, Mary no longer had to pay for his upkeep and education. He also wrote to Anne that Mary was “in great need” and that her father should take care of her. In addition, he transferred Mary her husband's annuity, which was £ 100 a year, a secure livelihood at the time. In 1532 Mary accompanied her sister and Heinrich to Calais and took part in a masquerade there.

Second marriage

In 1534 Mary secretly married William Stafford , a distant relative of Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham . However, Stafford himself was only a member of the gentry and therefore by no means a good match for the queen's sister. When he became pregnant, the secret marriage came to light and she was banished from the court at the instigation of her family. Her father refused her annuity and Mary turned to Minister Thomas Cromwell for help , to whom she wrote:

“Her Highness is so angry with us that if the King is not a good lord to us, if he moderates his severity and stands up for us, we will never regain her favor, which is too difficult to bear. Since there is no solution, please help us for God's sake, because we've been married for three months now, for which I thank God. But if I were free to choose, I assure you, Secretary, that in so little time I have found so much honesty in him [William Stafford] that I would rather beg for my bread with him than be the greatest queen, who was ever baptized. And I'm sure he thinks the same about me because I don't think he would leave me to be a king. "

When Anne was sentenced to death for adultery, her marriage to Heinrich was annulled and daughter Elisabeth was declared a bastard. According to the Spanish ambassador Eustace Chapuys , the reason for this was Heinrich's former relationship with Mary, which would have forbidden him to marry Anne. Mary spent the rest of her life in seclusion in the country. Yet she was not completely penniless. A letter from the new Prior of Tynemouth to Cromwell in 1537 indicates that Mary was still paying her annuity. With the argument that Mary was now of no use to him, the prior tried to convince Cromwell to be allowed to stop the payments and in turn promised him a pension. His attempts at bribery were most likely unsuccessful, as the Royal Audit Office listed the expenses of the closed monasteries in 1539. Here Mary appears under the name Lady Mary Carey as the recipient of the annuity. It is possible that the payment was taken over by the Royal Audit Office after the monastery was closed.

After the execution of her siblings Anne and George, Mary was reconciled with her father, who allowed her to use Rochford Hall in Essex as a residence. After his death, Mary inherited various estates and mansions, one of which she exchanged, Henden in Kent , for properties in London and Yorkshire in 1541. In 1542 she and Stafford drew up an agreement under which she bequeathed her four mansions in Cambridgeshire to Stafford and his heirs. Her daughter Catherine became a lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne of Cleves in 1539 , and her son Henry was listed as a member of the royal household from 1545. Mary herself died on July 30, 1543 at Rochford Hall.

progeny

Steven van der Meulen Catherine Carey Lady Knollys.jpg
Steven van Herwijck Henry Carey 1st Baron Hunsdon.png


Catherine Carey and Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon , children of Mary Boleyn

She had two children from her marriage to William Carey:

Both children were said to have emerged from Heinrich and Mary's affair.

Although Mary Boleyn became pregnant by William Stafford, none of their children survived.

Mary Boleyn in literature and film

Karen Harper wrote the novel The Last Boleyn in 1983 , which tells the story of Mary Boleyn until the death of her sister Anne. During her time in France, Mary Boleyn and her mistress Mary Tudor became friends. The young king widow tries to protect Mary, but the girl becomes the mistress of the French king and later Henry VIII. The only one who does not condemn her and always brings her down to earth is William Stafford, a friend of William Carey. Mary Tudor's example of marrying the man she loves despite the odds later inspired Mary Boleyn to do the same and marry Stafford.

With The Queen's Sister , Philippa Gregory wrote a bestseller about Mary Boleyn in 2002 during her sister Anne's lifetime. Mary is the younger sister here, who is used by her family to gain the king's favor. More friendly and less clever than her sister, Mary is constantly in Anne's shadow and is finally outshone by her when Anne wins the king's heart. Nevertheless, Mary finally finds the strength to break free from the intrigues at court and to start a new life together with William Stafford.

The novel was filmed in 2003 with Natascha McElhone as Mary Boleyn. In 2007 Justin Chadwick shot a second film version of the same name with Scarlett Johansson as Mary Boleyn, Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn and Eric Bana as Henry VIII. The film was released in 2008, but its plot differed greatly from the novel. Among other things, it is alleged that Mary Boleyn raises her daughter Elisabeth after Anne's death, which historically was not the case.

In the first and second season of the television series The Tudors played Perdita Weeks , the role of Mary Boleyn.

literature

  • Jonathan Hughes: Stafford, Mary (c.1499-1543) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press 2004 Online Edition
  • Josephine Wilkinson: Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII's Favorite Mistress . Amberley 2010, ISBN 978-1-848-68525-3
  • Alison Weir: Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings . Ballantine Books 2012, ISBN 978-0-345-52134-7
  • Alison Weir: Henry VIII. The King and his Court. Ballantine Books, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-345-43708-2 .

Web links

Commons : Mary Boleyn  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Jonathan Hughes: Stafford, Mary (c.1499–1543) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press 2004 Online Edition , accessed October 23, 2012
  2. ^ A b Alison Weir: Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings . Kindle Edition, Random House Digital, Ballantine Books 2011, Chapter 1: The Eldest Daughter
  3. ^ Alison Weir: Henry VIII. The King and his Court. Ballantine Books, New York 2008, p. 216
  4. ^ Alison Weir: Henry VIII. The King and his Court. Ballantine Books, New York 2008, p. 217
  5. ^ David Knowles: The Religious Orders in England. Volume III. The Tudor Age. Cambridge University Press 1959, p. 341
  6. ^ David Knowles: The Religious Orders in England. Volume III. The Tudor Age. Cambridge University Press 1959, p. 340
  7. ^ A history of Northumberland Online Edition , accessed February 6, 2013
  8. ↑ Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 4: 1524-1530 , accessed on October 23, 2012: "her Grace is so highly displeased with us both, that, without the King be so good lord to us as to withdraw his rigor, and sue for us, we are never like to recover her Grace's favor; —which is too heavy to bear. And seeing there is no remedy, for God's sake help us; for we have been now a quarter of a year married, I thank God […] But if I were at liberty, and might choose, I assure you, Master Secretary, for my little time, I have spied so much honesty to be in him, that I had rather beg my bread with him than to be the greatest queen christened. And I believe verily he is in the same case with me; for I believe verily a 'would not forsake me to be a king. "
  9. ↑ Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 12 Part 1: January-May 1537  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Accessed February 8, 2013@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.british-history.ac.uk  
  10. ^ Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 14 Part 2: August-December 1539 , accessed February 6, 2013
  11. ^ Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 15: 1540 , accessed February 15, 2013
  12. ↑ Douglas Richardson: Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 2nd Edition . Genealogical Publishing Company 2011, p. 483
personal data
SURNAME Boleyn, Mary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Carey, Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mistress of Henry VIII of England; Sister of Anne Boleyn
DATE OF BIRTH around 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Blickling Hall , Norfolk
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 1543
Place of death Essex