The story of 'The Other Boleyn Girl' - from Henry, to Carew, to Stafford.
Separating the fact from the fiction is remarkably difficult for the woman so famously known as the 'other sister' - it may seem odd that the Queen's sister's life has been lost to history, and though the truth can sometimes be tricky to unpick from the dramatic depictions of Mary Boleyn throughout fictional history - I shall endeavour to unravel as much as I dare.
Fact:
Below are the sure and steadfast pieces of information we have about Mary's tragic life.
The Beginning -
Born to Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard; the Boleyns' were a merchant family, who had risen through the ranks over the years to gain prominence at court, and the Howards' an ancient noble family who had held the position of Duke of Norfolk since 1483. Mary's father was a loyal courtier to Henry VIII, was intelligent and talented and had been knighted in 1509, and made a Knight of the Garter in 1523. It is believed that Elizabeth Howard was very beautiful in her youth - she had ballads and poems dedicated to her, and was a lady in waiting to Katherine of Aragon.
Appointment -
In 1514, Mary was appointed as a maid of honour to the King's younger sister, Mary Tudor, and travelled to France with the young Princess where the Royal wed the old Louis XII, who died 3 months after their wedding.
Wedding -
Upon her return to England in 1519, she promptly married Sir William Carey, on the 4th of February 1520. The King himself attended, and gave the young couple 6s and 8d as a gift.
Mistress -
After approximately 2 years of marriage, Mary Boleyn became involved in a royal affair with her future brother-in-law, King Henry VIII. During the Shrovetide Joust of 1522 Henry VIII rode out wearing the motto “elle mon Coeur a navera” on his horse, which translates to mean “she has wounded my heart”. Some have suggested this phrase was about Mary, and helps us to date the beginning of their affair - which would have been over by 1525,when Mary was pregnant with her second child.
Motherhood -
Catherine Carey was born in 1524, and her son Henry was born in 1525. There are arguments both for and against Mary's children being Henry's illegitimate children - and unfortunately without DNA testing or a solid piece of evidence on either side, we can only speculate. Eustace Chapuys detailed of another pregnancy in 1533, though there is no record of the birth, so it can be assumed that Mary either miscarried or that the child did not survive long afterwards.
Widow -
On the 22nd of June 1528, after just 8 years of marriage, Sir William Carey died at the age of just 28 after having caught the deadly sweating sickness. Mary was left a widow of two small children, and penniless too, since her husband's income had been taken from her upon his death. King Henry granted Anne Boleyn the wardship of her young nephew, Henry Carey - she arranged for his education at a respectable Cistercian Monastery. Mary's husband had died with considerable debts, and the now prominent Anne secured her widowed sister an annual pension of £100.
Wedding 2.0 -
After accompanying the new Queen Anne and Henry to Calais in early 1533, Mary met and fell in love with her second husband, William Stafford. As the Queen's sister, she was expected to remarry highly, but instead she married the soldier after discovering she was pregnant. Further scandal was felt due to the fact that Stafford was distantly related to the late Duke of Buckingham who had been executed in 1521 for treason, not only had Mary married in secret without anyone's permission, but she had married into a family tainted with treason. This love affair resulted in a rift between the two sisters, with Mary's banishment from Court proving to be the final straw for Anne and her father Thomas - they cut her off and left her to survive in Calais with her new husband, whom she had two further children with, Edward and Anne Stafford.
Death -
Between 19th and 30th July 1543, Mary Boleyn died of unknown causes and is buried in an unknown location. She was approximately 43.
Fiction:
The sketchier and more convoluted aspects of Mary's forgotten life.
Birth -
The exact date of Mary Boleyn's birth is unknown (a similar trend in the Boleyn family; Anne Boleyn's birth date is frequently dated as somewhere between 1501 and 1507!), however it is generally accepted that she was the eldest of the three surviving siblings, the average prediction being between 1498 and 1500.
Mistress -
Whilst in France under the guidance of the French Queen Claude, rumours flew that Mary had started an affair with the French King, Louis I. Though the evidence for this is limited, Mary's overwhelming reputation as a ‘great and infamous whore’ has survived and endured hundreds of years. Francis I may have named her his 'English Mare' - a very obvious sexual innuendo - however there is no sure evidence for any of the rumours about the pair, merely court gossip.
Sisterly Love -
Though her banishment from Court by her sister Queen Anne may suggest a fractured and hostile relationship between the two sisters, the true feelings of the pair are unknown; neither kept a diary (that we know of), and though it is presumed the pair never reconciled after Mary left for Kent and then later Calais with her husband, there is no proof that they did not meet again either. It seems their honest relationship eludes us still, not unlike the general trends followed throughout Mary's life.
Location -
Between 1515 and 1520, there are no records of Mary's whereabouts; some assume she remained in France with her sister, others suggest she returned with Mary Tudor the late French King's wife and King Henry's sister in 1515, or transferred to Katherine of Aragon's household, but the evidence for this is limited.
Mary Boleyn's life has been depicted in several fictional mediums - from Phillipa Greggory's 'The Other Boleyn Girl', to 'Anne of the Thousand Days', to Hilary Mantels 'Wolf Hall' - and though the accuracy can sometimes be questionable at best, Mary's life continues to mystify and confuse many an experienced historian.
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