William Carey (courtier)
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Sir William Carey (c.1500–June 22, 1528),[1] was a courtier and favourite of King Henry VIII of England. He served the king as a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, and Esquire of the Body to the King. His wife, Mary Boleyn, is known to history as a mistress of King Henry VIII and the sister of his second wife, Queen Anne Boleyn.
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[edit] Biography
William Carey was the second son of Thomas Carey (1479-1536), of Chilton Foliat in Wiltshire, and his wife, Margaret Spencer.
On February 4, 1520[2], he was married to Mary Boleyn, daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard. They resided at Aldenham in Hertfordshire.
Shortly after their marriage, Mary became the mistress of King Henry VIII. The Boleyns received grants of land, and Carey himself profited from his wife's unfaithfulness, being granted manors and estates by the King while it was in progress.[3] Carey was also a noted art collector and he introduced the famed Dutch artist, Lucas van Horenbolte, to the Kingdom of England in the mid-1520s.
Anne Boleyn, Mary's younger sister, caught Henry's eye a year after his affair with Mary ended. Henry proposed marriage to her in 1527. William Carey did not live to enjoy his sister-in-law's prosperity, since he died of the sweating sickness in that same year. He died greatly in debt, and his wife was reduced to pawning her jewellery before Anne Boleyn arranged a small pension for her.
[edit] Children of William Carey and Mary Boleyn
Sir William Carey and Mary Boleyn were the parents of two children:
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- Catherine Carey (c. 1524 - 15 January 1568). Maid of Honour to Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. She was married to the Puritan, Sir Francis Knollys, Knight of the Garter. She was later lady-in-waiting to her cousin, Elizabeth I. One of her daughters, Lettice Knollys, became the second wife of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, the favourite of Elizabeth I.
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- Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (4 March 1526 - 23 July 1596). He was ennobled by Queen Elizabeth I just after her coronation. Knight of the Garter. Elizabeth offered Henry the Boleyn family title of earl of Ormonde, which he had long sought, when he was dying; but he refused the honour.
[edit] Paternity of the Carey children
It has long been rumored that one or both of Mary Boleyn's children were fathered by Henry. Some writers, e.g. Alison Weir, question whether Henry Carey (Mary's son) was fathered by the King [2]. While others such as, Dr. G.W. Bernard (author of The King's Reformation) and Joanna Denny (author of Anne Boleyn: A New Life of England's Tragic Queen and Katherine Howard: A Tudor Conspiracy) argue that he may have been.
One witness did note that Mary's son bore a resemblance to Henry VIII, but the witness in question was John Hales, vicar of Isleworth, who some ten years after the child was born remarked that he had met a 'young Master Carey,' who some monks believed was the king's bastard. There is no other contemporary evidence that Henry Carey was the king’s biological son and a close reading of the Letters and Papers (a collection of surviving documents from the period) clearly pinpoint Henry's birth in March 1526 - by which time the affair is believed to have ended. [4] [5]
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Carey, William" (c.1500–1528), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ a b Weir. Henry VIII: The King and His Court, p.216.
- ^ Plowden. Tudor Women: Queens and Commoners, p.205.
- ^ Public Record Office. Letters & Papers, vol. viii, p.567.
- ^ Ives. Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, pp.16-17.
[edit] Sources
[edit] Primary
- England, Public Record Office (1862-1932). in J. S. Brewer, James Gairdner, and R. H. Broadie: Letters & Papers, Foreign & Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, 1509-1547, 21 vols. in 33 parts, London: Longman & Co.
[edit] Secondary
- French, George Russell (1853). The Royal Descent of Nelson and Wellington from Edward I, King of England, with tables of pedigree and genealogical memoirs, p.28.
- Ives, E. W. (2004). The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-23479-9.
- Kimber, Edward (1771). The Baronetage of England: containing a genealogical and historical account of all the English Baronets now existing, with their descents, marriages, and memorable actions both in war and peace. London: G. Woodfall, p.221.
- Plowden, Alison [1979] (1998-09-25). Tudor Women: Queens and Commoners, Rev. ed., London: Sutton. ISBN 0-750-92880-8.
- Warnicke, Retha Marvine (1989). The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.36. ISBN 0-521-37000-0.
- Weir, Alison (1991). The Six Wives of Henry VIII. London: Bodley Head. ISBN 0-370-31396-8.
- Weir, Alison (2001). Henry VIII: The King and His Court. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-43659-8.
