Mary Boleyn Facts: Who was Mary Boleyn? (Mary Boleyn 1)

[Music] hi I'm Claire Ridgeway founder of the ambolyn Falls website also the tutor Society and the author of several history books including this one the fall of Anne Boleyn now I decided to do a series of videos answering Anne Boleyn Paul's followers questions about Anne Boleyn and her family and her relationship with Henry the eighth ambolyn really and I got quite a few questions about Anne Boleyn sister Mary and also I've been asked by people on YouTube as well are you going to do a video on Mary well actually I'm going to do a couple of videos on Mary today I want to talk about sort of facts to do it Mary and in my next video I'll sort of talk about some of the myths and assumptions and theories that surround her so Mary Mary Boleyn was the sister of Queen Anne Boleyn and she's a woman that really really fascinates people that really grabs people's attention and their imagination who mary has appeared as a central character in several novels one of which has been turned into movie I'm sure you've all heard of the other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory and she's also been the the character the main character the the theme of several non-fiction books history books as well I mean that's not bad for someone who we actually know so little about a few years ago I had the huge honour of meeting one of my heroes professor Eric Ives whose book on Anne Boleyn the life and death of Anne Boleyn I call my amberlynn Bible and that's a man who spent 20 years or more researching her life and writing about Sir and I had the honor of meeting him and eating with him and chatting to him and actually grilling him let's be honest i grilled him and who wouldn't live there sitting next to erik guys and we got to talking about the Berlin family and particularly Mary Berlin and we talked about the fascination and that people have with Mary and how I'm always receiving questions about her and he says that he just couldn't understand this fascination with Mary he commented that what we know about Mary Berlin can actually be written on a postcard with room to spare that's what he says so so very very little is known about her but in a way I think that's why she is so fascinating she's such a shadowy figure compared to her more famous siblings you know Anne Boleyn who became Queen George Boleyn who of course fell with Anne Boleyn in May 1536 yet Mary was a king's mistress so that is fascinating that we know so little about her and yet she was this fairly important person and she makes the perfect blank canvas I think for novelists and I think she's become a myth a legend really due to fiction due to what novelists have done with her and also the way that we've projected our own ideas onto her in an article I wrote on her for the ambulance website I started off my article by telling the Aries hail the legend that is Mary Boleyn and her life and or is it here this is what I've heard Mary's the classic English Rose taking after her mother's side of the family her innocence was wrecked by her father and sister not only was she used and abused by the French King Francis the first and his cronies she was pimped out to the English King and shown how to satisfy him by her sister Anne she was but a pawn in her family's hands after burying the King two illegitimate children and losing her husband William Carey to sweating sickness Mary finally found true love only to be banished from court by her spiteful sister who is now Queen and married to Mary's former love Henry the eighth so cruel and ambitious was Mary's sister that she even stole Mary's son from her Mary chose true love over ambition and was thus saved from the awful events of May 1536 her forgiving nature and angelic disposition however led to her visiting the king and pleading for Anne's life unfortunately Anne was not pardoned and was executed but Mary was able to steal little Elizabeth from court and take her away from all the corruption there so that is the legend the fairy tale of Mary Boleyn that we would believe if we just read the novels about if we just saw the movies and TV series about her that's the Mary Boleyn that kind of comes through so she's like the antithesis of Anne Boleyn who's quite often portrayed in these novels as being spiteful ambitious willing to do anything to become Queen and so Mary is the antithesis she's the kind of sister she's the innocent sister so is any of that true well the majority of that fairytale has absolutely no basis in history whatsoever so in today's video I actually want to go through some marybelle in fact the actual things that we know about this woman so let's go through my list Mary Boleyn was born around the turn of the sixteenth century but we don't actually know when it seems that she was born between 1499 and 1505 so we don't even know this woman's birth date her parents were Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard her maternal uncle was Thomas Howard third Duke of Norfolk and her paternal great-grandfather was Thomas Butler 7th Earl of Hall Mond Mary had a sister Anne and brothers called Thomas Henry and George although only George survived childhood marry now this is a wishy-washy thing this isn't a fact really Mary was probably born at a blip Ling hauling in Norfolk but would have called Hever Castle in Kent her home because that's where the balloon family moved in 1505 so depending when she was born as dependent where she was born in 1514 Mary accompanied the sister of King Henry the eighth Mary Tudor to France to serve her there we do not know how long Mary was in France with Mary Tudor but Mary Boleyn had returned to England by the 4th of February 15 20 we know that because on that day the 4th of February 15 20 she married William Carey a member of the Kings Privy chamber in the Chapel Royal of Greenwich palace and have the bells ringing out here our church bells ringing out for Mary Berlin's wedding her marriage to William Carey King Henry VIII 8 attended the service Mary Boleyn had a sexual relationship with King Henry the 8th at some point between her return from France whenever that was and the beginning of his relationship with her sister and Mary played the part of kindness in the Chateau their Shrovetide pageant of March 15 22 Mary had two surviving children Catherine born around 15 24 we don't know exactly when but circa 15 24 and Henry Carey born in 15-20 Synnex Mary was pregnant in 1534 in autumn 15 34 but it is not known what happened to that baby whether it was stillborn whether it was a phantom pregnancy we just don't know the baby is not mentioned again Mary's husband her first husband William Carey received a large number of lucrative grants and offices from King Henry the eighth and he also kept his position in the Privy chamber through Cardinal Wolsey's purge of the Privy chamber of 1526 known as the Alton ordinances William Carey died on the 22nd of June 15:28 after contracting that horrible illness sweating sickness which swept through court and killed crytal supporters and important people that year in july 15 28 so just a few weeks after carries death Mary's sister Ann who was caught in King Henry the eighth's at a time and thought she was his fiancee she with like his queen in wasting he'd proposed to her and she'd said yes was granted the wardship of Mary's little son ham me carry Henry the eighth intervened with Mary's father Thomas Berlin Oh on Mary's behalf after William Carey is death Mary was in financial dire straits because her husband had died she'd been left a widow she needed money and Hemi v8 intervened with her father prompting him to make a provision for her at the end of June 15 28th and also in December 15 28 King Henry the eighth granted Mary an annuity of 100 pounds which had once been paid to her husband so she was held there we know that Mary Boleyn was at the world courts at New Year 1532 and 1534 as she is listed as giving the king New Year's gifts in autumn 1532 she accompanied her sister Ann and King Henry the 8th on their trip to Calais they left in October 1532 that was for their famous meeting with King Francis the first to get his approval for their relationship so she went with them in 1533 we know that she was attending her sister and that she attended on her at her coronation on the 1st June 15:33 with them there's a little blank period but Mary comes back into the records in 1534 she'd secretly married a man called William Stafford and she turns up at the Royal Court in September 15:34 pregnant to see her sister a queen she's then banished from court for marrying without her sister the Queen's permission and is punished by having her allowance cut off by her father Thomas Boleyn marry once again in financial dire straits rights to Thomas Cromwell at this point following her banishment asking him to intervene and persuade the King to talk to his wife who of course was Mary's sister Anne and also to intervene for Cromwell to intervene on her behalf with the rest of her family so that they can be good to her then we fast forward to 1539 says then another blank Mary's husband William Stafford is one of the men chosen to meet Anne of Cleves at Calais and of Cleves was travelling to England to marry King Henry the eighth so William Stafford is chosen to meet at Calais and to escort her onwards Mary's daughter Catherine Carey is appointed as one of Anne of Cleves 'as ladies-in-waiting one of her maids of honor then in 1543 Mary receives the inheritance from her father and grandmother Thomas Boleyn and Margaret Butler who'd both died in 1539 there's quite a few years between their death and Mary finally receiving her inheritance but unfortunately this is short-lived because Mary died on the 19th of July 1543 her resting place is unknown Mary's children Kathryn Carey and Henry Kerry both go on to serve Queen Elizabeth the first they become favourites of Queen Elizabeth the first and serve her loyally for the rest of their lives some trivia now and fact today's royal family British royal family descend from Mary Boleyn Princes William and Harry descend from her twice over their father Charles Prince of Wales descends from Mary's daughter Catherine Carrie and the two princes late mother Diana Princess of Wales descends what descended from Mary's son Henry Carrie so an interesting link with today's royal family a Boleyn link so those are facts about Mary that is what we know for sure about Mary but then the rest assumptions myths theories and I'll be going on to those in my next video and just trying to look at where they come from and is there any basis to these miss miss what assumptions like Mary Boleyn slept with King Francis the first Mary Boleyn had a long relationship with King Henry the eighth's and she was his true love that her children were actually fathered by Henry the eighth so we'll be looking at theories assumptions and the myths that surround this woman but today I thought I'd focus on who Mary actually was what we know about her not quite as exciting as the Mary Boleyn of the Other Boleyn Girl I don't think but she makes the perfect blank canvas for novelist and a perfect blank canvas for us to sort of imagine and picture her in our minds anyway I hope you've enjoyed today's video and I'll be back very soon with the next installment on Mary take care bye bye

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Views: 66,585

Rating: 4.9016395 out of 5

Keywords: Tudor, The Tudors, Henry VIII, Mary Boleyn, The other boleyn girl, Six Wives, anneboleyn, anne boleyn, boleyn

Id: Kg-1h6ttoJQ

Length: 16min 24sec (984 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 04 2019