Mary Boleyn (c. 1499/1500 – 19 July 1543) was the sister of English queen consort Anne Boleyn and a member of the Boleyn family, which enjoyed considerable influence during the reign of King Henry VIII of England. Some historians claim she was Anne's younger sister, but her children believed Mary was the elder, as do most historians today.

Mary was one of the mistresses of Henry VIII, from a period of roughly 1521 to 1526. It has been rumored that she bore two of the king's children, though Henry did not acknowledge either of them as he had done with Henry FitzRoy, his son by Bessie Blount. Mary was also rumored to have been a mistress of Henry VIII's rival, King Francis I of France, for some period between 1515 and 1519.[1] She was the maternal aunt of Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Mary Boleyn was married twice: in 1520 to William Carey, and secretly in 1534, the year after sister Anne married the king, to William Stafford, a soldier of good family but few prospects. This secret marriage to a man considered beneath her station angered both Henry VIII and her sister, Queen Anne, and resulted in Mary's banishment from the royal court; she spent the remainder of her life in obscurity. dying seven years after sister Anne's execution."

Family

• Father: Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire
• Mother: Elizabeth Howard
• Spouse: William Carey ​(m. 1520; d. 1528)​
• Spouse: William Stafford ​(m. 1534)​

Issue

1. Catherine Carey, Lady Knollys
2. Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon
3. Edward Stafford (disputed)
4. Anne Stafford (disputed)

   ---

Notes

https://erenow.org/biographies/mary-boleyn-the-mistress-of-kings/9.php

Plainly William Carey, like his father-in-law, enjoyed Henry’s regard for his own sake, being one “whom the King highly favored.”100 However, he was never knighted, and Mary was never “Lady Carey,” as several writers101 style her.

https://erenow.org/biographies/mary-boleyn-the-mistress-of-kings/10...

Mary’s experiences as a royal mistress illustrate the moral tone of Renaissance courts and the double standards that prevailed in regard to male and female promiscuity.

The influence of the pre-Reformation Church over moral issues was then considerable.1 The Church had always taught that marriage was the proper context for sexual relations, and that sexual intercourse was only for the purpose of procreating children. Lust, even within marriage, was seen as evil, and there was an ancient perception, derived from St. Jerome, that married couples who had sex purely for enjoyment were no better than adulterers.

Since intercourse was supposed to be purely for procreation, contraception was frowned upon, although rudimentary forms of it were known and practiced. Henry VIII’s fifth wife, Katherine Howard, for example, admitted that she knew of ways to prevent a pregnancy. Rarely were these methods effective, for many relied purely on superstitions and folk remedies, such as drinking the urine of a sheep or hare before having sex, or taking various herbs, or on coitus interruptus. Other methods of preventing pregnancy included inserting pepper or a sponge soaked in vinegar into the vagina, sealing the cervix with beeswax, having anal sex, or doing some “hard pissing” after intercourse. Condoms as a method of birth control were unknown prior to 1564. Contraception, then as now, was frowned upon by the Church, and because it was often unreliable, if it was used at all, royal love affairs often led to the birth of bastard children. But although the moralists might claim that it “impoverished the public weal,” there was no great stigma attached to illegitimacy and little shame in acknowledging natural children; indeed, royal bastards often enjoyed high status and political importance. It was not until the advent of Puritanism in the late sixteenth century that attitudes to illegitimacy changed and there was greater social disapproval. Even so, as the example of the promiscuous “merry monarch” Charles II (who reigned in 1660–85 and acknowledged more than a dozen bastard children) shows, kings continued to flaunt their mistresses and advance the living fruits of their affairs.

Morality in the early Tudor period was based mainly on biblical precepts, and the pre-Reformation Church—and often civil law—forbade many sexual practices, including masturbation, prostitution, oral sex, homosexuality, and bestiality, and viewed adultery as a grievous sin worthy of stern punishment. Since the fourteenth century, political capital had been made out of the sexual excesses of English kings and public figures, and as recently as 1483, the late Edward IV’s mistress, Elizabeth (“Jane”) Shore, had been accused by his brother Richard III of sorcery and sentenced to do public penance, dressed as a penitent in only a sheet, and carrying a lighted candle in procession to Paul’s Cross in London.

There was a real gulf, however, between the dictates of the Church and what went on in real life, and lay attitudes to sex were often more tolerant, though only to a point. Because the laws of inheritance were generally sacrosanct, especially in the higher ranks of society, a double standard had long been in play, whereby men could sow their wild oats with impunity and get away with it, but women—who were then regarded as more sexually rapacious than men—were expected to remain above reproach. Thus Mary’s betrayal of her husband would have been regarded as reprehensible, even with the King.

Fortunately, things had moved on a little since 1483, and the example of Elizabeth Blount showed that, where a gentle- or noblewoman would invariably spoil herself for the marriage market by fornicating with a lesser man, sleeping with the King brought its own advantages, for it could lead to financial rewards and a good marriage. But there was still a moral stigma attached to it, because aristocratic women were key players in the dynastic and landed property market, and were supposed to be above such things.

Wikipedia links:

العربية,
Български, Brezhoneg, Bosanski, Česky, Dansk, Deutsch, Ελληνικά, English, Español, Suomi, Français, עברית, Magyar, Italiano, 日本語, 한국어, Македонски, Nederlands, ‪norsk (bokmål)‬, Polski, Português, Русский, Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски, Slovenščina, Српски / srpski, Svenska

other links:

http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/tudor_20.htm

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=35663231

https://histfam.familysearch.org//getperson.php?personID=I16140&tre...

https://histfam.familysearch.org//getperson.php?personID=I129&tree=...

http://www.royalist.info/execute/biog?person=296

http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/70719

http://thepeerage.com/p10298.htm#i102979

http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/MaryBoleyn.htm

Citations / Sources:

[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume I, page 400; volume VI, page 627. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.

[S16] #894 Cahiers de Saint-Louis (1976), Louis IX, Roi de France, (Angers: J. Saillot, 1976), FHL book 944 D22ds., vol. 11 p. 840.

[S20] Magna Carta Ancestry: A study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Richardson, Douglas, (Kimball G. Everingham, editor. 2nd edition, 2011), vol. 4 p. 63-64.

[S21] #226 The Peerage of Scotland: Containing an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Nobility of That Kingdom, from Their Origin to the Present Generation (2nd edition, 1813), Douglas, Sir Robert, (2nd edition. 2 volumes. Edinburgh: A. Constable, 1813 NOTE: Caution should be taken with this peerage, and compared with other peerages to obtain accurate information about the families. Some of the lineages are confused, but can be used for supplemental information.), FHL book Q 941 D22d; FHL microfilm 1,440,956 items., vol. 1 p. 567.

[S25] #798 The Wallop Family and Their Ancestry, Watney, Vernon James, (4 volumes. Oxford: John Johnson, 1928), FHL book Q 929.242 W159w; FHL microfilm 1696491 it., vol. 1 p. 110, 184, vol. 2 p. 473.

[S39] Medieval, royalty, nobility family group sheets (filmed 1996), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Family History Department. Medieval Family History Unit, (Manuscript. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1996), FHL film 1553977-1553985..

[S91] #972 The Berkeley Manuscripts: the Lives of the Berkeleys, Lords of the Honour, Castle and Manor of Berkeley, in the County of Gloucester, from 1066 to 1618... (1885), Smyth, John, (3 volumes. Gloucester: J. Bellows, 1885), FHL book Q 929.242 B398s; FHL microfilms 496,546 i., vol. 2 p. 32.

[S100] #4500 Memoir of the Butlers, Burke, John Bernard, Sir, (Original manuscript in The Castle, Dublin, Ireland.), FHL microfilm 257807 item 4., p. 31.

[S117] #227 The History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford (1815-1827), Clutterbuck, Robert, (3 volumes. London: Nichols, Son and Bentley, 1815-1827), FHL book Q 942.58 H2c; FHL microfilms 899,855-899,., vol. 3 p. 181.

[S124] #240 Collins's Peerage of England, Genealogical, Biographical, and Historical, Greatly Augmented, and Continued to the Present Time (1812), Brydges, Sir Egerton,, (9 volumes. London: [T. Bensley], 1812), FHL book 942 D22be., vol. 3 p. 616.

[S227] #1838 The Four Visitations of Berkshire, Made and Taken by Thomas Benolte, Clarenceux, Anno 1532; by William Harvey, Clarenceux, Anno 1566; by Henry Chitting, Chester Herald, and John Philipott, Rouge Dragon, for William Camden, Clarenceux . . . (1907), Rylands, William Harry, (Publications of the Harleian Society: Visitations, volumes 56-57. 2 volumes. London: [Harleian Society], 1907), FHL book 942 B4h volumes 56-57; FHL microfilm 162,., vol. 57 p. 204.

[S266] #379 [7th edition, 1992] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists, Who Came to America Before 1700 (7th edition, 1992), Weis, Frederick Lewis, (7th edition. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, c1992), FHL book 974 D2w 1992., p. 4 line 1:36, p. 24 line 22:37.

[S347] Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth-century Colonists: the Descent from the Later Plantagenet Kings of England, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, and Edward III, of Emigrants from England and Wales to the North American Colonies Before 1701 (2nd ed., 1999), Faris, David, (2nd edition. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999), FHL book 973 D2fp., p. 69 CAREY:3.

[S394] #230 [5th edition, 1999] The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215 (5th edition, 1999), Adams, Arthur, (5th edition. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1999), FHL book 973 D2aa 1999., p. 98-99 line 80:13.

[S452] #21 The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant (1910), Cokayne, George Edward (main author) and Vicary Gibbs (added author), (New edition. 13 volumes in 14. London: St. Catherine Press,1910-), vol. 1 p. 400; vol. 2 p. 139 fn. (a), 146; vol. 4 p. 445 fn. (b); vol. 5 p. 140.

[S880] #1785 The Visitation of the County of Devon in the Year 1620 (1872), Colby, Frederic Thomas, (Publications of the Harleian Society: Visitations, volume 6. London: [Harleian Society], 1872), FHL book 942 B4h volume 6; FHL microfilm 994,062 i., vol. 6 p. 48-49.

Weir, Alison. “Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings” < link >