Individual Details

Sister to Anne Boleyn, one of the wives of King Henry VII. Anne Boleyn & King Henry's daughter was Queen Elizabeth I.

Historians disagree about Mary's age - some believe her to have been older than Anne; that Mary was born about 1499 and Anne born about 1501.

Mary was mistress to the King before her sister married him. In 1527 when he was planning to marry Anne his papal dispensation was to marry the sister of a woman with whom he had engaged in illicit/unlawful intercourse. Since Anne had only the one sister, this implicates Mary. The affair was known and written of in diplomatic circles as well. Mary's son Henry has long been assumed to be the son of King Henry - when his father died, the King granted Anne Boleyn, by then his wife, the wardship of two-year-old Henry Cary. There are also those that believe Catherine was the child of King Henry as well. Catherine has been determined to be both older and younger than Henry.

Mary secretly married William Stafford after the death of William Cary. He was a commoner and not fit for the Queen's sister. They were banished from the Court. She apparently lived at Rochford in Essex until her death. There is no evidence she wrote to or visited Anne when was imprisoned in the Tower of London, nor her brother George, condemned to death.

She had one or two children by Stafford. A daughter named Anne is suggested born about 1535. There is also suggested that they had a son. A child of Mary's is said to have died about 1545.

Birth	Ca 1505	Hever Castle, Kent, England
Marriage	4 Feb 1520	William Carey
Marriage	1534	William Stafford
Death	19 Jul 1543

Spouse	William Carey (1496 - 1528)
Child	Catherine Carey (1524 - )
Child	Henry Carey (1526 - )

Spouse

William Stafford ( - )

Father	Sir Thomas Boleyn ( - 1539)
Mother	Elizabeth Howard ( - 1538)
Sibling	George Boleyn (1503 - )
Sibling	Anne Boleyn (1507 - 1536)