The Other Boleyn Girl

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, pregnancy loss, gender discrimination, and death.

The title of Gregory’s novel alludes to the way that the historical record overshadows Mary Boleyn in favor of the more dramatic life of her sister, Henry VIII’s second wife. Their birth order is still debated, with Anne’s birth either placed in 1501 or 1507 and Mary’s either in 1499 or 1508. The Boleyn family rose from tenant farmers to barons under the Tudor reign and gained possession of both Hever Castle in Kent and Blickling Hall in Norfolk. Thomas Boleyn married Elizabeth Howard, the daughter of Thomas Howard, the second Duke of Norfolk, and sister to the third duke, Uncle Howard of the novel. George, the Boleyns’ only surviving son, was born around 1503.

As a British envoy in contact with foreign courts, Thomas Boleyn arranged for Anne to join the court of Margaret, Archduchess of Austria, one of the most cultured and civilized courts of Europe. Mary, according to some sources, joined the court of Mary Tudor, Henry VIII’s younger sister, when she married King Louis XII of France. Anne later joined the French court as well. In 1520, Mary returned to England to marry William Carey, a courtier in the king’s service, and Henry reportedly attended their wedding. Mary then took up residence at the English court as a lady-in-waiting to Katherine of Aragon. Anne returned from France in 1522.

The 2018 documentary Anne and Mary Boleyn: A Tale of Two Sisters suggests that Mary’s affair with Henry VIII began as early as 1521. Her daughter, Catherine, was born in 1524. Her son, Henry, was born in March 1526 and widely thought to be the king’s, though Henry never acknowledged him. The affair enriched Carey, who was granted property by the king. The liaison was also public knowledge, so much so that Henry requested a dispensation from the Pope in 1527 permitting him to marry a woman whose sister he had engaged with in sexual intercourse. This dispensation is read as early evidence of Henry’s determination to marry Anne since Katherine of Aragon could no longer bear children.

Little of Mary surfaces in the historical record thereafter. After William Carey died of the sweating sickness in 1528, Anne granted Mary a pension of £100 a year and took over wardship of and financial responsibility for Mary’s son. It is thought that Mary met and fell in love with the soldier William Stafford when she accompanied Anne to Calais in 1532 while Henry met with the French king. In 1533, when Henry finally married Anne, Mary became lady-in-waiting to her sister. In September 1533, Princess Elizabeth was born.

In 1534, Anne, experiencing a recent miscarriage, banished Mary from court when she learned Mary had married William Stafford in secret and was pregnant with his child. Mary retired to the country and applied to the king’s secretary, Thomas Cromwell, for support. She was ignored. Historians believe Mary never saw Anne again and had no contact with her during Anne’s disgrace, trial, and execution. It’s thought that Mary’s child with Stafford was a girl.

Thomas Boleyn died in 1539, and Hever Castle went to the king since Boleyn had no male heir. Mary died in 1543. Henry Carey became a close and trusted advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. Mary’s daughter, Catherine, was lady-in-waiting to Henry’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, and later occupied a high position in the household of Elizabeth I. Catherine married Sir Francis Knollys and gave birth to several children. Queen Elizabeth II of England was a descendant of Mary Boleyn through Catherine’s daughter, Lettice Knollys. Alison Weir, a British historian and novelist who has written extensively on Britain’s medieval and Tudor royal families, discusses what is known and debated about Mary’s life in her biography Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings (2011).