Mary boleyn descendants

Mary Boleyn (1499-1543) was the most famous member of the Boleyn family before her sister Anne’s ascendancy as Queen of England in 1533. Yet Mary’s early renown was something of a dubious honour, since it was based on her adulterous affair with King Henry VIII: Mary is thought to have been Henry’s mistress for a brief period in the early to mid-1520s, a few years before he married her sister, Anne.

Mary married twice in her life, first to William Carey, one of the king’s courtiers, and again in secret, to William Stafford.

This second married was deemed unacceptable by King Henry and Queen Anne, and Mary was banished from the family.

Ironically, after the downfall of the Boleyn family in 1536, when both Anne and her brother George were executed, Mary briefly became the sole survivor of the once-powerful dynasty that had disowned her.

Here are 10 facts about Mary, the ‘other Boleyn girl’.

1.

Mary Boleyn was one of Henry VIII’s mistresses