The Mary Mythology

A 17th century painting believed to be of Mary Boleyn

Throughout history, Mary Boleyn has been vilified; called The Great Prostitute, the English Mare, a whore, the woman who cuckolded her husband while sleeping her way to power and position. But who was this woman? Was Mary all that history has painted her to be? Or are Hollywood and even  history unkind to her memory?

What we know about Mary Boleyn is sadly lacking, most of the details people believe about her life are propagated by Hollywood interpretations of her. The portrait of her painted by The Tudors is as a promiscuous and often forward young woman whose escapades were widely known. The Other Boleyn Girl portrays her as being innocent and pressured into the sexual encounters she experienced by her overbearing father and uncle. The truth is that she probably fell somewhere in the middle. Most women in the Tudor time period would have had sexual experience prior to marriage, just as Mary did. However, as Mary's experiences were with prominent men, most notably King Francois of France, they are now more widely discussed.

So if Mary's sexual experience was comparable to other women of the time period, why do we still talk about it? The answer here can only be explained by her sister Anne's marriage to Henry VIII. If Anne had never become involved with Henry, his affair with Mary would be no more than an interesting side note much like his time with Bessie Blount. In fact it might be less prominent as she produced no recognized children by the King, history might have completely forgotten her if not for Anne. But because Henry later applied for a papal dispensation to marry Anne after he had already slept with Mary, the affair has become infamous.

The affair though most certainly not Mary's idea was a choice she herself had to make. Many women would've been propositioned by wealthy power players at Henry's court and some would have chose not to stray from their martial bonds; however when a King propositions you and the rewards of such a relationship would have been so great, to refuse would have been unthinkable for Mary. It is also highly inaccurate to view William Carey as being a cuckold when he would've known about the affair between his wife and the King and enjoyed some wealth and position because of it.

One thing we do know about Mary is that after her politically and financially motivated marriage to William Carey and his subsequent death, that Mary made a love match on her own. In 1534 Mary married, without permission, one William Stafford, an untitled gentlemen landowner in Essex. Her family was unaware of her actions until she turned up at court, pregnant in September 1534. She was banished from the court for her choices and had her allowance cut off. She wrote to Cromwell early in 1535 asking him to intercede on her behalf it is here she speaks openly of her love for Stafford saying, "...I had rather beg my bread with him than to be the greatest queen in Christendom..."

Despite the common notion that Mary was an "English rose" pale complected with blonde hair and blue eyes in direct contrast to Anne's dark looks, we simply do not know if this is a fact. There are no contemporary portraits of Mary so it impossible to determine if this is correct.

There is also the mistaken idea that Mary raised Elizabeth, Anne's daughter after her death. This is entirely nonfactual. Elizabeth shared a household with her sister Mary, often attending on the baby prince Edward after his birth. She became a ward of Kateryn Parr after King Henry's death and eventually established her own household as she grew older. It is unlikely that Elizabeth and Mary had any notable interaction, although her children and grandchildren did become favorites of Elizabeth's after her accession to the throne.

Mary's life is a blank canvas, the lack of background regarding her life has allowed novelists, screenwriters and other people interested in the time period to paint in what they see as probable details. However, we must not take these unsupported, half hearted assertions as fact.

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