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.

On the Hunt!

For all of you who are as "Anne Obsessed" as I am, you know how frustrating untruths about her life and death can be; especially when made by those who should, due to their education and experience, know better. I am enclosing tonight a three part video produced by BBC. I encourage you to watch it and see if you can hunt up their mistakes. Give it a go and comment me with your thoughts!

The Anne Boleyn Files Book Give-Away

In celebration of the fourth anniversary of theanneboleynfiles.com author and historian Claire Ridgeway is giving e-reader copies of all three of her outstanding Anne related books away on amazon.com. If you don't have a Kindle, you can download the reader software FREE to your computer or smartphone via the amazon homepage!

Follow this link to receive your copies and don't forget to enter her gift card drawing while there!

http://www.amazon.com/Claire-Ridgway/e/B0079FOGUY/

Read of the Week

Hello Anne enthusiasts!

This week I dove into Anne Boleyn: Henry VIII's Obsession by Elizabeth Norton and admittedly I was a little disappointed. First of all the author attempts to interpret Anne's emotions WAY too much leading to phrases like "must have" "surely would have" and other conjecture to be overused. Norton's lack of ability to prove the things she says make the book seem under supported; one of the most frustratingly obvious examples of this was her claim that not only was Anne present at the Field of Cloth of Gold ceremony, but the "probably" felt happiness at seeing her father there. There is absolutely no historical record indicating that Anne attended the ceremony, let alone how she may have felt at it. The chronological order of the book is also somewhat confusing. Norton often jumps around in Anne's life, downplaying important events and highlighting others with less (I believe) historical value. For example she makes no mention of the St. Erkenwald wedding of Anne. I also noticed some historical errors in her writing; namely when she claims Mark Smeaton was hung, drawn and quartered. This is absolutely untrue. He was beheaded just like all of Anne's accused lovers.

I confess, I wanted to love this book; the title was interesting, I am always hankering for a new Anne Boleyn work to expand my knowledge and Norton's books have their own shelf in my library. I admit, I did not love it. Despite what I feel are some short-comings I can still appreciate how the author draws the reader in; Norton's style makes for interesting and easy reading. She gives a lot of "food for thought" on the relationship between Henry VIII and Anne, presenting facts and then allowing you to interpret and draw your own conclusions. I am also recommending this book because the imagery is incredible, the author accessed parts of Hever, the Tower and other Anne related spaces not normally open to the public thus allowing many of us to see these places for the first time.

Reader Questions

Hello again readers!

This week we had some really great question submissions, many that I had to some research on to be able to accurately answer. Thank you for your questions and keep them coming!

Q: Does any of Anne's jewelry survive?

A: This is a great question, but one with a sadly disappointing answer. Most of Anne's jewels would have been seized upon her arrest because they would've been property of the crown. It is very likely that they would've been reset and worked to fit the style of Jane Seymour and her predecessors as was customary. However, there is one happy bit of news. In a portrait of the Tudor family which Henry VIII had commissioned, Elizabeth can be seen wearing the A necklace that Anne was known for. Anne had a B necklace which is commonly depicted in portraits of her but also an A which she wore often after her coronation. It is said by several historians that she started the trend of monogram jewelry in her time. Here is the portrait of Elizabeth so you can see the necklace yourself.

The Full portrait

Close-up of Elizabeth

Q: How did Mary Stafford [sister to Anne Boleyn] die?

A: Mary died July 19, 1543 at her home in Essex. The cause of her death is unknown, so more than likely it was of natural causes indiscernible by medicine and technology of the period. Her burial place is also unknown though Alison Wier believes it to be the Church of St. Andrew near Rochford. Despite the fact that we do not know much about her death, we do know thanks to genealogical records that Mary is an ancestor to many great and influential people including Charles Darwin and Princess Catherine Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge.

Q: I [the sender] read somewhere that Elizabeth contracted small pox during her reign. Is that true?

A: Yes! This is true. On October 10, 1562 Elizabeth came down with what her doctors thought was a cold. However, the illness quickly escalated with high fevers and it was thought that she would die. She recovered thanks to the special care of one of her devoted ladies, Mary Sidney. Unfortunately the woman caught the disease herself and was badly scarred the rest of her life. Elizabeth did not suffer from major disfigurement but afterward did begin to use white makeup to cover the blemishes on her face and neck.

Q: Did Elizabeth of York [mother to Henry VIII] have an affair with her own uncle?

A: Great question, there is no question that Elizabeth and her paternal uncle Richard III had some type of relationship. She had written to her mother Elizabeth Woodville, former Queen of Edward IV to explain the relationship. Elizabeth the elder also corresponded with Richard himself regarding his desire to marry his niece following the sure death of his sickly wife Anne. Although this seems taboo according to our modern standards the union would have made a lot of sense during the time. Richard was faced with continual uprising of those who believed he was not the true heir to the throne because he had seized it from his nephew Edward V (Elizabeth's younger brother) following the death of the boy's father Edward IV. By this point most of England had accepted that Edward and his younger brother Richard were dead. Marrying Elizabeth would have united those who believed in the legitimacy of Edward IV's line with his own supporters bringing peace to a fractured England. Now, while they may have had a relationship; it is doubtful that they were engaging in sex. Firstly, because Richard and Elizabeth were both very religious and it would have been unseemly. Secondly, there was no effective means of birth control so if Elizabeth were to become pregnant she would have been scorned and not considered a viable candidate for queen. Regardless of whether or not there was a sexual relationship, it is accurate to say that Elizabeth was a favorite of Richard and that he intended on marrying her and making her queen following his wife's death.