William Carey (courtier)

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William Carey was the second son of Sir Thomas Carey (1455–1500), of Chilton Foliat in Wiltshire, and his wife, Margaret Spencer, daughter of Sir Robert Spencer and Lady Eleanor Beaufort, and grandson of Sir William Cary of Cockington, Devon, an eminent Lancastrian.Michael Riordan, 'Carey, William (c.1496–1528)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2009. This Cary family was anciently recorded in Devon, and originally held the manors at Cockington and Clovelly in that county.Burke, Landed Gentry (18th edition), 1965, ASIN: B005VOJIVW Eleanor was the daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, whose brother John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, was the father of Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby, grandmother of King Henry VIII; thus William and Henry VIII were third cousins. William's maternal aunt was Catherine Spencer, Countess of Northumberland, and through her, he was first cousin to Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, the former suitor of his sister-in-law Anne Boleyn.

On 4 February 1520,{{cite book |last=Weir |title=Henry VIII: The King and His Court |page=216}} he was married to Mary Boleyn, the elder daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and his wife, Elizabeth Howard. They resided at Aldenham in Hertfordshire.

Shortly after their marriage, Mary became the mistress of King Henry VIII. Mary would have been unable to turn down the king's advances.

The Boleyns received grants of land, and Carey himself also profited, being granted manors and estates by the king while it was in progress.{{cite book |last=Plowden |title=Tudor Women: Queens and Commoners |page=205}} Carey was also a noted art collector, and he introduced the famed Dutch artist, Lucas Horenbout, to the Kingdom of England in the mid-1520s. Perhaps one of the reasons the athletic King Henry VIII favoured Carey was the fact that Carey appears to have been fond of activities such as riding, hunting, and jousting. Carey distinguished himself in jousting at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.

Anne Boleyn, Mary's sister, caught Henry's eye a year after his affair with Mary ended. Henry proposed marriage to her in 1527. Carey's influence at court was used to try and get his sister Eleanor (a nun) elected as the Abbess of Wilton Abbey over the heir apparent who was Isabel Jordayne. The claim failed when it was revealed that Eleanor had two children by priests.{{Cite ODNB|title=Jordayne, Isabel (d. in or before 1534), abbess of Wilton|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-104420|access-date=2021-02-18| year=2004 |language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/104420| isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}

William Carey did not live to enjoy his sister-in-law's prosperity, since he died of the sweating sickness the following year. Brian Tuke, Henry's secretary at the time of Carey's death wrote this to Lord Legat the day after his death: "Now is word common that M. Cary, which before I came lay in the chamber where I lie, and with whom at my first coming I met here in this place, saying that he had been with his wife at Plashey, and would not be seen within, because he would ride again and hunt, is dead of the sweat. Our Lord have mercy on his soul; and hold his hand over us".Henry Ellis, Original Letters, Series 1 vol. 1 (London, 1824) p. 295.

He died greatly in debt, and his wife was reduced to pawning her jewellery before Queen Anne Boleyn arranged a pension for her.

William Carey and Mary Boleyn were the parents of two children:

• Catherine Carey (c. 1524 – 15 January 1568). Maid of Honour to Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard. She was married to the Puritan Sir Francis Knollys, Knight of the Garter. She was later lady-in-waiting to her cousin, Elizabeth I. One of her daughters, Lettice Knollys, became the second wife of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, the favourite of Elizabeth I.
• Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (4 March 1526 – 23 July 1596). He was ennobled by Queen Elizabeth I just after her coronation and created Knight of the Garter in 1561. When Henry was dying, Elizabeth offered him the Boleyn family title, Earl of Ormonde, which he had long sought, but he refused the honour.

Because of Mary's affair, it has been suggested that Catherine and Henry may have been instead Henry VIII's biological children (see Issue of Mary Boleyn). The veracity of this claim is the subject of historical debate.

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|1= 1. William Carey

|2= 2. Sir Thomas Carey

|3= 3. Margaret Spencer

|4= 4. Sir William Cary

|5= 5. Alice Furford

|6= 6. Sir Robert Spencer

|7= 7. Eleanor Beaufort

|8= 8. Sir Philip Cary

|9= 9. Christina Orchard

|10= 10. Sir Baldwin Fulford

|11= 11. Jennet or Elizabeth Bosome or Bozon

|12= 12. John Spencer

|13= 13. Joan

|14= 14. Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset

|15= 15. Eleanor Beauchamp

|16= 16. Sir Robert Cary

|17= 17. Margaret Courtenay

|18= 18. William Orchard

|19=

|20= 20. Henry de Fulford

|21= 21. Wilhelma Langdon

|22= 22. John Bosome or Bozon

|23= 23. Rosamond St George

|24=

|25=

|26=

|27=

|28= 28. John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset

|29= 29. Margaret Holland

|30= 30. Richard de Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick

|31= 31. Elizabeth Berkeley

}}

Carey's life, his marriage to Mary Carey, and his death are fictionalized in Philippa Gregory's novel The Other Boleyn Girl, where Mary is portrayed as younger than Anne. The story has been made into film twice, with Carey portrayed by Anthony Howell in the 2003 film and Benedict Cumberbatch in 2008.

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• {{cite book |last=England, Public Record Office |author-link=Public Record Office |editor=J. S. Brewer |editor-link=John Sherren Brewer |editor2=James Gairdner |editor2-link=James Gairdner |editor3=R. H. Broadie |others=21 vols. in 33 parts |title=Letters & Papers, Foreign & Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, 1509–1547 |year=1862–1932 |publisher=Longman & Co |location= London }}

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• {{cite book |last=French |first=George Russell |title=The Royal Descent of Nelson and Wellington from Edward I, King of England, with tables of pedigree and genealogical memoirs |year=1853 |location=London |page=28}}
• {{cite book |last=Ives |first=E. W. |author-link=Eric Ives |title=The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn |year=2004 |publisher=Blackwell |location=Oxford |isbn=0-631-23479-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/lifedeathofanneb00ives }}
• {{cite book |last=Kimber |first=Edward |author-link=Edward Kimber |title=The Baronetage of England: containing a genealogical and historical account of all the English Baronets now existing, with their descents, marriages, and memorable actions both in war and peace |url=https://archive.org/details/baronetageengla02wotgoog |year=1771 |publisher=G. Woodfall |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/baronetageengla02wotgoog/page/n242 221]}}
• {{cite book |last=Plowden|first=Alison |author-link=Alison Plowden |title=Tudor Women: Queens and Commoners |orig-year=1979 | edition = Rev. |date=25 September 1998 |publisher=Sutton|location=London |isbn=0-7509-2880-8 }}
• {{cite book |last=Warnicke |first=Retha Marvine |author-link=Retha Warnicke |title=The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII |year=1989 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-37000-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/risefallofannebo00reth/page/36 36] |url=https://archive.org/details/risefallofannebo00reth/page/36 }}
• {{cite book |last=Weir |first=Alison |author-link=Alison Weir (historian) |title=The Six Wives of Henry VIII |year=1991|publisher=Bodley Head |location=London|isbn=0-370-31396-8 }}
• {{cite book |last=Weir |first=Alison |author-link=Alison Weir (historian) |title=Henry VIII: The King and His Court |year=2001 |publisher=Ballantine Books |location=New York |isbn=0-345-43659-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/henryviiikinghis00weir }}

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Category:1500s births

Category:1528 deaths

Category:People from Aldenham

Category:People from Wiltshire

Category:Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber

Category:16th-century English knights

William

Category:English courtiers

Category:Deaths from sweating sickness

Category:Court of Henry VIII

Category:Family of Mary Boleyn