Mary Boleyn

Anne's older sister

Mary Boleyn

Mary Boleyn (1499 – ), Anne’s older sister, grew up at the Burgundian and French courts and later became Henry VIII’s mistress. She married William Carey in 1520.

“You are the elder Boleyn daughter, the beauty of the family, a sweet-natured but brave and passionate woman, and in your later twenties when this story starts.”

Hilary Mantel, notes on characters

The story so far…

Week 3: An Occult History of Britain (Part 1)

In 1523, Cromwell tells Wolsey that Mary Boleyn is sleeping with the king. But she is married to William Carey, so there is no risk of having to acknowledge any child as Henry’s. By 1527, the king has moved onto her younger unmarried sister, Anne.

Week 4: An Occult History of Britain (Part 2)

In 1528, William Carey is carried off by the sweating sickness. The widow Carey runs into Cromwell at court and tells him off the Boleyn plots to remove the cardinal and make Anne Boleyn Queen of England. She tells Cromwell:

Do you know what I want? I want a husband who upsets them. I want to marry a man who frightens them.

“Don’t ask, don’t get.” Cromwell turns her down (“They’d kill you.”), but he gets to imagine having Norfolk as his uncle and the king as his brother.

Week 6: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 1)

She and all the other ladies are busy stitching Anne’s new coat of arms onto everything. It is endless work. So Cromwell provides them with entertainment at York Place, in his first engagement with Anne. Mary says she will know when Anne lets Henry into her bed. Anne will tell her out of spite.

Week 7: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 2)

She is with her younger sister and Dr Cramner, when Cromwell visits. They inspect the death threat found in Anne’s bed. Who put it there?

Mary stands, like a statue, in the position where Anne left her; her hands are joined, as if the paper were still between them. Oh, Christ, he thinks, to see her out of here; to take her to somewhere she could forget she is a Boleyn. She asked me once. I failed her. If she asked me again, I would fail her again.

Week 10: 'Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?' (Part 1)

Mary Boleyn has “one of her conferences with Master Cromwell” to “offer him her virtue again.”

She tells him that Anne wants a house of her own. And he tells her that he wants Anne to give him a job.

‘She made Tom Wyatt a poet. She made Harry percy a madman. I’m sure she has some ideas about what to make you.’

Mary is always having fun. Later, in the crisis over Harry Percy, she gets to say, “My sister is a notorious virgin.” She says it without cracking up.

Week 11: 'Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?' (Part 2) / Early Mass

Mary Boleyn keeps Cromwell informed of the king’s progress across Anne’s body. Her new title as Marquess of Pembroke “bought Henry only the right to caress her sister’s inner thigh.” She appears troubled that Anne has started to call Cromwell “my man.”

In Calais, she tells Cromwell that it is done. “She can’t change her mind now.” She lets him, Thomas Cromwell, put his arm around her. Her lips brush his. “So now, what about us? It has been a weary struggle to bring them here. I think we have earned our recreation.”

Cromwell is so almost tempted. But then William Stafford appears in the dark. He almost kills him. A sign that if he can’t get “east of the Boleyns,” he should turn in and say his prayers.

Week 12: Anna Regina (Part 1)

January, 1533. “A sumptuous smile. She holds up her hand, thumb and finger an inch apart” to let Cromwell know that she has let out Anne’s bodice. Her sister is carrying a child.

Anne now needs to get rid of Mary, who will be inviting to the kind during Anne’s confinement. She proposes to marry her to Richard Cromwell. A match that would make him brother-in-law to the king. “And Uncle Norfolk would really be our uncle.”

But the king has thought it over and says, no. “Or at least, not at this time.” He nods. He understands his reason. When Anne understands it, she will spit nails.

Week 13: Anna Regina (Part 2)

At the coronation, Cromwell speaks to Mary. She has dark stains under her eyes. “I doubt there are many sisters who expect what I receive, nightly.” The king is sleeping with her while Anne is with child. And her father needs her again. “God forbid the king should ride a mare from any other stable.”

Week 16: The Map of Christendom (Part 1)

Mary Boleyn is pregnant. She says it is William Stafford’s child, but her sister thinks it is the king’s doing. She casts Mary out. Later, she writes to Cromwell from Kent, asking for help. Cromwell leans on Thomas Boleyn, to send her money.