Mary Boleyn

Published Monday, June 12, 2006 in British Heritage  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

A clear view of Mary Boleyn’s individual character is difficult to obtain. Her personal history is obscured by the more tumultuous life and death of her younger sister Anne, Henry VIII’s second Queen. Piecemeal glimpses of Mary’s life must be garnered from footnotes or brief mention in the works about her sister, her father and the two Kings whose lives she touched: François I of France (reigned 1515-1547) and Henry VIII (reigned 1509-1547). Yet as mistress to two Kings, twice wed to men of Henry’s Court and mother of children who served their cousin, Elizabeth I, Mary emerges from the pages of Tudor history as an enigmatic and intriguing figure.

She was born about 1504, one of Thomas and Elizabeth Bullen’s three surviving children The variations of the family surname are numerous: it was written ‘Boulen,’ ‘Bullaye,’ ‘Boulan,’ and ‘Bolleyn,’ although ‘Bullen’ was the spelling Mary’s ancestors favoured over the centuries. ‘Boleyn’ was evidently adopted by her sister, Queen Anne, from a French spelling when she was awarded an elaborate pedigree by Henry VIII’s King-of-Arms in 1530.

Mary’s birthplace was probably Hever Castle where she, her brother George and sister Anne were reared. Their mother, Elizabeth, was related to the Howard Dukes of Norfolk, and was a very fortunate match for the aspiring Thomas Bullen. He had served as King’s Esquire to the ailing Henry VII until his death in 1509 and then to the young Henry VIII. When he was appointed Ambassador to the Court of Margaret of Savoy, Archduchess of Austria and Regent of the Netherlands in 1512, he saw a golden opportunity to send his 8-year-old daughter, Mary, to a free and elegant finishing school. But a year later an even greater possibility arose for Mary’s advancement when Henry VIII’s sister Mary was dispatched to wed the aged King Louis XII of France. Mary Bullen became Maid of Honour to this new Queen, though the kindly Archduchess was grieved to part with the child.

In comparison with most of the English maids surrounding the French Queen, Mary was extremely young, which brought some social disadvantages but appears to have been what saved her position when the King ordered the Queen’s English ladies to leave France. ‘ La petite Boullain,’ as the next French Queen affectionately called her, was permitted to remain one of the few Englishwomen with the 18-year-old Queen Mary. Such favourable intimacy with a Tudor was not to last. In January 1515 Louis XII died, leaving his Queen of three months a widow. When shortly after the King’s death, Mary Tudor married Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, in secret and left France in disgrace, Thomas Bullen snatched his daughter from her service. Now Mary found herself at the age of 11 established in the household of Claude of France, Queen to François I.

From that point on, Mary Bullen’s formative years were spent in the polarized Court of the dazzling new King. One segment of the Court was composed of 300 maidens strictly reared to do needlework, attend chapel and speak in hushed tomes in the hearing of the always pious and ever-pregnant Queen Claude. The ‘other’ Court rotated round the young King with his mistresses, bawdy humour and licentious behaviour. The King’s mother, Louise of Savoy, and his sister, Marguerite, Duchess of Alençon, rather than his reclusive Queen, presided over his world.

Mary matured into a fair, blue-eyed blonde with the legendary Howard good looks. Despite the restrictions the French Queen imposed on her entourage, Mary displayed an easy going personality. She was light-hearted yet spirited, without the calculation and cattiness that such sophisticated courts could breed. She was, according to one account, sweet, fresh and winning. About this time she caught the eye of the French King, whose ungallant sobriquet for Mary in later years was ‘my English mare.’

Mary’s final years at François’ Court were no doubt thrilling. In 1517 François, triumphant from his victory at Milan, returned stuffed with ideas and breathing the rich air of the Italian Renaissance. His most treasured booty included the 65-year-old genius Leonardo da Vinci, whose works Mary must have known, whether or not she knew the Master himself. Then, too, the importance and influence of women were enhanced by the heady atmosphere of the French Renaissance as power glittered from François’ mother and sister. Mary’s sister, Anne, had earlier joined her in France, and in 1519 her father became French Ambassador and was frequently on the fringes of Mary’s risqué life. That same year saw improved relations between the French and the English as delegations of nobles were exchanged between the two courts.