Were Catherine and Henry Carey the Children of Henry VIII?
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| Catherine Carey (1562) |
For centuries historians have been arguing whether Mary Boleyn's children- Catherine Knollys (née Carey) and Henry Carey- were illegitimate offspring of Henry VIII. If they were, then they were never acknowledged as his issue in the king's lifetime. If they were not Henry's children, then they were likely to be the other possible father- William Carey (Mary's husband)'s.
Mary Boleyn was definitely Catherine and Henry's mother, there is no doubt about it. She was the oldest child of Sir Thomas Boleyn and his wife Elizabeth Howard and was likely to have been born in 1499. Also Mary was the older sister of Henry VIII's second wife Anne Boleyn and their younger brother George Boleyn. In 1520, Mary married the king's peer Sir William Carey (a possible candidate for the children's father). For some time in their marriage, Mary was the mistress of King Henry VIII. She died after being married for nine years to Sir William Stafford on 19th July 1543 in Essex, England.
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| Henry Carey |
Sir William Carey was the acknowledged father of Catherine and Henry because he was the husband of their mother. Born in circa 1500, Sir William served as a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and also as an Esquire to the Body of the King. He married Mary in 1520 in an arranged agreement and the first child (Catherine) was born in 1524 and then the second child (Henry) was born in 1526. Sadly Sir William died in Bristol on 22nd June 1528, when Catherine was only four and Henry was two, during an epidemic of the contagious sweating sickness.
King Henry VIII was the second son and third child of King Henry VII (Tudor) and his queen Elizabeth of York. Until the death of his older brother Arthur, Henry was never expected to become king and was probably destined to be a bishop. He became king in 1509 and shortly after married his first wife, a Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, shortly after. The exact dates of when Henry took Mary Boleyn on as his royal mistress are unknown but they were together in the mid 1520s. Henry fathered three legitimate children and at least one illegitimate child. He died on 28th January 1547, throughout his reign, he had married six women, and was succeeded by his nine year old son Edward VI.
Arguments for the Carey children to be the offspring of Henry VIII
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| King Henry VIII |
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| Mary Boleyn |
The exact date of Catherine's birth is unknown but many historians suspect that she was born in 1524. A portrait was painted of Catherine in 1562 and Josephine Wilkinson suggests that she was about 38 years old, meaning that she was born in the year 1524. It is also believed that at the time of her birth, her mother Mary Carey (née Boleyn) was having an affair with the king, therefore there is a possibility that Catherine was the daughter of Henry VIII. Not only that, but throughout her life, Catherine was honoured with various prominent positions at court, such as maid of honour to Henry VIII's fourth and fifth wives- Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard, and then, at the age of sixteen, she married an important member of the royal court: Sir Francis Knollys, with whom she later had lots of children with. She also had a close relationship with her cousin and possible half- sister Elizabeth I and was also made Chief Lady of The Bedchamber to the queen.
Two years later, Mary gave birth to her son Henry on 4th March 1526. Like his sister, Henry was believed to have been born during the time that his mother was partaking in an affair with the king. One reason why Henry Carey could be the illegitimate son of the king is because wardship was granted to Anne Boleyn after Sir William Carey's death. However this could have been purely because Anne was his maternal aunt. When his aunt's daughter: Elizabeth, became queen, he was made Baron of Hunsdun and he was also knighted. Also Elizabeth is thought to have even visited Henry on his death bed. A vicar- John Hale- also wrote of Henry Carey being the 'bastard boy' of King Henry VIII. Several members of the court of Henry VIII also said that Henry Carey looked a lot like the king.
Arguments against the Carey children to be the offspring of Henry VIII
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| William Carey |
In 1519 Henry VIII's former mistress- Bessie Blount gave birth to a son by the king. Henry choose to publicly acknowledge this boy as his own and gave him the name Henry Fitzroy, (translated to mean 'son of the king'), and also make him Earl of Richmond, a title of which was given to King Henry's father when he was a child. However when Henry was born, he was not given the name 'Fitzroy' and neither did Henry VIII choose to acknowledge him as his own son. Maybe this was because he had plans to marry their aunt and if the pope and public knew that their king had slept with Anne's sister, he would be contradicting himself as one reason which he used against his marriage to Catherine of Aragon was that she had been married to his older brother Arthur. Catherine and Henry Carey's cousin Queen Elizabeth I wrote of them as cousins rather than siblings. Not only that but if indeed Mary was Henry's mistress, how long was she for? And also some historians suspect that if Mary and Henry had enjoyed a long relationship, he probably had ended it by the time his ever revolving eye moved onto Mary's younger sister Anne. Josephine Wilkinson also argues that out of all the women that Henry is assumed to have slept with, their were little issue, therefore was Henry not very fertile?
Personally, I believe that Sir William Carey was the father of Catherine and Henry because there is a lack of evidence for Henry VIII being the father, and the sources that we do have are mainly descriptions and assumptions. Comment down below what you think.
Sources:
The whole thing about he not recognizing them while he acknowledged FitzRoy is pointless. FitzRoy was the son of an unmarried woman while the Careys were children of a married woman. Henry VIII would never acknowledge children of a married woman.
ReplyDeleteBessie Blount may have been married though because around a year later she gave birth to another child, by her husband. On the other hand, at the time of the Catherine and Henry Carey's birth, Henry VIII was chasing their aunt- Anne Boleyn and it would have caused a scandal.
DeleteSorry for only replying after months but it's likely Bessie was unmarried at the time she was Henry's mistress and had Henry FitzRoy with him and married right after FitzRoy's birth. Also, look at this article https://www.genealogymagazine.com/mary-boleyns-carey-children-offspring-of-king-henry-viii/ that gives evidence the Careys were children of Henry VIII.
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