Mary Boleyn, daughter of Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard, and sister of Queen Anne Boleyn, has been a popular subject for both fiction and non-fiction, but she is quite an enigma in reality. Out of what we do actually know about her, how much do you know? Test yourself with this fun quiz. Good luck!
Mary Boleyn Quiz
Correct! Her first husband was William Carey and her second husband was William Stafford.
Wrong! She was married twice. Her first husband was William Carey and her second husband was William Stafford.
Correct!
Wrong! It was Rochford Hall.
Correct! Bessie Blount married Gilbert Tailboys after her relationship with the king had ended and we don't know when Mary slept with the king.
Wrong! Bessie Blount married Gilbert Tailboys after her relationship with the king had ended and we don't know when Mary slept with the king.
Correct! She married him on 4th February 1520.
Wrong! She married him on 4th February 1520.
Correct! He died from sweating sickness on 22nd June 1528.
Wrong! He died from sweating sickness on 22nd June 1528.
Ha, trick question if we don’t know where Mary is buried as she may or may not be, but it would be lovely to find out one day! I love this portrait of Mary, so pretty and such softness in her eyes and face. She deserved better than to be discarded by the King and eventually her family, but perhaps her marriage to William Stafford was her last happiness that never found George or Mary. Mary defied her sister as Queen, but didn’t think much of it until she got banished and cut off by her father, doing what any sixteenth century father would do, faced with a disobedient daughter, who had chosen her own husband, which is why she had to write and have Cromwell and King Henry help her to put things right. I think Mary Boleyn had a few years of happiness with her husband and children and in that way captured some of the blessings denied her family with Anne’s rise and fall.
Ha, trick question if we don’t know where Mary is buried as she may or may not be, but it would be lovely to find out one day! I love this portrait of Mary, so pretty and such softness in her eyes and face. She deserved better than to be discarded by the King and eventually her family, but perhaps her marriage to William Stafford was her last happiness that never found George or Mary. Mary defied her sister as Queen, but didn’t think much of it until she got banished and cut off by her father, doing what any sixteenth century father would do, faced with a disobedient daughter, who had chosen her own husband, which is why she had to write and have Cromwell and King Henry help her to put things right. I think Mary Boleyn had a few years of happiness with her husband and children and in that way captured some of the blessings denied her family with Anne’s rise and fall.