The other boelyn girl?

Question

why wasn't marry's son rightful heir to the throne?

if the king turned his back on his son, after the kings death why wasn't he first in line? wouldn't anne have been able to use the letter where he acknowledged his son?

what position did the uncle have, and why did he have so much power?

Answer 1

Fell asleep during this boring sheitty movie.  Have no idea.

Answer 2

He was born out of wedlock and dubbed a b*****d. He also carried the surname Carey, which implied that he was William Carey's son. When the king died he had a boy born from one of his legitimate wives: Jane Seymour. The boy was Prince Edward who was nine when crowned but died at 15 or 16 years of age. Anne would have been able to use her adoption of Mary's son had she not made the King distrust her to the point of having her beheaded. Anne's uncle was the Duke of Suffolk, and he merely knew how to play the game of court life. But all of his successors over the next three generations were charged with treason, so in the end he didn't have much power at all.

Answer 3

True, Mary Boleyn (1499-1543) was one of the mistresses of Henry VIII as well as allegedly the mistress of King Francis I of France; however, Mary's dalliance with Henry VIII happened after she had married Sir William Carey on 4 February 1520.  Any children that she would have had during this marriage, whether Sir William had sired them or not, would have been recorded as his.  Furthermore, the affair ended before the birth of Mary's son, Henry Carey, in March 1526.  

Later, rumors circulated that one or both of Mary's children, Henry and Catherine, were fathered by the King.  Most notably, John Hale, Vicar of Isleworth, remarked that he had met a "young Master Carey" who was the King's b*****d.

Interestingly enough, Elizabeth I bestowed upon Henry Carey the title of Baron Hansdon and made him a Knight of the Garter very soon after her coronation while his sister, Catherine Carey, was maid of honour to Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard as well as later Chief Lady of the Bedchamber to Elizabeth I.  Her daughter became the second wife of Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, one of the favorite courtiers of Elizabeth I.

Of course, English Common Law didn't allow illegitimate children to inherit unless special provision was made for them in their father's will.  That is why it is so important that Henry VIII's will named his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, second and third in line to succeed to the throne upon the death of their half-brother Edward before he fathered children (which Edward didn't live to do).

Henry VIII justified the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon on the grounds that the previous marriage of Catherine and his brother Arthur had created an "affinity" between Henry and Catherine.  Still looking for a male heir after the birth of Princess Elizabeth to Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII similarly annuled their marriage on the grounds that the King's affair with Mary had also created a close, familial relationship.  

If Henry Carey had been Henry VIII's illegitimate son, and if he had in any way been able to ascend to the throne, or if custom had favored the reign of queens rather than kings, Henry VIII wouldn't have bothered with the marriages, divorces, and beheadings of wives two through six.   Henry VIII wasn't necessarily oversexed for a Renaissance monarch, but he desperately wanted a healthy male heir to carry on the Tudor Dynasty.

At any rate, Henry's Carey's descendants presumably have had the last laugh.  Among them are Winston Churchill, P. G. Wodehouse, the Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon,  Diana, Princess of Wales, and Sarah Ferguson--not to mention Elizabeth II.

As for Henry Carey's uncle, Thomas Howard, he figures strongly in the rise of Catherine Howard, the fifth ill-fated wife of Henry VIII.

Answer 4

I read "The Other Boleyn Girl" too long ago to remember the details, but Philippa Gregory mixes fact with fiction to make a good historical novel.

Scholars are still debating whether Henry VIII actually fathered any of Mary Boleyn's children; however, even if he did father her son he would never have become King of England.  Mary was only Henry's mistress, and therefore any children of that union would be illegitimate.  That was why Henry married so many times - to get a legitimate heir to the throne!  (He did acknowledge one illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, but the boy died as a teenager.)

By uncle, I think you mean Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk?  I don't remember the book, but the Duke of Norfolk was one of the premier nobles of the land, uncle to Anne Boleyn and Henry's fifth wife, Catherine Howard; he seems to have been a powerful, cold and ambitious man.

You might be interested in the sites below.

Answer 5

Mary boleyn was Henry VIII's mistress, not his wife.  And there is no evidence whatsoever that her son was fathered by Henry.  Henry had only one acknowledged b*****d, Henry Fitzroy, the son of Bessie Blount.  If Mary Boleyn's son had been his, Henry  would almost certainly have acknowledged him too.  But there would have been no question of him being in line for the throne.

I don't know which uncle you are refering to.