A story about what it must have been like to be Mary Boleyn, the sister who Henry VIII loved before her sister Anne. Who was the real Mary Boleyn? Was she the "Great Prostitute" or King Francis's "English Mare"? She was Anne Boleyn's older sister whom we know very little about, but she does have her own story. Her affair with King Henry VIII lasted longer than her sister's marriage to him. She bore him one child for certain, her daughter Katherine, but was he the father of her son Henry? She was sent to the court of France in the train of Mary Tudor when she was married to Louis XII. There she fell victim to Francis Valois who would succeed Louis as Francis I. Francis ruthlessly seduced her and abandoned her. Mary was sent home in disgrace and was married off at 20 to William Carey. Around 1523 she came to the attention of Henry VIII, and her family pressured her into becoming Henry's mistress, hoping to gain from the liason. Then, the unexpected happened and she fell in love with him, but eventually he turned his attention to her sister Anne--and the rest is history. I love the book "The Other Boleyn Girl" but I've tried to make this story a little more true to life, which I think Mary deserves.
28 parts