Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon

• 1. Introduction

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  Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, was dying when Queen Elizabeth I offered to make him Earl of Wiltshire. He refused, and his reply carried a sting: "Madam, as you did not count me worthy of this honour in life, then I shall account myself not worthy of it in death." The Queen was his cousin. He was an English peer and courtier, and the patron of William Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Why would a man so richly rewarded by the crown end his life on such a bitter note? And how did a boy born into the Boleyn family come to stand so close to Elizabeth's throne? What more could he have wanted?

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• 2. Boleyn Childhood

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  Henry Carey and his elder sister Catherine came under the wardship of their mother's sister, Anne Boleyn, who was then engaged to Henry VIII. Their mother, Mary, stayed on good terms with Anne, and the children kept active contact with her. That lasted until 1535, when Mary secretly eloped with a soldier named William Stafford, who later became Lord of Chebsey.

  Anne Boleyn also acted as her nephew's patron and made sure he received an excellent education at a prestigious Cistercian monastery. A French poet named Nicholas Bourbon tutored him at some point. Bourbon owed his own life to Anne, whose intervention had saved him from the French Inquisition.

  In May 1536, Anne Boleyn was beheaded, and her nephew was ten years old. Seven years later, in 1543, his mother died on her estate in Essex. On the 21st of May 1545, Carey married Anne Morgan. Her parents were Sir Thomas Morgan of Arkestone, Herefordshire, and Anne Elizabeth Whitney.

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• 3. Whispers About the King

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  Mary Boleyn had been the mistress of King Henry VIII since 1520. Nobody knows exactly when the affair began or ended, but it is believed to have finished before her son was born on the 4th of March 1526.

  Around ten years after the birth, John Hales, the vicar of Isleworth, said he had met a "young Master Carey" whom some monks believed to be the king's son. As Eric Ives has pointed out, the vicar was hostile toward the Boleyn family and may simply have been stirring up trouble.

  The novel The Other Boleyn Girl is one example of modern historical fiction inspired by the notion that Carey was Henry VIII's secret son. Alison Weir, in her biography of Mary Boleyn, reached a different verdict. She concluded that the weight of evidence points to Carey's sister Catherine as the only child Mary had by the king. Catherine went on to become one of Elizabeth's favourite ladies-in-waiting.

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• 4. Rewards of Kinship

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  Carey entered Parliament at 21 as the member for Buckingham, a seat he held from 1547 to 1550 and again from 1554 to 1555. In November 1558 he was knighted. On the 13th of January 1559, his first cousin Elizabeth I created him a baron.

  The Queen proved very generous to her Carey relatives. The new barony came with the manors of Hunsdon and Eastwick in Hertfordshire, plus possessions in Kent. Hunsdon had earlier belonged to Elizabeth's predecessor, Mary I. Carey also received an annual pension of £400.

  On the 31st of October 1560, he became master of the queen's hawks, at a salary of £40 a year. On the 20th of April 1561, he was made a Knight of the Garter. In 1564, Elizabeth named him Captain of the Gentlemen Pensioners, which made him in effect her personal bodyguard for four years. That same year he accompanied her to Cambridge University, which awarded him an MA.

  On the 25th of August 1568, Carey became Governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland. His new post placed him where trouble on the Scottish borders soon landed on his desk.

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• 5. Border and Rebellion

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  Carey and William Drury received word that unrest along the Scottish borders was being stirred up by Dan Carr, also written Ker, of Shilstoke-Bray. Carr was said to have visited Mary, Queen of Scots, at Carlisle Castle. She was supposed to have urged him to make trouble in Teviotdale, Liddesdale and the West borders. He was also to spread seditious literature that would make life harder for Regent Moray, who now ruled Scotland. Carey set men to watch for him, and Walter Ker of Cessford eventually captured Carr. Mary told Carey's son, George Carey, that her enemies were behind the unrest, hoping to provoke English reprisals against her supporters.

  The year 1569 brought the Rising of the North, a major uprising that ran from November 1569 to February 1570. Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland, and Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland instigated it. The rebels expected backing from the Roman Catholic Pope Pius V.

  Elizabeth named Carey Lieutenant General of the forces loyal to her. In February, near Gelt Bridge between Naworth and Carlisle, he defeated Sir Leonard Dacre, and the victory was instrumental in crushing the rebellion. Nearly three thousand rebels ambushed Carey's party, which was only half that size, yet he held them off. Some rebels fled across the border into Scotland, where Regent Lennox's forces targeted them.

  Carey could still admire the courage of Dacre's soldiers. In his letter to the Queen describing the fight, he called the rebel charge "the bravest charge that ever I saw". Elizabeth answered with a personal note of thanks. She mused over whether the victory itself, or the fact that he was "the instrument of my glory", pleased her more. She told him "you have done much for honour" and signed it "Your loving kinswoman, Elizabeth R."

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• 6. Offices of State

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  On the 23rd of October 1571, Carey signed a treaty with Regent Mar as the Queen's representative, having been appointed Warden of the Eastern March. On the 31st of July 1574, he became keeper of Somerset House and its gardens on the Strand. In 1577 he was named a Privy Counsellor. On the 16th of January 1581, he was appointed Captain-General of the forces responsible for the safety of English borders.

  In July 1585, Carey was appointed Lord Chamberlain of the Household, a post he held until his death. On the 20th of July 1588 at Tilbury, he received a further commission. It named him Lord Chamberlain Lieutenant, Principal Captain and Governor of the army "for the defence and surety of our own Royal Person".

  From 1589 until his death, Carey served as Chief Justice in Eyre south of the River Trent. He was also a joint commissioner of the Office of Earl Marshal, and High Steward of Ipswich and Doncaster. On the 20th of December 1591, he became Chief Justice of the Royal Forces, a post he again held until his death. On the 2nd of March 1592, he was appointed High Steward of Oxford. The Oxford post came with a guarantee that it would last for life.

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• 7. Affair With Emilia Lanier

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  In 1587, Carey began an affair with Emilia Lanier, who was born in 1569 and was the daughter of a Venetian-born court musician. He was decades older than she was. He held the office of Lord Chamberlain at the time and was a patron of the arts and theatre. His patronage of Shakespeare's company began only two years after the affair ended.

  Records indicate that Carey gave Lanier a pension of £40 a year. Simon Forman's diary says she was "maintained in great pomp". The same entry says she brought money and jewels to the man who later married her. Lanier apparently enjoyed her time as Carey's mistress.

  In 1592, when Lanier was 23, she became pregnant with Carey's child. He paid her off with a sum of money and arranged her marriage to Alfonso Lanier, a Queen's musician and her first cousin once removed. Church records show the wedding took place at St. Botolph's church, Aldgate, on the 18th of October 1592. In 1593, Lanier gave birth to Carey's son, Henry, presumably named after his father.

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• 8. A Large Family

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  Thirteen children were born to Carey and his wife, Anne Morgan, and not all of them lived long. A baby named William lived only during 1552. A first Thomas, born in 1555, died in infancy the following year.

  Sir George Carey, born in 1547, became the 2nd Baron Hunsdon. On the 29th of December 1574, he married Elizabeth Spencer, daughter of Sir John Spencer. Sir John Carey, born around 1551, became the 3rd Baron Hunsdon, and his son Henry Carey became the 1st Earl of Dover. Robert Carey, born in 1560, became the 1st Earl of Monmouth. On the 20th of August 1593, he married Elizabeth Trevannion, and their son Henry became the 2nd Earl of Monmouth.

  The daughters made their own alliances. Catherine Carey married Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham. Philadelphia Carey married Thomas Scrope, 10th Baron Scrope, and was the mother of Emanuel Scrope, 1st Earl of Sunderland. Margaret Carey married Sir Edward Hoby.

  Carey died at Somerset House on the Strand on the 23rd of July 1596. He was buried on the 12th of August 1596 at Westminster Abbey. His sons George and John followed him in turn as Baron Hunsdon.

  Carey also had several illegitimate children. Valentine Cary, born around 1570, entered the church and later became Bishop of Exeter. He died in 1626.

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