Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon

Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, was the son of Mary Boleyn and William Carey and a first cousin of Elizabeth I, although later speculation has sometimes named Henry VIII as his father. Under Elizabeth he became a trusted courtier, soldier and administrator, serving in the north during the rebellion of 1569 and later as lord chamberlain. He was also patron of the theatrical company that became the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, associated with Shakespeare.

Carey appears in Tudor novels about Mary Boleyn and Elizabeth I, including Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl and related fiction about the Carey children. Stories often exploit the unproven possibility of royal paternity. His long adult career, however, is historically more significant than the rumour, linking the Boleyn family to military service, border government and the Elizabethan theatre.

Alison Weir’s The Boleyn Secret places Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon within a narrative shaped by family, marriage and personal loyalty, court politics and dynastic power, and crime, espionage and covert power.