The Mystery of the Boleyn Siblings’ Births | Was Mary Boleyn Older Than Anne Boleyn?

From History Calling

Was Anne Boleyn older than her sister Mary Boleyn, or was the other Boleyn girl actually born first? In this Tudor history documentary from History Calling we look at what we know about the ages and birth years of Mary and Anne Boleyn, the mistress and the second wife of Henry VIII and a set of sisters that the world is still fascinated by today. Both were the daughters of Sir Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard and they were the sisters of this couple’s only other surviving child, George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford (by the way we’ll also look at when George Boleyn was born). Most historians think all three arrived in the world between 1499 and 1508, but the birth order of the girls has been hotly debated for centuries and this also affects what we think we know about their brother’s birth. We’ll look at what the primary sources tell us about how old each Boleyn was, based on when Mary and Austria went to Mechelen and France to serve in the courts of Margaret of Austria, Mary Tudor and Queen Claude of France, when Mary Boleyn got married, how old Anne Boleyn was when she died according to some near contemporary sources and the legal argument made by Mary’s descendant Lord Hunsdon during the reign of his cousin, Elizabeth I, which indicates that he believed his grandmother to be the elder sister. You’ll hear from original sources including what Thomas Boleyn said about his children, the writings of William Camden and the recollections of the Duchess of Feria, who worked for Mary I. You’ll also hear what top Tudor historians like Eric Ives and Retha Warnicke have made of the debate.