Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire

[1] Her paternal grandfather, Sir John Howard, was created Duke of Norfolk in 1483 by King Richard III.

[5] However, despite recent attempts by one or two historians to rehabilitate this myth, it was denied by Henry and never mentioned in the dispensation he sought in order to make his union with Anne lawful.

According to the papal nuncio in France fifteen years later, the French King Francis I had referred to Mary as "my English mare", and later in his life described her as "a great whore, the most infamous of all".

Around 1520, the Boleyns managed to arrange Mary's marriage to William Carey, a respected and popular man at court.

Elizabeth had been in charge of her children's early education, including Anne's, and she had taught her to play on various musical instruments, to sing and to dance, as well as embroidery, poetry, good manners, arithmetic, reading, writing and some French.

Elizabeth Boleyn sided with the rest of the family when her eldest daughter, Mary, was banished in 1535 for eloping with a commoner, William Stafford.

Elizabeth's younger daughter, Anne, and her only living son, George, were executed on charges of treason, adultery, and incest.

Anne's two chief biographers, Eric Ives and Retha Warnicke, both concluded that these charges were fabricated.

Beyond this obvious fact, the sequence of events is unclear and historians are divided about whether the key motivation for Anne's downfall was her husband's hatred of her or her political ambitions.

[16] Despite the claims of several recent novels, academic historians agree that Anne was innocent and faithful to her husband.