This secret marriage to a man considered beneath her station angered King Henry VIII and her sister, Queen Anne, and resulted in Mary's banishment from the royal court.

[4] Mary was probably born at Blickling Hall, the family seat in Norfolk, and grew up at Hever Castle, Kent.

[2] During her early years, it is most likely that Mary was educated alongside her brother George and her sister Anne at Hever Castle.

She was given the conventional education deemed essential for young ladies of her rank and status, which included the basic principles of arithmetic, grammar, history, reading, spelling and writing.

In addition to her family genealogy, Mary learned the feminine accomplishments of dancing, embroidery, etiquette, household management, music, needlework, singing, and games such as cards and chess.

[4] Mary was joined in Paris by her father Sir Thomas and her sister Anne, who had been studying in France for the previous year.

[17] Soon after her return, Mary was married to William Carey, a wealthy and influential courtier of the privy chamber, on 4 February 1520.

In 1527, during his initial attempts to obtain a papal annulment of his marriage to Catherine, Henry similarly requested a dispensation to marry Anne, the sister of his former mistress.

Mary's husband had left her with considerable debts, and Anne arranged for her nephew to be educated at a respectable Cistercian monastery.

[23] In October 1532, Mary was one of her companions when Anne accompanied Henry to the English Pale of Calais on his way to a state visit to France.

Since Stafford was a soldier, his prospects as a second son so slight, and his income so small, many believed that the union was a love match.

Mary's financial circumstances became so desperate that she begged the King's chief adviser Thomas Cromwell to speak to Henry and Anne.

Anne relented, sending Mary a magnificent golden cup and some money, but still refused to reinstate her position at court.

There is no record of Mary visiting her siblings Anne and George in the Tower of London when they were imprisoned, awaiting their executions.