He served the king as a Gentleman of the Privy chamber, and Esquire of the Body to the King. This Cary family were anciently recorded in Devon, and originally held the manors at Cockington and Clovelly in that county. They resided at Aldenham in Hertfordshire.
The Boleyns received grants of land, and Carey himself profited from his wife"s unfaithfulness, being granted manors and estates by the King while it was in progress.
Carey was also a noted art collector and he introduced the famed Dutch artist, Lucas Horenbout, to the Kingdom of England in the mid-1520s. Perhaps one of the reasons the athletic King Henry VIII favoured Carey was the fact that Carey appears to have been fond of activities such as riding, hunting and jousting.
Carey distinguished himself in jousting at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. Anne Boleyn, Mary"s sister, caught Henry"s eye a year after his affair with Mary ended.
Henry proposed marriage to her in 1527.
William Carey did not live to enjoy his sister-in-law"s prosperity, since he died of the sweating sickness the following year. William Carey and Mary Boleyn were the parents of two children: Catherine Carey (c 1524 – 15 January 1568). Maid of Honour to Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard.
Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon (4 March 1526 – 23 July 1596).
He was ennobled by Queen Elizabeth I just after her coronation and created Knight of the Garter in 1561. When Henry was dying, Elizabeth offered him the Boleyn family title, Earl of Ormonde, which he had long sought, but he refused the honour.
Because of Mary"s affair, it has been suggested that Catherine and Henry may have been instead Henry VIII"s biological children (see Issue of Mary Boleyn). The veracity of this claim is the subject of historical debate.