HenryCarey

from http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/HenryCarey(1BHundson).htm

Said to be son of Henry VIII by Mary Boleyn, officially son of Sir William Carey. The King granted the Carey's actual manors and estates during the affair and immediately before the child's birth. BEF, the Careys had been granted rather minor offices. (You may recall that Henry publicly acknowledged another illegitimate son, born in 1519. This boy was called Henry Fitzroy - the surname traditionally given to royal bastards - and was ennobled, given the title Duke of Richmond. If Henry Carey was also his son, why didn't Henry do the same for him? The answer lies in his determination to divorce Catalina de Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn, the child's aunt. It is likely that even Henry VIII would have been too embarrassed to recognize his bastard son by his fiancee's sister).William Carey died on 23 Jun 1528 and Henry VIII promptly granted Anne Boleyn the wardship of her nephew (and possibly his son), two-year-old Henry Carey. In another letter to Anne, Henry remarked upon Mary's easy virtue. He and Anne were concerned that, after William's death, Mary's behavior would degenerate; in other words, she would be an embarrassment to the King and his intended wife.

In 1534, Mary secretly married William Stafford. This marriage was a disaster for her, excepting her personal happienss. Meanwhile, her son was still living with his aunt, Queen Anne. He was being tutored by the great French poet, Nicholas Bourbon, clearly benefitting from the wardship. His mother's life between 1534 and her sister's execution in 1536 is difficult to trace. She seems to have resided at Rochford, Essex from the time of her disgrace to her death on 19 Jul 1543.

In 1559, on the accession of Elizabeth to the throne, Henry Carey was ennobled as Baron Hunsdon, with lands in Hertfordshire, Kent, and Hampshire, and becomes Elizabeth's Captain of the Gentlemen Pensioners, the Queen's personal bodyguard. Henry eventually gains the office of Lord Chamberlain as well. In 1569 (Nov) during the Revolt of the Northern Earls, with help from dissidents in Scotland, Hunsdon is named lieutenant-general of the Queen's forces in the north. The rebellion is crushed in northern England first (Feb 1570), then remaining rebels are hunted down on the Scots' side of the border with Scottish help.

He died in Jul 1596, and his son George becomes the second Baron Hunsdon and assumes some of his his father's offices, but not as Lord Chamberlain yet (George's youngest brother Robert, a favorite of the Queen and later James I, becomes governor of Berwick).