History Remembers Mary Boleyn as the Scandalous 'Other Boleyn Girl.' New Research Debunks the Myths Surrounding the Tudor Mistress

"“She is seen as the unsuccessful Boleyn: the one without ambition of her own and a woman with a scandalous past.”"

"“Mary is always depicted as promiscuous, intellectually incurious and unambitious,” Soberton tells Smithsonian magazine. “S”"

"“Mary Boleyn: The Queen’s Slandered Sister” debunks persistent myths about its subject, including an infamous description of Mary as a “great whore” who engaged in affairs with not just Henry but also Francis I of France."

"Soberton argues that this descriptor, which even served as the subtitle of a 2011 biography, was based on a 19th-century mistranslation. While Soberton acknowledges that the facts of Mary's life remain elusive, she emphasizes that much of the established lore is misleading at best or blatantly false at worst."

Mary Boleyn has often been treated as a secondary figure to Anne Boleyn, remembered mainly through her relationships with Henry VIII and Anne. She served as Henry’s mistress before his marriage to Anne, later supported Anne as a lady-in-waiting, and left court after marrying below her station. She avoided execution for treason in 1536 and died in obscurity in 1543. Popular histories and fiction, including The Other Boleyn Girl, reinforced an image of Mary as the unsuccessful Boleyn. New research in Mary Boleyn: The Queen’s Slandered Sister disputes myths, including claims that she had affairs with Henry and Francis I, arguing that a “great whore” label stemmed from a 19th-century mistranslation and that much established lore is misleading or false.

Read at Smithsonian Magazine