Comedian Josh Widdicombe has unveiled a portrait of William Carey, a courtier to Henry VIII and his 14x great grandfather.
The portrait will hang next to a portrait of William’s wife, Mary Boleyn, in the Great Chamber at Hever Castle in Kent, where Mary grew up.
On his episode of Who Do You Think You Are? in 2021, Josh discovered that he is the couple’s 14x great grandson.
Josh said it was a “huge honour” to unveil the portrait in his “family home”.
William Carey was born in about 1495, son of Sir Thomas Carey of Chilton Foliat in Wiltshire.
He and Mary Boleyn got married in 1520 and were subsequently called to court. There, Mary became mistress to Henry VIII, while William served Henry as a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber and Esquire of the Body to the King.
William and Mary had two children – Catherine (born 1524), from whom Josh Widdicombe is descended, and Henry (born 1526).
Some historians speculate that Henry VIII was the father of one or both children.
However, Kate McCaffrey, assistant curator at Hever Castle, said: “There are questions around that, and it seems more likely that William and Mary’s children Henry Carey and Catherine Carey were legitimate.”
Mary’s sister Anne Boleyn subsequently became Henry VIII’s second wife in 1532, before she fell from grace and was executed in 1536.
Catherine Carey is also the 12x great grandmother of King Charles III via the family of his maternal grandmother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.
Henry Carey, meanwhile, is the 10x great grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales, so Princes William and Harry are descended from William Carey on both sides.
William died in 1528. The portrait was commissioned by his son Henry in around 1580.
Mary Boleyn remarried to William Stafford in 1534.
Kate McCaffrey said: “It’s assumed that Stafford was very much ‘her choice’, and she falls out of court circles at this point. A single letter survives in Mary’s hand. It is evidence of her intellect and her sassiness! She wrote the letter after being banished from court for choosing Stafford: She writes to Thomas Cromwell: ‘I had rather beg my bread with him [Stafford] than be the greatest queen in Christendom’”.
