Lord Hunsdon's bard

I'll go back on the  topic of Shakespeare and Henry Carey a little later, but when time will be there, here something until we get to there I think I'll try to dissimulate any thought that he was an imposing presence in the author life. He was the sponsor of his troop and one candidate for the famous dark lady was the mistress of him.  Shakespeare exact place in the company was more minor and actually the bard while he was gaining in prominence was more minor at the time. I'm not even sure the two had any chance to have interact directly.

Hunsdon's men

yet another event that take place (and this one suprised me since I don't recall hearing about it previously) is Henry first foray into artisitc patronage, by mounting the Hundson's men in 1564 before eventually disbanding them in 1567 (the most probable reason being that he got appointement in the marches around that time), source.  Although I did find one book that seem to indicate that the troops went through time of activity in between 1567 and the time he became Lord chamberlain.

Very little information about the troop exist( its due to several factor I presume, it was apparently one of little note, it apparently toured a lot and probably didn't do much of a paper trail and the fact that the one he establish as Lord chamberlain is much more famous, but it come in so much later that the connection are hard it) we don't even know who compose it.  The one man I've seen speculate as possibly being part of it is future lord chamberlain's men impressario James Burbage (source)

Ironically the troop was formed in 1564, same year of birth as Shakespeare, would eventually be part of the lord chamberlain men.

Henry in Fiction

(I sorta wanted to write more in details about Henry times in Mary parliament, but while I though I'd find stuff, so here some filler)

I think I've talk about this before, but while Henry Carey has appeared in a number of historical novel he hardly ever a protagonist or even an important when portray in fiction, usually overshadowed by a lot of other character who are considerably more famous, though at the same time a lot of them I think are better fit for work of fiction.  Hell even as a secondary player he seem to be subdue to the bare minimum and what you can find in the most basic research. Part of it, I think is because of the way he lived his life, the man didn't seem to be much of schemer with big ambition (Since he pretty much served Elizabeth with utmost loyalty) he didn't do a lot of thing worth bragging about or his had a particularly dramatic life. 

So far I think I've seen a few ways Henry Carey was displayed, it's not really a thorough look, mostly a few observation.

Henry Carey the son of Mary Boleyn

You can see that in the other Boleyn girl and the last Boleyn.  It would usually cover-up up to Mary death, he don't require much characterisation aside from being a child, but his unsure paternity and the up and down of Mary life make for drama and he can be used has some sort of token in power play (and he is too young to be a player in these thing).

Henry Carey, courtier of Elizabeth

Inevitable, though I don't think I have seen one book that focus a lot of Henry and Elizabeth relationship. Though the Poyson Garden by Karen Harper seem to have a bit more about it, but I can't find a way  to read it properly. He usually show without much characterisation aside for being supportive of her. Though you can read the usual description of him being a rough and tumble kind of guy

Henry Carey, Patron of the art

In his later year, his time has lord chamberlain pop-up, though not so much because of the connection to Shakespeare, but rather to the dark lady, his mistress Emilia Lanier.  Though considering he bite dust shortly afterward, he's usually don't do much.

Here something for you to read a thesis/novel on Emilia Lanier which features Hunsdon.

http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7435

So what I know so far? Wikipedian adventure

Well I learned about Henry Carey in January 2 2013, when I asked about possible character for the Queen Mary era set RPG the thorn birds (since it's the reason they are the reason I am doing the project in the first place might as well plug them, but I will also tell you that in its french).  They gave the name and a basic outline of his life up to 1553.

Being a sucker for sucker for trying to do something that is the most historically accurate possible, I've had to do research. I think the RPG mold a lot of what I was focous on up until now.  Since I was playing a character, I tried my best to find thing that would describe his personality in some fashion (an insane task considering how very little historical people gave trace of how their personality could be, so far I've gotten one source that give some insight into what he was like ) and his earlier life (since I only had to  know what was his life up until 1553). I will try to make the project sure the project goes from his birth and to his dead, even if its a bit out of my confort zone. 

Back on topic, how did I learn more about Henry carey back then ?As any young man my age I Wikipedia first

I know its, probably not the best option when researching semi-obscure character (tried to do the same for a war of the rose rpg and let me tell you it had much less success), but I will say that Wikipedia is a very good tool overall to give an introduction on the character. It give you a quick answer to an easy question,  most of the information on Henry Carey on the article seem to verify. I've went to it so much time I'm pretty sure the baron of Hunsdon didn't have the top billing in the search engine until  I came around.  (My rpg avatar actually get to be onof google image search for Henry Carey :D )

let us go through it, it will reveal some of my question about Henry Carey.

His date of birth is interesting because unlike most it is very precise, if you check the article about his relative (even the considerably more famous Anne Boleyn is only given a circa 1501). I never was able to find  a primary source that gave that information directly to me. I don't really have a reason to think its inaccurate. (same goes for the date of his marriage and death), but it's a nagging detail. (Since I've worked at a genealogy society and in church records, I tend to assume such record are readily available, then again most of the time it didn't go as far as 500 years in the past). 

One thing I've come to be unsure is to where exactly Henry Carey spent his time after being he became the ward of Anne Boleyn (and later own the crowd).  Wiki give him at Cistercians monastery. weir (1) and apparently (2)  Josephine Wilkinson give it more precision with him being Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. 

Aside from his marriage and his years as PM for Buckingham, Wikipedia skip over his early days for the most part. It isn't surprising as most information on the this part is rather diffuse, but I've managed to gather more with time (and will write more on this topic eventually).

  

I think the article could use a few more citation, especially from parliament history online (another future topic). I'm fairly confident I could find the primary source for the letter of Elizabeth to Henry, however I'm not sure I'll find one for the it's the one attributed to him in his last days.

While the article seem to mostly underline his military career, Henry Carey actually had ambassadorial duty in his life, though not has noticeable as his. I really don't know much about the northern rebellion or Scotland or British relationship at the, so I don't think I will write much about it for the moment.

if you notice in the disambiguation page there is mention of Henry Carey that died in 1581 who was MP of both Buckinghamshire and Berwick-upon-Tweed which follow the life of our Baron.It is his son Sorta sad he died before his father. As for the other entry in disambiguation, they sometime cause trouble on google, mostly the economist and the author, but not too much.

Wikipedia giving the list of his children fairly particular, while 16 are given here, most will give you 12 (the thesis I've mention in my opening article do give more detail on it), the four additional one being some that died of early age, where wiki pulls out those I'm not too sure.   Finding the birth date and order of the children is no easy task. Finding details on his bastard Valentine Carey, also seem to hard and if he indeed had another with Emilia Lanier though I think more research is needed.

 This only the begining they are many thing I've seen in the recent month, I have yet to write about.

(1) Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of KingsBy Alison Weir page 234

(2) http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/mary-boleyn-part-three-1526-1543/  - citing Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII’s Favourite Mistress, Josephine Wilkinson at page 172 (which is sadly out of reach of my google preview, I should try to see if I can some of these books on amazon)