Dame Eleanor Carey (d. after 1528) was an early modern English noblewoman and nun, known for being endorsed as a candidate for

abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic ...

Wilton Abbey Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles from Salisbury, probably on the site now occupied by Wilton House. It was active from the early tenth century until 1539. History Foundation Wilton Abbey is first reco ...

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...

until her scandalous life was discovered.

Life

Ancestry and early life

Eleanor Carey was one of the eight or so children of Sir Thomas Carey of Chilton Foliat and his wife, born

Margaret Spencer Margaret (or Eleanor) Spencer (1472–1536) was the daughter of Sir Robert Spencer, of Spencer Combe in the parish of Crediton, Devon, by his wife Lady Eleanor Beaufort, the daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset and Lady Eleanor Beau ...

. Through her mother, Eleanor was a great-granddaughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, making her a third cousin of

Henry VIII, King of England Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

Nothing is known about her childhood. One of her brothers, the courtier

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

married a former mistress of Henry VIII,

Mary Boleyn Mary Boleyn, also known as Lady Mary, (c. 1499 – 19 July 1543) was the sister of English queen consort Anne Boleyn, whose family enjoyed considerable influence during the reign of King Henry VIII. Mary was one of the mistresses of Henry VII ...

in 1521. Eleanor and at least one of her sisters became nuns at Saint Edith's Nunnery in the Abbey of Wilton (sometimes called Wilton Priory), a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

convent near

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. There, they lived in the company of around fifty nuns, most of whom were said to lead dishonourable lives. Eleanor Carey herself gave birth to ''"two children by two sundry priests"''. For a time, she left the convent to live as the mistress of an unnamed servant of Robert Willoughby, 2nd Baron Willoughby de Broke.

Endorsement by Anne Boleyn

It seems Carey's brother Sir William obtained a promise from Thomas Wolsey,

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

Archbishop of York The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...

and main adviser to King Henry VIII, that Eleanor Carey would be made prioress of Wilton when the office became vacant. He probably also pursued the superior position of

on her behalf. On 24 April 1528, Cecily Willoughby, Abbess of Wilton died. Cardinal Wolsey put forward the prioress, Dame Isabel Jordan. She was said to be an ''"ancient, wise and discreet"'' woman and her sister Dame Agnes was the abbess of the much better-run Syon Abbey. It is possible that the nuns also favoured Jordan. Carey's brother William turned to his sister-in-law

, the intended bride of the king, for help. Both her and the sovereign endorsed Carey, dismissing Dame Isabel as too old and being of a doubtful reputation. When Sir William died of sweating sickness on 22 June 1528, Anne Boleyn continued to upheld the claim of her Carey kinswomen, wanting either of them to become the ruler of the nunnery. This made Eleanor Carey and her sister the momentary focus of Anne Boleyn's conflict with Wolsey. The cardinal personally investigated the nunnery, and Eleanor Carey admitted to her past lovers and illegitimate children. When the king was informed of this, he immediately asked Wolsey to search for a third candidate, withdrawing support from both Carey and Jordan. Despite this, Wolsey confirmed Isabel Jordan as abbess at a time when Anne Boleyn was not present at the royal court. The king publicly rebuked him for this, but Jordan remained abbess for some time. Nothing further is known of the fate of the Carey sisters.

References

Sources

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Citations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carey, Eleanor 16th-century European people 16th-century English people Tudor England People from Wiltshire Carey family 16th-century English nuns 16th-century Christian nuns Anne Boleyn