Sir William Stafford (c.1500-5 May 1556) was an Essex landowner and the second husband of Mary Boleyn, the one time lover of King Henry VIII of England.
William was the son of Humphrey Stafford of Blatherwycke in Northamptonshire and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir John Fogge of Ashford in Kent. The family were distant relatives of the mighty Staffords, who had until recently had controlled the dukedom of Buckingham and the earldom of Wiltshir...
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Sir William Stafford (c.1500-5 May 1556) was an Essex landowner and the second husband of Mary Boleyn, the one time lover of King Henry VIII of England.
William was the son of Humphrey Stafford of Blatherwycke in Northamptonshire and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir John Fogge of Ashford in Kent. The family were distant relatives of the mighty Staffords, who had until recently had controlled the dukedom of Buckingham and the earldom of Wiltshire, but William Stafford was a commoner, and only a second son. He served Henry VIII as a soldier. In 1532, he is listed as one of two hundred people who accompanied Henry VIII to France. Here Henry and his fiancee Anne Boleyn were to meet King Francis I of France to show his public approval for Henry's annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
Among the other travellers was Anne Boleyn's sister, Mary Boleyn, the daughter of Thomas Boleyn who was by then the Earl of Wiltshire and the Earl of Ormonde. As an earl's daughter, a duke's...
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