Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon

Henry Carey
Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, by Steven van Herwijck, c. 1561-63. Private collection, on loan to the Globe Theatre.
Born	4 March 1526
Died	23 July 1596 (aged 70)
Spouse(s)	Anne Morgan
Children	George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon John Carey, 3rd Baron Hunsdon Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth Edmund Carey Katherine Carey, Countess of Nottingham Others
Parent(s)	William Carey Mary Boleyn

Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon KG (4 March 1526 – 23 July 1596), was an English nobleman and courtier. He was the patron of Lord Chamberlain's Men, William Shakespeare's playing company. The son of Mary Boleyn, he was a cousin of Elizabeth I. Since his mother was also a mistress to King Henry VIII of England, some historians have speculated that he might have been an illegitimate child of Henry VIII.

Henry Carey was the second child of William Carey and Mary Boleyn who was the sister of Anne Boleyn, the second wife and Queen of Henry VIII. Carey and his elder sister Catherine came under the wardship of their maternal aunt Anne Boleyn, who was engaged to Henry VIII at the time. The children still had active contact with their mother, who remained on good terms with her sister, until Mary's secret elopement with a soldier, William Stafford (later Lord of Chebsey) in 1535.

Anne Boleyn acted as her nephew's patron and had him provided with an excellent education in a prestigious Cistercian monastery. He was also tutored at some point by French poet Nicholas Bourbon, whose life had been saved from the French Inquisition after Queen Anne's intervention.

Henry's royal aunt was beheaded in May 1536, when he was ten years old. His mother died seven years later in 1543 on her estate in Essex. On 21 May 1545 he married Anne Morgan, daughter of Sir Thomas Morgan, of Arkestone, Herefordshire, and Elizabeth Whitney.