Most sources indicate that the Boleyns made their way from France to England in the Middle Ages, with one subset of the family settling in 13th-century Norfolk. With generations of merchants and landowners contributing to the family coffers, father Thomas Boleyn was born into a cushy situation in 1477. Besides receiving a high-class education, he also got in good with Henry VII, who gave Thomas prominent positions at court and status that carried through to the reign of Henry VIII. Thomas eventually became an ambassador, serving in the court of Margaret of Austria, who had key connections through her father, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian.
Under Thomas, the Boleyns grew ever greater in power, wealth, and education, a state of affairs that benefited not only his son, George, but his daughters Mary and Anne as well. Besides the obvious financial benefits of growing up as a Boleyn, Mary and Anne plied their high social status into key roles as ladies in waiting in France (as well as, for Anne, at the intellectual and lively Margaret of Austria’s court).
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We don’t precisely know when the two were born or in what order, though Mary has traditionally been accepted as the elder sister, being born around 1499 or 1500. Sources typically put Anne’s birth shortly after, around 1501.
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