Mary and her elder sister, Eleanor de Bohun, were the heiresses of their father's substantial possessions.[1] Eleanor became the wife of Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, the youngest child of Edward III.[1] In an effort to keep the entire inheritance for himself and his wife, Thomas of Woodstock pressured the child Mary into becoming a nun.[3] In a plot with John of Gaunt, Mary's aunt took her from Thomas' castle at Pleshey back to Arundel whereupon she was married to Henry Bolingbroke, the future Henry IV.[3]
Mary married Henry—then known as Bolingbroke—on 5 February 1381,[4]atArundel Castle. It was at Monmouth Castle, one of her husband's possessions, that Mary gave birth to her first child, the future Henry V, on 16 September 1386. Her second child, Thomas, was born probably at London shortly before 25 November 1387.[5]
^"Mary (born in 1369-70) was naturally a matter of considerable interest to Buckingham. As long as she remained single, the entire Bohun inheritance would fall to him.[1]
^According to some sources,[6][7] in 1382 she had a son who died shortly after birth. This is incorrect, as it is based on a misreading of a contemporary account book, by J. H. Wylie, in his biography of Henry IV (published in the 19th century). Wylie missed a line which made clear that the boy in question was Mary's nephew, Humphrey, 2nd Earl of Buckingham. There is no evidence that there was any child born to Mary at this time (when she was only about 14).[5]
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Mortimer, Ian (2007). The Fears of Henry IV. Random.
Panton, James (2011). Historical Dictionary of the British Monarchy. Scarecrow Press.
Richardson, Douglas (2011). Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families. Genealogical Publishing Company.
Staley, Lynn (2006). Languages of Power in the Age of Richard II. The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Ward, Jennifer C., ed. (1995). Women of the English Nobility and Gentry, 1066–1500. Manchester University Press.
Ward, Jennifer (2006). Women in England in the Middle Ages. Hambledon Continuum.
