Mary Boleyn

Mary Boleyn moves through the Tudor court as the sister already spent by the king's attention, her position eclipsed by Anne's rising ambition. She is warm, plain-spoken, and unashamed of her past, watching her family's schemes with a mixture of affection and weary amusement rather than the hunger that drives the rest of them.

Charity Wakefield plays her as the one Boleyn who says the quiet part aloud, cutting through the court's careful maneuvering with blunt honesty. Against Anne's calculation and Cromwell's caution, Mary's candour feels almost dangerous in its plainness, and Wakefield makes that directness feel like relief rather than folly.