Mary I of England

Mary Tudor is the name of both Mary I of England and her father's sister, Mary Tudor (queen consort of France).

Queen Mary I of England (18 February, 1516 – 17 November, 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 6 July1553 (de facto) or 19 July 1553 (de jure) until her death.

Mary, the fifth monarch of the Tudor dynasty, after Jane Grey and before Elizabeth I, is remembered for returning England from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. To this end, she had almost three hundred religious dissenters executed; as a consequence, she is often known as Bloody Mary. Her religious policies, however, were in many cases reversed by her successor and half-sister, Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Mary and Elizabeth were both first cousins once-removed of Mary, Queen of Scots, granddaughter of their aunt Margaret Tudor.

Early life

Mary was the first daughter and first child of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. A stillborn sister and three short-lived brothers, including Henry, Duke of Cornwall, had preceded her. Through her mother, she was a granddaughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. She was born at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, on Monday 18 February 1516. She was baptised on the following Thursday with Thomas Cardinal Wolsey standing as her godfather. Mary was a sickly child who had poor eyesight, sinus conditions and bad headaches. Some authors believe that her poor health was from congenital syphilis contracted ultimately from her father via her mother.^{[citation needed]} Whether or not he even had the disease is debated, however, as the story emerged long after his death.

Despite her health problems Mary was a precocious child. A great part of the credit of her early education was undoubtedly due to her mother, who not only consulted the Spanish scholar Juan Luis Vives upon the subject, but also was Mary's first instructor in Latin. Mary also studied Greek, science, and music. In July 1521, when scarcely five and a half years old, she entertained some visitors with a performance on the virginals (a smaller harpsichord). Henry VIII doted on his daughter and would boast in company, "This girl never cries." When Mary was nine years old, Henry gave her her own court at Ludlow Castle and many of the Royal Prerogatives normally only given to a (male) Prince of Wales, even calling her the Princess of Wales. In 1526, Mary was sent to Wales to preside over the Council of Wales and the Marches. Despite this, Henry was deeply disappointed that his marriage had produced no sons.

Throughout her childhood Henry negotiated potential marriages for her. When she was only two years old she was promised to the Dauphin Francis, son of Francis I, King of France. After three years, the contract was repudiated. In 1522, she was instead contracted to her first cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, then 22, by the Treaty of Windsor. Within a few years, however, the engagement was broken off. It was then suggested that Mary wed, not the Dauphin, but his father Francis I, who was eager for an alliance with England. A marriage treaty was signed which provided that Mary should marry either Francis I or his second son Henry, Duke of Orléans. However, Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII's chief adviser, managed to secure an alliance without the marriage.

Meanwhile, the marriage of Mary's parents was in jeopardy because Catherine had failed to provide Henry the male heir he desired. Henry attempted to have his marriage to her annulled, but, to Henry's disappointment, Pope Clement VII refused all his requests because of the influence of Catherine's nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Henry had claimed, by citing biblical passages, that his marriage to Catherine was unclean because she had been previously married (as a child) to his brother Arthur, although there was some debate as to whether that marriage had been consummated or not. In 1533, Henry secretly married another woman, Anne Boleyn. Shortly thereafter, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, formally declared the marriage with Catherine void and the marriage with Anne valid. Henry then broke with the Roman Catholic Church and declared himself head of the Church of England. As a consequence of this, Catherine lost the dignity of being queen and was demoted to Princess Dowager of Wales (a title she would have held as the widow of Arthur). Mary in turn was deemed illegitimate and her place in the line of succession, as well as the title princess, was transferred to her half-sister, the future Elizabeth I, daughter of Anne Boleyn. She was now just Lady Mary.

Mary was expelled from Court, her servants were dismissed from her service, and she was forced to serve as a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth. She was not permitted to see her mother Catherine, nor attend her funeral in 1536. Her treatment at this time was widely perceived as unjust. It is said that Anne Boleyn encouraged her ladies-in-waiting to slap Mary and verbally abuse her, though she was careful not to do this in front of the King. It is also said that because of this, Mary was very cold to Elizabeth during Elizabeth's teenage years, making false and rude comments on the beheading of Anne Boleyn, calling her a witch. Circumstances between Mary and her father worsened and she was tricked into reconciling with her father by submitting to him as head of the Church of England. By this she repudiated papal authority, acknowledged that the marriage between her mother and father was unlawful, and accepted her own illegitimacy.

Mary may have expected her troubles to end when Anne Boleyn lost royal favour and was beheaded in 1536. Like Mary before, Princess Elizabeth was now degraded to a Lady and removed from the line of succession. Within two weeks of Anne Boleyn's execution, Henry married Jane Seymour, who died shortly after giving birth to a son, the future Edward VI. Mary was godmother to her half-brother Edward and chief mourner at Jane Seymour's funeral. In return, Henry agreed to grant her a household and Mary was permitted to reside in royal palaces. Her privy purse expenses for nearly the whole of this period have been published, and show that Hatfield House, the Palace of Beaulieu (also called Newhall), Richmond and Hunsdon were among her principal places of residence. She was later awarded the Palace of Beaulieu as her own. When King Henry VIII was reminded by Mary of Catherine of Aragon, he would banish her to Beaulieu. He would do this to Elizabeth, also, but she would go to Hatfield, to the dismay of Mary, who liked to be with her to make sure Elizabeth prayed enough.

In 1543 Henry married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, who was able to bring the family closer together. The next year, through an Act of Parliament, Henry returned Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession after Edward. Both women, however, remained legally illegitimate.

In 1547, Henry died and was succeeded by Edward VI who attempted to establish Protestantism throughout the country. As an example, the Act of Uniformity prescribed Protestant rites for church services, such as the use of Thomas Cranmer's new Book of Common Prayer. When Mary, who had remained faithful to the Catholic church, asked to be allowed to worship in private in her own chapel, she was ordered to stop. After appealing to her cousin Charles V, who threatened to go to war with England, she was allowed to worship privately. Religious differences would continue to be a problem between Mary and Edward, however. When Mary was in her thirties, she attended a reunion with Edward and Elizabeth for Christmas, where Edward reduced her to tears in front of the court for "daring to ignore" his laws regarding worship.

Accession

As Edward did not want the Crown to go to either Mary or Elizabeth, he excluded them from the line of succession in his will.^[1] This exclusion was unlawful, as it was made by a minor and contradicted the Act of Succession passed in 1544 which had restored Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession. Under the guidance of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, Edward VI instead devised that he should be succeeded by Northumberland's daughter-in-law Lady Jane Grey, a descendant of Henry VIII's younger sister Mary.

One of her first actions as queen was to order the release of the Catholic Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk and Stephen Gardiner from imprisonment in the Tower of London.^{[citation needed]} Mary was inclined to exercise clemency in regard to Jane, recognising that she had been forced to take the crown by her father (Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk) and father-in-law (the Duke of Northumberland). At this time, the Duke of Northumberland was the only conspirator executed for high treason, and even that was after some hesitation on the Queen's part.^{[citation needed]} Mary was left in a difficult position, as almost all the Privy Counsellors had been implicated in the plot to put Jane on the throne. She could only rely on Gardiner, whom she appointed Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor. Gardiner crowned Mary on 1 October 1553 because Mary did not wish to be crowned by the senior ecclesiastics, who were all Protestants.^{[citation needed]}. In 1553, she repealed the controversial Buggery Act 1533.

Reign

Mary's first act of Parliament retroactively validated Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and legitimised Mary herself. Now 37, Mary turned her attention to finding a husband and producing an heir that would prevent the Protestant Elizabeth from succeeding to the throne. Mary rejected Edward Courtenay, 1st Earl of Devon, as a prospect when her cousin Charles V suggested she marry his only son, the Spanish prince Philip, later Philip II of Spain.

The marriage, which for Philip was completely political (he admired her dignity but felt "no carnal love for her") was extremely unpopular with the English. Lord Chancellor Gardiner and the House of Commons petitioned her to consider marrying an Englishman, fearing that England would be relegated to a dependency of Spain. This fear may have arisen from the fact that Mary was England's first queen regnant (excluding the brief, and controversial, reign of Jane) since Queen Matilda.

Insurrections broke out across the country when she insisted on marrying Philip, with whom she was in love. The Duke of Suffolk once again proclaimed that his daughter, Lady Jane Grey, was queen. In support of Elizabeth, Thomas Wyatt led a force from Kent that was not defeated until he had arrived at London. After the rebellions were crushed, both the Duke of Suffolk and his daughter were convicted of high treason and executed. Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two months, then was put under house arrest at Woodstock Palace.

Mary married Philip on 25 July, 1554, at Winchester Cathedral. Under the terms of the marriage treaty, Philip was to be styled "King of England", all official documents (including Acts of Parliament) were to be dated with both their names, and Parliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple. Coins were also to show the heads of both Mary and Philip. The marriage treaty further provided that England would not be obliged to provide military support to Philip's father, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, in any war. Philip's powers, however, were extremely limited and he and Mary were not true joint sovereigns like William and Mary.

Mary, thinking she was pregnant, had thanksgiving services at the diocese of London in November 1554. This turned out to be the first of two false pregnancies. Philip had Elizabeth released from house arrest, probably so that he would be viewed favourably by her in case Mary died during childbirth. Philip found Mary, who was eleven years his senior, to be physically unattractive and after only fourteen months found an excuse to leave for Spain.

As queen, Mary was very concerned about religious issues. She had always rejected the break with Rome instituted by her father and the establishment of Protestantism by Edward VI. She had England reconciled with Rome and Reginald Cardinal Pole, the son of her governess the Countess of Salisbury and once considered a suitor, became Archbishop of Canterbury after Mary had his predecessor Thomas Cranmer executed. Mary would come to rely greatly on Pole for advice.

Edward's religious laws were abolished by Mary's first Parliament and numerous Protestant leaders were executed in the so-called Marian Persecutions. The first to die were John Rogers (4 February, 1555), Laurence Saunders (8 February, 1555), Rowland Taylor (9 February, 1555), and John Hooper, the Bishop of Gloucester (9 February, 1555). The persecution lasted for almost four years. The Marian persecutions are commemorated especially by bonfires in the town of Lewes in Sussex, and there is a prominent martyr's memorial outside St John's church at Stratford, London, to those Protestants burnt in Essex.

Mary also persuaded Parliament to repeal the Protestant religious laws passed by Henry VIII. To get their agreement took several years, and she had to make a major concession: tens of thousands of acres of monastery lands confiscated under Henry were not to be returned to the monasteries as the new landowners created by this distribution were very influential. Mary also started currency reform to counteract the dramatic devaluation overseen by Thomas Gresham that had characterized the last few years of Henry's reign and the reign of Edward VI. These measures, however, were largely unsuccessful. Mary's deep religious convictions inspired her to institute social reforms, although these were also unsuccessful.

Under her reign, in another of the Plantations of Ireland, English colonists were settled in the Irish midlands to reduce the attacks on the Pale (the colony around Dublin). Two counties were created in Ireland and named Queens County (now Laois) and Kings County (now Offaly) in honor of her and Philip. The county town of Queens County was called Maryborough (now Portlaoise).

Having inherited the throne of Spain upon his father's abdication, Philip returned to England from March to July 1557 to persuade Mary to support Spain in a war against France (the Italian Wars). As a result of her agreement (which violated the marriage treaty), England became full of factions and seditious pamphlets of Protestant origin inflaming the country against the Spaniards. English forces fared badly in the conflict and as a result lost Calais, England's last remaining continental possession. Mary later lamented that when she died the words "Philip" and "Calais" would be found inscribed on her heart.

Death

During her reign, Mary's weak health led her to suffer two false pregnancies. After such a delusion in 1558, Mary decreed in her will that her husband Philip should be the regent during the minority of her child. No child, however, was born, and Mary died at the age of 42, most probably of ovarian cancer, at St. James's Palace on 17 November, 1558. She was succeeded by her half-sister, who became Elizabeth I. Mary was interred in Westminster Abbey on 14 December in a tomb she would eventually share with Elizabeth. The Latin inscription on a marble plaque on their tomb (affixed there during the reign of James I) translates to "Partners both in Throne and grave, here rest we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of one resurrection".

Legacy

Although Mary enjoyed tremendous popular support and sympathy for her mistreatment during the earliest parts of her reign, she lost almost all of it after marrying Philip. The marriage treaty clearly specified that England was not to be drawn into any Spanish wars, but this guarantee proved meaningless. Philip spent most of his time governing his Spanish and European territories, and little of it with his wife in England. After Mary's death, Philip became a suitor for Elizabeth's hand, but Elizabeth refused him.

The persecution of Protestants earned Mary the appellation "Bloody Mary" although many historians believe Mary does not deserve all the blame that has been cast upon her. During Mary's five-year reign, 283 individuals were burnt at the stake, twice as many had suffered the same fate during the previous century-and-a-half of English history, and at a greater rate than under the contemporary Spanish Inquisition. Several notable clerics were executed; among them were the former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, the former Bishop of London Nicholas Ridley and the reformist Hugh Latimer. John Foxe vilified her in his Book of Martyrs. Spanish ambassadors were apparently aghast at how the English reviled her and at the jubilation and celebration of the people upon her death.

One popular tradition traces the nursery rhyme Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary to Mary's attempts to bring Roman Catholicism back to England, although it is more likely about her Cousin Mary, Queen of Scots.

Style and arms

Like Henry VIII and Edward VI, Mary used the style "Majesty", as well as "Highness" and "Grace". "Majesty", which Henry VIII first used on a consistent basis, did not become exclusive until the reign of Elizabeth I's successor, James I.

When Mary ascended the throne, she was proclaimed under the same official style as Henry VIII and Edward VI: "Mary, by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head". The "supremacy phrase" at the end of the style was repugnant to Mary's Roman Catholic faith; from 1554 onwards, she omitted the phrase without statutory authority, which was not retroactively granted by Parliament until 1555.

Under Mary's marriage treaty with Philip II of Spain, the couple were jointly styled King and Queen. The official joint style reflected not only Mary's but also Philip's dominions and claims; it was "Philip and Mary, by the grace of God, King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, Chile and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Princes of Spain and Sicily, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Milan, Burgundy and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol". This style, which had been in use since 1554, was replaced when Philip inherited the Spanish Crown in 1556 with "Philip and Mary, by the Grace of God King and Queen of England, Spain, France, Jerusalem, both the Sicilies and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Burgundy, Milan and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol".

Mary I's arms were the same as those used by all her predecessors since Henry IV: Quarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lys Or (for France) and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England). Sometimes, Mary's arms were impaled (depicted side-by-side) with those of her husband.

Ancestors

Portrayal

Mary has been depicted many times in TV and the movies.

• Ann Tyrrell made a cameo appearance as Mary in the movie Young Bess (1953).
• Nicola Pagett played her in the 1969 film Anne of the Thousand Days where she made a brief appearance in a scene showing Catherine of Aragon's death. In reality, Mary was not present at the time.
• In 1971, the BBC broadcast the six-part television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII. In the first part, Catherine of Aragon, the young Princess Mary was portrayed by Verina Greenlaw. She reappeared, played by Alison Frazer, in the third part, Jane Seymour, and in the sixth, Catherine Parr. The success of this series led to a sequel, Elizabeth R, where the middle-aged Mary was played by Daphne Slater.
• In the 1985 movie Lady Jane she was portrayed by Jane Lapotaire.
• In 1998, she was portrayed by Kathy Burke in the lavish costume drama Elizabeth.
• In 2003, Lara Belmont played her in the British television drama Henry VIII.
• In 2005 Joanne Whalley portrayed her in the BBC drama The Virgin Queen.

Mary has also appeared in many novels set during Tudor times (see the section on Further Reading – Fiction below).

See also

• Pilgrimage of Grace
• List of British monarchs
• Marian martyr

Notes

References

• Eakins, L. E. (2004). "Mary I"
• "Mary I". (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
• "Mary Tudor" (1910). The Catholic Encyclopedia (Volume IX). New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Williamson, D. (1998). The Kings and Queens of England New York: National Portrait Gallery.
• Weir, Alison. "The Children of Henry VIII".

Further reading

Non-fiction

• Erickson, Carolly. Bloody Mary: The Life of Mary Tudor. (June 1993) ISBN 0-688-11641-8
• Hugo, Victor. Mary Tudor: A Drama. ISBN 1-58963-478-0
• Loades, David M. Mary Tudor: A Life. (March 1992) ISBN 0-631-18449-X
• Loades, David M. The Reign of Mary Tudor: Politics, Government & Religion in England, 1553-58. (May 1991) ISBN 0-582-05759-0
• McHarque, Georgess. Queen in Waiting: A Life of "Bloody Mary" Tudor. (June 2004) ISBN 0-595-31254-3
• Prescott, H. F. M. Mary Tudor: The Spanish Tudor. (October 2003) ISBN 1-84212-625-3
• Ridley, Jasper. Bloody Mary's Martyrs: The Story of England's Terror. (July 2002) ISBN 0-7867-0986-3
• Slavicek, Louise Chipley. Bloody Mary (History's Villains). (July 2005) ISBN 1-4103-0581-3
• Waldman, Milton. The Lady Mary: a biography of Mary Tudor, 1516-1558. (1972) ISBN 0-00-211486-0
• Weir, Alison. "The Children of Henry VIII. (1996)
• Deary, Terry. "The Terrible Tudors". ISBN 0-590-55290-2
• Deary, Terry. "Even More Terrible Tudors". ISBN 0-590-11254-6

Fiction

• Ainsworth, William Harrison. The Tower of London. London, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd.; New York, E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. [1946], 455 p.
• Baker, Kage. In the Garden of Iden. (December 2005) ISBN 0-7653-1457-6 (listed as science fiction, as it involves time travel)
• Churchill, Rosemary. Daughter of Henry VIII. (May 1978) ISBN 0-523-40325-9
• Dukthas, Ann. In the Time of the Poisoned Queen. (February 1998) ISBN 0-312-18030-6
• Feather, Jane. Kissed by Shadows. (February 2003) ISBN 0-553-58308-5
• Gregory, Philippa. The Queen's Fool. (November 2004) ISBN 0-7432-6982-9
• Irwin, Margaret. Trilogy: Young Bess, Elizabeth, Captive Princess and Elizabeth and the Prince of Spain.
• Lewis, Hilda. I Am Mary Tudor ISBN 0-446-78017-0, Mary the Queen ISBN 0-09-116030-8, and Bloody Mary (1973), a trilogy.
• Meyer, Carolyn Mary, Bloody Mary. (April 2001) ISBN 0-15-216456-1 (Juvenile Fiction, ages 11 and up)
• Parkes, Patricia. Queen's Lady. (May 1981) ISBN 0-312-66008-1
• Plaidy, Jean. In the Shadow of the Crown: The Tudor Queens. (May 2004) ISBN 0-609-81019-7
• Dunnett, Dorothy. "The Ringed Castle" includes a sympathetic portrayal of Mary's marriage and pregnancies

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