Mary I of England was the first-ever Queen of England to rule in her own right. She is best known for her religious persecutions of Protestants and the executions of over 300 subjects. Mary Tudor has long been known only as "Bloody Mary."
Background
Mary I of England was born on 18 February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, England. The daughter of King Henry VIII and the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, Mary as a child was a pawn in England’s bitter rivalry with more powerful nations, being fruitlessly proposed in marriage to this or that potentate desired as an ally. At age 6 she was betrothed to Charles V, the king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor. Charles broke off the engagement after three years but remained a lifelong ally.
Frustrated by the lack of a male heir, in 1533 Henry declared his marriage to Catherine null claiming that because he had married his deceased brother’s wife, the marriage was incestuous. He broke relations with the Catholic Church, established the Church of England, and married one of Catherine’s maids of honor, Anne Boleyn. After Boleyn gave birth to Elizabeth, she feared Mary would pose a challenge to the succession to the throne and successfully pressed for an act of Parliament to declare Mary illegitimate. This placed the princess outside the succession to the throne and forced her to be the lady-in-waiting to her half-sister, Elizabeth.
Henry had the scheming Anne Boleyn beheaded in 1536 for treason and married his third wife, Jane Seymour, who finally gave him a son, Edward. Jane insisted that the king make amends with his daughters, but he would only do so if Mary acknowledged him as head of the Church of England and admit the illegality of his marriage to her mother, Catherine. Under duress, she agreed and although Mary did re-enter the royal court, her religious beliefs made her a lightning rod for conflict. This tension continued through the short reign of Mary's half-brother, Edward VI, who died in 1553 at the age of 15.
Education
Catherine of Aragon made sure Mary received a good education. This took the form of supervision and appointment of teachers such as Richard Fetherston rather than direct teaching. They did, however, study Latin together and when she was sent to Wales to live Catherine wrote to her: "As for your writing in Latin, I am glad that you shall change from me to Master Fetherston, for that shall do you much good to learn by him to write alright." Catherine also asked Mary to send her the work she had produced in Latin after Fetherston had corrected it.
Queen Catherine invited the celebrated Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives to come to England and commissioned him to write a treatise on the general education of women, and an outline of studies for Mary.
Career
Mary became queen on 19 July 1553 following the death of her half brother Edward VI and a brief effort to prevent her accession. Thus Mary, Henry's child of a repudiated marriage, became England's first woman ruler since the doubtful claim of Maud (Matilda Augusta) four centuries previous. A devout Catholic who rejected her father's creation of the Church of England, Mary set about attempting to reconcile England with the Roman Catholic Church.
Mary had many opponents on both religious and political grounds. When she announced that she would marry her cousin, Philip of Spain, the prospect of a foreign, Catholic king on England's throne provided a rallying point for Mary's enemies, and in 1554 a series of conspiracies and uprisings known as Wyatt's Rebellion erupted. Some lords and important gentry planned uprisings throughout the country, but when the government got wind of the plans, the uprisings failed or were aborted except for the one in Kent headed by Sir Thomas Wyatt. By late January soldiers from a royal force sent from London to subdue the rebels joined the rebellion, and Wyatt moved 3,000 men and even some of the queen's ships and artillery against the capital. The queen's council was said to have urged her to abandon her capital to the attackers, but the queen acted otherwise. On the first of February, she entered the city and from Guildhall addressed the citizens. Her presence required defense, and her courage inspired faltering resistance. Wyatt's forces entered the suburbs and even crossed the Thames River, but as London's gates remained closed to them, they withered to about 300 men at the final skirmish on 8 February. Mary's courage, resolve, and military decisiveness helped to secure the collapse and defeat of a dangerous rebellion. However, her forces managed to lose the port of Calais, the last English possession in France. Mary was willing to use violent military force to impose her policies but was neither a political, nor a religious, nor a military success. When she died after only five years on the throne, England was more fiercely Protestant than when she took power.
Mary I of England is remembered for attempting to reverse the Reformation and return England to Catholicism. As her reign progressed, Mary “grew more and more fervent in her desire”: she restored papal supremacy, abandoned the title of Supreme Head of the Church and reintroduced Roman Catholic bishops.
Mary also restructured the economy and reorganized the militia, rebuilt the navy and successfully managed her parliament. By securing the throne, Mary ensured that the crown continued along the legal line of Tudor succession.
Religion
Mary Tudor sought to return England to the Catholic Church. She moved from simply reversing her father’s and Edward’s anti-Catholic policies to actively persecuting Protestants. In 1555 she revived England’s heresy laws and began burning offenders at the stake, starting with her father’s longtime advisor Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury. Almost 300 convicted heretics, mostly common citizens, were burned. Dozens more died in prison, and some 800 fled to Protestant strongholds in Germany and Geneva, from whence they would later import the Calvinist tenants of English Puritanism.
Politics
One of Mary’s first tasks as Queen was to establish a Council. While some of her trusted household servants were given positions in her government, Mary also chose to retain some of Edward’s councilors. Despite them having previously supported the attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne, Mary valued their experience in running the country. The Archbishop of Winchester Stephen Gardiner, who had spent most of Edward’s reign in the Tower, was appointed Lord Chancellor
Personality
Mary was a courageous, true and compassionate person and showed constant loyalty to her principles and those she loved who in turn showed her the same adoration.
She was also a virtuous, kind truthful, affectionate, conscientious, dignified and courteous woman.
Mary Tudor did however not understand another person's point of view and was convinces she was always right. Like her mother, she was proud stubborn defiant.
Physical Characteristics:
Mary Tudor had, like both her parents, a very fair complexion, pale blue eyes, and red or reddish-golden hair. She was also ruddy cheeked, a trait she inherited from her father.
Quotes from others about the person
"Vives delivered a mixed message, for while he advocated the education of women, an advanced idea at that time, he still saw women as the inferior sex. The list of acceptable reading included scripture, the church fathers, but only a few pagan classics, and no medieval romances because he believed women could be led astray all too easily... Vives recommended that Mary read the dialogues of Plato, works that endow women with the same virtues as men and develop a notion of women as guardians or governors... Thus while Mary received an exceptional humanist education for a woman of her era, marriage negotiations and court appearances reinforced the conventional belief that her true destiny was to be a royal wife and mother, not a ruler in her own right." - Ann Weikel
"Mary’s accession had changed the rules of the game, and the nature of this new feminized politics was yet to be defined, yet in many respects, Mary proved more than equal to the task. Decisions over the details of the practice and power of a queen regnant became precedents for the future. In April 1554 Mary’s parliament passed the Act for Regal Power, which enshrined in law that queens held power as ‘fully, wholly and absolutely’ as their male predecessors, thereby establishing the gender-free authority of the crown." - Anna Whitelock
"She was disgusted at the idea of having sex with a man, but the Emperor and his ambassador were strongly in favor of a marriage which would unite England with the Emperor's territories in a permanent alliance." - Simon Renard
"She was a king's daughter; she was a king's sister; she was a king's wife. She was a queen, and by the same title a king also." - John White
Connections
In 1554 Mary Tudor announced her intention to marry Prince Philip of Spain, the son of Charles V. It was an unpopular choice for Protestants, who feared the permanent loss of Henry’s reforms, and for those who suspected a Spanish king would herald a continental takeover of England. Nevertheless, Mary moved forward with her plan, persuading Parliament to assent after Charles consented to leave Mary in full control and to keep the throne in English hands if the union produced no heirs.
Mary’s marriage to Philip was nearly as troubled as her father’s unions. Twice she was declared pregnant and went into seclusion, but no child was born. Philip found her unattractive and spent most of his time in Europe.
Father:
Henry VIII of England Tudor
Mary's father annulled his marriage to her mother in 1533. The child that was loved and adored by both of her parents wound up in hostile arguments with her father. Henry became a hard-hearted man towards the daughter he was supposed to love and she felt she had to be her mother's champion and stand up for her mother's rights.
Catherine always made it clear to everyone that she felt that she was the real wife of King Henry VIII and that she would not do anything to endanger her daughter's and rightful place on the throne.
Stepmother:
Anne Boleyn
Anne mistreated Mary and lowered her self esteem by uttering nasty threats at her and even tried to have her own father sentenced her to death.
Even though Anne continually directed ill-treatment towards Mary and tried to have her married off to a commoner Mary refused to retaliate or look upon Anne as the Queen of England.
Rumors began surfacing that Princess Elizabeth was plotting treason against her sister, so Mary had Elizabeth arrested on suspicion of conspiring against her and had her locked in the Tower of London. Later Elizabeth was placed under house arrest until it was proven that she was not guilty of the crimes she was accused of.
Half Brother:
Edward VI of England
Mary reacted with relief to the birth of Prince Edward. As her father now had a male heir she was at last safe. Mary happily accepted the decline in her political importance. Edward was christened when he was three days old, and both his sisters played a part in this important occasion.
