History UsefulNotes / MaryTudor

At the age of just two and half, she was betrothed to Francis, the Dauphin of France (who was not even a toddler), however this contract fell through when she was four years old. At the age of six, Mary was betrothed to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (her Spanish cousin) who was 22 years old, nearly twenty years her senior. That fell through after a few years and Mary was briefly betrothed to Henri, Duke of Orleans, the younger brother of the Dauphin she was once engaged to. Despite his affections for Mary, Henry was disappointed by the lack of a male heir. After 1524, it became clear that Catherine, aged 40, was not going to have any more children. Catherine focused on Mary rather than continuing to hope and pray for a son. Catherine encouraged Mary to believe she would be her father’s successor. However, Henry was convinced a male heir was needed, and decided he needed to find another wife.

As a devout Roman Catholic, Mary was determined to bring England back into the arms of Rome. As the first queen of England to remain monarch long enough to be crowned, she needed a husband. Many suitors were considered, including Edward Courtenay, who was the son of Gertrude Blount (a close friend of Mary’s mother). Edward and his parents had been imprisoned in the Tower of London when he was just 10 years old, due to his devout Catholic parents refusing to accept the divorce of Mary’s parents and being accused of plotting against Mary’s father. His father was executed and his mother released in 1540, but Edward remained imprisoned for over 15 years because of his claim to the throne (he was a descendant of King Edward IV). When Mary ascended to the throne, one of her first actions as Queen was to release him. Mary was good friends with Edward and gave him several titles, such as Earl of Devon. Many believed the pair would marry and people began kneeling before him. However, Mary ultimately chose her cousin once removed [[UsefulNotes/PhilipII Philip of Spain]], who was the son of Holy Roman Emperor UsefulNotes/CharlesV (who Mary had been betrothed to as a child). Philip had been made King of Naples and Sicily by his father and was heir to the throne of Spain.

Mary also brought her cousin (and the son of her former governess), Reginald Cardinal Pole back to England as Archbishop of Canterbury. Edward Courtenay took Mary’s choice of marriage poorly and actually cooperated with Wyatt's Rebellion, despite being a Catholic himself. After Mary and Philip married, he was titled as the King of England and Ireland and named her Co-Monarch[[note]](Though titled as king per common law that a husband was entitled to share in his wife's lands and titles, legislation passed by Parliament reserved most power for Mary, leaving Philip with just about the same power as a queen consort, despite his desire to be the main ruler.)[[/note]], and as such worked with Parliament to repeal the Protestant laws passed in the time of Henry and Edward and reinstate the Heresy Acts.

The marriage between Mary and Philip was not a happy one. Mary had been infatuated with Philip’s portrait, he was tall and handsome and also ten years younger than her (Mary was 37 and Philip 27). Mary no longer had the good looks she was known for in her youth and was now short, very skinny and her once beautiful Reddish-Gold hair had now faded to a darker Auburn colour and was greying.

* AwfulWeddedLife: Philip of Spain is usually portrayed as having only married her for her title, and the fact that he spent more time in Spain during their marriage lends credence to this notion. It should be noted that while Philip was not in love with Mary, he respected her and was attentive to her; it's just he disliked England because it was cold and dreary compared to his home country, and this, along with his tight schedule in his empire, was a factor in why he spent far more time in Spain than with his wife.

Despite his affections for Mary, Henry was disappointed by the lack of a male heir. After 1524, it became clear that Catherine, aged 40, was not going to have any more children. Catherine focused on Mary rather than continuing to hope and pray for a son. Catherine encouraged Mary to believe she would be her father’s successor. However, Henry was convinced a male heir was needed, and decided he needed to find another wife.

Mary had an odd relationship with her new stepmother. While Mary had hated Anne Boleyn because her mother despised her and she had lost her royal titles and place in the line of succession because of their marriage, she got on well with Jane Seymour because of her kindness to Mary. However, with Anne of Cleves their relationship started badly. As Anne had started learning English, she now understood what her husband was saying, and Anne was jealous when Henry invited Mary to return to court. However, after Henry told Anne he wanted an annulment, Mary and Anne bonded over their shared rejection. They were became very close. Despite Anne’s religion being Lutheranism (German Protestantism) (unlike devout Catholic Mary) the pair became great friends. It helped that Anne was only a few years older than Mary. Anne was part of Mary’s coronation and converted to Catholicism when Mary became queen.

Mary’s legacy is most remembered for her executions of Protestants and she has been known as the worst Queen of England to rule. However, the nickname she got as “Bloody Mary” didn’t actually come until over a decade after her death, introduced by sexist, Protestant men who didn’t want a Catholic (especially a female) to rule a country ever again. Mary’s good qualities as a ruler are often overshadowed by her “Bloody” orders, such as when she brought the Navy back, or when she reduced the debt of England, or her charity work. On one occasion, Mary visited a group of working-class women living in poverty, where she donated clothes and food to them, as well as kissing every single one of the women’s feet to bless them with good will.

As a devout Roman Catholic, Mary was determined to bring England back into the arms of Rome. As the first queen of England to remain monarch long enough to be crowned, she needed a husband. Many suitors were considered, including Edward Courtenay, who was the son of Gertrude Blount (a close friend of Mary’s mother). Edward and his parents had been imprisoned in the Tower of London when he was just 10 years old, due to his devout Catholic parents refusing to accept the divorce of Mary’s parents and being accused of plotting against Mary’s father. His father was executed and his mother released in 1540, but Edward remained imprisoned for over 15 years because of his claim to the throne (he was a descendant of King Edward IV). When Mary ascended to the throne, one of her first actions as Queen was to release him. Mary was good friends with Edward and gave him several titles, such as Earl of Devon. Many believed the pair would marry and people began kneeling before him. However, Mary ultimately chose her cousin once removed [[UsefulNotes/PhilipII Philip of Spain]], who was the son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Philip had been made King of Naples and Sicily by his father and was heir to the throne of Spain.

Mary also brought her cousin (and the son of her former governess), Reginald Cardinal Pole back to England as Archbishop of Canterbury. Edward Courtenay, a suitor and longtime friend of Mary's, took the news poorly and actually cooperated with Wyatt's Rebellion, despite being a Catholic himself. After Mary and Philip married, he was titled as king and named her co-monarch[[note]](Though titled as king per common law that a husband was entitled to share in his wife's lands and titles, legislation passed by Parliament reserved most power for Mary, leaving Philip with just about the same power as a queen consort, despite his desire to be the main ruler.)[[/note]], and as such worked with Parliament to repeal the Protestant laws passed in the time of Henry and Edward and reinstate the Heresy Acts. Their marriage was happy only on her side, though, as Philip, being significantly younger and having different tastes in women, failed to return her infatuation. He had accepted the marriage solely for political reasons (his father UsefulNotes/CharlesV intended to potentially unify England and the Netherlands under an English Habsburg dynasty), and ultimately considered his time in England a great sacrifice. To further complicate things, Philip's advisors in England were UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfAlba and the Prince of Eboli, who were bitter enemies with opposite stances towards the whole thing.

Mary might have succeeded in returning England to Catholicism had she borne a Catholic heir, but that was not to be. She is thought to have become pregnant once, and although her abdomen swelled she never delivered a child. The most likely explanation is a molar pregnancy proceeding to choriocarcinoma, but some medical historians believe it was ovarian cancer. It was once suggested that she might have suffered a "phantom pregnancy",[[note]]this shows up often in books and shows of the 1950s[[/note]] but modern historians are confident that her condition was primarily physical in nature, as phantom pregnancy is ''far'' rarer in real life than doctors of the 1930s realized. Also, it isn't fatal. Mary was happy for many months, believing she’d give birth to a Catholic heir. Her physician told her a baby would come in May, but no baby came. Nobody really batted an eye, it was instead announced the baby was due in June. However, no child arrived. This was when some began to speculate the Queen wasn’t pregnant. However, some thought Mary would deliver a child in July. It didn’t happen. Mary said that a baby would come in August, by then she was probably the only person who thought she was expecting a child. On the August 2, Mary’s belly had reduced and she accepted she wasn’t going to give birth. By September, Mary was back to her normal size, very thin.

Mary was humiliated and so was her husband, who had to leave England to go to Spain. She was strong when she said goodbye to him, but after he had gone she became visibly upset. Mary believed God had punished her for tolerating Protestants. Mary thought there was only one way to gain God’s forgiveness. She ordered that at least 280 Protestants to be burned at the stake, including bishops Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer (who actually converted to Catholicism to avoid execution, but Mary ordered his burning anyway). These men and women became known as the "Protestant Martyrs". There were 283 of them in all, and it is for their deaths that she's known as Bloody Mary (a term coined well after her death, though). In reality, she killed far fewer subjects in her entire reign than her father did in any single year of his. Shows what happens when you're on the wrong side of history. Not only that, but Mary genuinely believed she was helping the Protestants she had burned, as she believed the immensely painful death of burning alive would be enough to make the Protestants convert to Catholicism to avoid spending eternity burning in the flames of hell.

In 1557, Philip returned to England after becoming King of Spain (his father Charles had abdicated for him out of royal burnout) and asked for support against the France of Henry II. Mary was lovesick and agreed, and was thrilled Philip had returned to her. He left with English soldiers to battle with the French troops, obtaining a crushing victory in the subsequent Battle of St. Quentin, but in turn, England lost Calais back to France in a surprise attack. Although Philip eventually forced Henry II to sue for peace after another victory in Gravelines, it was not possible to recover Calais in Mary's lifetime, making her famously say, “when I am dead and opened, you shall find Philip and Calais lying in my heart.” Mary did get a bit of good news, however. Though sad over Philip returning to Spain so he could rule, she and a couple of physicians believed that she might be pregnant again. Most of England thought it was unlikely and they were right. Mary was nearly 42, and the prospect of her giving birth at that age in that era was almost impossible. Her swelling was most likely cancer. This time, the swelling didn’t reduce. Mary soon accepted that she wouldn’t have a child. This was one of the hardest things she would ever accept, as she genuinely loved children and didn’t just want to have a child to have a Catholic heir, but to also simply be a mother and love and dote on her own family.

By the time Mary died in 1558 at age 42, most of the crowds who cheered her five years earlier were heaving sighs of relief at her passing. She died surrounded by only her most loyal servants and ladies-in-waiting, as most of her court had left to try and gain favor with her half-sister. Her greatest ally, Cardinal Pole, survived her by only twelve hours; with the two of them dead, so too was any chance of a restoration of the Catholic faith with the English populace. She was succeeded by her younger half-sister, [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethI Elizabeth]].

As a devout Roman Catholic, Mary was determined to bring England back into the arms of Rome. As the first queen of England to remain monarch long enough to be crowned, she needed a husband. Many suitors were considered but Mary ultimately chose her cousin once removed [[UsefulNotes/PhilipII Philip of Austria]], King of Naples, Jerusalem and the heir to the throne of Spain - and brought her cousin Reginald Cardinal Pole back to England as Archbishop of Canterbury. Edward Courtenay, a suitor and longtime friend of Mary's, took the news poorly and actually cooperated with Wyatt's Rebellion, despite being a Catholic himself. After Mary and Philip married, he was titled as king and named her co-monarch[[note]](Though titled as king per common law that a husband was entitled to share in his wife's lands and titles, legislation passed by Parliament reserved most power for Mary, leaving Philip with just about the same power as a queen consort, despite his desire to be the main ruler.)[[/note]], and as such worked with Parliament to repeal the Protestant laws passed in the time of Henry and Edward and reinstate the Heresy Acts. Their marriage was happy only on her side, though, as Philip, being significantly younger and having different tastes in women, failed to return her infatuation. He had accepted the marriage solely for political reasons (his father UsefulNotes/CharlesV intended to potentially unify England and the Netherlands under an English Habsburg dynasty), and ultimately considered his time in England a great sacrifice. To further complicate things, Philip's advisors in England were UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfAlba and the Prince of Eboli, who were bitter enemies with opposite stances towards the whole thing.

Mary's path to the throne did not go smoothly. Edward attempted to change the succession in a will drafted shortly before his death that excluded Mary from the throne because he didn’t want a Catholic to succeed him. However, his advisors told him that he couldn’t exclude one sister unless he excluded Elizabeth as well. The reason they used to stop Mary from becoming queen was because her parents' marriage had been annulled, however the issue with that was that Elizabeth (Edward’s preferred successor) was considered just as illegitimate as Mary; her parent's marriage had similarly been annulled. As such, Edward passed them both over in favour of the royal siblings' Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey, a granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary Tudor and daughter-in-law of John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, Edward’s regent.[[note]]This stunk so highly that a rumour arose claiming that the Duke himself wrote the will and forced the sickly Edward to sign it. An early draft of the will found in Edward's papers, however, shows that the devise was Edward's own idea.[[/note]] Jane took the throne on Edward's death, but Mary was popular with the commoners and nobles, and this made Jane's position untenable. Jane was deposed by Mary nine days later. Mary was greeted by crowds of thousands of cheering subjects as she rode into London, and Mary led an army

After Anne Boleyn fell from favour, Mary was allowed to leave Elizabeth’s household. After Henry’s third marriage to Jane Seymour, Jane helped restore Mary to her father’s favour due to her love for Catherine of Aragon and her hatred of Anne Boleyn (who hadn’t treated Mary well). While Elizabeth was ignored, Mary and her father became close again, though Mary never forgave her father’s cruel treatment of her mother. Jane hoped to legitimise Mary, so that Mary would return to the line of succession after Jane’s children. However, Jane died of an infection 12 days after the birth of her only child, Edward. Three years later, Henry married the German princess Anne of Cleves.

Mary had an odd relationship with her new stepmother. While Mary had hated Anne Boleyn because her mother despised her and she had lost her royal titles and place in the line of succession because of their marriage, she got on well with Jane Seymour because of her kindness to Mary. However, with Anne of Cleves their relationship started badly. As Anne had started learning English, she now understood what her husband was saying, and Anne was jealous when Henry invited Mary to return to court. However, after Henry told Anne he wanted an annulment, Mary and Anne bonded over their shared rejection. They were became very close. Despite Anne’s religion being Lutheranism (unlike devout Catholic Mary) the pair became great friends. It helped that Anne was only a few years older than Mary. Anne was part of Mary’s coronation and converted to Catholicism when Mary became queen. Mary’s reason for her dislike of her fourth stepmother, Catherine Howard, is not well known, but could be due to Catherine being younger than Mary as well as Catherine’s relation to Anne Boleyn. Mary was very close to her last stepmother, Catherine Parr. Catherine helped restore Mary and her half-sister Elizabeth to the line of succession after their younger brother Edward. Though they were technically legitimised when it came to the succession, they remained with the title “lady” rather than “princess” until their father died. However, during their brother's reign they became known to some as “Princess Mary” and “Princess Elizabeth” despite technically being considered illegitimate.

Mary's path to the throne did not go smoothly. Edward attempted to change the succession in a will drafted shortly before his death that excluded Mary from the throne because he didn’t want a Catholic to succeed him. However, his advisors told him that he couldn’t exclude one sister unless he excluded Elizabeth as well. The reason they used to stop Mary from becoming queen was because her parents' marriage had been annulled, however the issue with that was that Elizabeth (Edward’s preferred successor) was considered just as illegitimate as Mary; her parent's marriage had similarly been annulled. As such, Edward passed them both over in favour of the royal siblings' Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey, a granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary Tudor and daughter-in-law of John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, Edward’s regent.[[note]]This stunk so highly that a rumour arose claiming that the Duke himself wrote the will and forced the sickly Edward to sign it. An early draft of the will found in Edward's papers, however, shows that the devise was Edward's own idea.[[/note]] Jane took the throne on Edward's death, but Mary was popular with the commoners and nobles, and this made Jane's position untenable. Jane was deposed by Mary nine days later. Mary was greeted by crowds of thousands of cheering subjects as she rode into London and took her rightful throne.

As a child, she was doted on by her parents, especially her father, with whom she shared many physical traits. Mary inherited her father’s reddish-gold hair, blue eyes and ruddy cheeks, and his short-sightedness. Mary was also close with her mother, who was very interested with Mary’s education and impressed with her talents. Mary was just as intelligent as her future half-siblings were, however she never had the same zeal for learning as they did. Most of her education came from her mother who encouraged female education and taught her several languages, along with several tutors. Mary’s greatest passion as a child was her music, she inherited this talent from her father. At the age of four, Mary entertained a visiting French group (there to discuss with Henry about her engagement to the Dauphin of France) with a complex performance of the Virginals. She impressed the visitors greatly and her father boasted with pride. As a young woman, she was said to have a rather loud and deep voice, and a powerful, yet pleasant singing voice.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: Mary doted on Elizabeth in her youth, but their relationship soured as they got older, and Mary saw Elizabeth as a rival to the throne; she even once claimed that Elizabeth was no child of her father, despite the fact that A) despite annulling the marriage to her mother (and executing her), Henry ''never'' denied Elizabeth was his, and B) ''Elizabeth resembled Henry the most out of all of her siblings'', so much so that no-one ever believed Mary's claims that Elizabeth was ''not'' Henry's child. ''Film/{{Elizabeth}}'' depicts Mary as being incredibly reluctant to sign Elizabeth's death warrant, in a PetTheDog moment.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: Mary doted on Elizabeth in her youth, but their relationship soured as they got older, and Mary saw Elizabeth as a rival to the throne. ''Film/{{Elizabeth}}'' depicts Mary as being incredibly reluctant to sign Elizabeth's death warrant, in a PetTheDog moment.