Mary I

Mary I, called Mary Tudor (1516-1558), Queen of England (1553-1558). Mary was born in London on February 18, 1516, the daughter of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragón. Because Henry divorced Catherine, Mary was declared illegitimate. Nonetheless, Henry included her in his will, and on the death of her half-brother, Edward VI, on July 6, 1553, she became the legal heir to the throne. Although Lord High Chamberlain John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, favoured the succession of his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, and proclaimed her queen on July 10, the country supported Mary.

As a Roman Catholic, Mary began her reign by sweeping away the religious innovations of her father and her brother. Henry VIII had separated England from the Church in Rome; Edward VI had replaced Roman Catholicism with a Protestant settlement. Mary restored the Mass and re-established the authority of the papacy, but, although she handed back Crown property to the Church, Parliament refused to restore Church lands seized by Henry VIII. Even with the help of Mary’s cousin, Cardinal Reginald Pole, a return to the state of affairs that existed before the Dissolution of the Monasteries was impossible: there were too many legal and financial intricacies.

Even more disastrous was Mary’s marriage in 1554 to Philip II, King of Spain, which was conducted at Winchester Cathedral rather than in London, owing to Philip’s unpopularity. Although Philip was never crowned in England, important documents bore his signature and were issued in the name of the “King and Queen”. There was opposition to his involvement in English affairs. One expression of this was the serious rebellion under the leadership of Sir Thomas Wyatt (the Younger) to depose Mary and put her half-sister, Elizabeth, later Elizabeth I, on the throne.

Philip was an uncompromising Roman Catholic and unpopular in England. At his order, Mary joined in a war against France, with the result that Calais, the last relic of the English conquests won during the Hundred Years’ War with France, was lost in 1558. Its loss upset her deeply: “When I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais lying in my heart”, she is reported to have said.

Mary is characterized as “Bloody Mary” because of the large number of religious persecutions that took place during her reign; almost 300 people were condemned to death as a result of trials for heresy. These actions, however, must be put into perspective, as by European standards this was a limited persecution. It is possible too that Protestant writers such as John Foxe, particularly in his Acts and Monuments of These Latter and Perilous Dayes ..., popularly known as The Book of Martyrs, exaggerated the ferocity of the Catholic reaction. Some of Henry VIII’s and Edward VI’s most important Protestant bishops were burnt, including Thomas Cranmer, John Hooper, Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Ridley. Mary has been blamed for these persecutions along with her advisers: Reginald Pole, Bishop Stephen Gardiner (who had presided over the wedding of Mary and Philip), and Bishop Edmund Bonner.

Personally, Mary suffered from depression, anxiety, and neuralgia. Her phantom pregnancies were very probably the result of severe stress, and perhaps the extension of a character that was pious, conventional, and introspective. Her reign, too, was a difficult one. War in Europe, failure to reform the English Church, famine, and epidemics obscure some of the more positive aspects of Marian government such as the reform of the currency, the navy, and customs.

Mary died in London on November 17, 1558, and was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I.