Mary I (18 February 1516–17 November 1558) was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 6 July 1553 (de jure) or 19 July 1553 (de facto) until her death. Mary, the fourth and penultimate monarch of the Tudor dynasty, is remembered for her attempt to return England from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. To this end, she had almost three hundred religious dissenters executed; as a consequence, she is sometimes known as Bloody Mary. Her religious policies, however, were in many cases reversed by her successor, Elizabeth I.
Mary I is sometimes confused with her cousin, Mary I, Queen of Scots, who lived at approximately the same time.
Early life
Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, was born at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich. She was an extremely well-educated child; she learnt to speak Latin, Spanish, French and Italian, as well as her native English. Before she achieved the age of five, she had learnt to play the virginals.
Even when she was a young child, the Princess Mary's marital future was being negotiated by her father. When she was but 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, the Princess Mary was instead contracted to her first cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Within a few years, however, the engagement was broken off. In 1526, the Princess Mary was sent to Wales to preside over the Council of Wales and the Marches. It was then suggested that the Princess Mary marry, not the Dauphin, but his father Francis I, who was eager for an alliance with England. A marriage treaty was signed; it provided that the Princess Mary should marry either Francis or his second son, Henry, Duke of Orléans. Thomas Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII's chief advisor, managed to secure an alliance without a marriage.
Meanwhile, the marriage of the Princess Mary's parents appeared jeopardised. Queen Catherine had failed to provide Henry the male heir he desired; consequently, the King attempted to have his marriage to her annulled. In 1533, Henry secretly married another woman, Anne Boleyn. Shortly thereafter, Thomas Cramner, the Archbishop of Canterbury, formally declared the marriage with Catherine void and the marriage with Anne valid. Since the Pope had previously denied him the annullment, Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church. All appeals from the decisions of English ecclesiastical courts to the Pope were abolished, and the King was acknowledged as "Supreme Head" of the Church of England.
Mary, meanwhile, was deemed illegitimate, as Henry's marriage to Catherine was officially null and void from the beginning. She lost the dignity of a Princess, becoming a mere "Lady." Her place in the line of succession was transferred to the Princess Elizabeth. The Lady Mary was expelled from the royal court; her servants were removed from her service, and she was forced to serve as a lady-in-waiting to her own infant half-sister. She was not permitted to meet her own mother, or attend her mother's funeral in 1536. Her treatment was perceived as unjust; all Europe, furthermore, regarded her as the only true heir and daughter of Henry VIII, although she was illegitimate under English law.
The source of many of Mary's troubles were lost when Queen Anne was executed in May 1536 after she failed to produce a male heir. The Princess Elizabeth was also degraded to a Lady and removed from the line of succession. Henry married Jane Seymour, who died shortly after giving birth to a son, the Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall.
The Lady Mary attempted to reconcile with her father by submitting to him and acknowledging her own illegitimacy. In turn, Henry agreed to grant her a household, and the Lady Mary was permitted to reside in royal palaces. There were several attempts to marry her off to European princes, but none of them succeeded. In 1544, an Act of Parliament returned the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth to the line of succession (after their half-brother, the Prince Edward, Duke of Cornwall). Both women, however, remained illegitimate.
In 1547, Henry died, to be succeeded by Edward VI. Edward was England's first Protestant monarch; his Parliament's Act of Uniformity prescribed Protestant rites for church services. The Lady Mary, however, desirous of maintaining the old Roman Catholic form, asked to be allowed to worship in private in her own chapel. After she was ordered to stop her practices, she appealed to her cousin and former matrimonial prospect, the Emperor Charles V. Charles threatened war with England if the Lady Mary's religious liberty were infringed; consequently, the Protestants at court ceased to interfere with her private rituals.
Accession
Edward VI died in 1553. He did not desire that the Crown go to either the Lady Mary or the Lady Elizabeth; consequently, he excluded them from the line of succession in his will (which was unlawful, as it contradicted an Act of Parliament passed in 1544 restoring the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth to the line of succession). The will instead devised the Crown to the Lady Jane Grey, a descendant of Henry VIII's younger sister, Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk. The will was probably drafted in such a way at the behest of the Lady Jane's father-in-law, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland.
Thus, after Edward died on 6 July 1553, the Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen. Jane's accession did not meet with popular approval, which was suppressed by the use of force. A young boy so bold as to hail "Queen Mary" was punished by having his ears cut off. Still, the country remained devoted to Mary. On 19 July, Jane's accession proclamation was deemed to have been made under coercion and was revoked; instead, Mary was proclaimed Queen. Mary rode into London triumphantly, with her half-sister the Lady Elizabeth at her side, on 3 August. Since the Act of Succession passed in 1544 recognised only Mary as Edward's heir, and since Edward's will was never authorised by statute, Mary's de jure reign dates to 6 July 1553, the date of Edward's death. Her de facto reign, however, dates to 19 July 1553, when Jane was deposed.
Originally, Mary was inclined to exercise clemency. She set the Lady Jane Grey free, recognising that the young girl was forced to take the Crown by her father-in-law. The Lady Jane's father, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, was also released. Only the Duke of Northumberland did the Queen execute, and even him with some hesitation. She was left in a difficult position, as almost all the Privy Counsellors had been implicated in the plot to put the Lady Jane Grey on the Throne. She could only rely on Stephen Gardiner, whom she appointed Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor. Gardiner performed Mary's coronation on 1 October 1553 because Mary did not wish to be crowned by the senior ecclesiastics, who were all Protestants.
Reign
Mary's first Act of Parliament retroactively validated Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and legitimated the Queen. The Emperor Charles V suggested that she marry his only son, the Spanish prince Philip. The marriage, a purely political alliance for Philip, was extremely unpopular with the English. The House of Commons petitioned her to consider marrying an Englishman, but when she refused, insurrections broke out across the country. The Duke of Suffolk once again proclaimed that his daughter, the Lady Jane Grey, was Queen. The young Sir Thomas Wyatt led a force from Kent, and was not defeated until he had arrived at London's gates. After the rebellions were crushed, both the Duke of Suffolk and the Lady Jane Grey were convicted of treason and executed. Since the rebellion was designed to put her on the throne, the Lady Elizabeth was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but was put under house arrest after two months.
Mary married Philip on 25 July 1554. Under the terms of the marriage treaty, Philip was to be styled "King of England," and Parliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple. Philip's powers, however, were extremely limited; he and Mary were not true joint Sovereigns. The marriage treaty further provided that England would not be obliged to provide military support to Philip in any war.
Mary had always rejected the break with Rome instituted by her father. Her brother, Edward, had established Protestantism; Mary wished to revert to Roman Catholicism. England was reconciled with Rome, and Reginald Cardinal Pole became Archbishop of Canterbury. Numerous Protestant leaders were executed; the first of the them was John Rogers (4 February 1555). The next to be killed was John Hooper, the Bishop of Gloucester. The persecution of Protestants continued for the remainder of Mary's reign.
Mary also set in motion currency reform to counteract the dramatic devaluation of the currency that characterized the last few years of Henry VIII's reign and the reign of Edward VI. These measures, however, were largely unsuccessful and it was only under Elizabeth that economic catastrophe was prevented. Mary's deep religious convictions also inspired her to institute social reforms, although these were unsuccessful as well.
Death
During her reign, Mary's weak health led her to suffer numerous phantom pregnancies. Thus, in 1554, Philip released Elizabeth from house arrest, in case she became Queen if Mary died during childbirth. A similar delusion was suffered in 1558, when 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 forty-two of either uterine or ovarian cancer. She was succeeded by her half-sister, who became Elizabeth I. Mary is buried in Westminster Abbey immediately beside Elizabeth. The Latin inscription on their tomb translates to "Partners both in Throne and grave, here rest we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of one resurrection."
Popularity
Mary's most unpopular venture was her marriage to Philip. Although her 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. The marriage, furthermore, made Mary the enemy of the very Pope with whom she had hoped to reconcile, as he stood on the side not of Spain but of France during the wars on the continent.
During the five-year long reign, 283 individuals were burnt at the stake—twice as many as 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 villified her in a book entitled The Actes and Monuments of these latter and perilous Dayes, touching matters of the Church, wherein are comprehended and described the great Persecution and horrible Troubles that have been wrought and practised by the Romishe Prelates, Epeciallye in this Realme of England and Scotland, from the yeare of our Lorde a thousande to the time now present, commonly called The Book of Martyrs. The presecution of Protestants earned Mary the appellation "Bloody Mary" and led the English people to revile her. It is said that the Spanish ambassadors were aghast at the jubilation and celebration of the people upon her death. Many historians believe, however, that Mary does not deserve all the blame that has been cast upon her. She was not solely responsible for the persecution of Protestants; others who participated included the Archbishop of Canterbury Reginald Cardinal Pole, the Bishop of Winchester Stephen Gardiner and the Bishop of London Edmund Bonner ("Bloody Bonner").
Style
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. The style included the phrase "of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head," which was repugnant to Mary's Catholic faith. From 1554 onwards, Mary omitted the phrase without statutory authority, which was not retroactively granted by Parliament until 1555.
Under Mary's marriage treaty with Philip, 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 changed after Philip succeeded to the Throne of Spain in 1556. Philip lost his English and Irish titles upon Elizabeth's accession to the Throne.
The official styles used during Mary's reign were:
- "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" (1553–1554)
- "Philip and Mary, by the grace of God, King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Princes of Spain and Sicily, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Milan, Burgundy and Brabant, Counts of Hapsburg, Flanders and Tyrol" (1554–1556)
- "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 Hapsburg, Flanders and Tyrol." (1556–1558)
Portrayal
Mary has appeared several times in Tudor-related movies. Ann Tyrrell made a cameo appearance as Mary in the movie Young Bess (1953). Nicola Pagett played Mary in the 1969 film Anne of the Thousand Days; Pagget's brief appearance was in a fictitious scene depicting Mary at Catherine of Aragon's deathbed. (Historically, Mary was not present at the time.)
In 1971, the British Broadcasting Corporation ran a six-part television series known as The Six Wives of Henry VIII. In the first part, Catherine of Aragon, the young Princess Mary was portrayed by Verina Greenlaw. The character, played by Alison Frazer, reappered in the third part, Jane Seymour, and in the sixth part, Catherine Parr. In the blockbuster sequel, Elizabeth R, the middle-aged Mary was played by Daphne Slater. In 1998, Mary was depicted by Kathy Burke in the lavish costume drama Elizabeth. In 2003, Lara Belmont played Mary in the British television drama Henry VIII.
Many scholars trace the nursery rhyme "Mary, Mary, quite contrary" to Mary's unpopular attempts to bring Roman Catholicism back to England, identfying the "cockle shells," for example, with the symbol of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James in Spain and the "pretty maids all in a row" with nuns. However, there is also a school of thought which contends that the ryne was based on the life of Mary's cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots.
See also
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.
Preceded by: Jane (de facto) Edward VI (de jure) |
Queen of England | Succeeded by: Elizabeth I |
Queen of Ireland |