One of the most notorious Queens to ever have ruled over England is Bloody Mary I. She gained
her nickname for the fact she burned over 200 people at the stake for their religious beliefs,
and it was a time of great change and turmoil yet again in the nation as she restored Catholic
beliefs and worship. But despite being the eldest daughter of King Henry VIII, Mary would rule for
roughly 5 years until at the age of 42 inside of St James Palace she died, and she had suffered
a significant amount during her short life. She was a woman whose health problems resulted in her
death, and these had lasted some decades. But Mary today is laid to rest inside of Westminster Abbey,
and her monument is rather insignificant compared to the fact her sister Elizabeth
I is buried on top of her. But at some point, people broke into the tomb of Mary and Elizabeth.
Mary I throughout her reign thought she was pregnant a number of times,
and she would even have swellings of her stomach but no baby or child would
come. It’s possible that this was actually ovarian or uterine cancer,
but Mary would state in 1558 in her will that her husband Phillip II of Spain would
be the regent of England during the minority of their children. But no child was ever born, and
Mary then was forced to accept her half sister, the future Elizabeth I as her lawful successor.
However in England around 1558, there was a terrible bout of influenza which was killing
people at the rate of the plague. This illness was not like the sweating sickness which killed
in hours and days, it would linger for a long period until someone finally succumbed to it.
Mary would try to avoid this, but in Spring and summer she was suffering with insomnia
and depression, and she had a low fever in August 1558 and also dropsy and it was
known that she was in a bad way. Mary was moved from Hampton Court Palace to St James Palace,
and the following month she was suffering also from a high fever,
headaches and periods of confusion. Mary also went nearly blind, and she would continue to
feel worse but then somehow recover slightly, but her depression also made her illness worse.
It was clear to those in the privy council that by October 1558 that Mary was going to die,
and she made her will. There were times where she was rational and was able to work,
but in early November there was some let up. She agreed to name Elizabeth her successor,
and then grew weaker and weaker as her advisors tried to save themselves and
they abandoned Mary for Elizabeth her successor.
Mary in the last days was blind, and her servants who were loyal remained around her bed,
and they prayed for her salvation, and she was having rather joyous dreams in her final moments.
In the earl hours of November 17th 1558, Mary heard a final mass,
but then between 4 and 5 in the morning she died peacefully. To her servants they thought
she was asleep and was better, but this was just death taking her and the doctors
confirmed her death. He funeral service was then planned, and the Bishop of Winchester
praised the Queen in this saying, ‘"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.’
Mary was the first woman to claim the throne of England successful and to
rule following coronation, but she was then buried inside of Westminster Abbey.
Her body was taken on a chariot to Westminster, and there was a lifelike effigy of Mary on the
chariot. The effigy was dressed in robes of state with a crown, orb and sceptre, and her fingers had
many rings on. The procession led into the abbey and many ladies made up the different parts of it,
but Mary following this was then buried in the north side of Henry VIII’s chapel.
But what was interesting is that no large tomb would be made for her, when Elizabeth I took the
throne. Following Elizabeths’ much longer reign and her death, the new King James I of England
then sought to bury Elizabeth in Westminster but he decided to have her and Mary I buried together.
A large tomb was made of Elizabeth, and then she was moved into this burial spot
but underneath her was the coffin of Bloody Mary I. They were buried together int he same vault,
and Mary lays at rest below Elizabeth and there is no grand ornament or monument to
mark her place in the abbey and in history, just a mall stone that states she is buried there.
But in the 19th century, the tombs of Mary I and Elizabeth I were broken into. A book
in 1880 was published by Arthur Stanley who had been given permission to survey all the
tombs inside of the abbey by Queen Victoria. He went into the crypts and the royal burial
vaults and he wrote detailed descriptions of the tombs and what he saw. These vaults were hidden,
but he was trying to find the coffin of King James I, Elizabeth’s successor.
Stanley explored a narrow aisle underground int he eastern end of Elizabeth I’s monument,
and here he found a opening in one of the walls. When he went inside he saw a narrow vault with
two coffins inside, and these were Elizabeth and Mary’s coffins. Arthur Stanley then wrote what
he saw he went into the vault, and he described Elizabeth’s coffin. He stated, ‘The excavations,
however, had almost laid bare the wall immediately at the eastern end of the monument of Elizabeth,
and through a small aperture a view was obtained into a low narrow vanlt immediately beneath her
tomb. It was instantly evident that it enclosed two coffins, and two only, and it could not be
doubted that these contained Elizabeth and her sister Mary. The upper one, larger, and more
distinctly shaped in the form of the body, like that of Mary Queen of Scots, rested on the other.
There was no disorder or decay, except that the centering wood had fallen over the head
of Elizabeth’s coffin, and that the wood case had crumbled away at the sides, and had
drawn away part Vault of of the decaying lid. No coffin-plate could be discovered, but fortunately
the dim light fell on a fragment of the lid slightly carved. This led to a further search,
and the original inscription was discovered. There was the Tudor Badge, a full double rose,
deeply but simply incised in outline on the middle of the cover; on each side the august
initials E R: and below, the memorable date 1603. The coffin-lid had been further decorated with
narrow moulded panelling. The coffin-case was of inch elm; but the ornamental lid containing the
inscription and panelling was of fine oak, half an inch thick, laid on the inch elm cover. The
whole was covered with red silk velvet, of which much remained attached to the wood, and it had
covered not only the sides and ends, but also the ornamented oak cover, as though the bare wood had
not been thought rich enough without the velvet. The sight of this secluded and narrow tomb,
thus compressing in the closest grasp the two Tudor sisters, ’ partners of the same throne 'and
grave, sleeping in the hope of resurrection '—the solemn majesty of the great Queen thus reposing,
as can hardly be doubted by her own desire, on her sister’s coffin—was the more impressive from the
contrast of its quiet calm with the confused and multitudinous decay of the Stuart vault,
and of the fulness of its tragic interest with the vacancy of the deserted spaces which had
been hitherto explored in the other parts of the Chapel. The vault was immediately closed.’
But many people who visit Westminster Abbey today walk past the grave of Mary I as they
miss it. She is not given much respect in this, and it was done to symbolise her sister
Elizabeth’s supremacy in every way over Mary. But the Catholic Queen did rule for 5 years,
and inside the abbey are many other Kings and Queens, many of whom do not have the
profound legacy of Mary but they are still given space and a proper tomb.
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