Throughout the reigns of the Tudor monarchs, we believe it to have been a time when executions
were common, and when brutal public killings took place to put the population off committing
crimes.
During the reign of one Queen, the public executions were so horrific that the monarch
in question gained a nickname, for being a bloody monarch who would stop at nothing to
impose her religion onto the population.
Mary I is remembered today for restoring England to Catholicism briefly following the departure
from Rome during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI.
Her reign saw a huge turbulent time in England, with many people confused as to what they
should be believe and worship.
To some she was a Queen who returned the traditional Catholic values, but to others she was seen
as backwards and not progressive.
Throughout her reign she suffered from poor health, and today we look at her painful death
which only came a number of years after she became Queen.
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Mary I has gained a notorious reputation as a barbaric Queen who ordered the burnings
of Protestants.
John Foxes’ Book of Martyrs documents with graphic imagery the burning of those men and
women persecuted during Mary’s reign.
However at the time illness and disease was not uncommon during the Tudor Period.
Throughout the reign of the Tudor monarchs, England was hit by many different epidemics
and outbreaks of highly contagious diseases.
These outbreaks often swept through England quickly, with Tuberculosis, Dysentry and Influenza
regularly causing suffering to the people at the time.
There was also often outbreaks of Smallpox, with Mary’s father Henry VIII suffering
from a bout of the dangerous and often fatal disease.
During this time, great pestilences and outbreaks was often linked to religion, and it was seen
that God was punishing the people for sinning and bad behaviour.
Hygiene wasn’t in the forefront of everyone’s mind, but one thing was expected was that
the health of the monarchy, and the healthcare they received was often better than those
living within everyday Tudor society.
Mary I’s health during her life was not great, as she suffered from a number of bouts
of illness, some of them were very serious too.
We have a better understanding of illness and disease today, but during Mary’s life
there are specific events that caused her great stress which could have reduced her
immune system, causing her to become more suseptible to diseases.
She lived a number of years with a great amount of worry, as at the time her father had tried
to wrangle his way out of his marriage with Mary’s mother, Queen Catherine of Aragon.
Mary and Catherine had been treated rather poorly by the King, in favour of Henry’s
second wife Anne Boleyn, and Mary found herself often shunned.
This would have played on her mind, and during her teenage years she had a significant amount
of worry.
She was known to have had a loud but deep voice, grey eyes and that she was shortsighted.
She had red hair and a fair complexion, however in early 1528 she contracted the very illness
her father also caught, smallpox which she managed to get over.
She also suffered from pain in her head and stomach, and was known for being unable to
eat and keep down food for periods up to around 10 days.
So she would not eat for 10 days, and this led to her being treated by the best doctors,
and Mary was diagnosed with strangulation of raw womb, which caused issues with menstruation,
breathing, swelling around her abdomen, and also depression.
These issues were linked also to her death, but she also was struck with headaches, vommiting
and was prone to fainting.
In her teenage years also she became ill again complaining of stomach pains and a headache,
and she was treated by Lady Shelton who gave her medication that was experimental.
This made her worse and even caused an allergic reaction, those inside of Mary’s household
believed that Lady Shelton may have even poisoned the princess, which could have led to her
execution.
The King sent the royal Doctor to visit and see Mary, and he said she would recover over
time.
She went through various bouts of illness and ill health, mostly linked to autumn and
spring.
Her wellbeing and health was common knowledge even across Europe, and this was dangerous
for Henry VIII’s plans for his daughter.
He wished for her to marry a European prince or King to secure a powerful alliance between
England and another country.
However at the time it was difficult for her to find a suitor, and her health became a
stumbling block.
In the winter of 1537, Mary was struck down with illness again, and was bed bound.
The royal doctor was summoned again, and she also had a seriously high fever, which almost
killed her.
It took her a while to get past this latest bout of ill health, but Henry VIII did have
some interest in his daughter’s health and life, with the royal doctors being summoned
to make sure she was okay.
When Henry VIII married his final and sixth wife Catherine Parr on the 12th July 1543,
Mary was invited to join the royal couple on their honeymoon.
However she would never make it as she was struck down with illness yet again.
She seemed to get lots of fevers, and suffered again with melancholy and depression.
During the reign of her younger half brother Edward VI, her mental state was constantly
strained due to the religious reforms hitting England.
The country became further Protestant, and as Mary was a staunch Catholic this caused
her great distress and panic.
She could have been even imprisoned at the time as she was seen as a threat against Edward’s
reign, being Catholic and also Henry VIII’s eldest child.
She was pressured by advisors to stop attending Catholic Mass, and to change her religious
beliefs to Protestantism.
She wrote to the King’s council saying, ‘My health is more unstable than that of
any creature, and I have all the greater need to rejoice in the testimony of a pure conscience.’
Despite Mary’s health being poor throughout her life, she did encounter a number of issues
throughout her life, and once she became Queen, these did not cease.
After Edward VI’s death, Mary successfully deposed Lady Jane Grey the 9 day queen off
the throne, after Parliament switched their allegiance to the Catholic Princess.
When she became Queen, she needed to marry someone quickly, and this was Prince Phillip
of Spain, who later became King Phillip II of Spain, a prominent and powerful Catholic
member of the Spanish monarchy.
Mary’s marriage to Phillip was met with opposition inside of England, and many feared
the influence of the Spanish Prince and King on the English monarchy.
But the question then turned to an heir, and who would take the throne after Mary.
She even imprisoned her sister Elizabeth, the later Queen to ensure she maintained power.
Shortly after her marriage to Phillip, at the age of 27 she was allegedly pregnant.
Despite the fact she had stopped menstruating, the fact she gained weight and was being sick
in the mornings led to those at court believing she was pregnant, and even the royal doctors
believed this.
Parliament even took steps to ensure who would become the next monarch if Mary was to die
in childbirth, and it was said her husband Phillip would become regent and rule England,
which was incredibly unpopular.
Preparations were made to await the royal baby in April 1555, and false rumours travelled
across Europe that she had given birth to a son, but this was not the case.
She wasn’t pregnant despite showing signs of pregnancy, but later within months the
swelling of her abdomen receded, and her stomach swelling went down.
This wasn’t the news that Mary and her husband wanted, and many considered that the whole
pregnancy debacle was very strange.
Mary was desperate to become a mother and to secure her own descendants onto the throne,
but she believed that her false pregnancy was part of a darker punishment.
She believed that due to heresy and protestantism across the country, and the fact that many
were committing religious crimes in England that God had taken her pregnancy away from
her and was punishing her.
She then fell into a deep depression around her false pregnancy, and became to grieve
for the child she believed she had, and her mood deteriorated as her husband Philip left
for war.
She began to become worried about assassination and rebellion due to her restoration of Catholicism,
and she struggled with insomnia so much that she looked a lot older than she actually was.
In 1557, it was believed that Mary was pregnant yet again, and that a royal child would be
born in March 1558.
But nobody believed the Queen, and despite yet again having a swollen stomach, many thought
that the Queen was suffering from dropsy, and rumours about the pregnancy quickly diminished.
Mary then made preparations that after her death, her younger half sister Elizabeth would
become the Queen of England, as she was not going to provide an heir.
She recovered from illness, but in 1558 there was great worry in her country.
At the time, they had lost land in France and also there was a terrible famine caused
by heavy rain that caused many to starve.
There was also a bad bout of influenza that swept through the country, which killed thousands
at a serious rate.
During this epidemic, at the age of 42 Mary I passed away at St James Palace.
In her final weeks, she had become very weak losing her strength, and she had another serious
fever that left her in a bad way.
She also suffered with depression and insomnia, and was suffering from Dropsy.
Because of this, she was moved from Hampton Court Palace to St James Palace to prepare
for her death, and to make the Queen comfortable.
Her mood became terrible, and she did have moments where she was rational with her advisors,
and she at times seemed to pick up, but it was clear in October 1558 that Mary I would
die.
Phillip II learned of his wife’s ill health, and went to visit her on her deathbed, even
sending his own doctor to see what he could do to treat her.
On the 8th November 1558, it was drawn up that Elizabeth I would become the Queen after
Mary’s death.
Over the next week or so, Mary drifted in and out of consciousness, and her household
deserted her to Elizabeth, to try to secure a place into the soon to be new queen’s
household.
Mary went blind, and suffered and she prayed for salvation and for god to look after her.
She had one final catholic mass at midnight on the 17th November 1558, and between 4 and
5 in the morning she passed away peacefully, with the reign of Mary I coming to an end.
After her death, her body lay in state for three weeks before it was take to Westminster
Abbey to be interred.
The believed cause of death for Mary I has seen a number of conditions linked to the
Queen.
One is that her depression following her pregnancies made her downfall and death come quicker,
but also that she suffered from ovarian dropsy.
This led to severe abdominal pain and cysts that would swell to a large swim, and these
swellings would have shown as if Mary looked pregnant.
Today this condition would have been treated well, and history would have been very different
if medical knowledge and practice was better in the Tudor Period.
Mary stated her illness was her old guest, and many also believe that the flu outbreak
across England caused her death too.
Despite Mary I being known as Bloody Mary, she lived a rather tragic life being shunned
by her father Henry VIII.
Her health throughout her life was not good at all.
Today we associate Mary with the burnings of Protestants in huge public shows of brutality,
and she’s seen as a Catholic who was firm in her beliefs, returning England to its Catholic
ways.
She died a Queen of England, a woman who was incredibly strong in her religious convictions,
and also a woman who suffered a large amount with her health and well being.
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