Delegitimized, pushed to the side, and underestimated, Mary I had a difficult life. It’s no wonder
that she fought back the way she did. To attract the epithet "Bloody" amid the violence of
Tudor England takes some doing, but it's a name that has stuck for centuries to Queen
Mary I.
Mary was the eldest of Henry VIII's children, and the only offspring from his first marriage,
to Catherine of Aragon, to survive to adulthood. Mary was a highly intelligent child. She was
a natural scholar who quickly developed a passion for the subjects she was tutored in.
"You know her tutors say she has exceptional talents. Especially in music. You should be
proud." But from a young age, Mary also developed
a deeply religious side. This was the result of the Catholic faith she was baptized into
shortly after her birth. Mary's remarkable mind for faith and doctrine was admirable.
But it was also soon to become the source of much pain in her early life. And it would
come to shape her eventual reign as Queen of England and Wales.
While Mary was still a teenager, Henry began to demand that the Catholic Church declare
his marriage to Queen Catherine void, and offer him an annulment. When they refused,
Henry split with Rome and formed the Church of England. He installed himself as Head of
the church and divorced Catherine to marry one of her maids, Anne Boleyn. After Boleyn
gave birth to her first child, the future Elizabeth I, the new queen lobbied for Parliament
to pass an act that would ensure her daughter's royal lineage. As such, Mary became officially
illegitimate. It was a heart-rending event in her young life that would see her become
alienated from her father and the wider society for many years.
Mary stood by her Catholic beliefs throughout her father's marriage to Anne Boleyn and remained
a pariah until after Boleyn's beheading in 1536. But though Mary eventually reconciled
with her father, she was once again betrayed. Upon the death of Henry VIII in 1547, the
crown was passed to her 9-year-old half-brother, Edward. Edward was Henry's son from his third
marriage, to Jane Seymour. Mary was appalled by the work of Edward VI — or, rather, his
advisors and ministers — as he became a Protestant reformer who sought to erase Catholicism
from public life.
Edward died of a pulmonary illness when he was just 15. After that event, his supporters
conspired to install another Protestant, Lady Jane Grey, as Edward's successor. However,
as Henry VIII's eldest surviving daughter, Mary was next in line to the throne. Nonetheless,
the princess was compelled to battle for what she believed to be her divine right. Mary
made her base at Framingham Castle in Suffolk, where she amassed enough troops to challenge
Grey for the throne. She seized London to great fanfare and claimed her legitimacy,
acceding to the throne in July 1553.
It is tempting to portray Mary's use of military might in becoming queen as a ruthless smash-and-grab.
However, historians now argue that her decisive actions in response to her sidelining were
an unexpected success. It would seem that it single-handedly ensured the survival of
the Tudor dynasty.
Despite Mary I's popularity at the time of her coronation, she soon attracted many enemies.
For starters, she was bound by her religious convictions to overturn many of the aggressive
Protestant legislation that had been passed by Edward VI. For example, Edward and his
advisors illegalized the Latin Mass and the use of holy relics. She also courted more
controversy with the Act of Parliament that ensured a ruling queen had the same sovereign
power as any king. This came as a direct result of her proposed marriage to the Catholic Philip
II of Spain.
As such, she faced being overthrown by a popular movement known as Wyatt's Rebellion. This
attempted coup was a Protestant uprising that sought to block the marriage and to install
Princess Elizabeth on the throne. When the rebellion was crushed, Mary had its leaders
executed and wanted her sister taken to the Tower of London for questioning.
It has become a famous historical tidbit that Mary heartlessly imprisoned her sister in
the Tower, but Mary's hand was forced, in light of the rebellion. Elizabeth was reportedly
kept in comfort in the complex's royal palace, was allowed to walk on the grounds, and was
released after two terrifying months. It may have served Mary well in preventing further
uprisings to have had her half-sister disposed of, but instead, she kept her close at hand
as the only other surviving Tudor.
The reign of Mary I is today defined by her brutal executions of Protestants, known as
the Marian Persecutions. But was Mary's campaign of burning at the stake as extraordinarily
sadistic as it appears in hindsight? Historians argue that such a horrific method of death
served several religious purposes. Mary herself claimed that such a shocking public display
was "So used that the people might well perceive
them not to be condemned without just occasion, whereby they shall both understand the truth
and beware to do the like."
Basically, she wanted to scare people back to Catholicism.
The most famous victim of the Marian Persecutions was Thomas Cranmer, who had been Archbishop
of Canterbury to both Henry VIII and Edward VI. Cranmer had been planning to enact a similar
campaign against Catholics, but had fallen from prominence following Edward's early death.
Academics argue that the religious violence of the Tudor age wasn't simply the reserve
of one faction or monarch. Everyone who refused to bend the knee to the
current ruling elite would wind up at the stake, regardless of their political tendencies.
As disturbing as it is, some historians even argue that burning as a method of death was
not simply brutal for its own sake. Instead, it was partially intended, through foreshadowing
the fires of hell, to allow heretics one more chance to repent and in their final moments
embrace the true faith.
Queen Mary I died tragically on November 17, 1558. She suffered through a lifetime of ill
health, possibly from cancer, amid great personal and political turmoil. Her eventual marriage
to Philip II of Spain had remained deeply unpopular. Because of her suppression of the
Wyatt Rebellion, and with the Marian Persecutions prominent in the public mind, her reign was
one of destructive religious conflict. Nevertheless, much of what came to define Mary's time on
the throne was inherited from her immediate precursors, Edward VI and Henry VIII. These
two kings dealt in religious division and shed blood in the process.
At the time of her death, the reign of Mary I was considered a failure, and the coronation
of Elizabeth I was considered the dawning of a new "golden age." But Elizabeth I owed
much to her much-maligned predecessor. In wrestling the crown from Lady Jane Grey, Mary
saved the Tudor line and allowed Elizabeth to claim legitimate sovereignty. Not only
that, but many of the successes that were classically attributed to Elizabeth's reign
had their roots in the actions of Mary. These include fiscal, educational, and medical reforms,
and most notably, the immense strengthening of the English navy. Without that powerful
war machine, Elizabeth would never have enjoyed her greatest victory: the defeat of the Spanish
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