Mary Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, was Queen of France.
Mary became the third wife of Louis XII of France, more than 30 years her senior. Following
his death, she married Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The marriage, which was performed
secretly in France, took place without her brother's consent. This necessitated the intervention
of Thomas Wolsey and the couple were eventually pardoned by Henry VIII, although they were
forced to pay a large fine. Mary's second marriage produced four children;
and through her eldest daughter Frances, Mary was the maternal grandmother of Lady Jane
Grey, who was the de facto monarch of England for a little over a week in July 1553.
First marriage: Queen of France
Mary was the fifth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the youngest to
survive infancy. She was born at Richmond Palace. She and her brother, Henry, were close
as children—he named his daughter, the future Queen Mary I, after her.
Known in her youth as one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe, Mary was betrothed in
December 1507 to Charles of Castile, later Holy Roman Emperor. However, changes in the
political alliances of the European powers meant this wedding did not take place. Instead,
Cardinal Wolsey negotiated a peace treaty with France, and on 9 October 1514, at the
age of 18, Mary married its 52-year-old King Louis XII at Abbeville. One of the Maids of
Honour who attended her in France was Anne Boleyn. Mary was described by the Venetian
Ambassador as "a Paradise—tall, slender, grey-eyed, possessing an extreme pallor".
She wore her glorious silken red-gold hair flowing loose to her waist. Despite two previous
marriages, Louis had no living sons, and sought to produce an heir; but he died on 1 January
1515, less than three months after marrying Mary, reputedly worn out by his exertions
in the bedchamber. Their union produced no children. Following Louis' death, the new
King Francis I made attempts to arrange a second marriage for the beautiful widow.
Second marriage: Duchess of Suffolk Mary had been unhappy with her marriage of
state to Louis, as at this time she was almost certainly already in love with Charles Brandon,
1st Duke of Suffolk. Henry knew of his sister's feelings but wanted any future marriage to
be to his advantage. When he sent Brandon to bring Mary back to England in late January
1515 he made the Duke promise that he would not propose to her. However, the couple married
in secret in France on 3 March 1515. Technically this was treason, as Brandon had married a
Royal Princess without Henry's consent. The King was outraged, and the Privy Council urged
that Brandon should be imprisoned or executed. Because of the intervention of Thomas Wolsey,
and Henry's affection for both his sister and Brandon, the couple were let off with
a heavy fine. They were officially married on 13 May 1515 at Greenwich Palace.
Mary was Brandon's third wife, and he had two daughters, Anne and Mary by his second
marriage to Anne Browne. She had died in 1511. Mary would raise the girls alongside her own
children. Even after her second marriage, Mary was normally referred to at the English
Court as "the French Queen," and was not known as "the Duchess of Suffolk" in her lifetime,
despite being legally allowed to be. Mary spent most of her time at the Duke's country
seat of Westhorpe Hall in Suffolk. Relations between Henry VIII and Mary were
strained in the late 1520s when she opposed the King's attempt to obtain an annulment
of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, whom Mary had known for many years, and developed
a strong dislike for Anne Boleyn, whom she had first encountered in France.
Death Mary died at Westhorpe, Suffolk, on 25 June
1533, and was first interred at Bury St Edmunds Abbey. Her body was moved to nearby St Mary's
Church, when the abbey was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Mary's
husband would later marry their son's betrothed, who was also his ward, the fourteen-year-old
Catherine Willoughby, by whom he had two sons. Issue
Mary and Brandon had four children, two daughters and two sons:
Henry Brandon Lady Frances Brandon, who married Henry Grey,
3rd Marquess of Dorset, and was the mother of Lady Jane Grey
Lady Eleanor Brandon, who married Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland.
Henry Brandon, 1st Earl of Lincoln. Mary and Charles's two sons, both named Henry,
are commonly mistaken for being the same son. Both boys died when they were children.
In popular culture Mary was portrayed by silent screen star Marion
Davies in the 1922 film When Knighthood Was in Flower by Robert G. Vignola, reputed to
have been, at the time of its release, the most expensive film ever made. It was one
of Davies's biggest hits. Another fictionalized version of Mary's marital adventures is portrayed
in the 1953 Walt Disney film The Sword and the Rose starring Richard Todd and Glynis
Johns. She is also the subject of the novels Mary,
Queen of France by Jean Plaidy, The Reluctant Queen by Molly Costain Haycraft, Princess
of Desire by Maureen Peters, and The Secret Bride: In the Court of Henry VIII by Diane
Haeger. The novel of When Knighthood Was in Flower, by Edwin Caskoden was published in
1898, and was the source material for both the Davies and the Disney films. She was also
fictionalized in the historical fiction novel The Last Boleyn by Karen Harper.
The drama series The Tudors: portrays the relationship between Mary and Charles Brandon,
though the character is named Princess Margaret, and is a composite of Mary and her sister
Margaret Tudor, portrayed by Gabrielle Anwar. Charles Brandon is portrayed by Henry Cavill.
Many liberties have been taken with the story. For example, in the television series, Henry
arranges his sister's marriage with the aged King of Portugal, not of France, in the late
1520s. Margaret/Mary then kills her husband. Another fictitious sub-plot has Henry making
Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk so the latter would be of appropriate rank to give away
Henry's sister at her supposed wedding to the King of Portugal. In the story, the Tudor/Brandon
marriage soon cools and no mention is made of their four children. Yet another discontinuity
relates to Henry's sister dying before Wolsey. Ancestry
Notes
References Goff, Cecilie. A Woman of the Tudor Age. London:
John Murray. Plowden, Alison. Lady Jane Grey and the House
of Suffolk. Franklin Watts. ISBN 0-531-15000-3. Perry, Maria. The Sisters of Henry VIII: The
Tumultuous Lives of Margaret of Scotland and Mary of France. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80989-3.
Richardson, W.C.. Mary Tudor: The White Queen. Peter Owen Publishers. ISBN 0-7206-5206-5.
Weir, Alison. Henry VIII: King and Court. Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-6451-3.
External links A short biography
Mary Tudor Gallery Longer Biography
studies about famous tapestries representing Mary Tudor
Images from the Festival Book of the Betrothal to Charles of Castile