Рассказ о марии кровавой

Может ли женщина, которая априори рождена для любви и нежности, стать жестокой без причины? А если есть повод, в чём её вина? Эти вопросы возникают невольно, как только речь заходит о королеве Марии. События тех лет оставили кровавый след в истории страны.

Английская королева Мария I Тюдор была дочерью Екатерины Арагонской и Генриха VIII. Так же, как и отец, она оставила после себя не самые приятные воспоминания.

Но что должна была сделать женщина, чтобы день её смерти стал для Англии национальным праздником? И заслуженно ли королева была прозвана Кровавой Мэри?

Читать еще: история еще одной известной в истории Марии (Гамильтон). Трагическая судьба и короткая яркая жизнь.

Краткая биография Марии Тюдор: детство

Родилась царственная малышка 18 февраля 1516 года. Детство Марии было счастливым, хоть и длилось оно недолго. После развода короля с ее матерью, Екатериной, он объявил дочь незаконнорожденной, и стал менять жен с большой скоростью.

Девочке приходилось приноравливаться к каждой из жен, чтобы не потерять своего статуса. После свадьбы Генриха и Анны Болейн девочка была отправлена из дворца. Отношения с новой женой отца у Марии совсем не сложились, впрочем, как и со всеми последующими.

Начиная с 6 лет, ей попеременно назначали каких-то вельможных женихов из политических соображений, но потом Генрих все помолвки отменял. Таким образом, до 31 года Мария все еще не была замужем.

С детства, благодаря матери, девочка воспитывалась в строгой католической вере. Это и стало причиной того, что Генрих не хотел видеть её подле себя, тем более на престоле. Однако судьба распорядилась иначе.

Восшествие на престол

Наследников престола был стать Эдуард, рожденный от Генриха и его очередной жены Джейн Сеймур. Он взошел на престол в малолетнем возрасте 9 лет. Мальчик рос слабым, особых надежд не подавал, а принцессу держали вдали от дворца, опасаясь, что она выйдет замуж и силой захватит престол, свергнув Эдуарда.

После смерти Эдуарда его преемницей стала Джейн Грей, а Мария была вынуждена бегать подальше из страны. Но всего 9 дней продлилось ее правление — поддержки у народа она не получила, и на престол взошла Мария.

Годы правления кровавой Мэри

Мария была провозглашена королевой Англии в 37 лет (19 июля 1553 года). Разворованная казна и непрекращающиеся религиозные распри – вот что ей досталось от Эдуарда в наследство. Королева казнила свою предшественницу и всю ее родню, и стала восстанавливать монастыри и храмы, разрушенные предыдущими правителями, отошедшими от веры.

На костер пошли толпами протестанты, она стала возвращать католическую веру предков. . Все те, кто не хотел подчиняться вере, провозглашались еретиками. Мария реконструировала монастыри и вместе с этим приближала к себе людей, которые могли помочь ей в восстановлении страны.

Поскольку в Англии нашлось много людей, противившихся вере, Мария решила начать применять крайние меры. Не смотря на угрожающее прозвище королевы, она сделала много для страны. Историки того времени писали:

«Достижения Марии часто недооценены. Она провела успешный переворот в Англии 16-го века. В моменты кризиса она показывала себя мужественной, решительной и политически грамотной».

В 1955 году молодая королева издала закон, что власть правительницы женского пола, так же, как мужского, является полной, целостной и абсолютной, чем уравняла права в королевском наследовании трона.

Замужество и ложная беременность

Мужем королевы стал испанский наследник Филипп Баварский, которого Мария очень любила. Молодой супруг был намного младше и не питал никаких чувств к королеве. Всё, чего он хотел получить – это деньги и статус. Муж Марии был напыщенным и самовлюбленным, народ его не любил, как и его свиту, и это постоянно вызывало кровавые стычки на улицах.

Однако Мария не хотела признавать очевидное.

Королева даже объявила о беременности, которая впоследствии оказалась ложной. Мэри сложно переживала этот период и несколько месяцев не выходила из дворца. Вот что об этом писали современники:

30 апреля 1555 года «колокола звонили по всей стране, запускались фейерверки, на улицах проходили массовые гулянья – а все это после новостей о том, что Мария I произвела на свет здорового сына. Но никакого сына не было. Надежда произвести наследника вскоре угасла.

Почему Марию называли «кровавой»

В феврале 1555 года Англия превратилась в один большой костёр для иноверцев. Мария казнила протестантов по всей стране. За годы правления королевы было сожжено порядка трёхсот человек. По этой причине Марию и называли не иначе как Кровавая Мэри.

Но королева по своему была предана своей стране. Когда Англию охватила смертельная лихорадка, унесшая множество жизней, Мария также заболела. Зная, что исход может быть скорым и непредсказуемым, она составила завещание в пользу сестры Елизаветы, тем самым отстранив от престола ненавистного английскому люду Филиппа, который был занят только своими грязными делишками, и думал лишь о своей корысти.

На заметку!

Во время Варфоломеевской ночи погибло более 2-х тысяч протестантов, но почему-то Карла 9-го Валуа, одобрившего эту резню, никто не прозвал «кровавым»?!

Когда и как умерла английская королева

Мария I умерла 17 ноября 1558 года, не оставив наследников. Согласно основной версии, причиной смерти королевы была лихорадка, однако историки пришли к другому выводу. Ложные симптомы, указывающие на беременность, не могли появиться сами по себе. Скорее всего, у королевы была киста яичника или рак матки. Это и могло стать причиной её смерти.

Преемницей Марии стала её сестра Елизавета, дочь Генриха VIII и Анны Болейн. Вместе со смертью Кровавой Мэри в Англии закончился и век инквизиции. Несмотря на то, что у власти Мария была недолго, годы её правления стали важным периодом в жизни Англии.

Но — страна вздохнула с облегчением после ухода из жизни кровавой правительницы.

Елизавета, поддерживаемая знатью, быстро взошла на престол, и стала управлять страной. Марию похоронили лишь 13 декабря в капелле Генриха VII. Там же после смерти была похоронена и Елизавета. Надгробие венчает памятник второй сестре, и надпись, которая гласит:

«Союзницы на троне и в могиле, сёстры Елизавета и Мария лежат здесь в надежде на воскрешение».

Памятник Марии Первой Тюдор был поставлен лишь на родине мужа, в Испании, в Англии ни одного нет.

Mary I
Portrait by Antonis Mor, 1554
Queen of England and Ireland (more…)
Reign	July 1553[a] – 17 November 1558
Coronation	1 October 1553
Predecessor	Jane (disputed) or Edward VI
Successor	Elizabeth I
Co-monarch	Philip (1554–1558)
Queen consort of Spain
Tenure	16 January 1556 – 17 November 1558
Born	18 February 1516 Palace of Placentia, Greenwich, England
Died	17 November 1558 (aged 42) St James’s Palace, London, England
Burial	14 December 1558 Westminster Abbey, London
Spouse	Philip II of Spain ​ (m. )​
House	Tudor
Father	Henry VIII
Mother	Catherine of Aragon
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as «Bloody Mary» by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.

Mary was the only child of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to survive to adulthood. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded their father in 1547 at the age of nine. When Edward became terminally ill in 1553, he attempted to remove Mary from the line of succession because he supposed, correctly, that she would reverse the Protestant reforms that had taken place during his reign. Upon his death, leading politicians proclaimed Lady Jane Grey as queen. Mary speedily assembled a force in East Anglia and deposed Jane, who was ultimately beheaded. Mary was—excluding the disputed reigns of Jane and the Empress Matilda—the first queen regnant of England. In July 1554, Mary married Philip of Spain, becoming queen consort of Habsburg Spain on his accession in January 1556.

After Mary’s death in 1558, her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed by her younger half-sister and successor, Elizabeth I.

Birth and family[edit]

Mary was born on 18 February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, England. She was the only child of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to survive infancy. Her mother had suffered many miscarriages and stillbirths.^[3] Before Mary’s birth, four previous pregnancies had resulted in a stillborn daughter and three short-lived or stillborn sons, including Henry, Duke of Cornwall.^[4]

Mary was baptised into the Catholic faith at the Church of the Observant Friars in Greenwich three days after her birth.^[5] Her godparents included Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey; her great-aunt Catherine, Countess of Devon; and Agnes Howard, Duchess of Norfolk.^[6] Henry VIII’s first cousin once removed, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, stood sponsor for Mary’s confirmation, which was conducted immediately after the baptism.^[7] The following year, Mary became a godmother herself when she was named as one of the sponsors of her cousin Frances Brandon.^[8] In 1520, the Countess of Salisbury was appointed Mary’s governess.^[9] Sir John Hussey (later Lord Hussey) was her chamberlain from 1530, and his wife Lady Anne, daughter of George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent, was one of Mary’s attendants.^[10]

Childhood[edit]

Mary was a precocious child.^[12] In July 1520, when scarcely four and a half years old, she entertained a visiting French delegation with a performance on the virginals (a type of harpsichord).^[13] A great part of her early education came from her mother, who consulted the Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives for advice and commissioned him to write De Institutione Feminae Christianae, a treatise on the education of girls.^[14] By the age of nine, Mary could read and write Latin.^[15] She studied French, Spanish, music, dance, and perhaps Greek.^[16] Henry VIII doted on his daughter and boasted to the Venetian ambassador Sebastian Giustiniani that Mary never cried.^[17] Mary had a fair complexion with pale blue eyes and red or reddish-golden hair. She was ruddy-cheeked, a trait she inherited from her father.^[18]

Despite his affection for Mary, Henry was deeply disappointed that his marriage had produced no sons.^[19] By the time Mary was nine years old, it was apparent that Henry and Catherine would have no more children, leaving Henry without a legitimate male heir.^[20] In 1525, Henry sent Mary to the border of Wales to preside, presumably in name only, over the Council of Wales and the Marches.^[21] She was given her own court based at Ludlow Castle and many of the royal prerogatives normally reserved for a Prince of Wales. Vives and others called her the Princess of Wales, although she was never technically invested with the title.^[22] She appears to have spent three years in the Welsh Marches, making regular visits to her father’s court, before returning permanently to the home counties around London in mid-1528.^[23]

Throughout Mary’s childhood, Henry negotiated potential future marriages for her. When she was only two years old, Mary was promised to Francis, Dauphin of France, the infant son of King Francis I, but the contract was repudiated after three years.^[24] In 1522, at the age of six, she was instead contracted to marry her 22-year-old cousin Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.^[25] However, Charles broke off the engagement within a few years with Henry’s agreement.^[26] Cardinal Wolsey, Henry’s chief adviser, then resumed marriage negotiations with the French, and Henry suggested that Mary marry the French king Francis I, who was eager for an alliance with England.^[27] A marriage treaty was signed which provided that Mary marry either Francis I or his second son Henry, Duke of Orleans,^[28] but Wolsey secured an alliance with France without the marriage.

In 1528, Wolsey’s agent Thomas Magnus discussed the idea of her marriage to her cousin James V of Scotland with the Scottish diplomat Adam Otterburn.^[29] According to the Venetian Mario Savorgnano, by this time Mary was developing into a pretty, well-proportioned young lady with a fine complexion.^[30]

Adolescence[edit]

Although these various possibilities for Mary’s marriage had been considered, the marriage of Mary’s parents was itself in jeopardy, which threatened her status. Disappointed at the lack of a male heir, and eager to remarry, Henry attempted to have his marriage to Catherine annulled, but Pope Clement VII refused his request. Henry claimed, citing biblical passages (Leviticus 20:21), that the marriage was unclean because Catherine was the widow of his brother Arthur, Prince of Wales (Mary’s uncle). Catherine claimed that her marriage to Arthur was never consummated and so was not a valid marriage. Pope Julius II had issued a dispensation on that basis. Clement VII may have been reluctant to act because he was influenced by Charles V, Catherine’s nephew and Mary’s former betrothed, whose troops had surrounded and occupied Rome in the War of the League of Cognac.^[31]

From 1531, Mary was often sick with irregular menstruation and depression, although it is not clear whether this was caused by stress, puberty or a more deep-seated disease.^[32] She was not permitted to see her mother, whom Henry had sent to live away from court.^[33] In early 1533, Henry married Anne Boleyn, and in May, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, formally declared the marriage with Catherine void and the marriage to Anne valid. Henry repudiated the pope’s authority, declaring himself Supreme Head of the Church of England. Catherine was demoted to Dowager Princess of Wales (a title she would have held as Arthur’s widow), and Mary was deemed illegitimate. She was styled «The Lady Mary» rather than Princess, and her place in the line of succession was transferred to Henry and Anne’s newborn daughter, Elizabeth.^[34] Mary’s household was dissolved;^[35] her servants (including the Countess of Salisbury) were dismissed and, in December 1533, she was sent to join her infant half-sister’s household at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.^[36]

Mary determinedly refused to acknowledge that Anne was the queen or that Elizabeth was a princess, further enraging King Henry.^[37] Under strain and with her movements restricted, Mary was frequently ill, which the royal physician attributed to her «ill treatment».^[38] The Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys became her close adviser, and interceded, unsuccessfully, on her behalf at court.^[39] The relationship between Mary and her father worsened; they did not speak to each other for three years.^[40] Although both she and her mother were ill, Mary was refused permission to visit Catherine.^[41] When Catherine died in 1536, Mary was «inconsolable».^[42] Catherine was interred in Peterborough Cathedral, while Mary grieved in semi-seclusion at Hunsdon in Hertfordshire.^[43]

Adulthood[edit]

In 1536, Queen Anne fell from the king’s favour and was beheaded. Elizabeth, like Mary, was declared illegitimate and stripped of her succession rights.^[44] Within two weeks of Anne’s execution, Henry married Jane Seymour, who urged her husband to make peace with Mary.^[45] Henry insisted that Mary recognise him as head of the Church of England, repudiate papal authority, acknowledge that the marriage between her parents was unlawful, and accept her own illegitimacy. She attempted to reconcile with Henry by submitting to his authority as far as «God and my conscience» permitted, but was eventually bullied into signing a document agreeing to all of Henry’s demands.^[46] Reconciled with her father, Mary resumed her place at court.^[47] Henry granted her a household, which included the reinstatement of Mary’s favourite, Susan Clarencieux.^[48] Mary’s privy purse accounts for this period, kept by Mary Finch, show that Hatfield House, the Palace of Beaulieu (also called Newhall), Richmond and Hunsdon were among her principal places of residence, as well as Henry’s palaces at Greenwich, Westminster and Hampton Court.^[49] Her expenses included fine clothes and gambling at cards, one of her favourite pastimes.^[50] Rebels in the North of England, including Lord Hussey, Mary’s former chamberlain, campaigned against Henry’s religious reforms, and one of their demands was that Mary be made legitimate. The rebellion, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, was ruthlessly suppressed.^[51] Along with other rebels, Hussey was executed, but there is no suggestion that Mary was directly involved.^[52] In 1537, Queen Jane died after giving birth to a son, Edward. Mary was made godmother to her half-brother and acted as chief mourner at the queen’s funeral.^[53]

Mary was courted by Philip, Duke of Bavaria, from late 1539, but he was Lutheran and his suit for her hand was unsuccessful.^[54] Over 1539, the king’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, negotiated a potential alliance with the Duchy of Cleves. Suggestions that Mary marry William I, Duke of Cleves, who was the same age, came to nothing, but a match between Henry and the Duke’s sister Anne was agreed.^[55] When the king saw Anne for the first time in late December 1539, a week before the scheduled wedding, he found her unattractive but was unable, for diplomatic reasons and without a suitable pretext, to cancel the marriage.^[56] Cromwell fell from favour and was arrested for treason in June 1540; one of the unlikely charges against him was that he had plotted to marry Mary himself.^[57] Anne consented to the annulment of the marriage, which had not been consummated, and Cromwell was beheaded.^[58]

In 1541, Henry had the Countess of Salisbury, Mary’s old governess and godmother, executed on the pretext of a Catholic plot in which her son Reginald Pole was implicated.^[59] Her executioner was «a wretched and blundering youth» who «literally hacked her head and shoulders to pieces».^[60] In 1542, following the execution of Henry’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, the unmarried Henry invited Mary to attend the royal Christmas festivities.^[61] At court, while her father was between marriages and thus without a consort, Mary acted as hostess.^[62] In 1543, Henry married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, who was able to bring the family closer together.^[63] Henry returned Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession through the Act of Succession 1544 (also known as the Third Succession Act), placing them after Edward – though both remained legally illegitimate.^[64]

Henry VIII died in 1547, and Edward succeeded him. Mary inherited estates in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, and was granted Hunsdon and Beaulieu as her own.^[65] Since Edward was still a child, rule passed to a regency council dominated by Protestants, who attempted to establish their faith throughout the country. For example, the Act of Uniformity 1549 prescribed Protestant rites for church services, such as the use of Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer. Mary remained faithful to Roman Catholicism and defiantly celebrated traditional Mass in her own chapel. She appealed to her cousin Emperor Charles V to apply diplomatic pressure demanding that she be allowed to practise her religion.^[66]

For most of Edward’s reign, Mary remained on her own estates and rarely attended court.^[67] A plan between May and July 1550 to smuggle her out of England to the safety of the European mainland came to nothing.^[68] Religious differences between Mary and Edward continued. Mary attended a reunion with Edward and Elizabeth for Christmas 1550, where the 13-year-old Edward embarrassed Mary, then 34, and reduced both her and himself to tears in front of the court, by publicly reproving her for ignoring his laws regarding worship.^[69] Mary repeatedly refused Edward’s demands that she abandon Catholicism, and Edward persistently refused to drop his demands.^[70]

Accession[edit]

On 6 July 1553, at the age of 15, Edward VI died of a lung infection, possibly tuberculosis.^[71] He did not want the crown to go to Mary because he feared she would restore Catholicism and undo his and their father’s reforms, and so he planned to exclude her from the line of succession. His advisers told him that he could not disinherit only one of his half-sisters: he would have to disinherit Elizabeth as well, even though she was a Protestant. Guided by John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, and perhaps others, Edward excluded both from the line of succession in his will.^[72]

Contradicting the Act of Succession 1544, which restored Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession, Edward named Northumberland’s daughter-in-law Lady Jane Grey, the granddaughter of Henry VIII’s younger sister Mary, as his successor. Lady Jane’s mother was Frances Brandon, Mary’s cousin and goddaughter. Just before Edward’s death, Mary was summoned to London to visit her dying brother, but was warned that the summons was a pretext on which to capture her and thereby facilitate Jane’s accession to the throne.^[73] Therefore, instead of heading to London from her residence at Hunsdon, Mary fled to East Anglia, where she owned extensive estates and Northumberland had ruthlessly put down Kett’s Rebellion. Many adherents to the Catholic faith, opponents of Northumberland, lived there.^[74] On 9 July, from Kenninghall, Norfolk, she wrote to the privy council with orders for her proclamation as Edward’s successor.^[75]

On 10 July 1553, Lady Jane was proclaimed queen by Northumberland and his supporters, and on the same day Mary’s letter to the council arrived in London. By 12 July, Mary and her supporters had assembled a military force at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk.^[76] Northumberland’s support collapsed,^[77] and Jane was deposed on 19 July.^[78] She and Northumberland were imprisoned in the Tower of London. Mary rode triumphantly into London on 3 August 1553, on a wave of popular support. She was accompanied by her half-sister Elizabeth and a procession of over 800 nobles and gentlemen.^[79]

Reign[edit]

One of Mary’s first actions as queen was to order the release of the Roman Catholic Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and Stephen Gardiner from imprisonment in the Tower of London, as well as her kinsman Edward Courtenay.^[80] Mary understood that the young Lady Jane was essentially a pawn in Northumberland’s scheme, and Northumberland was the only conspirator of rank executed for high treason in the immediate aftermath of the attempted coup. Lady Jane and her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley, though found guilty, were kept under guard in the Tower rather than immediately executed, while Lady Jane’s father, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, was released.^[81] Mary was left in a difficult position, as almost all the Privy Counsellors had been implicated in the plot to put Lady Jane on the throne.^[82] She appointed Gardiner to the council and made him both Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor, offices he held until his death in November 1555. Susan Clarencieux became Mistress of the Robes.^[83] On 1 October 1553, Gardiner crowned Mary at Westminster Abbey.^[84]

Spanish marriage[edit]

Now aged 37, Mary turned her attention to finding a husband and producing an heir, which would prevent the Protestant Elizabeth (still next-in-line under the terms of Henry VIII’s will and the Act of Succession of 1544) from succeeding to the throne. Edward Courtenay and Reginald Pole were both mentioned as prospective suitors, but her cousin Charles V suggested she marry his only legitimate son, Prince Philip of Spain.^[85] Philip had a son from a previous marriage and was heir apparent to vast territories in Continental Europe and the New World. As part of the marriage negotiations, a portrait of Philip, by Titian, was sent to Mary in the latter half of 1553.^[86]

Lord Chancellor Gardiner and the English House of Commons unsuccessfully petitioned Mary to consider marrying an Englishman, fearing that England would be relegated to a dependency of the Habsburgs.^[87] The marriage was unpopular with the English; Gardiner and his allies opposed it on the basis of patriotism, while Protestants were motivated by a fear of Catholicism.^[88] When Mary insisted on marrying Philip, insurrections broke out. Thomas Wyatt the Younger led a force from Kent to depose Mary in favour of Elizabeth, as part of a wider conspiracy now known as Wyatt’s rebellion, which also involved the Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane’s father.^[89] Mary declared publicly that she would summon Parliament to discuss the marriage and if Parliament decided that the marriage was not to the kingdom’s advantage, she would refrain from pursuing it.^[90] On reaching London, Wyatt was defeated and captured. Wyatt, the Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane, and her husband Guildford Dudley were executed. Courtenay, who was implicated in the plot, was imprisoned and then exiled. Elizabeth, though protesting her innocence in the Wyatt affair, was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two months, then put under house arrest at Woodstock Palace.^[91]

Mary was—excluding the brief, disputed reigns of the Empress Matilda and Lady Jane Grey—England’s first queen regnant. Further, under the English common law doctrine of jure uxoris, the property and titles belonging to a woman became her husband’s upon marriage, and it was feared that any man she married would thereby become King of England in fact and name.^[92] While Mary’s grandparents Ferdinand and Isabella had retained sovereignty of their respective realms during their marriage, there was no precedent to follow in England.^[93] Under the terms of Queen Mary’s Marriage Act, Philip was to be styled «King of England», all official documents (including Acts of Parliament) were to be dated with both their names, and Parliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple, for Mary’s lifetime only. England would not be obliged to provide military support to Philip’s father in any war, and Philip could not act without his wife’s consent or appoint foreigners to office in England.^[94] Philip was unhappy with these conditions but ready to agree for the sake of securing the marriage.^[95] He had no amorous feelings for Mary and sought the marriage for its political and strategic gains; his aide Ruy Gómez de Silva wrote to a correspondent in Brussels, «the marriage was concluded for no fleshly consideration, but in order to remedy the disorders of this kingdom and to preserve the Low Countries.»^[96]

To elevate his son to Mary’s rank, Emperor Charles V ceded to Philip the crown of Naples as well as his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Mary thus became Queen of Naples and titular Queen of Jerusalem upon marriage.^[97] Their wedding at Winchester Cathedral on 25 July 1554 took place just two days after their first meeting.^[98] Philip could not speak English, and so they spoke a mixture of Spanish, French, and Latin.^[99]

False pregnancy[edit]

In September 1554, Mary stopped menstruating. She gained weight, and felt nauseated in the mornings. For these reasons, almost the entirety of her court, including her physicians, believed she was pregnant.^[100] Parliament passed an act making Philip regent in the event of Mary’s death in childbirth.^[101] In the last week of April 1555, Elizabeth was released from house arrest, and called to court as a witness to the birth, which was expected imminently.^[102] According to Giovanni Michieli, the Venetian ambassador, Philip may have planned to marry Elizabeth in the event of Mary’s death in childbirth,^[103] but in a letter to his brother-in-law Maximilian of Austria, Philip expressed uncertainty as to whether Mary was pregnant.^[104]

Thanksgiving services in the diocese of London were held at the end of April after false rumours that Mary had given birth to a son spread across Europe.^[105] Through May and June, the apparent delay in delivery fed gossip that Mary was not pregnant.^[106] Susan Clarencieux revealed her doubts to the French ambassador, Antoine de Noailles.^[107] Mary continued to exhibit signs of pregnancy until July 1555, when her abdomen receded. Michieli dismissively ridiculed the pregnancy as more likely to «end in wind rather than anything else».^[108] It was most likely a false pregnancy, perhaps induced by Mary’s overwhelming desire to have a child.^[109] In August, soon after the disgrace of the false pregnancy, which Mary considered «God’s punishment» for her having «tolerated heretics» in her realm,^[110] Philip left England to command his armies against France in Flanders.^[111] Mary was heartbroken and fell into a deep depression. Michieli was touched by the queen’s grief; he wrote she was «extraordinarily in love» with her husband and disconsolate at his departure.^[112]

Elizabeth remained at court until October, apparently restored to favour.^[113] In the absence of any children, Philip was concerned that one of the next claimants to the English throne after his sister-in-law was Mary, Queen of Scots, who was betrothed to the Dauphin of France. Philip persuaded his wife that Elizabeth should marry his cousin Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, to secure the Catholic succession and preserve the Habsburg interest in England, but Elizabeth refused to agree and parliamentary consent was unlikely.^[114]

Religious policy[edit]

In the month following her accession, Mary issued a proclamation that she would not compel any of her subjects to follow her religion, but by the end of September 1553, leading Protestant churchmen—including Thomas Cranmer, John Bradford, John Rogers, John Hooper, and Hugh Latimer—were imprisoned.^[115] Mary’s first Parliament, which assembled in early October, declared her parents’ marriage valid and abolished Edward’s religious laws.^[116] Church doctrine was restored to the form it had taken in the 1539 Six Articles of Henry VIII, which (among other things) reaffirmed clerical celibacy. Married priests were deprived of their benefices.^[117]

Mary rejected the break with Rome her father instituted and the establishment of Protestantism by her brother’s regents. Philip persuaded Parliament to repeal Henry’s religious laws, returning the English church to Roman jurisdiction. Reaching an agreement took many months and Mary and Pope Julius III had to make a major concession: the confiscated monastery lands were not returned to the church but remained in the hands of their influential new owners.^[118] By the end of 1554, the pope had approved the deal, and the Heresy Acts were revived.^[119]

Around 800 rich Protestants, including John Foxe, fled into exile.^[120] Those who stayed and persisted in publicly proclaiming their beliefs became targets of heresy laws.^[121] The first executions occurred over five days in February 1555: John Rogers on 4 February, Laurence Saunders on 8 February, and Rowland Taylor and John Hooper on 9 February.^[122] Thomas Cranmer, the imprisoned archbishop of Canterbury, was forced to watch Bishops Ridley and Latimer being burned at the stake. He recanted, repudiated Protestant theology, and rejoined the Catholic faith.^[123] Under the normal process of the law, he should have been absolved as a repentant, but Mary refused to reprieve him. On the day of his burning, he dramatically withdrew his recantation.^[124] In total, 283 were executed, most by burning.^[125] The burnings proved so unpopular that even Alfonso de Castro, one of Philip’s own ecclesiastical staff, condemned them^[126] and another adviser, Simon Renard, warned him that such «cruel enforcement» could «cause a revolt».^[127] Mary persevered with the policy, which continued until her death and exacerbated anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish feeling among the English people.^[128] The victims became lauded as martyrs.^[129]

Reginald Pole, the son of Mary’s executed governess, arrived as papal legate in November 1554.^[130] He was ordained a priest and appointed Archbishop of Canterbury immediately after Cranmer’s execution in March 1556.^[131][b]

Foreign policy[edit]

Furthering the Tudor conquest of Ireland, English colonists were settled in the Irish Midlands under Mary and Philip’s reign. Queen’s and King’s Counties (now Counties Laois and Offaly) were founded, and their plantation began.^[133] Their principal towns were respectively named Maryborough (now Portlaoise) and Philipstown (now Daingean).

In January 1556, Mary’s father-in-law the Emperor abdicated. Mary and Philip were still apart; he was declared King of Spain in Brussels, but she stayed in England. Philip negotiated an unsteady truce with the French in February 1556. The next month, the French ambassador in England, Antoine de Noailles, was implicated in a plot against Mary when Sir Henry Dudley, a second cousin of the executed Duke of Northumberland, attempted to assemble an invasion force in France. The plot, known as the Dudley conspiracy, was betrayed, and the conspirators in England were rounded up. Dudley remained in exile in France, and Noailles prudently left Britain.^[134]

Philip returned to England from March to July 1557 to persuade Mary to support Spain in a renewed war against France. Mary was in favour of declaring war, but her councillors opposed it because French trade would be jeopardised, it contravened the foreign war provisions of the marriage treaty, and a bad economic legacy from Edward VI’s reign and a series of poor harvests meant England lacked supplies and finances.^[135] War was only declared in June 1557 after Reginald Pole’s nephew Thomas Stafford invaded England and seized Scarborough Castle with French help, in a failed attempt to depose Mary.^[136] As a result of the war, relations between England and the Papacy became strained, since Pope Paul IV was allied with Henry II of France.^[137] In August, English forces were victorious in the aftermath of the Battle of Saint Quentin, with one eyewitness reporting, «Both sides fought most choicely, and the English best of all.»^[138] Celebrations were brief, as in January 1558 French forces took Calais, England’s sole remaining possession on the European mainland. Although the territory was financially burdensome, its loss was a mortifying blow to the queen’s prestige.^[139] According to Holinshed’s Chronicles, Mary later lamented, «When I am dead and opened, you shall find ‘Calais’ lying in my heart», although this may be apocryphal.^[140]

Commerce and revenue[edit]

The weather during the years of Mary’s reign was consistently wet. The persistent rain and flooding led to famine.^[141] Another problem was the decline of the Antwerp cloth trade.^[142] Despite Mary’s marriage to Philip, England did not benefit from Spain’s enormously lucrative trade with the New World.^[143] The mercantilist Spanish guarded their trade routes jealously, and Mary could not condone English smuggling or piracy against her husband.^[144] In an attempt to increase trade and rescue the English economy, Mary’s counsellors continued Northumberland’s policy of seeking out new commercial opportunities. She granted a royal charter to the Muscovy Company under governor Sebastian Cabot,^[145] and commissioned a world atlas from Diogo Homem.^[146] Adventurers such as John Lok and William Towerson sailed south in an attempt to develop links with the coast of Africa.^[147]

Financially, Mary’s regime tried to reconcile a modern form of government—with correspondingly higher spending—with a medieval system of collecting taxation and dues.^[148] Mary retained the Edwardian appointee William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, as Lord High Treasurer and assigned him to oversee the revenue collection system. A failure to apply new tariffs to new forms of imports meant that a key source of revenue was neglected. To solve this, Mary’s government published a revised «Book of Rates» (1558), which listed the tariffs and duties for every import. This publication was not extensively reviewed until 1604.^[149]

English coinage was debased under both Henry VIII and Edward VI. Mary drafted plans for currency reform but they were not implemented until after her death.^[150]

Death[edit]

After Philip’s visit in 1557, Mary again thought she was pregnant, with a baby due in March 1558.^[151] She decreed in her will that her husband would be the regent during the minority of their child.^[152] But no child was born, and Mary was forced to accept that her half-sister Elizabeth would be her lawful successor.^[153]

Mary was weak and ill from May 1558.^[154] In pain, possibly from ovarian cysts or uterine cancer,^[155] she died on 17 November 1558, aged 42, at St James’s Palace, during an influenza epidemic that also claimed Archbishop Pole’s life later that day. She was succeeded by Elizabeth. Philip, who was in Brussels, wrote to his sister Joan: «I felt a reasonable regret for her death.»^[156]

Although Mary’s will stated that she wished to be buried next to her mother, she was interred in Westminster Abbey on 14 December, in a tomb she eventually shared with Elizabeth. The inscription on their tomb, affixed there by James I when he succeeded Elizabeth, is Regno consortes et urna, hic obdormimus Elizabetha et Maria sorores, in spe resurrectionis («Consorts in realm and tomb, we sisters Elizabeth and Mary here lie down to sleep in hope of the resurrection»).^[157]

Legacy[edit]

John White, Bishop of Winchester, praised Mary at her funeral service: «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.»^[158] She was the first woman to successfully claim the throne of England, despite competing claims and determined opposition, and enjoyed popular support and sympathy during the earliest parts of her reign, especially from the Roman Catholics of England.^[159]

Protestant writers at the time, and since, have often condemned Mary’s reign. By the 17th century, the memory of her religious persecutions had led to the adoption of her sobriquet «Bloody Mary».^[160] John Knox attacked Mary in his First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558), and John Foxe vilified her prominently in Actes and Monuments (1563). Foxe’s book remained popular throughout the following centuries and helped shape enduring perceptions of Mary as a bloodthirsty tyrant.^[161] Historian Lucy Wooding notes misogynistic undertones in descriptions of Mary. «She’s simultaneously being lambasted for being ‘vindictive and fierce’ and ‘spineless and weak’, criticized for such actions as showing clemency to political prisoners and yielding authority to her husband.»^[121]

Mary is remembered in the 21st century for her vigorous efforts to restore the primacy of Roman Catholicism in England after the rise of Protestant influence during the previous reigns. Protestant historians have long deplored her reign, emphasizing that in just five years she burned several hundred Protestants at the stake. In the mid-20th century, H. F. M. Prescott attempted to redress the tradition that Mary was intolerant and authoritarian, and scholarship since then has tended to view the older, simpler assessments of Mary with increasing reservations.^[162] A historiographical revisionism since the 1980s has improved her reputation among scholars to some degree.^[163] Christopher Haigh argued that her revival of religious festivities and Catholic practices was generally welcomed.^[164] Haigh concluded that the «last years of Mary’s reign were not a gruesome preparation for Protestant victory, but a continuing consolidation of Catholic strength.»^[165] English Catholics often remembered Mary favourably; decades after her death, the epitaph for Sir John Throckmorton (died 1580) refers to «Queene Marie [Mary I] of happie memorie».^[166]

Catholic historians, such as John Lingard, thought Mary’s policies failed not because they were wrong but because she had too short a reign to establish them and because of natural disasters beyond her control.^[167] In other countries, the Catholic Counter-Reformation was spearheaded by Jesuit missionaries, but Mary’s chief religious advisor, Cardinal Reginald Pole, refused to allow the Jesuits into England.^[168] Her marriage to Philip was unpopular among her subjects and her religious policies resulted in deep-seated resentment.^[169] The military loss of Calais to France was a bitter humiliation to English pride. Failed harvests increased public discontent.^[170] Philip spent most of his time abroad, while his wife remained in England, leaving her depressed at his absence and undermined by their inability to have children. After Mary’s death, Philip sought to marry Elizabeth but she refused him.^[171] Although Mary’s rule was ultimately ineffectual and unpopular, the policies of fiscal reform, naval expansion, and colonial exploration that were later lauded as Elizabethan accomplishments were started in Mary’s reign.^[172]

Titles, style, and arms[edit]

When Mary ascended the throne, she was proclaimed under the same official style as Henry VIII and Edward VI: «Mary, by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the Church of England and of Ireland on Earth Supreme Head». The title Supreme Head of the Church was repugnant to Mary’s Catholicism, and she omitted it after Christmas 1553.^[173]

Under Mary’s marriage treaty with Philip, the official joint style reflected not only Mary’s but also Philip’s dominions and claims: «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 Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol».^[97] This style, which had been in use since 1554, was replaced when Philip inherited the Spanish Crown in 1556 with «Philip and Mary, by the Grace of God King and Queen of England, Spain, France, both the Sicilies, Jerusalem and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Burgundy, Milan and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol».^[174]

Mary I’s coat of arms was the same as those used by all her predecessors since Henry IV: Quarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lys Or [for France] and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England). Sometimes, her arms were impaled (depicted side-by-side) with those of her husband. She adopted «Truth, the Daughter of Time» (Latin: Veritas Temporis Filia) as her personal motto.^[175]

Genealogy[edit]

Both Mary and Philip were descended from John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, a relationship that was used to portray Philip as an English king.^[176]

See also[edit]

• Jewels of Mary I of England
• Tudor period

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

• «Mary I (1516-1558)» . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). «Mary I., Queen» . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• «Mary I (1516–1558)». BBC.

Mary I
Portrait by Antonis Mor, 1554
Queen of England and Ireland (more…)
Reign	July 1553[a] – 17 November 1558
Coronation	1 October 1553
Predecessor	Jane (disputed) or Edward VI
Successor	Elizabeth I
Co-monarch	Philip (1554–1558)
Queen consort of Spain
Tenure	16 January 1556 – 17 November 1558
Born	18 February 1516 Palace of Placentia, Greenwich, England
Died	17 November 1558 (aged 42) St James’s Palace, London, England
Burial	14 December 1558 Westminster Abbey, London
Spouse	Philip II of Spain ​ (m. )​
House	Tudor
Father	Henry VIII
Mother	Catherine of Aragon
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as «Bloody Mary» by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.

Mary was the only child of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to survive to adulthood. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded their father in 1547 at the age of nine. When Edward became terminally ill in 1553, he attempted to remove Mary from the line of succession because he supposed, correctly, that she would reverse the Protestant reforms that had taken place during his reign. Upon his death, leading politicians proclaimed Lady Jane Grey as queen. Mary speedily assembled a force in East Anglia and deposed Jane, who was ultimately beheaded. Mary was—excluding the disputed reigns of Jane and the Empress Matilda—the first queen regnant of England. In July 1554, Mary married Philip of Spain, becoming queen consort of Habsburg Spain on his accession in January 1556.

After Mary’s death in 1558, her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed by her younger half-sister and successor, Elizabeth I.

Birth and family[edit]

Mary was born on 18 February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, England. She was the only child of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to survive infancy. Her mother had suffered many miscarriages and stillbirths.^[3] Before Mary’s birth, four previous pregnancies had resulted in a stillborn daughter and three short-lived or stillborn sons, including Henry, Duke of Cornwall.^[4]

Mary was baptised into the Catholic faith at the Church of the Observant Friars in Greenwich three days after her birth.^[5] Her godparents included Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey; her great-aunt Catherine, Countess of Devon; and Agnes Howard, Duchess of Norfolk.^[6] Henry VIII’s first cousin once removed, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, stood sponsor for Mary’s confirmation, which was conducted immediately after the baptism.^[7] The following year, Mary became a godmother herself when she was named as one of the sponsors of her cousin Frances Brandon.^[8] In 1520, the Countess of Salisbury was appointed Mary’s governess.^[9] Sir John Hussey (later Lord Hussey) was her chamberlain from 1530, and his wife Lady Anne, daughter of George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent, was one of Mary’s attendants.^[10]

Childhood[edit]

Mary was a precocious child.^[12] In July 1520, when scarcely four and a half years old, she entertained a visiting French delegation with a performance on the virginals (a type of harpsichord).^[13] A great part of her early education came from her mother, who consulted the Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives for advice and commissioned him to write De Institutione Feminae Christianae, a treatise on the education of girls.^[14] By the age of nine, Mary could read and write Latin.^[15] She studied French, Spanish, music, dance, and perhaps Greek.^[16] Henry VIII doted on his daughter and boasted to the Venetian ambassador Sebastian Giustiniani that Mary never cried.^[17] Mary had a fair complexion with pale blue eyes and red or reddish-golden hair. She was ruddy-cheeked, a trait she inherited from her father.^[18]

Despite his affection for Mary, Henry was deeply disappointed that his marriage had produced no sons.^[19] By the time Mary was nine years old, it was apparent that Henry and Catherine would have no more children, leaving Henry without a legitimate male heir.^[20] In 1525, Henry sent Mary to the border of Wales to preside, presumably in name only, over the Council of Wales and the Marches.^[21] She was given her own court based at Ludlow Castle and many of the royal prerogatives normally reserved for a Prince of Wales. Vives and others called her the Princess of Wales, although she was never technically invested with the title.^[22] She appears to have spent three years in the Welsh Marches, making regular visits to her father’s court, before returning permanently to the home counties around London in mid-1528.^[23]

Throughout Mary’s childhood, Henry negotiated potential future marriages for her. When she was only two years old, Mary was promised to Francis, Dauphin of France, the infant son of King Francis I, but the contract was repudiated after three years.^[24] In 1522, at the age of six, she was instead contracted to marry her 22-year-old cousin Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.^[25] However, Charles broke off the engagement within a few years with Henry’s agreement.^[26] Cardinal Wolsey, Henry’s chief adviser, then resumed marriage negotiations with the French, and Henry suggested that Mary marry the French king Francis I, who was eager for an alliance with England.^[27] A marriage treaty was signed which provided that Mary marry either Francis I or his second son Henry, Duke of Orleans,^[28] but Wolsey secured an alliance with France without the marriage.

In 1528, Wolsey’s agent Thomas Magnus discussed the idea of her marriage to her cousin James V of Scotland with the Scottish diplomat Adam Otterburn.^[29] According to the Venetian Mario Savorgnano, by this time Mary was developing into a pretty, well-proportioned young lady with a fine complexion.^[30]

Adolescence[edit]

Although these various possibilities for Mary’s marriage had been considered, the marriage of Mary’s parents was itself in jeopardy, which threatened her status. Disappointed at the lack of a male heir, and eager to remarry, Henry attempted to have his marriage to Catherine annulled, but Pope Clement VII refused his request. Henry claimed, citing biblical passages (Leviticus 20:21), that the marriage was unclean because Catherine was the widow of his brother Arthur, Prince of Wales (Mary’s uncle). Catherine claimed that her marriage to Arthur was never consummated and so was not a valid marriage. Pope Julius II had issued a dispensation on that basis. Clement VII may have been reluctant to act because he was influenced by Charles V, Catherine’s nephew and Mary’s former betrothed, whose troops had surrounded and occupied Rome in the War of the League of Cognac.^[31]

From 1531, Mary was often sick with irregular menstruation and depression, although it is not clear whether this was caused by stress, puberty or a more deep-seated disease.^[32] She was not permitted to see her mother, whom Henry had sent to live away from court.^[33] In early 1533, Henry married Anne Boleyn, and in May, Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, formally declared the marriage with Catherine void and the marriage to Anne valid. Henry repudiated the pope’s authority, declaring himself Supreme Head of the Church of England. Catherine was demoted to Dowager Princess of Wales (a title she would have held as Arthur’s widow), and Mary was deemed illegitimate. She was styled «The Lady Mary» rather than Princess, and her place in the line of succession was transferred to Henry and Anne’s newborn daughter, Elizabeth.^[34] Mary’s household was dissolved;^[35] her servants (including the Countess of Salisbury) were dismissed and, in December 1533, she was sent to join her infant half-sister’s household at Hatfield, Hertfordshire.^[36]

Mary determinedly refused to acknowledge that Anne was the queen or that Elizabeth was a princess, further enraging King Henry.^[37] Under strain and with her movements restricted, Mary was frequently ill, which the royal physician attributed to her «ill treatment».^[38] The Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys became her close adviser, and interceded, unsuccessfully, on her behalf at court.^[39] The relationship between Mary and her father worsened; they did not speak to each other for three years.^[40] Although both she and her mother were ill, Mary was refused permission to visit Catherine.^[41] When Catherine died in 1536, Mary was «inconsolable».^[42] Catherine was interred in Peterborough Cathedral, while Mary grieved in semi-seclusion at Hunsdon in Hertfordshire.^[43]

Adulthood[edit]

In 1536, Queen Anne fell from the king’s favour and was beheaded. Elizabeth, like Mary, was declared illegitimate and stripped of her succession rights.^[44] Within two weeks of Anne’s execution, Henry married Jane Seymour, who urged her husband to make peace with Mary.^[45] Henry insisted that Mary recognise him as head of the Church of England, repudiate papal authority, acknowledge that the marriage between her parents was unlawful, and accept her own illegitimacy. She attempted to reconcile with Henry by submitting to his authority as far as «God and my conscience» permitted, but was eventually bullied into signing a document agreeing to all of Henry’s demands.^[46] Reconciled with her father, Mary resumed her place at court.^[47] Henry granted her a household, which included the reinstatement of Mary’s favourite, Susan Clarencieux.^[48] Mary’s privy purse accounts for this period, kept by Mary Finch, show that Hatfield House, the Palace of Beaulieu (also called Newhall), Richmond and Hunsdon were among her principal places of residence, as well as Henry’s palaces at Greenwich, Westminster and Hampton Court.^[49] Her expenses included fine clothes and gambling at cards, one of her favourite pastimes.^[50] Rebels in the North of England, including Lord Hussey, Mary’s former chamberlain, campaigned against Henry’s religious reforms, and one of their demands was that Mary be made legitimate. The rebellion, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, was ruthlessly suppressed.^[51] Along with other rebels, Hussey was executed, but there is no suggestion that Mary was directly involved.^[52] In 1537, Queen Jane died after giving birth to a son, Edward. Mary was made godmother to her half-brother and acted as chief mourner at the queen’s funeral.^[53]

Mary was courted by Philip, Duke of Bavaria, from late 1539, but he was Lutheran and his suit for her hand was unsuccessful.^[54] Over 1539, the king’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, negotiated a potential alliance with the Duchy of Cleves. Suggestions that Mary marry William I, Duke of Cleves, who was the same age, came to nothing, but a match between Henry and the Duke’s sister Anne was agreed.^[55] When the king saw Anne for the first time in late December 1539, a week before the scheduled wedding, he found her unattractive but was unable, for diplomatic reasons and without a suitable pretext, to cancel the marriage.^[56] Cromwell fell from favour and was arrested for treason in June 1540; one of the unlikely charges against him was that he had plotted to marry Mary himself.^[57] Anne consented to the annulment of the marriage, which had not been consummated, and Cromwell was beheaded.^[58]

In 1541, Henry had the Countess of Salisbury, Mary’s old governess and godmother, executed on the pretext of a Catholic plot in which her son Reginald Pole was implicated.^[59] Her executioner was «a wretched and blundering youth» who «literally hacked her head and shoulders to pieces».^[60] In 1542, following the execution of Henry’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, the unmarried Henry invited Mary to attend the royal Christmas festivities.^[61] At court, while her father was between marriages and thus without a consort, Mary acted as hostess.^[62] In 1543, Henry married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, who was able to bring the family closer together.^[63] Henry returned Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession through the Act of Succession 1544 (also known as the Third Succession Act), placing them after Edward – though both remained legally illegitimate.^[64]

Henry VIII died in 1547, and Edward succeeded him. Mary inherited estates in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, and was granted Hunsdon and Beaulieu as her own.^[65] Since Edward was still a child, rule passed to a regency council dominated by Protestants, who attempted to establish their faith throughout the country. For example, the Act of Uniformity 1549 prescribed Protestant rites for church services, such as the use of Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer. Mary remained faithful to Roman Catholicism and defiantly celebrated traditional Mass in her own chapel. She appealed to her cousin Emperor Charles V to apply diplomatic pressure demanding that she be allowed to practise her religion.^[66]

For most of Edward’s reign, Mary remained on her own estates and rarely attended court.^[67] A plan between May and July 1550 to smuggle her out of England to the safety of the European mainland came to nothing.^[68] Religious differences between Mary and Edward continued. Mary attended a reunion with Edward and Elizabeth for Christmas 1550, where the 13-year-old Edward embarrassed Mary, then 34, and reduced both her and himself to tears in front of the court, by publicly reproving her for ignoring his laws regarding worship.^[69] Mary repeatedly refused Edward’s demands that she abandon Catholicism, and Edward persistently refused to drop his demands.^[70]

Accession[edit]

On 6 July 1553, at the age of 15, Edward VI died of a lung infection, possibly tuberculosis.^[71] He did not want the crown to go to Mary because he feared she would restore Catholicism and undo his and their father’s reforms, and so he planned to exclude her from the line of succession. His advisers told him that he could not disinherit only one of his half-sisters: he would have to disinherit Elizabeth as well, even though she was a Protestant. Guided by John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, and perhaps others, Edward excluded both from the line of succession in his will.^[72]

Contradicting the Act of Succession 1544, which restored Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession, Edward named Northumberland’s daughter-in-law Lady Jane Grey, the granddaughter of Henry VIII’s younger sister Mary, as his successor. Lady Jane’s mother was Frances Brandon, Mary’s cousin and goddaughter. Just before Edward’s death, Mary was summoned to London to visit her dying brother, but was warned that the summons was a pretext on which to capture her and thereby facilitate Jane’s accession to the throne.^[73] Therefore, instead of heading to London from her residence at Hunsdon, Mary fled to East Anglia, where she owned extensive estates and Northumberland had ruthlessly put down Kett’s Rebellion. Many adherents to the Catholic faith, opponents of Northumberland, lived there.^[74] On 9 July, from Kenninghall, Norfolk, she wrote to the privy council with orders for her proclamation as Edward’s successor.^[75]

On 10 July 1553, Lady Jane was proclaimed queen by Northumberland and his supporters, and on the same day Mary’s letter to the council arrived in London. By 12 July, Mary and her supporters had assembled a military force at Framlingham Castle, Suffolk.^[76] Northumberland’s support collapsed,^[77] and Jane was deposed on 19 July.^[78] She and Northumberland were imprisoned in the Tower of London. Mary rode triumphantly into London on 3 August 1553, on a wave of popular support. She was accompanied by her half-sister Elizabeth and a procession of over 800 nobles and gentlemen.^[79]

Reign[edit]

One of Mary’s first actions as queen was to order the release of the Roman Catholic Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and Stephen Gardiner from imprisonment in the Tower of London, as well as her kinsman Edward Courtenay.^[80] Mary understood that the young Lady Jane was essentially a pawn in Northumberland’s scheme, and Northumberland was the only conspirator of rank executed for high treason in the immediate aftermath of the attempted coup. Lady Jane and her husband, Lord Guildford Dudley, though found guilty, were kept under guard in the Tower rather than immediately executed, while Lady Jane’s father, Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, was released.^[81] Mary was left in a difficult position, as almost all the Privy Counsellors had been implicated in the plot to put Lady Jane on the throne.^[82] She appointed Gardiner to the council and made him both Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor, offices he held until his death in November 1555. Susan Clarencieux became Mistress of the Robes.^[83] On 1 October 1553, Gardiner crowned Mary at Westminster Abbey.^[84]

Spanish marriage[edit]

Now aged 37, Mary turned her attention to finding a husband and producing an heir, which would prevent the Protestant Elizabeth (still next-in-line under the terms of Henry VIII’s will and the Act of Succession of 1544) from succeeding to the throne. Edward Courtenay and Reginald Pole were both mentioned as prospective suitors, but her cousin Charles V suggested she marry his only legitimate son, Prince Philip of Spain.^[85] Philip had a son from a previous marriage and was heir apparent to vast territories in Continental Europe and the New World. As part of the marriage negotiations, a portrait of Philip, by Titian, was sent to Mary in the latter half of 1553.^[86]

Lord Chancellor Gardiner and the English House of Commons unsuccessfully petitioned Mary to consider marrying an Englishman, fearing that England would be relegated to a dependency of the Habsburgs.^[87] The marriage was unpopular with the English; Gardiner and his allies opposed it on the basis of patriotism, while Protestants were motivated by a fear of Catholicism.^[88] When Mary insisted on marrying Philip, insurrections broke out. Thomas Wyatt the Younger led a force from Kent to depose Mary in favour of Elizabeth, as part of a wider conspiracy now known as Wyatt’s rebellion, which also involved the Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane’s father.^[89] Mary declared publicly that she would summon Parliament to discuss the marriage and if Parliament decided that the marriage was not to the kingdom’s advantage, she would refrain from pursuing it.^[90] On reaching London, Wyatt was defeated and captured. Wyatt, the Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane, and her husband Guildford Dudley were executed. Courtenay, who was implicated in the plot, was imprisoned and then exiled. Elizabeth, though protesting her innocence in the Wyatt affair, was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two months, then put under house arrest at Woodstock Palace.^[91]

Mary was—excluding the brief, disputed reigns of the Empress Matilda and Lady Jane Grey—England’s first queen regnant. Further, under the English common law doctrine of jure uxoris, the property and titles belonging to a woman became her husband’s upon marriage, and it was feared that any man she married would thereby become King of England in fact and name.^[92] While Mary’s grandparents Ferdinand and Isabella had retained sovereignty of their respective realms during their marriage, there was no precedent to follow in England.^[93] Under the terms of Queen Mary’s Marriage Act, Philip was to be styled «King of England», all official documents (including Acts of Parliament) were to be dated with both their names, and Parliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple, for Mary’s lifetime only. England would not be obliged to provide military support to Philip’s father in any war, and Philip could not act without his wife’s consent or appoint foreigners to office in England.^[94] Philip was unhappy with these conditions but ready to agree for the sake of securing the marriage.^[95] He had no amorous feelings for Mary and sought the marriage for its political and strategic gains; his aide Ruy Gómez de Silva wrote to a correspondent in Brussels, «the marriage was concluded for no fleshly consideration, but in order to remedy the disorders of this kingdom and to preserve the Low Countries.»^[96]

To elevate his son to Mary’s rank, Emperor Charles V ceded to Philip the crown of Naples as well as his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Mary thus became Queen of Naples and titular Queen of Jerusalem upon marriage.^[97] Their wedding at Winchester Cathedral on 25 July 1554 took place just two days after their first meeting.^[98] Philip could not speak English, and so they spoke a mixture of Spanish, French, and Latin.^[99]

False pregnancy[edit]

In September 1554, Mary stopped menstruating. She gained weight, and felt nauseated in the mornings. For these reasons, almost the entirety of her court, including her physicians, believed she was pregnant.^[100] Parliament passed an act making Philip regent in the event of Mary’s death in childbirth.^[101] In the last week of April 1555, Elizabeth was released from house arrest, and called to court as a witness to the birth, which was expected imminently.^[102] According to Giovanni Michieli, the Venetian ambassador, Philip may have planned to marry Elizabeth in the event of Mary’s death in childbirth,^[103] but in a letter to his brother-in-law Maximilian of Austria, Philip expressed uncertainty as to whether Mary was pregnant.^[104]

Thanksgiving services in the diocese of London were held at the end of April after false rumours that Mary had given birth to a son spread across Europe.^[105] Through May and June, the apparent delay in delivery fed gossip that Mary was not pregnant.^[106] Susan Clarencieux revealed her doubts to the French ambassador, Antoine de Noailles.^[107] Mary continued to exhibit signs of pregnancy until July 1555, when her abdomen receded. Michieli dismissively ridiculed the pregnancy as more likely to «end in wind rather than anything else».^[108] It was most likely a false pregnancy, perhaps induced by Mary’s overwhelming desire to have a child.^[109] In August, soon after the disgrace of the false pregnancy, which Mary considered «God’s punishment» for her having «tolerated heretics» in her realm,^[110] Philip left England to command his armies against France in Flanders.^[111] Mary was heartbroken and fell into a deep depression. Michieli was touched by the queen’s grief; he wrote she was «extraordinarily in love» with her husband and disconsolate at his departure.^[112]

Elizabeth remained at court until October, apparently restored to favour.^[113] In the absence of any children, Philip was concerned that one of the next claimants to the English throne after his sister-in-law was Mary, Queen of Scots, who was betrothed to the Dauphin of France. Philip persuaded his wife that Elizabeth should marry his cousin Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, to secure the Catholic succession and preserve the Habsburg interest in England, but Elizabeth refused to agree and parliamentary consent was unlikely.^[114]

Religious policy[edit]

In the month following her accession, Mary issued a proclamation that she would not compel any of her subjects to follow her religion, but by the end of September 1553, leading Protestant churchmen—including Thomas Cranmer, John Bradford, John Rogers, John Hooper, and Hugh Latimer—were imprisoned.^[115] Mary’s first Parliament, which assembled in early October, declared her parents’ marriage valid and abolished Edward’s religious laws.^[116] Church doctrine was restored to the form it had taken in the 1539 Six Articles of Henry VIII, which (among other things) reaffirmed clerical celibacy. Married priests were deprived of their benefices.^[117]

Mary rejected the break with Rome her father instituted and the establishment of Protestantism by her brother’s regents. Philip persuaded Parliament to repeal Henry’s religious laws, returning the English church to Roman jurisdiction. Reaching an agreement took many months and Mary and Pope Julius III had to make a major concession: the confiscated monastery lands were not returned to the church but remained in the hands of their influential new owners.^[118] By the end of 1554, the pope had approved the deal, and the Heresy Acts were revived.^[119]

Around 800 rich Protestants, including John Foxe, fled into exile.^[120] Those who stayed and persisted in publicly proclaiming their beliefs became targets of heresy laws.^[121] The first executions occurred over five days in February 1555: John Rogers on 4 February, Laurence Saunders on 8 February, and Rowland Taylor and John Hooper on 9 February.^[122] Thomas Cranmer, the imprisoned archbishop of Canterbury, was forced to watch Bishops Ridley and Latimer being burned at the stake. He recanted, repudiated Protestant theology, and rejoined the Catholic faith.^[123] Under the normal process of the law, he should have been absolved as a repentant, but Mary refused to reprieve him. On the day of his burning, he dramatically withdrew his recantation.^[124] In total, 283 were executed, most by burning.^[125] The burnings proved so unpopular that even Alfonso de Castro, one of Philip’s own ecclesiastical staff, condemned them^[126] and another adviser, Simon Renard, warned him that such «cruel enforcement» could «cause a revolt».^[127] Mary persevered with the policy, which continued until her death and exacerbated anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish feeling among the English people.^[128] The victims became lauded as martyrs.^[129]

Reginald Pole, the son of Mary’s executed governess, arrived as papal legate in November 1554.^[130] He was ordained a priest and appointed Archbishop of Canterbury immediately after Cranmer’s execution in March 1556.^[131][b]

Foreign policy[edit]

Furthering the Tudor conquest of Ireland, English colonists were settled in the Irish Midlands under Mary and Philip’s reign. Queen’s and King’s Counties (now Counties Laois and Offaly) were founded, and their plantation began.^[133] Their principal towns were respectively named Maryborough (now Portlaoise) and Philipstown (now Daingean).

In January 1556, Mary’s father-in-law the Emperor abdicated. Mary and Philip were still apart; he was declared King of Spain in Brussels, but she stayed in England. Philip negotiated an unsteady truce with the French in February 1556. The next month, the French ambassador in England, Antoine de Noailles, was implicated in a plot against Mary when Sir Henry Dudley, a second cousin of the executed Duke of Northumberland, attempted to assemble an invasion force in France. The plot, known as the Dudley conspiracy, was betrayed, and the conspirators in England were rounded up. Dudley remained in exile in France, and Noailles prudently left Britain.^[134]

Philip returned to England from March to July 1557 to persuade Mary to support Spain in a renewed war against France. Mary was in favour of declaring war, but her councillors opposed it because French trade would be jeopardised, it contravened the foreign war provisions of the marriage treaty, and a bad economic legacy from Edward VI’s reign and a series of poor harvests meant England lacked supplies and finances.^[135] War was only declared in June 1557 after Reginald Pole’s nephew Thomas Stafford invaded England and seized Scarborough Castle with French help, in a failed attempt to depose Mary.^[136] As a result of the war, relations between England and the Papacy became strained, since Pope Paul IV was allied with Henry II of France.^[137] In August, English forces were victorious in the aftermath of the Battle of Saint Quentin, with one eyewitness reporting, «Both sides fought most choicely, and the English best of all.»^[138] Celebrations were brief, as in January 1558 French forces took Calais, England’s sole remaining possession on the European mainland. Although the territory was financially burdensome, its loss was a mortifying blow to the queen’s prestige.^[139] According to Holinshed’s Chronicles, Mary later lamented, «When I am dead and opened, you shall find ‘Calais’ lying in my heart», although this may be apocryphal.^[140]

Commerce and revenue[edit]

The weather during the years of Mary’s reign was consistently wet. The persistent rain and flooding led to famine.^[141] Another problem was the decline of the Antwerp cloth trade.^[142] Despite Mary’s marriage to Philip, England did not benefit from Spain’s enormously lucrative trade with the New World.^[143] The mercantilist Spanish guarded their trade routes jealously, and Mary could not condone English smuggling or piracy against her husband.^[144] In an attempt to increase trade and rescue the English economy, Mary’s counsellors continued Northumberland’s policy of seeking out new commercial opportunities. She granted a royal charter to the Muscovy Company under governor Sebastian Cabot,^[145] and commissioned a world atlas from Diogo Homem.^[146] Adventurers such as John Lok and William Towerson sailed south in an attempt to develop links with the coast of Africa.^[147]

Financially, Mary’s regime tried to reconcile a modern form of government—with correspondingly higher spending—with a medieval system of collecting taxation and dues.^[148] Mary retained the Edwardian appointee William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, as Lord High Treasurer and assigned him to oversee the revenue collection system. A failure to apply new tariffs to new forms of imports meant that a key source of revenue was neglected. To solve this, Mary’s government published a revised «Book of Rates» (1558), which listed the tariffs and duties for every import. This publication was not extensively reviewed until 1604.^[149]

English coinage was debased under both Henry VIII and Edward VI. Mary drafted plans for currency reform but they were not implemented until after her death.^[150]

Death[edit]

After Philip’s visit in 1557, Mary again thought she was pregnant, with a baby due in March 1558.^[151] She decreed in her will that her husband would be the regent during the minority of their child.^[152] But no child was born, and Mary was forced to accept that her half-sister Elizabeth would be her lawful successor.^[153]

Mary was weak and ill from May 1558.^[154] In pain, possibly from ovarian cysts or uterine cancer,^[155] she died on 17 November 1558, aged 42, at St James’s Palace, during an influenza epidemic that also claimed Archbishop Pole’s life later that day. She was succeeded by Elizabeth. Philip, who was in Brussels, wrote to his sister Joan: «I felt a reasonable regret for her death.»^[156]

Although Mary’s will stated that she wished to be buried next to her mother, she was interred in Westminster Abbey on 14 December, in a tomb she eventually shared with Elizabeth. The inscription on their tomb, affixed there by James I when he succeeded Elizabeth, is Regno consortes et urna, hic obdormimus Elizabetha et Maria sorores, in spe resurrectionis («Consorts in realm and tomb, we sisters Elizabeth and Mary here lie down to sleep in hope of the resurrection»).^[157]

Legacy[edit]

John White, Bishop of Winchester, praised Mary at her funeral service: «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.»^[158] She was the first woman to successfully claim the throne of England, despite competing claims and determined opposition, and enjoyed popular support and sympathy during the earliest parts of her reign, especially from the Roman Catholics of England.^[159]

Protestant writers at the time, and since, have often condemned Mary’s reign. By the 17th century, the memory of her religious persecutions had led to the adoption of her sobriquet «Bloody Mary».^[160] John Knox attacked Mary in his First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558), and John Foxe vilified her prominently in Actes and Monuments (1563). Foxe’s book remained popular throughout the following centuries and helped shape enduring perceptions of Mary as a bloodthirsty tyrant.^[161] Historian Lucy Wooding notes misogynistic undertones in descriptions of Mary. «She’s simultaneously being lambasted for being ‘vindictive and fierce’ and ‘spineless and weak’, criticized for such actions as showing clemency to political prisoners and yielding authority to her husband.»^[121]

Mary is remembered in the 21st century for her vigorous efforts to restore the primacy of Roman Catholicism in England after the rise of Protestant influence during the previous reigns. Protestant historians have long deplored her reign, emphasizing that in just five years she burned several hundred Protestants at the stake. In the mid-20th century, H. F. M. Prescott attempted to redress the tradition that Mary was intolerant and authoritarian, and scholarship since then has tended to view the older, simpler assessments of Mary with increasing reservations.^[162] A historiographical revisionism since the 1980s has improved her reputation among scholars to some degree.^[163] Christopher Haigh argued that her revival of religious festivities and Catholic practices was generally welcomed.^[164] Haigh concluded that the «last years of Mary’s reign were not a gruesome preparation for Protestant victory, but a continuing consolidation of Catholic strength.»^[165] English Catholics often remembered Mary favourably; decades after her death, the epitaph for Sir John Throckmorton (died 1580) refers to «Queene Marie [Mary I] of happie memorie».^[166]

Catholic historians, such as John Lingard, thought Mary’s policies failed not because they were wrong but because she had too short a reign to establish them and because of natural disasters beyond her control.^[167] In other countries, the Catholic Counter-Reformation was spearheaded by Jesuit missionaries, but Mary’s chief religious advisor, Cardinal Reginald Pole, refused to allow the Jesuits into England.^[168] Her marriage to Philip was unpopular among her subjects and her religious policies resulted in deep-seated resentment.^[169] The military loss of Calais to France was a bitter humiliation to English pride. Failed harvests increased public discontent.^[170] Philip spent most of his time abroad, while his wife remained in England, leaving her depressed at his absence and undermined by their inability to have children. After Mary’s death, Philip sought to marry Elizabeth but she refused him.^[171] Although Mary’s rule was ultimately ineffectual and unpopular, the policies of fiscal reform, naval expansion, and colonial exploration that were later lauded as Elizabethan accomplishments were started in Mary’s reign.^[172]

Titles, style, and arms[edit]

When Mary ascended the throne, she was proclaimed under the same official style as Henry VIII and Edward VI: «Mary, by the Grace of God, Queen of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the Church of England and of Ireland on Earth Supreme Head». The title Supreme Head of the Church was repugnant to Mary’s Catholicism, and she omitted it after Christmas 1553.^[173]

Under Mary’s marriage treaty with Philip, the official joint style reflected not only Mary’s but also Philip’s dominions and claims: «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 Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol».^[97] This style, which had been in use since 1554, was replaced when Philip inherited the Spanish Crown in 1556 with «Philip and Mary, by the Grace of God King and Queen of England, Spain, France, both the Sicilies, Jerusalem and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Burgundy, Milan and Brabant, Counts of Habsburg, Flanders and Tyrol».^[174]

Mary I’s coat of arms was the same as those used by all her predecessors since Henry IV: Quarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lys Or [for France] and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England). Sometimes, her arms were impaled (depicted side-by-side) with those of her husband. She adopted «Truth, the Daughter of Time» (Latin: Veritas Temporis Filia) as her personal motto.^[175]

Genealogy[edit]

Both Mary and Philip were descended from John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, a relationship that was used to portray Philip as an English king.^[176]

See also[edit]

• Jewels of Mary I of England
• Tudor period

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

• «Mary I (1516-1558)» . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). «Mary I., Queen» . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• «Mary I (1516–1558)». BBC.

История «Кровавой Мэри» — первой королевы Англии Марии Тюдор

Мария Тюдор стала первой коронованной королевой Англии с 1553 года. В детстве ее отец — Генрих VIII — называл Марию «самой прекрасной жемчужиной в короне», безумно любил и оберегал девочку. Но это до тех пор, пока на его пути не повстречалась новая любовь — эффектная Анна Болейн.

Когда Генрих и Анна Болейн поженились, Мария в буквальном смысле осталась совсем одна, заперта в четырех стенах своих покоев. Историки предполагают, что именно эта детская травма сделала будущую королеву такой жестокой. Однако, если покопаться в жизни «Кровавой Мэри» подробнее, можно узнать еще много чего интересного…

Мария I Тюдор вошла в историю как одна из самых жестоких правителей Европы. Именно поэтому подданные дали ей прозвище «Мария Кровавая», которое со временем превратилось в лаконичное «Кровавая Мэри» (все знают такой коктейль?).

На родине единственной дочери Генриха VIII и Екатерины Арагонской (все остальные их дети либо умирали во время внутриутробного развития, либо вскоре после родов) не поставили ни одного памятника. Более того, в день ее смерти в стране отмечают праздник — восхождение на трон Елизаветы I. Давайте же разберемся, почему «Кровавая Мэри» стала «кровавой» и что этому предшествовало?

Отец Марии Генрих VIII 

11 июня 1509 года произошло долгожданное событие — Генрих VIII и Екатерина Арагонская обвенчались в часовне в Гринвиче. В последующие годы Екатерина успешно исполняла роль посла Испании, поддерживая интересы своего отца. Но основным ее предназначением было рождение наследника, поэтому каждую беременность супруги Генриха VIII ожидали с трепетом и волнением.

Почему «каждую»? Потому что зачать и выносить ребенка с первого раза королеве не удалось. 31 января 1510 года у нее наступили преждевременные роды, которые завершились появлением на свет мертвой девочки. После этого живот Екатерины не уменьшился и доктор сделал вывод, что в ее утробе по-прежнему находится другой плод. Женщину отвели в специальные покои для родов, где она пребывала несколько месяцев, но чуда так и не произошло — беременность оказалась ложной.

Екатерина Арагонская

В середине 1510 года Екатерина снова забеременела и в первый день нового года родила королю наследника. Мальчика назвали Генри и уже пожаловали ему титул герцога Корнуолльского, но, не прожив даже двух месяцев, ребенок скоропостижно скончался.

В 1513 году у Екатерины случился выкидыш, а спустя год — еще один. Королевская семья уже потеряла надежду, что эта женщина когда-то сможет произвести на свет наследника престола. И вот в 1515 году Екатерина снова беременна, а 18 февраля 1516 года у нее рождается дочь, которую называют Марией.

Франциск III

Генрих был очень разочарован рождением девочки, поэтому быстро организовал помолвку совсем юной принцессы с дофином Франции Франциском III. При этом в брачном договоре значилось условие, что если у короля так и не родится наследник, трон после него займет Мария. Однако Генриха не радовала мысль, что королем Англии может стать француз, точно так же, как и то, что следующим правителем будет женщина, его дочь.

Надежда на появление наследника сохранялась до тех пор, пока у Екатерины снова не произошла еще одна неудачная беременность (кстати, последняя). В тот период политическая ситуация в Европе сильно накалялась. После встречи с Франциском I Генрих изменил свое мнение насчет продолжения союзнических отношений с Францией и заключил новый альянс с императором Священной Римской империи Карлом V. Соответственно, помолвка дочери Марии и Франциска была расторгнута. Теперь девочка стала невестой Карла, и в случае рождения у них сына английский престол перешел бы ему.

Генрих и Анна Болейн

Однако Генрих по-прежнему не был доволен этим решением, так как непременно хотел, чтобы трон короля Англии достался его сыну. Придворные начали поговаривать, что король намеревается отвергнуть нынешнюю супругу, ведь, очевидно, что она больше не способна на рождение детей. Кроме того, в тот период его внимание было полностью поглощено фрейлиной Анной Болейн. И это не было похоже на все предыдущие его увлечения (любовниц у короля было немало), казалось, что Генрих действительно влюблен и серьезно настроен.

Так и было. В 1527 году Генрих принял решение добиться признания недействительности брака с Екатериной. Сделать это было не так уж и просто, ведь никаких убедительных оснований для этого не было, кроме заявлений короля, что «их брак проклят» и рождение мертвых детей является «знаком Божьим».

Судебные разбирательства продолжались вплоть до 1534 года и все же завершились победой для Генриха. 23 мая их брак с Екатериной признали недействительным, а уже 28 мая его законной супругой стала Анна Болейн. Все это время дочь Генриха Мария наблюдала за напряженными отношениями родителей со стороны, ведь вмешиваться в дела государственной важности ей никто не разрешал.

Анна Болейн

Когда Анна Болейн официально стала ее мачехой, родную мать Екатерину Арагонскую сослали по приказу короля, а саму Марию — заперли в комнате, отобрав титул, слуг, наряды, украшения и мечты о том, что когда-то она взойдет на трон. В 1534 году принцессу Марию объявили «незаконнорожденной дочерью», появившейся на свет в «греховном сожительстве» Генриха с Екатериной, и единственной наследницей престола стала дочь Анны Болейн Елизавета.

Но Мария по натуре своей была бунтаркой и отказывалась принимать это решение. Девушка продолжала считать себя принцессой и наследницей престола, хоть пока и не понимала, как ей удастся добиться расположения отца, который полностью был поглощен новой любовью.

Мария Тюдор

Мария круглыми сутками находилась в своих покоях, покидать которые ей было запрещено. Слуги приносили ей напитки и еду, после чего снова запирали дверь. Тех же, кто проявлял хоть малейшую жалость к девушке, Анна Болейн сурово наказывала. Мария пыталась передавать через некоторых подданных записки своему когда-то заботливому отцу, но ни одна из них так и не дошла до рук Генриха. Впрочем, даже если бы и дошла, вряд ли это что-то изменило.

Однажды Генриха настолько разозлило упорство и настойчивость дочери, что он решил привлечь и ее, и ее мать к суду, чтобы навсегда решить вопрос с надоедливым прошлым. Однако, каким бы он не был жестоким правителем, казнить собственную дочь он так и не смог. К счастью для Марии, она осталась жива, но те эмоции, которые ей пришлось пережить в те нелегкие годы, навсегда ее изменили.

Эдуард VI, Генрих VIII и Джейн Сеймур

В 1534 году Анна Болейн снова забеременела. Тогда Генрих предвкушал появление долгожданного наследника и буквально засыпал свою любимую дорогими подарками — драгоценностями, платьями, шляпками, лошадьми и прочим. Но спустя несколько месяцев у женщины случился выкидыш и тогда она поняла, что рискует потерять расположение правителя. «Звоночком» стали особые отношения между Генрихом и фрейлиной королевы Джейн Сеймур. Именно она впоследствии и родила королю сына Эдуарда VI и стала его третьей женой.

Чтобы заключить брак с Джейн Сеймур, Генрих снова пошел на хитрость и обвинил свою супругу якобы в измене. Когда Анна закончила свои дни на плахе, отношения короля Генриха и его первой дочери Марии стали немного лучше, хоть на тот момент в ней уже скопилось достаточно обиды на предавшего ее отца. С новой мачехой Марии тоже удалось подружиться и, когда та и ее сын погибли, она очень тяжело переживала эту потерю. Однако судьба вознаградила Марию за все ее страдания — после смерти отца и Эдуарда она стала первой королевой Англии.

Новая королева решила доказать своему пусть уже и покойному отцу, что он зря в ней сомневался, и она станет прекрасным правителем Англии, а в будущем сможет подарить государству достойного наследника. Но вот требования к супругу у Марии были настолько велики, что многие придворные украдкой высказывали сомнения, что она вообще когда-либо выйдет замуж.

Он должен быть католиком, достаточно молодым, чтобы зачать детей, не бедным, благородным, верным…

К слову, самой Марии на тот момент было 38 лет и особой красотой она не отличалась.

Филипп Испанский

Все придворные понимали, что описывая мужчину своей мечты, Мария подразумевает овдовевшего Филиппа Испанского, который был моложе ее на 11 лет, и к тому же являлся ее двоюродным племянником. Увидев его портрет впервые, королева с трепетом спросила, «действительно ли принц так хорош?». Личная встреча с Филиппом окончательно дала понять: ее сердце покорено.

Мария могла часами обсуждать с принцем их совместное будущее и выбирать имена для наследника. А Филипп в это время лишь мечтал о том, чтобы королева как можно быстрее родила, и отец разрешил ему вернуться в Испанию к местным красоткам. «Если бы она еще и умерла при родах…», — втайне раздумывал он. Тогда бы Филиппу достался трон Англии, пока его наследник не достиг бы определенного возраста.

Спустя несколько недель после свадьбы влюбленная Мария сообщила супругу радостную новость — она беременна. Однако долго парить на крыльях счастья ней не пришлось — доктор заявил, что по всем внешним признакам, беременность завершится трагично, а ее обожаемый Филипп собрал вещички и уехал в Испанию по срочному вызову отца. Обещал вернуться, но так и не вернулся… Мария еще долго писала ему длинные письма и получала в ответ лишь скупые слова благодарности вместе с просьбами занять крупную сумму.

Тогда Мария решила полностью посвятить себя государственным делам и сделать Англию такой, какой она всегда мечтала. Но только представьте, что значит дать безграничную власть влюбленной женщине с разбитым сердцем! Вся Англия в тот период сидела на пороховой бочке, а мир и покой наступал лишь в те редкие моменты, когда Филипп оказывал милость нелюбимой супруге и ненадолго заезжал к ней в гости.

Вскоре выяснилось, что Мария снова беременна, однако ребенку так и не суждено было появиться на свет. Как и в прошлый раз, ее ожидало разочарование.

Елизавета I

Всю свою ярость и злость на несправедливую судьбу Мария направила на борьбу с реформаторами, которые еще несколько лет назад притесняли ее саму. По всей стране один за одним зажигались костры. Королева велела не щадить даже тех, кто соглашался принять католичество. Это продолжалось четыре года. Жертвами религиозных преследований стали сотни людей, а положить конец жестокому правлению смогла только смерть Марии.

Осенью 1558-го года она заболела лихорадкой и в том же году скоропостижно скончалась. После ее смерти трон заняла дочь Анны Болейн Елизавета, которая впоследствии вошла в историю как смелый реформатор и талантливая правительница. Когда в 1603 году она умерла, ее подзахоронили в могилу к сводной сестре, которая находится в Вестминстерском аббатстве. На общем надгробии жители страны воздвигли единственную скульптуру — любимой королевы Елизаветы I.

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