Bloody Mary Tudor Research Paper

Mary Tudor “Bloody Mary”

Mary Tudor did not rule for a long time, but made a great impact in England. She was born on February 18th, 1516 in Greenwich, England. Her father was Henry VIII of England and her mother was Catherine of Aragon. Catherine was Henry’s first wife out of six. Mary was the only child of Catherine to survive to adulthood. She came to power and had many highs and lows; she brought benefits and disadvantages to her people, but in the end lost her power.

Mary Tudor had a mostly normal life for a princess growing up in England. She grew up knowing she was going to be the next heir of the throne, after her father. In 1533 her father dissolved his marriage with Catherine and she soon died three years later by natural causes in 1536. Mary was only seventeen years old when she was stripped of her title of princess and she was forced to renounce her Catholic faith. She still practiced her religion secretly without anyone knowing. When Henry VIII died in 1547, Edward VI came to power. He was Henry’s second wife, Jane Seymour’s child. He was nine when he came

to power, but only reigned for six years. He died at the age of fifteen from a mixture of tuberculosis and the measles in July of 1553. He was succeeded by Lady Jane Grey. She was put on the throne by the protestant insurrection. Her reign did not last long because the general feeling of the country thought that Mary should be their rightful heir. She was then deposed after just two weeks on the throne and she was executed along with her husband Lord Guildford Dudley. She would be soon known as “Nine Day Queen” (Cawthorne 66). Mary Tudor finally came to power in 1553 when she was thirty-seven years old. She was the first official queen of England.
There was a moment of bliss in her reign near the end of 1954. Her first task was to find a suitable husband. She was soon set up by her cousin and his father, Charles V. Mary Tudor and Philip II of Spain got married in Winchester Cathedral in 1554. Mary was thirty-seven and Philip was twenty-six years old. He agreed to the marriage, despite being eleven years younger than her, but Mary, on the other hand, was reportedly very excited to marry him (Tracy). They ruled England alongside each other, rather than him being a step below. Philip’s strong Catholic religion was merged with Mary’s unbreakable Catholic faith (Tracy). They ruled together for four years. Her other task was to restore the Catholic faith that her father banned and destroyed. She started to set up altars again, the marriage clergy was removed, High Mass was sung at St. Paul’s, and new bishops were consecrated according to ancient rituals (Thurston). The medieval heresy laws were restored by the Parliament and that meant that heretics could be killed and their property and holdings given over. She brought back the choir of the Chapel Royal and the King’s chorister joined the Queen’s to create a beautiful sound (Baker).
Do to some of her poor decisions; she was not that popular among some of her people. She burnt around three-hundred Protestants at the stake who were against her Catholic faith. She did not like anyone who still believed in the Church of England. Do to all her executions; she received the nickname “Bloody Mary.” She did not gain any popularly after she did not agree to marry and Englishman. Soon a rebellion with its leader Sir Thomas Wyatt and fifteen thousand men marched into London with demands that Mary enter the Tower and four Privy Councilors be handed over as hostages for her promise to marry and Englishman (Summary). Many battles took place in the streets of London. She almost got killed when the rebels attacked Whitehall Place and shot the windows with arrows. Elizabeth, Mary’s half sister, was involved in the rebellion and was put in the Tower. This caused the Protestants so get angrier with Mary and her popularity dropped while Elizabeth’s soared.
During this time she was supposedly said to be pregnant. Her due date came, but she had no child. It is thought that Mary suffered from what is called a “phantom pregnancy,” which is said to be from her great wish to have a child (Mary I). She soon had many more signs of false pregnancies. After another fake pregnancy, she soon became very sick. She kept getting worse and stated drifting in and out of consciousness. At one point she was unconscious and agreed that Elizabeth should be the next heir. Mary soon died of cancer at the age of forty-two on November 17, 1558 in St. James Place, London. She was buried in Westminster Abbey on December 14th. Mary died without an heir and left Elizabeth with a huge debt.
Elizabeth I succeeded Mary Tudor after her death in 1558.

She was the daughter of Henry VIII of England and Anne Boleyn. She started her reign at the age of twenty-five. She ruled for forty-four years, until she joined Mary at Westminster Abbey when she died on March 24, 1603. On their grave is written “Partners both in throne and grave, here rest we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of one resurrection” (Mary I). Elizabeth never got married and was died childless. She was the last of the Tudor dynasty and was succeeded by James VI and I. He was King of Scotland as James VI and King of England as James I. The life and time which Mary Tudor lived was filled with many hardships of a rebellion, sadness of not having an heir, but she had moments of joy through her marriage with Philip II of Spain. Her greatest accomplishment was restoring the Catholic faith in

England.