queen mary I (bloody mary)
Bloody Mary – one of the most notorious rulers in English history. The clue is in the name.
Mary Tudor (1516–1588) is the character on whom the elder of the two sisters in Sister to Sister, Maria Rose, is based. She was the first English queen to rule in her own right, rather than being a queen consort (a Mrs King). This was a milestone in English history, but Bloody Mary tends to be remembered for something else. She’s not a figure you warm to. Yes, that is a terrible pun, as she’s best known for burning Protestant heretics – some 280 or so of them – at the stake.
Mary Tudor, painted in 1554 by Antonis Mor, just after her marriage to Philip of Spain. That gaze could stop you in your tracks. Mary is about 38 here, and is wearing the jewels given to her by her new husband, including the enormous 64.5-carat pearl still known as the Mary Tudor Pearl.
Was Mary as terrible as her nickname suggests? Or is it because she was a woman that people are shocked by her overzealous attempts to guide people back to the true faith, following the reforms instigated by her father, Henry VIII? By the standards of the times, the body count wasn’t that huge. Remember this was when the Spanish Inquisition was at its height. (Altogether: “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!” Monty Python, in case you’re wondering.)
Call me a softie, but I’ve always felt sorry for Mary. After being the apple of Henry’s eye, at the age of 17 she was declared illegitimate and removed from the succession, following Henry’s divorce from her mother, Catherine of Aragon. (She was reinstated in Henry’s will.) She was banished from court and forcibly separated from her mother, to whom she was very close. She wasn’t even allowed to see her when Catherine was dying. She suffered awful health problems, probably caused by stress.
Mary aged about ten. Attributed to Lucas Horenbout.
Between her brother Edward VI’s death at the age of 15 and her own accession to the throne, Mary had to deal with the whole Lady Jane Grey business. This was an attempt by her brother and his Protestant council to keep Roman Catholic Mary away from the throne by instead putting Henry VIII’s great-niece Jane on the throne. Edward named Jane as his successor in his will.
But the English people weren’t having a bar of it. Although the majority didn’t want a return to Roman Catholicism, Mary was clearly the next in line, and had been named as such in Henry VIII’s will. It wasn’t long before the people rallied round, proclaimed her queen, and she made a triumphant entry to London and took the throne.
Poor 15-year-old Lady Jane Grey, a pawn in her father-in-law John Dudley’s deadly game, was queen for just 9 days before being deposed, thrown in the Tower, and eventually beheaded, along with her unfortunate husband Guildford Dudley, who was 19.
Above: Mary in 1544, attributed to Master John. In this portrait she’s about 28.
Mary married the powerful Philip of Spain (reincarnated in Sister to Sister as billionaire evangelist Phil Seville) and although it was a strategic match (and not a popular one with the English people) she loved Philip and this is where it gets even sadder. She exhibited all the signs of pregnancy and the people rejoiced (apart from her sister Elizabeth, next in line to the throne, maybe) but after 9 months … and then 10 months … there was no baby. There was a second phantom pregnancy, and at this point Philip washed his hands of her, cleared off back to Europe, and that was the end of that. Mary was heartbroken and sunk into depression. She died not long after, at the age of 42.
Mary married the powerful Philip of Spain (reincarnated in Sister to Sister as billionaire evangelist Phil Seville) and although it was a strategic match (and not a popular one with the English people) she loved Philip and this is where it gets even sadder. She exhibited all the signs of pregnancy and the people rejoiced (apart from her sister Elizabeth, next in line to the throne, maybe) but after 9 months … and then 10 months … there was no baby. There was a second phantom pregnancy, and at this point Philip washed his hands of her, cleared off back to Europe, and that was the end of that. Mary was heartbroken and sunk into depression. She died not long after, at the age of 42.
