How Queen Mary Earned Her Bloody Reputation | Mary I - Bloody Mary | Chronicle

one summer day in 1553, after 10 days of travel, a magnificent possession arrived at the capitol, at its head was

mary

tudor, the eldest daughter of king henry viii, she had come to claim her inheritance, the crown of england,

mary

entered triumphant in the city of London on August 3, 1553, the buildings of the city that Mary knew almost completely disappeared, but their boundaries are the same as those of the financial district of the modern city of London. You see behind me, Mary entered from the east through all the doors and rode through streets hanging with beautiful tapestries from the tower of London the people wet tears of joy and Mary quoted the Bible with ecstasy if God is with us who can be against us This day was Mary's victory over all those who had opposed her, but the scenes of joy did not last.

Mary was a

queen

driven by conscience and by faith she would send hundreds of her subjects to be burned at the stake for what which she believed was correct. A vision of England restored to her traditional Catholic faith. Mary was born on February 18, 1516 at Greenwich Palace. In addition to the River Thames, they gave her a splendid baptism and the bells rang for joy. Princess Mary was an extraordinarily important girl. Her parents, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, had already been married for seven years when she was born and had had several children, but everyone else children were stillborn or died shortly after birth mary was the first girl to survive this meant she was heir to the crown of england there was only one catch mary was a girl and a woman had never ruled england as

queen

mary's destiny seemed clear She was a royal princess who would become a royal bride and would only reign as a husband's wife the search for the right husband began early in phillips spirit amen when mary was only two years old she was engaged to the fool the heir to the throne of france in a ceremony that imitated all the characteristics of a royal wedding this was only the first of many engagements over the next 10 years the promise of mary's hand in marriage was used repeatedly to make treaties with other countries as king henry's daughter an heir go to England Mary was an attractive proposition, but her mother's family was even larger.

Catherine of Aragon was descended from the great Spanish royal family whose empire now extended across most of Europe and even to the new world of America. Catalina made sure that Maria did not forget her. Spanish roots Mary spoke Spanish as well as English and proudly identified with her Spanish family after her father, King Mary, was treated as the most important person in England. She liked music, dancing and games. Henry referred to her as her pearl in the world. Catherine too. she was devoted to Mary and was fiercely ambitious for her daughter. She made sure that Maria's education prepared her for her destiny, no matter how great she was.

This letter was written by Catalina to María when she was 8 or 9 years old. As for writing it in Latin. I'm glad you changed from me to Master Featherston. Catherine had started out teaching Mary Latin herself, but now she had to switch to a professional tutor. Latin was a masculine subject. Catherine is determined that Mary has good Latin to prepare her for that task. male roles of government Henry did not yet have another heir and Catherine was preparing Mary for the possibility that one day she could be queen of England in her own right at the age of nine Mary came here to Ludlow to take up residence as nominal head of the welsh government was a highly symbolic move for the last 50 years every prince of wales had come here to ludlow to complete his education and learn the craft of governing and the fact that mary, although a woman, followed in his footsteps showed that her father still considered her heir to England for the next three years.

Mary spent a lot of time in Ludlow as Princess of Wales, but her search for the right husband continued. At age 11, she was going to be inspected for a new French partner. Mary was just one year away from reaching the minimum. marriageable age and her future as queen and royal bride seemed assured, but before the year was out disaster struck in 1528, Mary left Ludlow for the last time and returned to a court in confusion because her father had decided to divorce of his mother Catalina. he had become fat and ugly and henry had fallen passionately in love with ann berlin for the next five years henry looked for a way to marry anne but the pope would not allow him to divorce catherine finally a clergyman thomas cranmer came up with a solution as archbishop of Canterbury would be willing to divorce Henry and Catherine in defiance of the Pope.

Mary would never forget or forgive what Cranmer had done. Her childhood was over and in 1533, when Mary was 17, her father finally married his mistress a few months later, Anne. She gave birth to a girl Elizabeth who was proclaimed Princess of Wales. There were now two queens and two princesses in England. Henry and Anne could not sleep peacefully until Catherine was forced to renounce her title as queen and Mary to renounce hers as princess. When Elizabeth was born Mary was a young woman who had to endure the humiliation of being sent to live in Hatfield as a servant to the baby Elizabeth around whom everything now revolves Mary was stripped of her royal title and declared a bastard She too was going to suffer in the hands of anne boleyn anne instructed mary's guardian in hatfield 2 to slap and beat mary every time she claimed to be a real princess and swear to her like the damned bastard that mary is she would never forget this cruelty and she received no sympathy from her father because she He refused to accept his mother's divorce.

Henry disowned her for being disobedient and denied her permission to see Catherine. Mother and daughter were only allowed one brief visit in five years. The contrast to the luxury and privilege of her childhood was bad enough and even worse was the threat to the family. The faith she had l

earned

at her mother's knee because Henry also insisted that she recognize him and not the Pope as the supreme leader of the Church. This brutal treatment was to have a lasting effect. Maria would spend the rest of her life looking for ways to avenge him. When Maria was 20 years old, she had experienced extreme ups and downs.

She had been worshiped as the future queen of England and was possessed and disgraced as an illegitimate daughter in 1536. Two momentous events occurred that would transform her life once again on January 7th. Mary's mother, Catherine of Aragon, died, Mary was overcome with grief, she saw no future for herself in England and wrote to her cousin Charles V begging him to help her flee to Spain, Charles was the Holy Roman Emperor. Romano Germanicus, was the most powerful man in Europe and in Mary. strongest ally, but just a few months later, Anne Boleyn was arrested and sentenced to death after eight years of exclusion.

Maria now believed that there was a possibility of reconciliation with her father. These are the letters that María wrote to her father and her father's secretary. Cromwell In the weeks following Anne Boleyn's death, Mary thought she could achieve a reconciliation with her father on her own terms, but she quickly proved her wrong and the letters represent a titanic struggle of wills between father and mother. daughter. The first of the letters is written on May 26 Maria writes to Cromwell please get permission from Henry to write to him and on June 8 Maria writes a letter to her father telling him how delighted she is that he has forgiven all Over the course of the next two days, something goes very wrong because Enrique makes it clear that Maria will surrender not on his terms, but on his terms and his are that she will recognize the royal supremacy, his mother's divorce and his own bastardy.

Maria is distraught, she begins her usual need to write by hand. to disintegrate and she writes this desperate letter to Cromwell please she said don't pressure me anymore I will do everything God and my conscience can do not be offended because I assure you that she continues I have done everything possible so that my conscience is enough but Henry is not would be dictated by his daughter or his conscience had a statement drawn up that he ordered Maria to sign if Maria refused to obey she would be a traitor and risk dying as a traitor. This was not an empty threat, since a month earlier Henry had executed his wife.

Mary now faced the worst crisis of her short life and Berlin had often threatened her with death if she did not surrender. Now her own father seemed about to carry out the threat and Mary's was not the only life in danger for all of her friends and followers. Those who pressed her claim to be the rightful heir to the throne were also exposed to a charge of treason, the wife of one of them wrote desperately to get married begging him by the passion of Christ to do what her father wanted, otherwise she was lost in the face of this threat to her friends as well as herself mary signed the hated piece of paper without even reading it she had betrayed herself her mother and her god mary's reward was a decade of peace henry finally had a son and with a male heir mary was no longer a threat.

Henry even passed an Act of Parliament stating that the line of succession was now Edward, then Mary, then Elizabeth. Mary was not legitimized, but she was recognized as a potential heir to the throne, but thanks to her awkward status she remained. Unmarried then in 1547 Henry died and Mary was freed from his strong hand He was succeeded by his son Edward Mary was Edward's godmother and loved the boy very much Under the terms of her father's will Mary was left a vast estate here in East Anglia Relying on the confiscated estates of the Dukes of Norfolk, she became one of the richest landowners in the country during the first year of Edward's reign.

Mary lived contentedly in East Anglia. This peaceful existence might have continued if it had not been for the attempts of edward and his government to revolutionize england and change it from a catholic to a protestant country mary was deeply committed to the old religion, to its ritual and color, to the latin of services and, above all, she loved its central act of worship, the mass in which the miracle was performed. The priest's words spoken at the altar transformed the bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ's sacrifice on the cross under Henry VIII.

This did not present any problem since her father, although he dissolved the monasteries and broke with Rome, had maintained the ancient rituals. unchanged, but Edward and his advisors led by Archbishop Cranmer wanted to change everything, they wanted to replace what they saw as empty ritual with the pure word of God, have services in English, not Latin, and above all, they wanted to abolish the idolatrous sacrifice of the mass as they called it and replacing mary with a simple act of commemoration this was an abomination as it was to many people in the more conservative parts of the country the result was that mary became a symbol of resistance to a government whose extremism was doing It was very unpopular.

Mary's piety had never been particularly commented on. Now, at 31, she suddenly became deeply devout. She was noted to attend mass at least four times a day and spend hours in private prayer, but in 1549 Edward forbade anyone from attending mass. Mary refused to obey her brother Edward knew that Mary could become a powerful figure for all those who opposed her rule She had land support and she was his official heir He was forced to back down and allow Mary to listen mass but only in private but mary He didn't believe the commitment could last in this crisis that existed largely in his own imagination.

Mary falls once again into the state of victimhood of her father's reign and she summons the imperial ambassador to the house where she was staying at Woodham, near the Essex coast. here and she poured out her pain and her problems this was an ungodly government she said she feared neither god nor man he was determined to make her a martyr even as her father had done her only refuge was the emperor Charles whom she considered her the real father charles offered maria a radical solution escape he commissioned an imperial agent jayan dubois to plan the escape maria lived in the perfect location near molden on the essex coast two imperial ships would moor in the estuary under the cover of night maria she would be rude to the ships, then set sail for the safety of Catholic Europe on July 2.

Dubois arrived in Molden to carry out the plan. Days later, Rochester, Mary's head of house and her top confidential advisor, summoned Dubois to a clandestine meeting. Here in Malden Cemetery the plan was unlikely to succeed. Rochester said the government had placed surveillance at all ports. Furthermore, he made it clear that, in principle, he disapproved if Edward died while Mary was in exile. He said that she would renounce all songs of the throne and had had Edward's horoscope done, this showed that the boy king would probably die within a year, no matter what.However, he promised that Dubois would have the final decision once Mary had made up her mind, it was a make-or-break decision and Mary found it almost impossible to choose.

Dubois was eventually summoned to her home in Woodham Walter, where he found her in a terrible state. She reported that the princess's chambers were in chaos. She was very agitated packing some of her property into long sacks trying to hide her irritation from her, he told her that she would not like anything with the emperor and that they should leave now or risk being arrested. Imperial ships have been seen off the coast. Maria collapsed if she left the country. She might never come back if she stayed. She feared for her life. and all her faith could do was repeat over and over again what will i do what will become of me that strange incident in this remote corner of essex was a turning point in mary's life it may even have been the last moment in which she experienced doubts Over the next few months, she became increasingly certain that God had a role for her in England, after all she would not have wanted to wait in 1553.

King Edward VI died at just 15 years old. Edward had been determined to have a Protestant heir. she defied her father's wishes and abandoned the crown to her cousin lady jane gray on july 6 she was declared queen of england and even the ambassadors of mary's own cousin the emperor charles accepted her as queen but they did not count on mary mary now knew that she She was the rightful queen of England and with her new sense of confidence, she acted quickly and decisively to assert her claim by force, immediately retreating here, to the great fortress of Framlingham Castle, in her heart of eastern England, men Armed men began to arrive from their own properties and the lands of friendly neighboring knights. but Mary's support was much broader than this narrow conservative Catholic base and even convinced Protestants welcomed her as their queen because she was a Tudor and the rightful heir of England.

As Mary made her way through East Anglia, opposition faded and she was proclaimed queen from as far away as Gloucester. Even Yorkshire had followers of at least fifteen thousand men, but it was not necessary to strike a single blow as it advanced towards the capital. When it entered London, bells were lit, bonfires were lit and Tadium was sung for the new queen, who was finally 37. years, mary was crowned queen of england it seemed miraculous everything had changed and once again she was the most exalted woman in england now mary could do whatever she wanted and rewrite history this is the record office of the house of lords here i kept the original copies of every act of parliament since the tudor period are organized monarch by monarch and year after year here is george first, then here are the stuarts and around the corner the original ax for the tudor period are different because they are flat , so in the boxes there are 17 boxes for Mary's father, Henry VIII, below are the boxes for her brother Edward VI and at the bottom for Mary herself, one of the first acts of Mary's reign corrected what she believed to be the greatest injustice of her father's reign in this The law states that there was a conspiracy led by Thomas Cranmer to divorce her parents and make Mary a bastard.

The law categorically states that Henry and Catherine were legally married in the eyes of God and that Mary was the rightful heir to the throne. Magnificent words. but there is a lot of sound and fury because Mary was already queen and she was legitimately queen, that is why her rise had been so popular, but this act is about something else, it is about Mary's own mental state, she had always known what was happening. saying. she was really legitimate and was the daughter of a legitimate marriage. This act ensured that the outside world recognized that inner certainty with the past now corrected.

Maria could turn to the future and her marriage. Her cousin, Emperor Charles V, proposed to her son, Philip the Only. The problem was that Felipe was Spanish. Mary was the first queen of England in her own right, but no one knew who would wield royal power if she married into the English. She hated the idea of ​​having a Spanish king or she was still becoming a mere satellite of the empire. As usual in difficult circumstances, Mary appealed directly to God, the queen, the imperial ambassador and her chief lady-in-waiting went to the queen's private chapel, knelt before the Lord's Supper at the altar and sang the great Latin hymn veni spiritual creator, see the holy ghost god descending.

Then Mary stood up like one possessed and said that just as God had chosen Joseph as a husband for the virgin Mary, so God had chosen a husband for her and his name was Philip and those whom God had joined together, that no man would dare to separate having sworn on the sacrament that she would marry Felipe, no argument could change Maria's mind, she told parliament that if they forced me to take a husband who was not to my liking, it would be the cause of my death because If I married against myself, wouldn't I live three months and have no children in the new year?

News reached Mary about a conspiracy. The Spanish marriage issue was destroying her kingdom. In Kent, a wealthy knight, Sir Thomas Wyatt, had acquired more than three thousand followers. He marched with his men to London with the aim of deposing Mary and placing her sister Elizabeth on the throne with an English husband. Maria was isolated in London and she heard daily reports of Wyatt's terrifying advance. He had few loyal forces in the capital to defend it and desperately so. She needed support on 1 February 1554 Mary went in procession to the Guild Hall here to speak to the people of London.

She attended electioneering, the platform from which candidates for public office addressed their fellow citizens during London's annual elections, and no politician has ever done so. She worked harder to win popular opinion than Maria did in her speech. She spoke with a deep, resonant voice. I am your rightful crowned queen. She said she and then lifted her coronation ring with this ring. I married my kingdom. It has never left my finger and it will. never leave my finger I don't have children so I have never known the love that a mother feels for her child but I love you my people like a mother loves her child and I swear to you that I never intended nor will I ever get married without the consent of my council my parliament and you my people wyatt's men were approaching the capital they crossed the thames at kingston and marched through Knightsbridge wyatt was dangerously close to taking the city while everyone else was losing their minds mary kept hers and although even rumors that she would lead her own troops, this turned out not to be necessary;

However, as Wyatt and the rebels approached the city from the west, there were shocking, almost comical scenes of cowardice and confusion among the royal guards, but the city itself stood firm and the gates were closed in Wyatt's name. With his face trapped, he had no choice but to surrender. Maria had won and proved that a woman could be as good a leader as any man. The leaders of the rebellion were quickly executed. Elizabeth, whose name had been used as a rallying cry for the rebels. imprisoned in the tower, Maria would not run the risk of her half-sister becoming a figurehead of discontent that she had never trusted or much liked.

Elizabeth, the rivalry of the mothers descended on the daughters now that she had a reason to draw to elizabeth of the road 36 years after mary was first engaged she would finally marry it was a moment she had spent most of her life preparing for on 25 july 1554 mary came here to winchester cathedral To get married, he walked along the nave on a high walkway that had been built from the western doors to the choir steps, there he climbed further to the platform on which the marriage took place. She was delivered by four noble men on behalf of England and sworn to the ancient Catholic vows. in which the woman promised to be beautiful and plump in bed and on board and instead of the jeweled rings that were then fashionable, she wore a simple, old-fashioned gold ring because she said she would marry as the maidens did in the old days. times because mary It was decided that amid the pomp and circumstances of the dynastic union it would be clear that theirs was a real marriage based on love and destined to lead to the procreation of children.

There is no record of what Felipe himself thought of his new wife, except for the 38-year-old. Old Mary did not make a very favorable impression on the Spanish quarter, commenting that she was a perfect saint who dressed badly, and the man closest to Philip praised his teacher for his tact and skill in dealing with a woman of whom I could expect neither physical pleasure nor satisfaction. Maria, on the other hand, seemed genuinely in love with her new husband. She wrote to her cousin and now her father-in-law, Emperor Charles. This marriage and alliance make me happier than I can say, since daily I discover in my king my husband and his son. so many virtues and perfections that I constantly ask God to grant me grace to please him the marriage of Mary and Phillips was presented to the world as a new beginning for England a Catholic England when Mary came to the throne England had been separated from the Catholic Church of Rome For almost 20 years in what became known as the Great Schism, Henry VIII had declared himself head of the church in England.

Monasteries and abbeys like Tintern were destroyed because Henry believed they could not be obedient to both Rome and his country. King and country Henry VIII's campaign had been surprisingly successful, but now that she was queen Mary was determined to undo what her father had done, he would restore not only the Roman Catholic religion, but he would also rewrite English history once again, for Mary England was and always will be. Being a Catholic country, the religious reforms of Henry and Edward were an aberration that could be easily eliminated and those who disagreed would be burned alive as heretics, but Mary believed that such resistance would last little more than a year after Mary came to the throne.

Amidst high ceremony and great emotion, the schism ended and England once again joined the mother church in Rome on November 24, 1554, when the papal envoy met Mary for the first time and greeted her with the opening phrases of the Arva María, save you. that you are greatly favored the Lord is with you blessed are you among women these are the words of the annunciation in which the angel tells the virgin mary that she has conceived the child christ after the messenger left mary sent him a messenger to tell her that her prophetic greeting had been answered the baby she said had awakened in her womb a miracle had occurred and despite her years mary was pregnant once again god had smiled on her in the spring of 1555 mary was anxiously awaiting the birth of Her first son, following the ancient ritual of the queens of England, retired from public life and moved to her room here at Hampton Court for confinement.

All the leading ladies of the country came to witness the birth. Elaborate baby clothes were embroidered. Rockers were employed and wet nurses were brought in. It can happen, but no. The baby appeared on June 1st. Mary reported some pain and doctors predicted the birth of the sixth, but the day came and went and now rumors spread that the queen was not pregnant at all, but she was seriously ill, perhaps even dead. It was rumored that a woman had been approached. by the king's men to deliver his new son as a substitute while the country waited the mood turned from celebration to discouragement and contempt the summer was ruined by terrible storms and the harvest failed even the Spanish ambassador was beginning to think what unthinkable in the entire future ignites the confinement of the queen, of which, however, there is no sign, if all goes well, the state of the country will improve, if it is wrong, I foresee convulsions and disturbances that no pen can describe, until the end of July, no one except the queen believed she was really pregnant.

It was a desperate time for Mary outside the palace. Her pregnancy had become a joke. Some said the fetus was a monkey. Others said it was a pet dog. Others still said it would all end in wind but maria did not give up and in july after 11 months of supposed pregnancy she was still convinced that she was pregnant because the messenger of god had told her that she was pregnant, he could not be wrong but finally even maria had to admit the truth and On August 4, without any public announcement, he quietly slipped out of Hampton Court.

The pregnancy simulation was over. It is unclear whether it was a phantom pregnancy or the result of a cyst or tumor, but when Philip realized there was no baby and little prospect. At one point he decided that she had more pressing concerns than England and left for the continent. Mary was distraught and she spent long hours watching the waters of the Thames that had carried away Philip, but theMary's personal unhappiness did not divert her from the policy of religious persecution. On the contrary, perhaps the Protestants were proving to be unexpectedly brave. Maria determined to match her obstinacy with his own.

Hugh Lavrov, a lame old man, and John Apris, a blind man, were taken from Newgate in the cart to Stratford-Lebo and very quietly at the bonfires praising God. elizabeth cooper being sentenced to be burned remained as still and silent as someone very happy to finish that good work lord jesus, have mercy on me, lord jesus received my spirit and these were the last words he was heard to utter, but when It was black in his swollen mouth and tongue that he could not speak, but his lips sank. John Leaf was apprenticed to a tallow seller when he came to the bonfire, raising his hands and lifting his face to heaven, he cried, O England, England, repent of your Sins All these stories were recorded by John Fox in his book of the martyrs More than 300 Protestant men and women were burned for their beliefs over the next two years.

It was a horrible way to die and could take an hour or more while the victims watched. Their lower limbs were burned and their limbs shriveled and blackened. Sometimes out of mercy bags of gunpowder were tied around their necks to kill them quickly. They rarely seem to have worked. Mary was totally and personally committed to the policy of burning heretics alive, not that She was especially cruel, vengeful by no means, she actually thought she was doing good and rescuing England from herself for heresy as a kind of betrayal against God was the worst possible crime and deserved the worst possible punishment.

The burnings came to a head with Cranmer's trial. the man who had presided over the divorce mary held him responsible for much of the unhappiness in her life now was his chance for revenge mary of course wouldn't have called it revenge but judge cranmer was found guilty and sentenced to be burned alive but at that time Cranmer was an old and broken man and the prospect of a terrible death in the fire led him to recant. He renounced his life's work and once again accepted the Pope and the mass. This was a tremendous propaganda victory for Maria, but there was a catch.

As the law stood at the time with his recantation, Cranmer's life should have been spared, but Mary was not going to let him off the hook so easily and both Fox's account and Mary's own letters make clear that she personally intervened to ordering that, despite Cranmer's recantation, he should be burned. Mary's government decided to exploit the propaganda value of Cranmer's recantation by ordering him to read it in public just before his execution. Cranmer stepped onto the specially constructed stage and began reading. Suddenly it became clear that he was deviating from the prepared text and he recanted his statement and then, above the growing uproar, shouted that the Pope was the enemy of Christ and the antichrist and that the mass was idolatry in the midst of curses and cheers, they took him off the stage and dragged him to the place of execution, chained him to the bonfire and then, in a gesture that is represented in the most famous wood engraving of the book of fox bushes, he extended his right hand towards the flames so that the hand that had signed the retraction would burn first.

It was a true martyrdom and the result was that cranma. Death did even more damage to Mary's cause than he had been able to do when he was alive and Mary had only herself and her insatiable desire for revenge to blame for the burnings. He became increasingly unpopular and made things worse for the third summer in a row. The harvest failed and a deadly flu epidemic broke out to add to his misery. Rumors reached Mary from the continent that Philip was having affairs and she begged him to return. To my great regret, I was already starting to get too jealous and Philip came back, but he only stayed four months when he left.

Mary believed she was pregnant for the second time. She even wrote a will that clearly described the Catholic England of which her unborn son was her heir. But in May 1558 once again no baby had arrived and Maria was seriously ill. The Spanish ambassador reported that he found her weak and melancholy. Even though it was clear that Maria would have no children, he refused to recognize her half-sister as heir to the throne. the throne Elizabeth was everything that Mary was not she was young beautiful and a symbol of hope Mary hated her as the daughter of Anne Berlin the woman who had started all the misery in Mary's life meanwhile Mary presided over the most significant English defeat in france after 211 years england lost calais its last foothold on the continent for mary this was a terrible blow that destroyed her credibility at home and abroad it was the final humiliation in september mary's illness steadily worsened and on november 7 He finally accepted that death was At that time he had no choice but to recognize that Elizabeth would be his heir, but he tried to make her swear to uphold the Catholic restoration that had been Mary's life's work.

Mary was not old even by the standards of the day in which she may have been suffering. of ovarian cancer or may have simply been a victim of the flu epidemic that had already killed so many of her subjects that year, Mary died on November 17, 1558. During her final hours, she often fell into a trance-like state. in which he had visions of little children playing instruments and singing like angels, but the fact that Mary had not had a child of her own meant that vision of Catholic England outlined so confidently in her will crumbled the monasteries she had refounded. . as Westminster Abbey here was dissolved and the monks were expelled and the husband whom she loved so dearly wrote that he felt moderate grief for her and quickly began to demand the hand of her successor and her successor, of course, was Elizabeth, daughter of the hated Anne Boleyn, Mary is deceived even in her tomb because she is not buried with her mother Catherine as she had requested, but with Elizabeth there is a magnificent tomb above the tomb, but it is a monument only to Elizabeth Mary, instead , is commemorated with a simple slab of black marble that and the name of perpetual infamy Bloody Mary