Good evening, my dears. Today I would like to tell you about a very interesting historical person, about whom there are many legends and histories, namely Mary I Tudor, nicknamed "Bloody Mary".
the birth of the daughter of the English king Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon was a real miracle. Before her, all the queen's pregnancies ended with the child dying in the mother's womb or immediately after giving birth. therefore, the happiness of the parents knew no bounds when they finally had a live, healthy baby girl, who was named in honor of Henry's beloved sister, Mary Tudor, Queen of France.
the girl grew up, got an education, was engaged in horse riding and falconry, and also studied the work of Christian poets and, for fun, read stories about women who sacrificed themselves - Christian saints and ancient warrior maidens.
Her life changed when Henry decided to annul the marriage with her mother, as a result of which Maria lost all rights to the crown, turning into an illegitimate daughter. in the following years, her life depended on how her relationship with her stepmothers developed (and she had plenty of them - Henry VIII married 6 times, and all his wives, except the last one, either died, or he executed them, or divorced them) . so, for example, in his father's second wife, Anna Boleyn, whom he later beheaded due to a false accusation of treason, Mary was made a servant of the queen.
But her fate is such that at the age of 37 she still becomes the queen of England.
🖇️ Where did the nickname "bloody" come from?
• it turns out that Maria was not called "bloody" during her life. The nickname "Bloody Mary" appeared in English written sources only at the beginning of the 17th century, about half a century after her death!
•On the contrary, during her lifetime Maria was known as the kindest and most merciful ruler of England in the 16th century. if you compare the degree of bloodthirstiness of Maria and her father with her successor-sister Elizabeth I, then you get a completely different picture.
•Under Henry VIII, 72,000 people were executed, under Elizabeth I there were 89,000 executed, and under Mary - only 287! that is, the same "Bloody Mary" executed 250 times less people than her father, and 310 times less than her younger sister!
•because under Maria I the common people were not executed (with the exception of a few isolated cases), mostly representatives of the elite were executed, for example, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and his close associates. And during the reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, mass executions were carried out. under her father, most of the executed consisted of peasants.
•At that time, it became more profitable to sell sheep's wool to the Netherlands than grain, and much less labor was needed to graze sheep than to grow grain. therefore, land plots were taken from the peasants en masse, which immediately turned into fenced pastures. Many peasants throughout the kingdom were left without land and homes. They were forced to wander, begging for alms. then Henry VIII decided to get rid of the surplus population, which did not bring him any economic benefit, and established the death penalty for vagrancy and begging.
under Elizabeth I, to the mass executions of the homeless and beggars, which resumed again under her, mass executions of participants in popular uprisings were added (they began to occur almost every hour) plus executions of women suspected of witchcraft.
•in 1563, Elizabeth I issued the "Act Against Spells, Witchcraft and Witchcraft", after which the "witch hunt" began in England. Since the queen was an educated, intelligent woman, it is doubtful that she really believed in witchcraft, especially in such a ridiculous one as causing a storm by removing stockings. by the way, this is a real "Stocking Affair" that happened in Huntingdon. A woman and her 9-year-old daughter were hanged because, according to the court, they sold their souls to the devil and unleashed a storm by taking off their stockings!
•Why then did Elizabeth issue this act? the point was that at that time the economy of England was in a very deplorable state (due to the decrease in profitability from the export of wool and woolen fabrics). Due to this, taxes were constantly raised to make up for the lack of money in the treasury. and the increase in taxes caused a storm of indignation among the people and the above-mentioned numerous uprisings. In order to explain all these difficulties and failures, it was necessary to find a "scapegoat" and turn the anger of the people on him. Therefore, it was decided to blame "witches" for everything. it's like they cast a spell on the silent man, and life in the kingdom is getting more and more complicated.
Taking into account the scale of the bloody massacres of Henry and Elizabeth, one wonders why it was Mary who called it bloody. and the whole point is that during the 16th and 17th centuries in England there was a struggle for power between the representatives of the two branches of Western Christianity - Catholics and Protestants. Henry and Elizabeth were Protestants, and Maria was Catholic. Protestants finally won only in 1688.
but no matter what we say about poor Maria, she remains an interesting person about whom books are written and movies are made.
-Thank you for your consideration 💋
