On this day the 18th of February 1516 Catalina De Aragon gave birth to her only survive child. A girl christened Mary Tudor after her paternal aunt, Mary Tudor, Queen of France.
Her father Henry VIII was overjoyed to have a daughter. He did not care about her gender. She was his ‘Pearl of the world’ and next to Henry was the most important person in England. Catalina was overjoyed to finally have a living child, an heir for England finally.
Mary was well educated! She was thought Latin to prepare her for the most important role in England. She was considered the heir to the throne of England. She wad raised to beleive she was.
In 1526 she was sent to Ludlow Castle to complete her education. Ludlow Castle in the Welsh Marshes was where Princes of Wales were sent for the last 50 years. This was a huge step as it cemented that Mary was the heir to the throne and would someday rule.
It wasn’t till Anne Boleyn came onto the scene that Henry VIII wanted a son. He craved a male heir to continue the Tudor Dynasty his father had begun. Henry was only the second Tudor Monarchs and wanted to do his father proud. Anne had promised him a son. One problem, he was already married and Anne refused to be his mistress.
After years of struggling to divorce Mary’s mother Thomas Cranmer was made the Archbishop of Canterbury when Henry broke from Rome. He annulled the marraige of Catalina De Aragon and Henry VIII and declared the marraige of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII to be valid.
This made Mary illegitimate and stripped her of her titles and rights to the throne. She was a bastard princess of England and her mother was now the Dowager Princess of Wales die to her first marraige to Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales.
After the birth of Elizabeth Tudor, Mary was sent to live and serve the new Princess of Wales. Anne Boleyn instructed Elizabeth’s servants to hit Mary if she refered to herself as the true Princess of Wales. I reality she technically was. Just because her father decided he no longer wanted her mother doesn’t mean he can click his fingers and be divorced.
Mary heard about her mother’s death on the 10th of January 1536. Catalina had died the 7th of January and had already written to Henry. She was not permitted to wrote to her daughter but the Spanish ambassador did try to smuggle letters between the mother and daughter for final four years of Catalina’s life.
Mary was devestated at the death of her mother. She had not seen her mother since late 1532 and was absolutely torn apart by the news.
After the fall of Anne Boleyn and the rise of Jane Seymour, Mary was brought back to court. She was one of Jane’s lady’s and when Jane had Henry’s longed for son and heir Mary was his godmother. When Jane died 12 days after her son’s birth of a post partum infection Mary was said to have grieved for her mother in law.
She loved her baby brother dearly and her and Elizabeth were both brought back to favour by Henry’s next wife, Anne of Cleves. Mary was given lands in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, and was granted Hunsdon and Beaulieu as her own.
Mary and Elizabeth were close but differed in religion. Mary was a Catholic and Elizabeth a protestant. This is just like their mothers and in years to come would be the reformation in England personified. Catholic Mary against the Protestant Elizabeth.
Under the influence of Katherine Howard Mary was belittled as she was in her early twenties and not yet married which was unusual for the time when girls were married off as young as 13. Mary’s own aunt Margaret Tudor was married to the King of Scotland at 13 years old.
It wasn’t till her final step mother Catherine Parr came along that all three of Henry VIII’s surviving children were restored to the succession but the girls were not made legitimate. Both Mary and Elizabeth were mere ladies rather than princesses of England.( Basically the family was a freakin mess)
Mary’s father Henry died on his own father’s birthday the 28th of January 1547 leaving his 9 year old son Edward to rule England. Edward was intelligent for his age. His advisors were greedy and corrupt but under the rule of Edward religious reform was continued.
Mary was not happy about this for she was a devote Catholic. When Edward tried to make Mary agree to his reforms and become a protestant she was in tears. Her religion was her link to her mother and her family in Spain who actually offered to help her but if she had escaped she would forfeit all rights to the throne. She seen it as her destiny and right to one day sit on the throne of England if her baby brother did not have male issue.
Sadly on the 6th of July 1553 Edward VI the last Tudor king died at the age of 15, most likely of tuburculosis. Edward defied the last will of his father and naked his successor as Lady Jane Grey and her future male issue.
This angered Mary and she set off from her country estate in Hudson to gain the throne. On the 12th of July Mary had her own armed military force who believed that she was the rightful Queen to fight for her. However when she arrived on the 19th of July Jane was deposed and locked in the Tower of London with her husband.
On the 3rd of August Mary rode into the city of London with her half sister Elizabeth Tudor and received a wave of support. Mary was considered the true Queen of England and was declared queen.
Mary understood her young cousin was a pawn in her father in law’s ambition for the throne. She and her husband Guildford were found guilty of treason but we’re kept under guard in the Tower of London.
As a Queen it was considered her duty to produce heirs. To do that she would need to marry a suitable husband. Her cousin Charles V of Spain put forward his son Prince Philip of Spain as her husband. This wasn’t popular in England but Mary was smitten with him. Since they were cousins they needed a papal dispensation from the Pope to marry.
The marraige angered the people who did not want a foreign king on the throne. In January of 1554 the Wyatt rebellion broke out. It was an effort to take Mary off of the throne and replace her with her young cousin Jane or the protestant Elizabeth, Mary’s half sister. Mary quickly took it down and executed the leaders of the coup.
Mary married her cousin Philip in Winchester Cathedral on the 25th of July 1554. Upon the agreements of the marriage was that Philip be named King of England but Mary still held all the power.
In September of 1555 Mary stopped menstruating, gained weight and was experiencing morning sickness. The court and the doctors beleive her to be pregnant. Mary was overjoyed for she knew it to be her duty to produce heirs.
In April Elizabeth Tudor was released from house arrest and permitted to return to court to witness the birth of her neice or nephew. Sadly when it came to May when the baby was supposed to be due no baby appeared.
In October of 1555 Philip returned home to lead his armies leaving Mary devestated and in a state of deep depression.
Mary returned England to Catholicism and the Heresy laws were reinstated. Mary repealed her father’s religious refirns and began to execute protestants. In total, 283 protestants were executed, most by burning but some were hanged. The executions were unpopular in Europe and her family in Spain were outraged.
Mary’s husband returned in late 1557 and persuaded her to aid Spain in a renewed war against France. As a result England lost Calais to French occupation. This was England’s last land in mainland Europe. This was a devestating defeat for Mary.
After Philip’s visit in 1557 Mary beleive she was yet again pregnant and her baby was due in March of 1558. Sadly no child came along once again leaving Mary devestated. She had to accept her younger sister Elizabeth Tudor was the next heir to the throne.
In May of 1558 Mary became gravely Ill. She was in horrendous pain from what was thought to be ovarian cysts or uterine cancer which would explain her inability to conceive.
Sadly Mary died on the 17th of November 1558 in St James Palace. She left her younger half sister Elizabeth to take the throne.
Mary was once the only heir and her father’s Pearl of the world. She was sought after by many suitors in her youth but sadly it wasn’t meant to be. Her father’s ambition to have a son ruined his prospects of having future heirs after his son. Mary was once the most loved in England but was made a bastard and put down and ridiculed. This changed her for the worse.
Mary Tudor was the first Queen Regnant of England. She fulfilled her destiny and made her mother Catalina De Aragon proud. I admire Mary for I’ve experienced the same kind of heartbreak in my life. I’m no princess but I too was once the most important thing to my father only to be thrown away so he could have a son. I’m luckier than Mary because I live with my mother but my father tried to tear us apart. Luckily I have family close to me and not in a different country that could help me.
Mary Tudor was an amazing queen and I beleive if she had been given the opportunity she would have been an amazing mother just like her own.
