Mary I

Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558) ruled as Queen of England and Ireland starting in July 1553, and also became Queen of Spain through her marriage to King Philip II from January 1556 until her death two years later. She worked hard to undo the English Reformation begun by her father, Henry VIII. While Parliament largely blocked her efforts to return property the Church had lost under Henry and her half-brother Edward VI, her reign saw over 280 people executed by burning for their religious beliefs. These events became known as the Marian persecutions, and later writers gave her the nickname "Bloody Mary."

Mary was Henry VIII’s only child with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to survive infancy. After Henry annulled their marriage in 1533, she was declared illegitimate and removed from the line of succession, but the Third Succession Act of 1543 restored her rights. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, became king at age nine in 1547. When Edward fell fatally ill in 1553, he tried to bypass Mary as heir, correctly guessing she would reverse his Protestant reforms. After Edward’s death, leading officials proclaimed their Protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey queen instead. Mary quickly raised a force in East Anglia, overthrew Jane, and later had her executed.

Excluding the disputed reigns of Jane and the Empress Matilda, Mary was England’s first queen regnant. She married Philip of Spain in July 1554, and became queen consort of Habsburg Spain when he took the throne in 1556. This marriage was unpopular in England. After Mary died in 1558, her half-sister Elizabeth I reversed Mary’s re-establishment of Catholicism.

Mary was born on 18 February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich. Before her, Catherine of Aragon had suffered three miscarriages, stillbirths, and the early death of a son, Henry, Duke of Cornwall. Mary was baptized as a Catholic three days later at the Church of the Observant Friars in Greenwich. Her godparents included Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey, her great-aunt Catherine Countess of Devon, and Agnes Howard Duchess of Norfolk. Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, stood sponsor for her confirmation, held right after the baptism. The next year, Mary became a godmother herself to her cousin Frances Brandon.

At first, Mary was cared for by her father’s former royal governess, Elizabeth Denton. In 1520, the Countess of Salisbury was appointed her governess. Amy Boleyn served in that role from 1521 to 1525, after which the Countess of Salisbury returned. Sir John Hussey (later Lord Hussey) became her chamberlain in 1530, and his wife Lady Anne was one of Mary’s attendants.

Mary was a bright child. At just four and a half, in July 1520, she performed on the virginals for a visiting French delegation. Her mother oversaw much of her early education, consulting the Spanish scholar Juan Luis Vives, who wrote a treatise on girls’ education for her. By age nine, Mary could read and write Latin, and she also studied French, Spanish, music, dance, and possibly Greek. Henry VIII doted on her, boasting to the Venetian ambassador that she never cried. She had fair skin, pale blue eyes, red or reddish-golden hair, and ruddy cheeks like her father.

Despite his affection, Henry was disappointed that his marriage produced no sons. By the time Mary was nine, it was clear Catherine would have no more children. In 1525, Henry sent Mary to the Welsh border to preside—mostly in name—over the Council of Wales and the Marches. She had her own court at Ludlow Castle and many privileges usually given to a Prince of Wales. Vives and others called her Princess of Wales, though she was never formally given that title. She spent about three years in the Welsh Marches, visiting her father’s court regularly, before returning permanently to the London area in mid-1528.

Throughout her childhood, Henry arranged potential marriages for Mary. At age two, she was promised to Francis, Dauphin of France, but the contract was canceled after three years. In 1522, at six, she was betrothed to her 22-year-old cousin Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, but Charles ended the engagement with Henry’s consent. Cardinal Wolsey then reopened talks with France, and Henry suggested Mary marry King Francis I. A treaty was signed for Mary to marry either Francis I or his second son Henry, Duke of Orléans, but Wolsey secured an alliance without the marriage. In 1528, Wolsey’s agent Thomas Magnus discussed the idea of Mary marrying her cousin King James V of Scotland.