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Queen Mary I - Page 2
 Mary I, Queen of England and Ireland Mary I holding the Tudor roses in her hand. This was painted approx. by the time she was engaged or already married to Philip II of Spain, the jewels of the necklace and Cross are a proof of that. |
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| Mary Tudor 's accession to the throne -- 1553 |  | |
 Mary I, on her coronation day, swearing before the bible to uphold the Law, her sister Elizabeth following right behind, here they entered London triumphantly to reclaim title and crown for Mary and Elizabeth respectively.  Mary puts her two hands to receive the bishops and therefore she is indirectly promising alliance to her faith that she never denied when in her teen years of hardship with the Boleyn and Howard Family, as well as her father who was the main culprit of her hardship and maltreatment by the Protestant faction that her father was guilty of. When she came to the throne, she reinstated England's former ties to the Catholic Church, and burned and persecuted 284 Protestants, while approximately 800 fled to the continent in exile. Three of the most famous victims of the Marian persecutions were Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, and Nicolas Ridley. Although her reign was no bloodier than her father's, or her Protestant half-siblings, she came to be known as "Bloody Mary." Her marriage to Philip II of Spain was unpopular, because he was a foreigner. The English people started hating her. She died without an heir and without the popularity and renown her sister, Elizabeth I was to enjoy. |
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 Personality : Mary is described as a quiet, caring, intelligent, and very friendly child, teen and young adult, despite the adversity she experienced. But her caring and love for her brother and sister vanished when she finally let loose her rage  when the throne was practically stolen from her by the Grey family, who put the innocent 16-year-old Jane Grey (later known as the 9 days queen) on the throne. Mary rallied an army, defeated Jane's supporters, and was crowned Queen. Her mother was a devotedly Catholic woman, and for years she clung to the religion her mother held dear. | Mary I & Elizabeth I: As Mary was replaced in affection, even before her sister was born, the future Elizabeth, she was mistreated by many, laughed at and often humiliated, disgraced as a bastard Whatever great affection Henry had had for his daughter was dissolved as he sought ambition for a son that eventually led to the unjust and painful, worse than death, life for her mother who died in disgrace, and the beheading of the former "Princess" Mary's enemy Anne Boleyn.  Eventually she and her sister had to find solace in each other, despite of whatever Hollywood's portrayal is always addicted to convict her as a naive and thirsty for bloodshed Queen, she was no more cruel than her father, for every victim that Mary I killed or sent to prison or beheaded or burned, her father would send 10 or 20, it was only a matter of disadvantage and Mary trusting too much where she should have not, she loved her brother and sister very much. She would care for Elizabeth as the child grew, however; as Elizabeth reached her teen years, and she became 13 she went to live with the former widow Queen, Catherine Parr who Mary I, even though being protestant her former stepmother, Mary is said to have loved Catherine very much When Elizabeth went away from Mary and her brother, both sisters grew apart and for the first time, faith and power and advancement for the throne came into play into each other's lives and suddenly the two greatest friends and sisters, became the greatest rivals and bitter enemies in their lives. | |
 Mary had avoided writing the letter during her father's marriage to Anne Boleyn. After Anne's execution and her mother's death, Mary finally wrote it and was able returned to court and her father's good graces, but regretted her action ever after. |  Later Painting of Mary I after her death. 18th Century possibly. | |
 King Philip II of Spain, he grew tired of Mary as she always refused to grant him owner ship of what she considered to be her crown, he left afterwards, no more then a year. |  Princess Mary Tudor after having her rightful title revoked and here she is Lady Mary, c.1540 approx when she was 24 approx. | |
 Mary always had the lack of courage in adversity like her mother, she was not as strong willed even as a child she seemed according to many testimonials, not only by her parents, that she was always very ahead of her age, talking sometimes "indecencies" in front of others or talking back and breaking royal protocol something her father was amused as she shared this likeness with her father, and her mother would sometimes laugh or try to correct her, but she always had a strong humor of laughter and would care less but her own gain In the end her self esteem grew less and less as her mother was left aside, and although her mother wished her to be like Isabella the Queen of Castille, famous for being a woman in her own right Queen and not let the dominance of men overpower her but rather she overpowering men, Mary could hardly stand up to the Independence of her mother and her grandmother, as she saw Jane Seymour as a great role model and become hailed by her father for being submissive in ways Anne Boleyn and her mother could no. Her father, the King, would always call Jane his third wife, his "true" wife and only wife and even be buried next to her after his death, she sought to become the unthinkable and be submissive thinking to be like Jane. Mary became a meek and submissive woman because we can assume this way, she could become a more loving and greatly favored wife in the eyes of her husband and men. She would not achiened the greatness of her sister, who became the Great Queen Bess, and led England into the Golden age even ahead of her death and brought the little island to become an Empire and the Queen of the seas. |  Later Painting of Mary I after her death. 18th Century possibly. | |
 Plaque by the tomb (build by James I) of Mary and Elizabeth in Westminster, it reads: "Partners both in throne and grave, here rests we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in hope of one Resurrection" Elizabeth gave Mary a royal funeral and interred her in the chapel their grandfather Henry VII had built in the Abby, where they are now buried together. |  Portrait which may be of either Mary Tudor or Lady Jane Grey, we can assume that by the way the hood is positioned and the aging face, that she is indeed Mary Tudor, First Queen of England. c. early 1550's | |
| a bit dry, but very informative. | Mary clashes with her half brother, Edward VI |
How Mary has been Portrayed: History has not been kind to Mary I, not since Richard III has a monarch been so consistently vilified in popular media - especially when compared to her Protestant half-siblings or her cousin Lady Jane Grey.
 Kathy Burke as Queen Mary in Elizabeth (1998) Mary is portrayed as a hunched backed, ugly, bitter woman |  Gwen Davies as Mary in Tudor Rose (1936) Again Mary is an old and frightening woman compared to Jane Grey who is lovely by comparison |
 Illustration from Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper" where Tom Candy (Edward VI's pauper) tells "the grimly holy Lady Mary" that she is banished to her closet and "beseech God to take away that stone that was in her breast and give her a human heart" |  Queen Mary, as played by Jane Lapotaire, in Lady Jane (1986) is depicted as one of the villains of the story because of her role in sentencing the execution of Lady Jane Grey (Helena Bonham Carter) and Guilford Dudley (Cary Elwes) who are celebrated as ill-fated, young lovers (in reality they were not happily married as the movie romantically version sets them out to be and set out Mary to be evil when in reality perhaps she is the more human figure of all). Mary's rise to power is depicted in the film as the beginning of a dark time for England. |
 Joanne Whalley as Mary in The Virgin Queen (2005) |
Mary's Legacy:
      (Figures of Mary, and her maternal Family preserved in Wax figures, Statues or decoration for museums. The first ones are from her, her mother at time when she was still Queen or considered Queen in title, and finally the legendary Isabella of Spain and Queen in her own right of Castille.) Mary - as Queen later in life: All of Henry's offspring, all became King and Queens, since he only had one son, meaning they all died one after the other, they all shared and waited for the throne, Mary, specially had been denied this right by harsh and unjust mistreatment by her father's and some of the families he was entrusted like the ones from his wives, as well as by his greedy advisers who sought more then spirituality, political gain and power gain for themselves and the protestant cause they said they represented, they all gave bad treatment, injustice and corruption done against her person, and because her father now had other children who later replaced her she was no longer in need for her father's further affections except show that he was a merciful father in public when still some claim that what she needed the most was being appreciated by her father and love instead of jewels in public and not caring, she was specially replaced by her sweet and Protestant brother, who became King in his own right, Edward VI, who led the reformation and was entirely protestant, Edward inadvertently denied her the right to the throne when she would always refuse to go to the masses held by Protestant reformers, and in his deathbed when a new will was made, to put his two sisters, the legitimate claimants to the throne, that is her and Elizabeth who according to their father's will deserved the throne if there was no heir from another, it was all set aside for Lady Jane Grey. She, Mary acted on desperation and resentment for all the harsh treatment and injustice she suffered at the hands of Protestant and greedy feeble Catholics alike. In the end when she got her throne, one which had been unjustly denied to her for to long and had little patience anymore as she was often a Queen - In - Waiting, but her throne was paved with sorrow and deception as she and her religion was no longer the long favored as before and the Protestant faction was to big. The Protestant which took advantage of the majority of rich white males and ambitious women who were protestant and wanted power, led more of the reformation only for advancement more then spirituality, as many reformations in Europe who later caused the resentment and disappointment of many and led to scientist searching for alternative methods where God was excluded, but in the meanwhile in England, Mary who was unable to withstand such a faction, and since many did not support her as they initially did, she could not really administer the states alone and her advisers were to witty only to gain power and overshadow her, she was also half Spanish which many felt that they wanted a full English who would make the Country proud as their pride was that they had no love or tolerance for foreigner and wanted to keep their full English pride intact no matter what the cost, and avoid foreign interference. She lacked the skills crafted in administrative to administrate the states (even though the administrators hardly supported her and so she hardly had competent administrators, still). She could not ignore in the end the hatred, that she, Mary Tudor sadly suffered at the hand of her father, his mistress Anne Boleyn and her family, in a way her own religion which also left her to fend for herself, and we see a transformation from an innocent and beautiful, natural girl of kindness who possessed utmost sweetness into this person who hardly was her mother or Isabella, she became her father, or somewhere near to it, when ironically she vowed to be her mother's figure, the trauma left her to become the monster she worst hated in her life, her father, King Henry VIII. She lacked the leadership and defiance her mother always had for her father, she would often see her mother make her father look as a weak and feeble minded King and humiliate him very often, she was an enemy worthy of recognition, but no matter how much her mother was fighter and warrior Queen to make her father and everybody tremble and grumble at their knees, Mary could not reciprocate her mother's courage, and she never did so, even Anne Boleyn she would see her do the same but not as her mother, both women would be examples of warrior Queens in different ways for Mary, but she would always lack the courage of her mother, the Queen everybody learned to fear and respect, and that of her enemy Queen Anne Boleyn, Mary for the rest of her life would be passive and unspoken against her father, unlike her mother and rival. |
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