Mary+I+of+England+(Queen+Mary+I)

“There’s only one thing I never did and I wish I had done: climbed over a fence” –Mary Tudor (BrainyQuote). Climbing over a fence is something normal everyone does at least once in their life, but Mary Tudor didn’t live a normal life. In fact, her life was anything but normal. She was born into one of the most well-known families in Royal history. The Tudors reigned for 118 eventful years (British Monarchy). Within those years, England saw its first female monarch (Lewis). Throughout the years of Mary Tudor’s reign, she became known as “Bloody Mary” (Eakins). Tudor wanted many changes while she was in power, and she severely punished those who did not follow or believe in her ways. Mary Tudor, born February 18, 1516, was the only child of Catherine of Aragon, her mother, and King Henry VIII, her father (Eakins). She was the eldest child and the only one to survive childhood (Lewis). Because Catherine of Aragon could not produce a male heir to the throne, Henry VIII “sought an annulment from Catherine”, and married Anne Boleyn (Eakins). This marriage gave Mary a half-sister, Elizabeth I (White). Mary’s father was married a total of six times, and she despised all of her step-mothers except her biological mom (Eakins). As a child, Mary was spoiled continuously by her father. She was the center of attention, and he never missed an opportunity to show her off (Lewis). She was a very good child as a young princess, although there was a period of estrangement from Henry VIII. She lived in “relative obscurity”, isolated from her mother. Although Henry VIII and Mary Tudor were not on good terms at the time, his treatment towards Mary was never harsh. After they reconciled in 1536, the father-daughter duo remained in close contact (White). After Henry VIII died, he left the throne to Edward VI. When Edward VI died a few years later, there was a plan brewing to put Jane Grey on the throne instead of Mary. When Mary realized this, she was infuriated and so were the people of England. Mary was rightfully proclaimed queen in July 1553 at age 37 (Eakins). Mary had always been very religious as a child, so while she was queen, she tried to restore Catholicism back into England (Lewis). On July 23, 1554, Mary met her fiancé for the first time. Two days later, she married Prince Phillip of Spain. In September of the same year, one of Mary’s physicians announced that she was pregnant. Although she showed signs of nausea and an enlarging belly, she had what was called a “phantom pregnancy” which is showing the symptoms of being pregnant without actually bearing a child. Mary suffered from phantom pregnancy twice (Eakins). Before the second phantom pregnancy, Phillip left England to do business for Spain and to escape his aging wife. Mary never saw him again (Lewis). Mary drafted her will on March 30, 1558, because she knew her end was near. Her second phantom pregnancy had left her very ill. She would sometimes drift in and out of consciousness. She was very weak, and had spent her last days in bed with her sister by her side. Mary passed the crown on to Elizabeth I, reigning for only five years, and died on November 17, 1558, at 42 years old (Eakins).
 * Introduction**
 * Personal Background**

Mary Tudor was known for being a cruel, vengeful queen, but she was not always like that (Lewis). Mary had a good childhood as a young princess, but the trouble started when her father filed for divorce against her mother (Eakins). She began disobeying her father. There was a period of time where she moved away from her father because she didn’t want to deal with him or his new wives (Lewis). Mary was ruthless (White). She got everything she wanted when she wanted it. That was one of the cons of being really spoiled when she was growing up (Eakins). When Mary was crowned queen, she was very popular among her subjects (Lewis). As the first queen of England, she had many supporters. The streets of London were filled with cheers as she was proclaimed queen on July 19, 1553 (Eakins). Few were apprehensive about her though. They thought she would be an unfit ruler for England, but she proved those people wrong in her first years of reign (Lewis). The trouble started when Mary was searching for a husband to give her an heir to the throne. She made very rash decisions. One of them being the fact that she got engaged to her husband before even meeting him. Two days after she met him for the first time, they got married (Eakins). Mary’s stubborn and ruthless personality caused many problems during her reign (White). She was naïve. She believed that the support she received from the people of England implied that they accepted what she stood for, but Mary was love struck. Her love for her husband blinded her to many violent protests of her subjects. She wanted to believe that Phillip truly loved her. She wanted to believe that he would give her a true Catholic heir to the Tudor throne. Mary’s false pregnancies took a toll on her health in her final years, but she kept insisting that she was pregnant. She was a very persistent person (Lewis). These qualities contributed to why Mary Tudor was greatly known as “Bloody Mary” (Eakins).
 * Personality Traits**

Mary Tudor’s reign was nothing but difficult. She had problems even before she was proclaimed queen. Edward VI, her half-brother, had excluded her from the throne. He took a stand against Mary because he could not tolerate “bad” religion (Richards). Fearing that Mary would try and restore Catholicism into England, Edward VI came up with a plan to place Jane Grey on the throne instead of Mary. When Mary realized this, she rallied up supporters, and went to Framlingham Castle. The Privy Council of London, who helped Edward VI with his plan, realized their error in doing so, and declared Mary, the true Queen of England (Eakins). Throughout Mary’s reign, she presumed that all the support she had received meant that the people of England accepted everything she stood for. When Mary proposed to Phillip of Spain, Mary’s subjects were upset. They were upset with how naïve their ruler was because she was blinded by love. Mary did not realize that her marriage with Phillip was just a strategic, political move to keep England as an ally with Spain against France. In July 1557, Phillip went back to Spain to “conduct business with Spain”, but that was just an excuse to escape Mary. Mary tried to persuade Phillip and herself that she was pregnant, so that he would stay, but Phillip left anyway. Phillip would occasionally come back to pester Mary about lending him money, so he could help finance a war. Other than that, Mary never really got to spend anymore time with her husband before she died (Lewis). The false pregnancies Mary experienced took a huge toll on her. It drained her health, and it messed with her head. Mary’s servants and subjects became very cautious about what they did and said around her. At this point, Mary was like a ticking time bomb, so everyone around her was always on their toes. With the false pregnancies and the failed restoration for Catholicism back into England, the numbers of Mary’s supporters decreased. Her subjects felt that she was no longer the strong woman she was at the beginning of her reign, and she was not fit to rule England anymore. The loss of faith in Mary made her that much sicker, and her poor health ultimately lead to her death in 1558 (Eakins).
 * Obstacles**

Mary Tudor was known for being the first true female to rule England in 1553 (Lewis). She took the place of Jane Grey, who ruled for nine days, after challenging and successfully deposing of her (Tudor). Many were enthusiastic that Mary was now the monarch, and that she was able to get rid of Jane Grey. Mary’s reign started when she was 37, and ended in 1558 when she was 42, due to a several illness (Eakins). Mary’s goal, throughout not only her reign, but her life, was always to try to restore Catholicism back into England, before and during her reign. Even as a young princess, Mary was always defiant toward her father because she did not respect his religion. She was a devout Catholic following her mother, Catherine of Aragon's footsteps. She believed everyone should convert to Catholicism. In fact, she started forcing her people to convert or they would get punished. The punishment was not an ordinary punishment. Mary would have Protestants publicly burned (Eakins). A Protestant was a member or follower of any of the Western Christian churches that are separate from the Roman Catholic Church and follow the principles of the Reformation (Dictionary). The first Protestant to be publicly burned was a religious scholar named John Rogers. Mary went on to persecute many Protestants by burning them at the stake (Lewis). She ended up persecuting more than three hundred Protestants. More than eight hundred people went into exile because they were afraid they would get burned too. Her religious persecutions earned her the nickname "Bloody Mary" (Tudor). Mary’s popularity rapidly decreased as the number of the burnings increased. Needless to say, the people of England wanted her off the throne immediately. Things worked out in their favor because Mary became ill and passed away. The crown was passed on to her half-sister, Elizabeth, who put England back into the Protestant route it had been taking before Mary’s reign (Eakins). Mary Tudor is important to world history because of her Roman Catholic links to other countries (Eakins). She persecuted Protestants which upset Protestant countries such as the Germany and the Netherlands. In these countries, universities had influenced new Protestant Churches (Lewis). Mary was also linked with Catholic countries by her faith. She was married to Phillip of Spain who was linked to Catholic Spain. Mary reconciled England with the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope. This made the Pope head of the Church in England, rather than the monarch. This connected England and Mary Tudor with Roman Catholicism worldwide. It was her connections with other countries through relations and alliances that made her important to worldwide history (Eakins).
 * Historical Significance**

"Cousins Philip II of Spain and Mary I after Their Wedding." //Flickr//. Yahoo!, 26 Sept. 2006. Web. 31 Mar. 2015. Eakins, Lara. "Mary I." //Mary I.// Lara Eakins, 6 Feb. 2012. // Tudorhistory //. Web. 15 Nov. 2014. **SE #5** Lewis, Brenda Ralph. "Mary Tudor: A Most Unhappy Queen." //British Heritage.// 12 June 2006. //History Net// Web. 6 Dec. 2014. **SE #6** "Mary Tudor."//Bio//. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. "Protestant."//Dictionary.com//. Dictionary.com, 8 June 2008. Web. 18 Mar. 2015. Richards, Judith."Edward VI and Mary Tudor: Protestant King and Catholic sister." //History Review (London)// Dec 2007: 18-22. //History// //Study Center//. Web. 13 Oct. 2014. **SE #3** "The Tudors."//The British Monarchy//. The Royal Household, 21 June 2008. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. "Tudor Dynasty."//Wikipedia//. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Mar. 2008. Web. 31 Mar. 2015. Tudor, Mary."Queen Mary." BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2015. 5 February 2015. White, Michelle."Mary Tudor." //Canadian Journal of History// 3(2009):516. //eLibrary//. Web. 27 Sep. 2014. **SE #2**
 * References**