Unloved Queen: Why the day of the death of Mary the Bloody became a holiday for the British

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

"Bloody Mary" is not only a world famous alcoholic drink, it is also an informal title that was borne by the English Queen Mary Tudor over the centuries that have passed since the day of her death. Not a single monument was erected to this extremely unpopular ruler in her homeland, and even her tombstone is decorated only with a statue dedicated to her neighbor. How did this once sweet and modest English princess become a cold-blooded tyrant?

Princess Mary, the only and beloved royal child

It is worth noting immediately that the reputation of "bloody" was deserved by Mary, despite the fact that only five years of Mary's life were truly cruel - those that were assigned to her to govern the country. Before that, the princess did not show any such inclinations; for more than three decades, she aroused even her political opponents mainly sympathy and often pity.

Mary Tudor was born in 1516 in a marriage between King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Henry, the very king who would launch the transformation of England from a Catholic to a Protestant country, was deeply concerned before and after Mary's birth that he had no heirs. In general, the Tudor family turned out to be not particularly fertile, it was even less lucky with boys. In a marriage with the Spanish princess Catherine, pregnancies ended either in miscarriages, or the birth of a still child, or the birth of a child who was dying in the first weeks of life. Therefore, the birth of Mary, a healthy girl who also survived infancy, was a great joy for her parents. Although, of course, not being a boy, she could not apply for the role of ruler of England.

The princess grew, and since she turned out to be the only official royal offspring - the queen's new pregnancies ended in failure - the king was looking for ways out of this succession crisis. At the same time, he arranged foreign affairs through the potential marriage of his daughter. Thus, at the age of two, Maria was betrothed to the French dauphin Francis, and at the age of six, the agreements changed, and the Spanish king Charles V became the new bridegroom.

It was, of course, about the future marriage - the wedding was planned when the princess reached fourteen years old. Meanwhile, the girl was growing up, she was very pretty, fair-skinned, with pale blue eyes, red hair, rosy - like her father. Maria's education was supervised by her mother, Catherine managed to raise her daughter, educated, developed. The princess knew French and Spanish, as well as Latin and Greek, studied the works of Christian poets, especially carefully read the biographies of the saints. The upbringing of the king's daughter included music and dance lessons, which were indispensable for that time.

When her daughter was nine, the king sent her into a domain in Wales, which was not part of the kingdom, but was considered a dependent territory; the title of "Prince of Wales" has traditionally been given to the heir to the throne. Maria was not officially called the Princess of Wales, but her high status was indicated by the very fact of her presence in these domains. After spending several years among the Welsh, Mary returned to London and Princess Mary was proud of both the king and queen. But the moment was approaching when Henry, driven by the desire to marry Anne Boleyn and finally get a legitimate heir, would destroy both his connection with his unloved first wife, and at the same time - his connection with the Catholic Church, which objected to the royal divorce.

In the shadow of successive stepmothers

The marriage to Catherine was annulled in 1527. The queen, who opposed the decision of her husband, was nevertheless sent away from the court, she was not allowed to see her daughter. Maria was very upset about the separation from her mother. The death of Catherine in 1536 affected the girl even more seriously. Soon, the king executed Anne Boleyn, convicted of treason, and then married Jane Seymour. In total, Henry VIII, Mary's father, had six wives, he divorced two of them, executed two, one died as a result of childbirth fever, one survived the king.

Mary's life passed in an atmosphere of uncertainty, a constant change of stepmothers, who, nevertheless, did not show dislike for Mary, and Jane Seymour even achieved her return to the court, convincing the king to make peace with her daughter. The condition of the monarch was only the signing by the princess of a document invalidating his marriage to her mother. Mary herself, as a result of the annulment of this union, lost her title of princess and began to be called simply "Lady Mary". By the way, the same fate befell her sister Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, since the king ruled to invalidate his second marriage. The next stepmother was Anna of Cleves (later - “the king's beloved sister”), Maria was friends with her. All these years, Mary was in the immediate vicinity of the court, despite the fact that she remained a staunch Catholic, she did not recognize the English Reformation. Moreover, she remained in good relations with her half-sister and brother - Elizabeth, who will replace Mary on the throne, and Edward, whom she herself will replace.

Edward VI ascended the throne after the death of his father in 1547, when the young king was 9 years old, and he ruled until 15. He continued the religious reforms initiated by his father, while maintaining friendly relations with the sisters, realizing, however, that allow But Edward fell ill, the illness tormented him for several months and, anticipating an imminent death, the young king, not without the advice of his advisers, ordered the further fate of the state: neither Mary nor Elizabeth received the throne, and Jane Gray was to become the queen. granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister. This sixteen-year-old girl did not have any special ambitions, but her candidacy was convenient for the actual rulers. The Duke of Northumberland, John Dudley, in order to increase his influence, persuaded the Grays to marry Jane to his son Guilford, and the dying king to give her the crown. Of course, the girl was a Protestant.

Jane Gray did not want to become a queen or get married, but under pressure from her parents she had to do it. When King Edward died, she had only nine days to rule. Mary was supposed to be arrested in order to prevent Henry's daughter from influencing the fate of the kingdom. For this, she was even summoned to her dying brother, but the trick did not work. Mary did not go to London, but went to her possessions in East Anglia, and from there presented her ultimatum as a pretender to the British throne.

Queen Mary I

Both Gray and Dudley were not popular enough to hold on to power. the aristocracy went over to the side of Mary, and the sympathies of the people then tended to her. One of Mary's first decisions as queen was to validate her parents' marriage. Jane, the deposed uncrowned queen, Mary did not plan to punish in any way and the arrest was supposed to be nominal.

But under pressure from the Spanish king, both Gray and her husband, father and father-in-law were executed. And yet the title "bloody" Maria received not because of this. Taking on the restoration of the position of Catholicism in England, she began to extremely brutally crack down on the leaders of the Protestants. During the years of Mary's reign, just over 280 of them were executed, including high-ranking officials such as Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer. Executions were carried out by burning, which even the Catholics themselves condemned. During the reign of Mary, the first Protestant martyrs appeared. Having ascended the throne, the 37-year-old queen was extremely concerned that she had no heirs: she wanted to get married and soon have a son. Naturally, the husband was to be a Catholic. The choice fell on Philip of Spain, son of Charles V. The husband was handsome, 12 years younger than the queen, arrogant, which is why he was not loved in England.

In 1554 it was announced that the queen was in position. She recovered and suffered from morning sickness. At court, they were preparing for the birth of the queen - orders were prepared even in the event that everything ended unsuccessfully. But by the middle of 1555, the queen's position in a strange way came to naught - the pregnancy turned out to be false. This was associated with the excessive desire of Mary to give birth to a child. The queen did not succeed in getting pregnant and giving birth.

And England did not achieve other advantages from an alliance with the Spaniards, although she hoped to benefit from trade with the New World. On the contrary, England during the reign of Mary Tudor was in decline, several years of bad weather led to hunger, moreover, another epidemic broke out. Mary's early death in 1558 was associated with this viral fever, although there were other versions of the reasons for her death. Shortly before her death, the queen left an oral blessing for her successor, sister Elizabeth, after which she listened to Mass and died soon after. Her death and accession to the throne of Elizabeth were greeted with joy.

And so the life of Mary the Bloody ended. She did not win any popular love. The queen was buried not where she bequeathed - next to her mother. The daughter of Henry VIII rested in Westminster Abbey, in the grave, where after forty-five years Elizabeth was buried.

But what secrets were hidden by the biography of Elizabeth I, the virgin queen who refused Ivan the Terrible.