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| Mary Tudor, by Antonis Mor Prado National Museum Public domain |
‘Judged as a private person, Mary was probably the most attractive of the Tudor family.’ Eric Ives, Jane Grey, p. 78
Mary was England’s first crowned Queen regnant. Her predecessor, Matilda, had never been able to substantiate her claim. She was never crowned and only granted the title ‘Lady of the English’. Lady Margaret Beaufort passed on her claim to her son, Henry VII. Jane Grey was proclaimed queen but the coup that launched her was short-lived.
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| Greenwich Palace, Mary's birthplace Public domain |
Betrothals: on and off!
Though she was not the desired male heir, she was useful diplomatically, and at the age of two, in a grand ceremony at Greenwich, she was betrothed to François, the heir of François I. But the alliance with France came unstuck and in 1521 she was betrothed to her cousin, Charles V, who was sixteen years her senior. She met the emperor when he came to England in 1522. |
| Mary at the time of her betrothal to Charles V by Lucas Horenbout. NPG. Public domain |
However, the the betrothal was broken off when in 1525 Charles announced that he would marry Isabella, the daughter of the King of Portugal. Mary saw this as a painful rejection, but she still remained attached to Charles and was later to see him as a vital ally and political mentor.
Henry then resumed the idea of a French marriage, either to François I or to his second son, Henri duc d’Orléans. But as she was still only 11, he refused to allow her to leave England, and the French envoys thought she was so thin and small that she would not be physically ready for marriage for another three years.
Education
Queen Catherine took a keen interest in her daughter’s education. She may have instructed her in Latin and educationalists produced treatises in grammar and French for her. In 1523 Catherine invited the celebrated Spanish scholar Juan Luis Vives to England and she commissioned him to write a treatise on the education of women and to draw up an outline of studies for Mary. When she was 15, the Venetian ambassador wrote a complimentary account of her accomplishments, noting that she was fluent in Spanish, French and Latin and played several instruments.The Dutch humanist, Erasmus, wrote: ‘We have in the Queen of England a woman distinguished by her learning, whose daughter Mary composes fine Latin epistles’.
Heiress?
It was a blow to Catherine, and potentially to Mary, when in 1518, Henry’s mistress, Elizabeth Blount, gave birth to a son, named Henry Fitzroy. In 1525 Henry gave him his father’s old title of Duke of Richmond. But the king was sending out mixed signals. In August Mary was sent to govern Wales, the traditional role of the heir to the throne, and she remained at Ludlow for nineteen months. She returned to England in 1527 to find her world turned upside down.Downgraded
From the start Mary sided with her mother. But she saw less and less of Catherine and suffered a range of illnesses that were almost certainly induced by her extreme stress. In July 1531 she was separated from her mother and never saw her again.After Henry’s marriage to Anne was made public in April 1533, she was no longer called ‘princess’, but she refused to acknowledge her demotion to ‘lady’. When Elizabeth was born in September, her household was broken up and she was transferred to Hatfield, to be part of her half-sister’s household. The Succession Act of March 1534 declared her illegitimate. Her situation became so desperate that in 1535 she begged the imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys, to help her to escape to the Continent. She was now thoroughly traumatised and her only consolation was her religion.
1536 was a year of mixed fortunes for Mary. Her mother died in January, but Anne Boleyn was executed in May. In a state of desperation, on 22 June Mary signed a letter of capitulation to her father, acknowledging him to be supreme head of the church and also acknowledging her illegitimacy. It was a dreadful step to betray her principles in this way, and it scarred the rest of her life. She was then visited by Henry and Jane Seymour and her household was re-established. In the autumn of 1537 she became godmother to Prince Edward. Henry now hoped she would marry, but her illegitimate status made this problematic. In 1542 she described herself as ‘the unhappiest woman in Christendom’.
Back in the succession
In July 1543 Mary and Elizabeth attended the king’s wedding to his sixth wife, Katherine Parr. The new queen sought to improve relations between Mary and her father, and this period was probably the happiest of her adult life.The Succession Act of 1543 reinstated Mary and Elizabeth in the succession. Mary was now second-in-line to the throne and her political importance increased. On 26 June 1544 the family were painted together, as a sign that the succession had been secured.
In December 1546 Henry wrote his last will, which confirmed the reinstatement of Mary and Elizabeth though this did not make them legitimate.
The reign of Edward VI
With the death of Henry VIII and the accession of Edward VI in January 1547, Mary became the legal heir to the throne. In April she learned that Henry VIII’s will had reinstated her in the succession and endowed her with estates in Essex, Hertfordshire and Norfolk. She was now a wealthy noblewoman, but her position was difficult because of her refusal to accept the religious changes of the reign that turned England into a Protestant country. In the spring of 1550 she was planning once more to flee to the Continent, but at the last minute she refused to head for the coast where two imperial ships were waiting for her.Those about the king were also alarmed at the prospect that she would succeed to the throne, not merely because of her religious conservatism, but also because of her closeness to Charles V. Yet it was because of Charles’s protection that she was allowed to get away with her disobedience.
1553: the year of three sovereigns
In the spring of 1553, as Edward was intermittently ill, he wrote an undated document , ‘My Device for the Succession’, leaving the throne not to his sisters but to the ‘heirs male’ of his cousin, Frances, Duchess of Suffolk and her daughters, Lady Jane Grey and her sisters. The clear intention of the original version was to make female rule impossible and to exclude his sisters from the succession. The women named in his ‘device’ could transmit a claim to the throne but could not inherit themselves.On 11 June Edward altered his ‘device’. ‘Jane’s’ was altered to ‘Jane’ and the words ‘and her' inserted, so that it now read ‘to the Lady Jane and her heirs male’. This made, Jane, now married to Guildford Dudley, the son of the Duke of Northumberland the king's chief counsellor, heiress presumptive. The 'device' was ratified by leading lawyers and the privy council. Did this make it legal?
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| Edward's device, with its alterations. Inner Temple Library Public domain |
On 6 July 1553 Edward died, and an unwilling Jane was proclaimed queen. Mary’s life was now in danger. She retreated to her castle at Framlingham, where 10,000 men massed in her support. Her great asset was that she was Henry VIII’s daughter and that the Act of Succession had named her as Edward’s heir. Even those who disliked her religion rallied to her. By 19 July Northumberland had given up hope. In the hope of saving their skins, he and his fellow-counsellors proclaimed Mary as queen.
It was her finest hour. By courage and daring, she had mounted a counter-coup and secured the throne.
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