The Bloody Reign of Queen Mary I Thudor

There is no doubt that Queen Mary I Tudor, also known as Bloody Mary, is one of the most notorious monarchs of England.

Although her reign lasted only for the short period of five years (1553-1558), she succeeded to leave her mark of horror in the British history as one of the cruellest and cold hearted Queen ever. However there might be some reasons which could explain the fact of her cruelty and fanaticism.If we take a look at the historical facts and try to analyze them then we could assume that the reason for her irrefutably ‘bloody’ reign may lie in the divorce between her parents and the consequences which it triggered and brought for her. Queen Mary I of England was born February 18, 1516 as the daughter of King Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Argon.

She was the only child of the union to survive infancy. In her early years Mary had a good childhood and was the center of court attention. She also enjoyed the love and favour of her father.It is well known though that King Henry VIII was obsessed with the idea of having a male heir to the throne and as the years go by and Mary remained his sole legitimate offspring, the King started to search for alternatives and decided to find a way to divorce Catherine of Argon and to remarry Ann Boleyn. In my opinion this could be regarded as the turning point for Mary’s future. Henry VIII needed and approval from the Pope in order to annulate his marriage.

This was impossible at that time, considering the believes, strict laws and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church.That is why the King decided to make whatever necessary to fulfill his desire and as a result split with the Catholic Church, establishing a new Protestant one – the Church of England. Afterwards he finally succeeded to have his marriage declared invalid and married Ann Boleyn, who gave birth to a daughter, Princess Elizabeth in 1533. During this time Mary was sent away from the court and separated from both her parents.

After the divorce she was also deemed illegitimate and was from then on called “lady Mary”.This meant that she also had lost her status and rights as a heir to the throne. Mary suffered deeply from the attitude of her father and perhaps this fueled further her rage regarding her father’s break from the Catholic Church. Mary believed that if her father had obeyed the Pope and had not divorced her mother, she would not be seen as a bastard child and her legitimacy to the throne would not be questioned.

Perhaps this is the reason for her turning into bigoted catholic defender and fanatic in her years of reign.However, by the time of King Henry VIII’s death, she had been restored as second in line to the throne, after her half-brother Edward, the male child from the third marriage of her father. After Henry VIII died in 1547, the new king became his young son Edward, who was supporter of the Protestant faith. Mary has hoped that her brother would see the mistake of their father and would return England in the righteous path of the Catholic Church, but this never happened. Edward and Mary struggled with this issue through the rest of the King’s short reign.Edward began to show signs of illness that would eventually claim his life.

Afraid that if Mary takes the throne she would return the Catholic faith in England, some powerful men like Henry Gray, Duke of Suffolk and John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland convinced the King to leave the crown to his cousin Jane Gray, also known as “The Nine Days Queen”. Mary realized that she had become a victim of a plot against her. That is why she decided not to follow the advices to leave the country, but on the contrary. She decided to stay in England and claim her rights to the throne.She saw that as the one opportunity to bring back in England the Catholicism. By the time of the death of her brother and the future crowing of Jane Grey, Mary was in East Anglia, gathering an army of supporters.

On the day of her brother’s death she received from a reliable source that he was dead and immediately sent proclamations throughout the country, announcing her accession to the throne. Many of the leaders, who were supposed to take her into custody after the coronation of Jane Grey, turned on her side and begged for her forgiveness.Soon the Privy Council in London had realized that a great mistake was made by not announcing Mary as the rightful heir and declared her as the true Queen of England. And that was the moment of the reign of Mary. The interesting fact here is, in my opinion, that not each supporter of Mary was aware of the fact that she is planning to restore the Catholicism in England.

It is true though that by the time of her crowing she was very popular with the people of England and had even chances to be a beloved monarch, actually, the first female monarch in the history.Unfortunately the things did not turn out so well for Mary. She was at last sitting on the throne, where her rightful place should be, and finally had the chance to fulfill her wishes and carry through her reforms. The Protestantism was already well established by the time she came in power, so it was not that easy to change people believe and wish to embrace the Catholicism again.

However she was deeply convinced to make whatever it takes and is necessary to do so. This effort was carried out by force, and hundreds of Protestant leaders were executed.The first was John Rogers , the printer of the “Matthews-Tyndale Bible”. His execution was followed by the execution of former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, who was primarily responsible for the printing of the “Great Bible” in English language. Hundreds more would follow in Mary’s bloody reign of terror.

This earned the queen the title of “Bloody Mary”. Furthermore, the Protestant leaders were not the only one who were executed. It is believed that each person who is suspected to have remained with their protestant believes was burned on stake, even pregnant women.The Wyatt Rebellion caused her to burn over 200 Protestants at the stake. That fulfils the horror image of the queen.

Her cruelty was the reason that she lost the favor of her people. She earned the full hatred of England and didn’t succeed to fulfill her desires. Mary's allegiance to Roman Catholicism inspired her to institute social reforms, but these were largely unsuccessful. Her marriage to Philip II of Spain, in 1554, was unpopular even with her Catholic subjects.

Philip spent very little time with Mary, once he realized that she was not able to bear a child.It is believed that Queen Mary died at the age of 42 from uterine or ovarian cancer. She was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I, who quickly undid many of Mary's changes, and returned England to its former Protestant-friendly environment One of the cruelest monarchs of England, who remained even in the folklore as an almost supernatural creature, who lives for the tortures and for spilling innocent blood-Bloody Mary, was actually one of the loneliest and saddest people in the British history. Is not that such a great paradox?Through all her life all that Queen Mary wanted was to bring justice of her father’s actions and to be a beloved queen with a loving stable family and rightful heirs to the throne.

Unfortunately she did not receive any of this and died as one of the most miserable people, hated by almost everyone. Her obsessions and fanaticism led her to her deadly end. Nevertheless she still remains one of the most remarkable historical figures in the British history, serving like a model of what should or should not be done.