Short biography of Mary:

Mary was the first child born to Henry V111 and his wife CatharinE of Aragon that survived.

devoutly Catholic, her story is one of the saddest in English history.

She was born in Greenwich Palace at 4 am on the 18th February, 1516.

Her birth was not celebrated as it would have been had she been the male heir so longed for.

After the birth Henry is reported to have said "We are both young, if it was a daughter this time, by the grace of God the sons will follow"

As a child she witnessed her father put her mother away for being barren.

She also saw her father disown her right to succeed him.

When she came to the throne she was exceptionally popular.

At her death, just five years later, she was hated and despised by the majority of her subjects.

Her marriage to Philip of Spain was very unpopular, but she loved him dearly.

Circumstances however separated them, and in her last days she was as unhappy as she had been in her youth.

Bringing the Church of England back to Rome was her number one priority even to using force.

What was Mary like?

• Mary was never weak, she inherited both pride and obstinacy from her father and her mother.
• During her youth she had suffered humiliation at the hands of her father
• At a critical time in her growing up she was forcibly separated from her mother
• To be at the court of her father, she had to dissemble her true beliefs.
• When Edward V1 reigned, she had to fight for her religious freedom.
• She had strength and energy, Anne Boleyn once said "I will bring down this high spirit"
• However, she lacked worldly wisdom and political judgment
• She lived in a world of unreality as regards affairs of State.
• Because of her desire to see England back with Rome, she pursued a disastrous policy of trying to convert by force.
• Although her record is unenviable, she was not the only Tudor to persecute her subjects for religious reasons.
  • Henry V11 burned 10 heretics in 24 years
  • Henry V111 burned 81 in 38 years
  • Elizabeth, 5 in 44 years
  • Mary though burned 283 in only 5 years
• Mary was fated to marry a man she loved but who did not love her
• She could not bear children, despite all her prayers
• As a queen she failed to achieve her dearest wish, for her subjects to return to Rome.