The Unhappy Queen Mary Tudor
В previous article was told about the origin and youth of Mary Tudor - the granddaughter of the famous Catholic kings Isabella and Ferdinand. We talked about her mother Catherine of Aragon - the wife of the English Prince Arthur and King Henry VIII. About Mary Tudor's stepmothers and her difficult life at her father's court. Today we will continue this story and talk about how Mary Tudor became the Queen of England and her five-year reign of this country.
Lucas de Heer. Allegory of the Succession of the Tudor Dynasty. Seated on the throne, Henry VIII bestows the sword of justice upon his "virtuous son" Edward VI. To the left of the king are the Catholic Mary I and her Spanish husband Philip II, who bring with them the god of war, Mars. In the foreground on the right, Elizabeth I leads the world by the hand. The world holds an olive branch and tramples upon it. weapon wars, and after Elizabeth comes Plenty with her horn.
The young King Edward VI
As we remember, at the time of Henry VIII's death (January 28, 1547), three of this king's children remained alive. The undisputed heir to the throne was Jane Seymour's 10-year-old son, who ascended the throne under the name Edward VI. Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII's first wife Catherine of Aragon, had been considered illegitimate since 1534. And after the execution of Anne Boleyn (in 1536), this queen's daughter Elizabeth was also declared illegitimate. However, three years before his death, Henry nevertheless recognized Mary and Elizabeth as legitimate daughters and declared them his heirs. Mary was to become queen if her half-brother Edward died without leaving any offspring. The chances, as you understand, were slim, and they were even more illusory for Elizabeth, who was third in line. Nevertheless, the status of these unfortunate daughters of Henry VIII increased.
Opinions about Prince Edward's health vary. Some claim that he grew up weak, sickly and very capricious, and had problems with his eyesight. Henry VIII was so afraid of losing his heir that his maids cleaned his rooms every day, and people with access to the boy were forbidden from visiting "sanitary" London. Others, on the contrary, say that Edward was physically strong and noted his success in his studies.
Edward VI in a portrait by Hans Eworth
As already noted in first article, it was Edward who became the prototype of one of the two main characters in Mark Twain's novel The Prince and the Pauper, the plot of which, of course, was completely invented by the author.
In 1543, a bride was found for six-year-old Edward – the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart, whose mother had once refused to marry Henry VIII on the grounds that she had a “short neck” (a reference to the execution of Anne Boleyn). It should be noted that the Scottish queen was not yet one year old at the time, she was Edward’s niece. The Regent of Scotland, James Hamilton, signed the Treaty of Greenwich, according to which Mary was to marry Edward by proxy at the age of 10, and upon reaching puberty, go to the English royal court.
But five months later, on December 11, 1543, this treaty was annulled by the Scottish Parliament. This offended Henry VIII so much that in 1544 he began a war against Scotland, which lasted for 7 years and was called Rough Wooing. As a result, in 1548, Mary Stuart left Scotland and moved to France, where she married the Dauphin Francis (the eldest son of Catherine de Medici).
Mary Stuart in France in a portrait by F. Clouet (c. 1555-1559)
On 10 July 1559, she became Queen of France, but her husband died on 5 December 1560, and Mary was forced to return to Scotland. In 1568, she had to flee to England, where she became Elizabeth's virtual prisoner. On 8 February 1587, she was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle.
But let's return to Edward VI, at the time of his accession to the throne England was still waging a war for Mary Stuart. He was still too young to actually govern the state, and realizing this, his father appointed 16 executors and 12 advisers to him in his will, and his mother's elder brother, Edward Seymour, who received the title of Duke of Somerset, became regent and lord protector of the kingdom. Under his influence, Edward ordered that masses be celebrated not in Latin, but in English, and the persecution of Catholics was intensified. His elder half-sister and heir, the staunch Catholic Mary, ignored all prohibitions, and her cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, threatened England with war in the event of Mary's forced conversion to Anglicanism. There is reason to believe that she feared for her life and even did not rule out the possibility of fleeing the country.
Of course, intrigues were raging in the young king's entourage; his mother's other brother, Thomas Seymour, even planned to kidnap him, for which he was beheaded. And in 1549, Lord Protector Edward Seymour was arrested and executed in 1552.
Meanwhile, in January 1553, the teenage King Edward VI fell seriously ill, probably with tuberculosis. In April, there was some improvement, but soon the disease came back with renewed vigor, Edward lost a lot of weight and looked completely exhausted. He died on July 6, 1553, and before his death, at the insistence of the lords, he tried to remove the Catholic Mary Stuart from the throne. He appointed his cousin, 15-year-old Jane Grey, granddaughter of the founder of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VII, as his heir. According to the will of Edward's father, she was only fourth in line to the throne, after Elizabeth. In England, she is often called the "nine-day queen". No reliable portraits of this girl have survived. Perhaps she is depicted in the so-called Streatham portrait (a 1590 copy of a lost original):
The way to power
Mary did not accept such injustice. At the same time, she acted with amazing courage and energy, which probably came as a great surprise to Jane Grey's supporters. Mary sent letters to all the major cities of the country, in which she declared her rights to the throne. It turned out that she was popular in the country, and very soon she had a fairly large army at her disposal. Jane Grey was proclaimed queen on July 10, 1553, but already on July 19, this unfortunate girl was imprisoned in the Tower. And only on August 3, Mary Tudor entered London in triumph. Chroniclers wrote that "no one remembered that there had ever been public rejoicing like this."
Apparently, at first Mary had no intention of executing her young rival, who, in general, turned out to be a plaything in the hands of the court supporters of the Protestant party – first of all, her father-in-law John Dudley. However, soon Thomas Wyatt raised a rebellion in favor of Jane, several thousand people took part in it, including the girl’s father Henry Gray. After the suppression of this rebellion, the deposed queen was sent to the scaffold.
Queen Mary Tudor
It is often said that Mary was the first Queen of England to rule the country not as a regent, but as a legitimate and universally recognized monarch. It turned out that the 37-year-old granddaughter of the Catholic Kings, who had been in disgrace for almost her entire life, was a very powerful and strong-willed woman. Later (in 1557), the Venetian ambassador Giovanni Michiel wrote about her:
"Her eyes are so penetrating that they inspire not only respect, but also fear."
Hans Eworth. Portrait of Mary Tudor, 1554.
By the way, after Captain Richard Chancellor returned from Russia, it was Mary Tudor who issued a patent to the English Muscovy Company, the first governor of which was the famous navigator Sebastian Cabot. Until 1698, the Muscovy Company had a monopoly on trade with Russia.
Ivan IV receives Richard Chancellor in Moscow. Miniature from the Illustrated Chronicle Collection
Emblem of the Moscow Company
Unfortunately, many of the new queen's actions contributed to the further split of the country along religious lines. Most of her subjects had already appreciated the advantages and benefits of independence from Rome (including financial ones), and Anglicanism had taken deep root in the country. Mary found herself the leader of the Catholic minority, literally "went against the tide", which became fatal for her reputation. During the five years of her reign, only 268 Anglicans were executed (including the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer and the Bishop of London Nicholas Ridley), and this was enough to declare Mary Tudor "bloody". Meanwhile, under her father Henry VIII, at least 58 thousand people were executed (some researchers say 70 thousand) and "the sheep ate the people", and under her younger half-sister Elizabeth - about 89 thousand. Forty Catholics executed under Elizabeth were canonized as "martyrs of England and Wales."
Catholic Martyrs of England and Wales under the Tyburn Tree (Gibbet)
But in England it was the Protestants who won, who do not want to know anything about the Catholic victims, but who remember well their fellow believers who suffered at the hands of Mary.
At the same time, Mary still showed herself to be a fairly moderate ruler. Thus, she did not take away the monastic lands from the nobles that they had received under Henry VIII. But masses were now again celebrated in Latin, and priests lost the right to marry. Those of them who managed to marry had to either leave their families or renounce their rank. Cardinal Reginald Pole provided her with great support.
The Marriage of Mary Tudor
To strengthen her ties with the Catholic world, Maria decided to marry Infante Philip, the son of the Spanish King Charles V, who was 11 years her junior. It is said that she fell in love with him even before they met, after seeing him in a portrait by Titian.
Philip II in a portrait by Titian
Mary Tudor by Hans Eworth, 1554.
But Philip agreed to this marriage union, which was beneficial to Spain, only under pressure from his father.
Negotiations for the marriage began in late 1553. Parliament decreed that although Philip would receive the title of King of England, Mary would effectively rule, and upon her death Philip would not inherit her throne. Despite these restrictions, many were unhappy, fearing that England would be drawn into foreign affairs on the continent. Nevertheless, the marriage was concluded on 25 July 1554.
Philip and Mary on an English sixpence coin, 1554.
Three months after the wedding, the English queen felt pregnant. Alas, this pregnancy turned out to be false – like another one in 1557. Modern doctors believe that the cause was not only psychological disorders such as self-hypnosis, but also some kind of endocrinological disease. In particular, they suspect that the queen had a pituitary tumor.
In August 1555, Philip left England, as his father Charles V of Habsburg had decided to abdicate and pass the throne to his son. Incidentally, Charles V entered history as the only monarch who managed to catch a fatal cold... at his own funeral (or rather, at its rehearsal).
Portrait of Charles V by Titian
After his father's abdication, Philip II became King of Spain, Naples and Sicily, Duke of the Netherlands and ruler of vast overseas colonies. An island nation of 300 square kilometers, currently home to almost 110 million people, was named after him – the Philippines.
Philip II returned to London only in March 1557 and began to persuade Mary to support Spain in the war against France. His wife allocated him significant funds from the English treasury and promised to provide military assistance in the event of a French attack on the Netherlands. In June of the same year, having finally succeeded in getting Mary to declare war on France, Philip II left England forever.
Meanwhile, the French had suddenly driven the English out of Calais. The leaders of the Protestant party took advantage of this failure to accuse Mary of violating the marriage contract, which prohibited war on the mainland in the interests of another country (Spain). Discontent was fueled by famine due to crop failure, and an epidemic of some respiratory disease, probably influenza, had begun in the country. And the state treasury was empty, and the main culprits of England's dire financial situation were Mary Tudor's predecessors - her father Henry VIII and younger brother Edward VI (or rather, the people who governed the country for this underage monarch).
The Illness and Death of Queen Mary Tudor
In the spring of 1558, Mary Tudor showed the first signs of some serious illness. The illness grew worse, the queen grew weaker, her condition worsened after an infectious disease accompanied by fever, possibly the same flu. We often hear that it was this that caused the death of this queen, however, it is known that she did not die immediately, but slowly "faded away". Therefore, it is suggested that the true cause of Mary Tudor's death was some kind of oncological disease.
The Queen died at the age of 42 on November 17, 1558.
She appointed her younger half-sister, 25-year-old Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, as her successor (i.e., she acted in accordance with the will of her father, Henry VIII). Elizabeth occupied the throne for 45 years, went down in history under the nickname Gloriana (from gloria - glory) and became the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty, passing the throne to the son of the executed Mary Stuart.
George Gower. Portrait of the English Queen Elizabeth I Tudor
During the reign of Elizabeth, the famous British East India Company appeared and William Shakespeare became famous. The "sea dogs" of this queen - John Hawkins, Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, Amyas Preston, Christopher Newport, William Parker, Anthony Shirley and others (they are also called "sea hawks") "earned" for her and England at least 12 million pounds sterling (a simply fantastic sum for that time) by plundering the seas.
Portrait of John Hawkins. Engraving by Willem van de Pass. Greenwich, National Maritime Museum
Galleon Jesus of Lubeck, flagship of John Hawkins. 16th century drawing.
Francis Drake. XVI century engraving
Francis Drake's round-the-world expedition of 1577–1580 alone brought into the English treasury funds equal to two annual budgets of that kingdom.
Elizabeth Tudor Knights Francis Drake at Deptford in 1581
Elizabeth's reign in England is traditionally called the "Golden Age", and until the 18th century the date of her accession to the throne was celebrated as a national holiday - "the nation's birthday".
She was buried in Westminster Abbey next to her sister, Mary Tudor. Moreover, during the study of the crypt, conducted in the late 1880s, it was discovered that Elizabeth's oak coffin was placed directly on top of Queen Mary's coffin.
Westminster Abbey, tomb of Elizabeth I and Mary I
The inscription reads:
"Bound by the kingdom and the grave, we sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, lie here in hope of the resurrection."
On the sisters' grave there is only one sculpture - Elizabeth's.
For English Protestants, the Catholic Mary Tudor remains the "bloody queen."
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