The Innocence of Bloody Mary

When I asked my peers who Queen Mary I of England was, most had no clue. A few told me that she was “Bloody Mary”, the ghost that will kill you if you say her name three times in the dark in front of a mirror. While one or two told me that she was this crazy woman who killed a lot of people. Indeed, Mary had gained a rather horrible reputation throughout her short reign. But had she really deserved her nickname “Bloody Mary”?

Mary Tudor was born on February 18, 1516 to King Henry VIII of England and Queen Catherine of Aragon during a time when the couple was still happy and England was still Catholic. Indeed, the king did not even blame the queen for not bearing a son. So for the time being, Mary was praised and loved by all of England. She was given the title “Princess” and when she was old enough, was taught Catholicism. But these periods did not last very long for when Mary was only 11, Anne Boleyn came and changed her life forever.

Anne Boleyn did not at all match the description of beauty, but perhaps that was what made Henry fall so madly in love with her. Regardless, Henry was so entranced by Anne that he threw Catherine into another castle and left her there. Catherine was not allowed to write to her daughter and Mary lived those few years in confusion, not knowing which side to take.

Divorce is hard on any child. So imagine how it was back then for Mary, when divorce was still a new concept and needed the permission of the church.

When Anne Boleyn had given birth to a girl, Mary was forced to be her maid and given the worst room in the castle. She was also forced to give up the title “Princess” and was declared illegitimate. So can you really blame Mary for hating the half-sister that took everything away from her? It is just bad luck that the half-sister would grow up to be Queen Elizabeth I, one of England’s most celebrated monarchs. Mary also blamed Anne Boleyn for the death of her own mother because Catherine died, or so Mary believed, of a broken heart.

As time passed, Mary had four more stepmothers. (Anne Boleyn was beheaded when she failed in producing a son.) Her other stepmothers were kinder to Mary, and Henry eventually welcomed her back to court, though their relationship was never the same.

Henry died on January 28, 1547 when Mary was 30. He left the throne to his one and only legitimate son, Edward. Because Edward was only nine when crowned king, he was given a Lord Protector. A Lord Protector is someone who runs the country until the king is of age. Edward’s Lord Protector was Edward Seymour. However in 1551, John Dudly, Duke of Northumberland, overthrew Edward Seymour. Now the most powerful soul in England, John Dudly was finally ready to put his plan in action.

John Dudly was a Protestant and did not at all want to see Mary with the scepter and crown. So when Edward was 16 and about to die, Dudly made Edward name Jane Grey, a Protestant, as his heir. Jane Grey was an obedient girl who did anything that was asked of her. She knew nothing of the plot and against her will was crowned queen after Edward’s death. She was queen for just nine days. When Mary heard of what had happened, she rallied a group of supporters and when the Council heard of these supporters they switched side and on July 19, 1553 proclaimed Mary as queen. Thus, beginning the reign of Queen Mary I of England. She was 37 at the time.

In the beginning, Mary was lenient when it came to religion. Indeed she even appeared to be willing to compromise between the two religions. She allowed Edward to be buried in a Protestant service and even pardoned John Dudly whom she knew had been behind the whole Jane Grey scheme. Mary even went as far as to be nice to Elizabeth, but found herself unable to trust her, despite the fact that Elizabeth played the part of the obedient sister extremely well.

What really convinced me of Mary’s innocence was the fact that she did all of those things just to be a good ruler for her country. That was it.

So what went wrong? A number of things did.

The Wyatt Rebellion was among them. Thomas Wyatt, a former lover of Anne Boleyn wanted to overthrow Mary and put Elizabeth on the throne instead. The rebellion failed and the burning of the heretics began as a result. Mary wanted to teach all of England the price that they would have to pay if they disobeyed her. She also wanted to show the people that being a woman did not make her a weak ruler.

Mary’s character did not enable her to be a good queen. She tried her best not to let religion influence her decisions as a ruler, but as Mary soon found out, it was an impossible task. Her mother, Catherine of Aragon, can be partially blamed for her becoming this way.

Catherine was a strict Catholic because that was what her own mother was and that was what she taught her daughter to be. When Catherine died, Mary continued to practice Catholicism partly because she knew that was what her mother would have wanted, partly because she refused to share the same beliefs as Anne Boleyn, and partly because she wanted to keep a part of her mother alive within her.

Mary was also a dreamer. She held on to her strict belief of Catholicism as a way of holding onto the few years that contained her best memories. Mary continued to believe, that in the end, things would go back to the way they were when she was a child. Some might have called her foolish but all that Mary ever wanted was to be happy. Unfortunately, she believed that she could only be happy if England was Catholic again. She truly believed that she was doing the right thing and saving her people from the heat of hell.

When Mary saw that these burnings were obviously not achieving the results that she had hoped for, she became extremely depressed. She had hoped for more people to join the Catholic Church, but all that she seemed to have done was to cause her people to hate her.

Mary just made a bad decision. You must understand, she was the first woman to be officially crowned ruler of England. She could not have learned from the past experiences of other women because there were none. She had to base her decisions on what she felt was right. Unfortunately, Mary was not exactly the most brilliant decision maker. Would Mary have stopped these burnings once she realized they were not potent? Unfortunately, we will never know because Philip got in the way.

Philip II was the Prince and later King of Spain. Mary loved him with all of her heart but Philip did not return these affections. He found her boring and only entered into the marriage to be crowned King of England. But when he discovered that he was not going to be given the power to rule, he left England to go back to his more enjoyable mistresses. Poor Mary. She was the romantic kind who longed for an ideal marriage and was heart broken when Philip left.

Mary also desperately wanted a child. She was obstinate in not allowing Elizabeth to be her heiress because she knew that Elizabeth would undo everything she had worked so hard to achieve. Now here’s the peculiar thing. Mary had the symptoms of being pregnant many times. She would experience morning sickness and her stomach would grow but each time this happened, no child ever came out. Mary was distraught each time this happened. She would get her hopes up so high only for them to be crushed again and again and again.

Mary did not know why this was happening to her. None of the doctors could explain it either so she turned to the only thing that she thought could have caused it – God. She thought God was punishing her so she burned more Protestants to try and please him. Mary also continued the burnings as a way of holding onto Philip. She loved Philip so much and thought that since Philip hated Protestants she could burn them to please him and maybe persuade him to come back to England. When neither Philip nor God seemed to have answered her, she burned even more in the hopes of an answer.

Mary’s life was turning out to be exactly the opposite of what she planned. She continued desperately to try to have a child but it was of no avail. Why? She had ovarian cancer.

This was the fate of Queen Mary I: to be denied of her heart’s desire. Why did God do this to her?

Mary died of a shattered heart and ovarian cancer on November 17, 1558 at the age of 42. When Elizabeth came to power, she overshadowed Mary, and for hundreds of years, it would remain that way.