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MARY I

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 816 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MARY I ., See also:queen of See also:England (1516-1558), unpleasantly re-membered as " the Bloody Mary " on See also:account of the religious persecutions which prevailed during her reign, was the daughter of See also:Henry VIII. and See also:Catherine of See also:Aragon, See also:born in the earlier years of their married See also:life, when as yet no See also:cloud had darkened the prospect of Henry's reign. Her See also:birth occurred at See also:Greenwich, on See also:Monday, the 18th See also:February 1516, and she was baptized on the following Wednesday, See also:Cardinal See also:Wolsey See also:standing as her godfather. She seems to have been a singularly precocious See also:child, and is reported in See also:July 1520, when scarcely four and a See also:half years old, as entertaining some visitors by a performance on the virginals. When she was little over nine she was addressed in a complimentary Latin oration by commissioners sent over from See also:Flanders on commercial matters, and replied to them in the same See also:language " with as much assurance and facility as if she had been twelve years old " (Gayangos, iii. pt. 1, 82). Her See also:father was proud of her achievements. About the same See also:time that she replied to the commissioners in Latin he was arranging that she should learn See also:Spanish, See also:Italian and See also:French. A See also:great See also:part, however, of the See also:credit of her See also:early See also:education was undoubtedly due to her See also:mother, who not only consulted the Spanish See also:scholar See also:Vives upon the subject, but was herself Mary's first teacher in Latin. She was also well instructed in See also:music, and among her See also:principal recreations as she See also:grew up was that of playing on the virginals and See also:lute. It was a misfortune that she shared with high-born ladies generally in those days that her prospects in life were made a See also:matter of sordid bargaining from the first. Mary was little more than two years old when she was proposed in See also:marriage to the dauphin, son of See also:Francis I. Three years afterwards the French See also:alliance was broken off, and in 1522 she was affianced to her See also:cousin the See also:young See also:emperor See also:Charles V. by the Treaty of See also:Windsor.

No one, perhaps, seriously expected either of these arrangements to endure; and, though we read in See also:

grave See also:state papers of some curious compliments and love tokens (really the See also:mere counters of See also:diplomacy) professedly sent by the girl of nine to her powerful cousin, not many years passed away before Charles released himself from this engagement and made a more convenient match. In 1526 a rearrangement was made of the royal See also:household, and it was thought right to give Mary an See also:establishment of her own along with a See also:council on the See also:borders of See also:Wales, for the better See also:government of the See also:Marches. For some years she accordingly kept her See also:court at See also:Ludlow, while new arrangements were made for the disposal of her See also:hand. She was now proposed as a wife, not for the dauphin as before, but for his father Francis I., who had just been redeemed from captivity at See also:Madrid, and who was only too glad of an alliance with England to mitigate the severe conditions imposed on him by the. emperor. Wolsey, however, on this occasion, only made use of the princess as a bait to enhance the terms of the compact, and See also:left Francis See also:free in the end to marry the emperor's See also:sister. It was during this negotiation, as Henry afterwards pre-tended, that the question was first raised whether Henry's own marriage with Catherine was a lawful one. See also:Grammont, See also:bishop of See also:Tarbes; who was one of the ambassadors sent over by Francis to ask the princess in marriage, had, it was said, started an objection that she might possibly be considered illegitimate on account of her mother having been once the wife of hqr father's See also:brother. The statement was a mere pretence to See also:shield the See also:king when the unpopularity of the See also:divorce became apparent. It is proved to be untrue by the strongest See also:evidence, for we have See also:pretty full contemporary records of the whole negotiation. On the contrary, it is quite clear that Henry, who had already for some time conceived the project of a divorce, kept the matter a dead See also:secret, and was particularly anxious that the French ambassadors should not know it, while he used his daughter's hand as a bait for a new alliance. The alliance itself, however, was actually concluded by a treaty dated See also:Westminster, the 3oth of See also:April 1527, ,in which it was provided, as regards the Princess Mary, that she should be married either to Francis himself or to his second son Henry See also:duke of See also:Orleans. But the real See also:object was only to See also:lay the See also:foundation of a perfect mutual understanding between the two See also:kings, which Wolsey soon after went into See also:France to confirm.

During the next nine years the life of (Mary, as well as that of her mother, was rendered miserable by the conduct of Henry VIII. in seeking a divorce. During most of that.See also:

period mother and daughter seem to have been kept apart. Possibly Queen Catherine had the harder trial; but Mary's was scarcely less severe. Removed from court and treated as a See also:bastard, she was, on the birth of See also:Anne See also:Boleyn's daughter, required to give up the dignity of princess and acknowledge the See also:illegitimacy of her own birth. On her refusal her household was broken up, and she was sent to See also:Hatfield to See also:act as See also:lady-in-waiting to her own See also:infant half-sister. Nor was even this the worst of her trials; her very life was in danger from the hatred of Anne Boleyn. Her See also:health, moreover, was indifferent, and even when she was seriously See also:ill, although Henry sent his own physician, Dr Buttes, to attend her, he declined to let her mother visit her. So also at her mother's See also:death, in See also:January 1536, she was forbidden to take a last farewell of her. But in May following another See also:change occurred. Anne Boleyn, the real cause of all her miseries, See also:fell under the king's displeasure and was put to death. Mary was then urged to make a humble submission to her father as the means of recovering his favour, and after a See also:good See also:deal of correspondencewith the king's secretary, See also:Cromwell, she actually did so. The terms exacted of her were See also:bitter in the extreme, but there was no See also:chance of making life tolerable otherwise, if indeed she was permitted to live at all; and the poor friendless girl, absolutely at the See also:mercy of a father who could See also:brook no See also:contradiction, at length subscribed an act of submission, acknowledging the king as " Supreme See also:Head of the See also:Church of England under See also:Christ," repudiating the pone'% authority, and confessing that the marriage between her father and mother " was by See also:God's See also:law and See also:man's law incestuous and unlawful." No act, perhaps, in the whole of Henry's reign gives us a more painful See also:idea of his revolting despotism.

Mary was a high-spirited girl, and undoubtedly popular. All See also:

Europe looked upon her at that time as the only. legitimate child of her father, but her father himself compelled her to disown the See also:title and pass an unjust stigma on her own birth and her mother's good name. Nevertheless Henry was now reconciled to her, and gave her a household in some degree suitable to her See also:rank. During the See also:rest of the reign we hear little about her except in connexion with a number of new marriage projects taken up and abandoned successively, one of which, to the See also:count See also:palatine See also:Philip, duke of See also:Bavaria, was specially repugnant to her in the matter of See also:religion. Her privy See also:purse expenses for nearly the whole of this period have been published, and show that Hatfield, See also:Beaulieu or Newhall in See also:Essex, See also:Richmond and See also:Hunsdon were among her principal places of See also:residence. Although she was still treated as of illegitimate birth, it was believed that the king, having obtained from See also:parliament the extraordinary See also:power to dispose of the See also:crown by will, would restore her to her See also:place in the See also:succession, and three years before his death she was so restored by See also:statute, but still under conditions to be regulated by her father's will. Under the reign of her brother, See also:Edward VI. she was again subjected to severe trials, which at one time made her seriously meditate taking See also:flight and escaping abroad. Edward himself indeed seems to have been personally not unkind to her, but the religious revolution in his reign assumed proportions such as it had not done before, and Mary, who had done sufficient violence to her own convictions in submitting to a despotic father, was not disposed to yield an equally tame obedience to authority exercised by a factious council in the name of a younger brother not yet come to years of discretion. Besides, the cause of the See also:pope was naturally her own. In spite of the forced See also:declaration formerly wrung from herself, no one really regarded her as a bastard, and the full recognition of her rights depended on the recognition of the pope as head of the Church. Hence, when Edward's parliament passed an Act of Uniformity enjoining services in See also:English and communion in both kinds, the law appeared to her totally void of authority, and she insisted on having See also:Mass in her own private See also:chapel under the old See also:form. When ordered to desist, she appealed for See also:protection to the emperor Charles V., who, being her cousin, intervened for some time not ineffectually, threatening See also:war with England if her religious See also:liberty was interfered with.

But Edward's_ court was composed of factions of which the most violent eventually carried the See also:

day. See also:Lord See also:Seymour, the See also:admiral, was attainted of See also:treason and beheaded in 1549. His brother, the See also:Protector See also:Somerset, met with the same See also:fate in 1552. See also:Dudley, duke of See also:Northumberland, then became See also:paramount in the privy council, and easily obtained the See also:sanction of the young king to those schemes for altering the succession which led immediately after his death to the usurpation of Lady Jane See also:Grey. Dudley had, in fact, overawed all the rest of the privy council, and when the event occurred he took such energetic See also:measures to give effect to the See also:scheme that Lady Jane was actually recognized as queen for some days, and Mary had even to See also:fly from Hunsdon into See also:Norfolk. But the See also:country was really devoted to her cause, as indeed her right in law was unquestionable, and before many days she was royally received in See also:London, and took up her See also:abode within the See also:Tower. Her first acts at the beginning of her reign displayed a See also:character very different from that which she still holds in popular estimation. Her clemency towards those who had taken up arms against her was altogether remarkable. She released from See also:prison Lady Jane's father, See also:Suffolk, and had difficulty even in See also:signing the See also:warrant for the See also:execution of Northumberland. Lady Jane herself she fully meant to spare, and did spare till after See also:Wyatt's formidable insurrection. Her conduct, indeed, was in every respect conciliatory and pacific, and so far as theydepended on her See also:personal character the prospects of the new reign might have appeared altogether favourable. But unfortunately her position was one of See also:peculiar difficulty, and the policy on which she determined was far from judicious.

In-experienced in the See also:

art of governing, she had no trusty councillor but See also:Gardiner; every other member of the council had been more or less implicated in the See also:conspiracy against her. And though she valued Gardiner's See also:advice she was naturally led to rely even more on that of her cousin, the emperor, who had been her mother's friend in adversity, and had done such material service to herself in the preceding reign. Following the emperor's guidance she determined almost from the first to make his son Philip her See also:husband, though she was eleven years his See also:senior. She was also strongly desirous of restoring the old religion and wiping out the stigma of illegitimacy upon her birth, so that she might not seem to reign by virtue of a mere See also:parliamentary See also:settlement. Each of these different See also:objects was attended by difficulties or objections peculiar to itself; but the marriage was the most unpopular of all. A restoration of the old religion threatened to deprive the new owners of See also:abbey lands of their easy and comfortable acquisitions; and it was only with an See also:express See also:reservation of their interests that the thing was actually accomplished. A declaration of her own See also:legitimacy necessarily See also:cast a slur on that of her sister See also:Elizabeth, and cut her off from the succession. But the marriage promised to throw England into the arms of See also:Spain and place the resources of the See also:kingdom at the command of the emperor's son. The See also:Commons sent her a deputation to entreat that she would not marry a foreigner, and when her See also:resolution was known insurrections See also:broke out in different parts of the country. Suffolk, whose first See also:rebellion had been pardoned, proclaimed Lady Jane Grey again in See also:Leicestershire, while young Wyatt raised the See also:county of See also:Kent and, though denied See also:access by London See also:Bridge, led his men See also:round by See also:Kingston to the very See also:gates of London before he was repulsed. In the midst of the danger Mary showed great intrepidity, and the rebellion was presently quelled; after which, unhappily, she got leave to pursue her own course unchecked. She married Philip, restored the old religion, and got Cardinal See also:Pole to come over and absolve the kingdom from its past disobedience to the See also:Holy See.

It was a more than questionable policy thus to ally England with Spain—a power then actually at war with France. By the treaty, indeed, England was to remain neutral; but the force of events, in the end, compelled her, as might have been expected, to take part in the See also:

quarrel. Meanwhile the country was full of See also:faction, and seditious See also:pamphlets of See also:Protestant origin inflamed the See also:people with hatred against the Spaniards. Philip's Spanish followers met with See also:positive ill-usage everywhere, and violent outbreaks occurred. A See also:year after his marriage Philip went over to See also:Brussels to receive from his father the government of the See also:Low Countries and afterwards the kingdom of Spain. Much to Mary's See also:distress, his See also:absence was prolonged for a year and a half, and when he returned in See also:March 1557 it was only to commit England completely to the war; after which he went back to Brussels in July, to return no more to England. Hostilities with France were inevitable, because France had encouraged disaffection among Mary's subjects, even during the brief truce of Vaucelles. Conspiracies had been hatched by English refugees in See also:Paris, and an See also:attempt to seize See also:Scarborough had been made with the aid of vessels from the See also:Seine. But perhaps the strangest thing about the situation was that the pope took part with France against Spain; and so the very marriage which Mary had contracted to bring England back to the Holy See made her the wife of the pope's enemy. It was, moreover, this war with France that occasioned the final calamity of the loss of See also:Calais, which sank so deeply into Mary's See also:heart some time before she died. The cruel persecution of the Protestants, which has cast so much See also:infamy upon her reign, was not due, as commonly supposed, to inhumanity on her part. When the kingdom was reconciled to See also:Rome and absolved by Cardinal Pole, it followed, almost as a matter of See also:necessity, that the old See also:heresy See also:laws should be revived, as they were then by Act of Parliament.

They had been abolished by the Protector Somerset for the express purpose of promoting changes of See also:

doctrine which did violence to what was still the prevailing religious sentiment; and now the old religion required to be protected from insult and fanatical outrages. Doubts were See also:felt as to the result even from the first; but the law having been once passed could not be relaxed merely because the victims were so numerous; for that would only have encouraged the irreverence which it was intended to check. No doubt there were milder men among the heretics, but as a class their stern fanaticism and ill-will to the old religion made them dangerous, even to the public See also:peace. See also:Rogers, the first of the martyrs, was burnt on the 4th of February 1555. See also:Hooper, bishop of See also:Gloucester, had been condemned six days before, and suffered the same fate upon the 9th. From this time the persecution went on uninterrupted for three years and three quarters, numbering among its victims See also:Ridley, See also:Latimer and See also:Cranmer. It came to an end at last on the death of Mary. It seems to have been more severe in the eastern and See also:southern parts of England, and the largest number of sufferers was naturally in the See also:diocese of See also:Bonner, bishop of London. From first to last nearly three See also:hundred victims are known to have perished at the stake; and their fate certainly created a revulsion against Rome that nothing else was likely to have effected. Mary was of weak constitution and subject to frequent illnesses, both before and after her See also:accession. One See also:special infirmity caused her to believe a few months after her marriage that she was with child, and thanksgiving services were ordered throughout the diocese of London in See also:November 1554. The same delusion recurred in March 1558, when though she did not make her expectation public, she See also:drew up a will in anticipation of the dangers of childbirth, constituting her husband See also:regent during the minority of her prospective See also:heir.

To this she added a See also:

codicil on the 28th of See also:October following, when the illness that was to be her last had set in, showing that she had ceased to have much expectation of maternity, and earnestly entreating her " next heir and successor by the laws " (whom she did not name) to allow execution of the See also:instrument. She died on the 17th of November. Her name deserved better treatment than it has generally met with; for she was far from cruel. Her kindness to poor people is undoubted, and the severe execution of her laws seemed only a necessity. Even in this matter, moreover, she was alive to the injustice with which the law was usually strained in behalf of the See also:prerogative; and in appointing See also:Sir See also:Richard See also:Morgan See also:chief See also:justice of the See also:Common Pleas she charged him " not to sit in See also:judgment otherwise for her See also:highness than for her subjects," and to avoid the old See also:error of refusing to admit witnesses against the Crown (See also:Holinshed III. 1112). Her conduct as queen was certainly governed by the best possible intentions; and it is evident that her very zeal for goodness caused most of the trouble she brought upon herself. Her subjects were entirely released, -even by papal authority, from any See also:obligation to restore the confiscated lands of the Church. But she herself made it an object, at her own expense, to restore several of the monasteries; and courtiers who did not like to follow her example, encouraged the fanatics to spread an alarm that it would even yet be made compulsory. So the worldly minded joined hands with the godly heretics in stirring up enmity against her. (J.

End of Article: MARY I

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