Mary,
the daughter of Henry
VIII
and Catherine
of Aragon was
born in 1516. It
was very important to Henry that his wife should give birth to a male
child. Without a son to take over from him when he died, Henry feared
that the Tudor family would lose control of England. Catherine gave
birth to six children but five died within a few weeks of being born.
Only one child, Mary, survived into adulthood.
By 1530 Catherine was
too old to have any more children. Therefore, Henry decided he would
have to have another wife.
His choice was Anne Boleyn, the 20-year-old
daughter of Viscount Rochford. Before he could marry Anne, Henry had
to gain permission from the Pope.
Henry sent a message to
the Pope arguing that his marriage to Catherine had been invalid as
she had previously been married to his brother Arthur. When Catherine
discovered Henry's plans she informed King Charles V of Spain. Unwilling
to have his aunt lose her position, Charles warned the Pope that he
would be very angry if he granted Henry a divorce. The Pope knew that
once he made a decision, he would upset one of these two powerful
monarchs. In an attempt to keep the peace, the Pope put off making
a decision about Henry's marriage.
In January 1533 Henry
VIII
discovered that Anne
Boleyn was pregnant. As it was important that the child should
not be classed as illegitimate, arrangements were made for Henry and
Anne to get married. King Charles V of Spain threatened to invade
England if the marriage took place, but Henry ignored his threats
and the marriage
went ahead.
In September 1533, Anne
gave birth to a daughter called Elizabeth.
While Henry was furious about having another daughter, the supporters
of Catherine were delighted and claimed that it proved God was punishing
Henry for his illegal marriage to Anne.
In January 1536 Anne
Boleyn had a son. Unfortunately the child was born dead. Later
that year Henry accused Anne of committing adultery with five different
men. Anne and the men were all executed. Ten days later Henry married
Jane Seymour. The following year, Jane
died giving birth to Edward.
Henry now at last had a male heir.
During the reign of Edward
VI she lived
in retirement, refusing to accept the Protestant religion. Lady
Jane Grey was declared queen three days after Edward's death on
9th July, 1553. However, she was forced to abdicate nine days later
in favour of Mary.
In 1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt
and Henry Grey led a rebellion against Mary. As a result Lady Jane
Grey and her husband, Guildford Dudley, were executed.
Elizabeth
sided with Mary against the supporters of Lady Jane Grey. However,
her Protestantism aroused suspicions in her Catholic sister and she
was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
These Protestant attempts
to overthrow Mary made her feel insecure. To protect her position,
Mary decided to form an alliance with the Catholic monarchy in Spain.
In 1554 Mary married Philip II, the eldest
son of King Charles of Spain.
The marriage was unpopular
with the English people. They disliked the idea of having a foreign
king. At that time the English particularly disliked the Spanish as
they were seen as England's main rivals in Europe.
Soon after her marriage,
Mary declared that the Pope was the only true head of the Church.
This was followed by the execution of Thomas
Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury and other Protestants who
refused to accept the Pope as head of the Church. People were also
punished if they were found reading bibles that had been printed in
the English language.
In 1558 Mary began to get
pains in her stomach and thought she was pregnant. This was important
to Mary as she wanted to ensure that a Catholic monarchy would continue
after her death. It was not to be. Mary had stomach cancer. When Mary
died later that year.
Henry VIII's other daughter, Elizabeth,
a Protestant, became queen of England.
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