Although we are used to seeing a queen on the throne of England, this was not the case until the 16th century. Like all monarchies, men took the throne of England, until Mary I. Mary I is the first woman to ascend the throne of England. Such an important event should have been commemorated in this way in history, but he had so many bloody events during his reign that his name remained to this day, Bloody Mary.
Queen Mary I of England is called Bloody Mary because she ordered hundreds of people to be burned alive at the stake. Moreover, the only reason for such a punishment is that these people are Protestants. Fortunately, Mary’s reign only lasted five years, and perhaps thousands of people were spared death. Who is Bloody Mary, a woman full of ambition, and why she did all this, let’s examine it in all its details.
The boy who never came: Who is Bloody Mary?
King VIII. The fifth of five daughters of Henry and Catherine of Aragon, Mary was born in 1516. All of her siblings, except Mary, had died in infancy. Having studied Latin as a child, Mary was also a master musician like her father.
According to the custom of the time, Mary was engaged to Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, when she was 6 years old, but the engagement was broken off three years later. This annoyed Henry because he needed an heir to succeed him. Pope VII, the pope of the time, to divorce his wife. Clement, but was denied.
Mary is exiled:
King VIII. When his request for divorce was denied, Henry said that the only decision maker of the Church of England was the King of England, and that papal decisions would not bind him. He divorced Catherine of Aragon and married Anne Boleyn. He had a daughter with Anne, who would later ascend to the throne as Elizabeth I.
As she was no longer married to the king, Catherine of Aragon and her daughter Mary were sent to a castle in Cambridgeshire. Catherine died in 1536. Henry later married three more times and eventually had a son named Edward. King VIII. After Henry died in 1547, his son VI. He ascended the throne under the name Edward.
VI. There is great pressure from the Protestants on Edward:
It is necessary to go back a little to understand what happened after this point and how Mary got her bloody nickname. King VIII. In 1534, after Henry ascended the throne, England separated from the Roman Church, which was the center of Catholics, and the English Church was established. With the influence of the lords, great rights were given to the Protestant sect. However, Catholics were not satisfied with these reform movements.
King VIII. After the death of Henry VI. When Edward came to the throne, the prominent figures of the Protestant sect, especially the lords of Somerset and Northumberland, were worried about losing the rights they had won, and VI. They began to put a lot of pressure on Edward.
One move by the lords was the last straw for Mary. The lords changed the throne in VI. They made a series of arrangements for Edward to be replaced by his niece Jane Gray. VI in 1553. When Edward died, it was indeed decided to be replaced by Jane. However, Mary gathered a large army with the other lords of the country behind her and marched to the palace with her half-brother Elizabeth.
Mary ascends the throne as Mary I and becomes England’s first queen:
Mary came to the throne as Mary I in 1553 and became the first queen of England. Having survived the winter but not forgetting the frost she had eaten, Mary I had all the Northumberland lords executed who wanted to put Jane Gray on the throne. His advisory council included both Catholics and Protestants, but the number of Protestants gradually dwindled over time.
In 1554, Mary I’s announcement that she would marry Prince Philip of Spain caused great concern among Protestants because this marriage would strengthen Catholicism. Despite all the objections, Mary I and Prince Philip of Spain married. Mary became pregnant twice but did not give birth. According to rumors, this marriage between the two was only a formality.
Mary I begins to sign the resolutions for which she will be nicknamed bloody:
Mary never liked her father’s decisions that restricted Catholic rights. The actions of the Protestant lords had added salt and pepper to this work. In 1555, a series of heresy laws were passed in England. Under these laws, Protestants were the number one heretics.
Protestants began to be arrested one after another. Nearly 300 Protestants, especially the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, were burned alive at the stake for being heretical. It is estimated that as many people died in prisons. During this period, nearly a thousand Protestants fled to Germany and Geneva.
The queen, now known as Bloody Mary, attempted monetary reform during this period, developed trade with Catholic countries, and even started a short-lived war with France. After his death in 1558, his half-brother Elizabeth took the throne. Elizabeth I became a much more beloved queen.
Why did Mary do all this?
According to historians, the main reason for Mary’s involvement in all these bloody events was her hatred for her father. It was a father figure that he destroyed when he strengthened Protestantism by making anti-Catholic decisions to strengthen the reign of his father, who had driven him and his mother away from the palace just to have a son.
Another reason for all this was the role of Protestants in politics. Since many important lords of the country were Protestant, they were gaining political power thanks to the rights granted to this sect. According to him, the only way to abolish this power, which even affected the decision-making mechanism of the queen, was to abolish the rights given to the Protestants, and even to abolish it himself.
Some historians say that Mary I did these because she was a woman. Considering the conditions of the period, a woman sitting on the throne would not be taken seriously no matter how talented she was. For this reason, Mary took much more radical and bloody decisions in order to show her strength and frighten friends and foes.
We answered the question of who is Bloody Mary, the first queen of England and got this name by burning hundreds of people alive, and we talked about the details you need to know about this extraordinary historical figure. You can share your thoughts on the subject in the comments.
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