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biography
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| female
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| lived:
| (1516–58)
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| biography:
| Queen of England and Ireland (1553–8), born in Greenwich, EC Greater London, UK, the daughter of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragón. She was a devout Catholic, and during the reign of Edward, her half brother, she lived in retirement, refusing to conform to the new religion. Despite Northumberland's conspiracy to prevent her succession on Edward's death (1553), she relied on the support of the country, entered London, and ousted Lady Jane Grey. Thereafter she proceeded cautiously, repealing anti-Catholic legislation and reviving Catholic practices, but her intention was to restore papal supremacy with the assistance of Cardinal Pole, and to cement a Catholic union with Philip II of Spain. These aspirations provoked Wyatt's rebellion, followed by the execution of Jane Grey and the imprisonment of Mary's half-sister, Elizabeth, on suspicion of complicity. Mary's unpopular marriage to Philip (1554) was followed by the repeal of the antipapal laws of Henry VIII, the restoration of ecclesiastical courts and the laws against heresy (1555), and the burning at the stake of some 300 Protestants. This earned her the name of ‘Bloody Mary’ in Protestant hagiography, though her direct responsibility is unlikely. The persecutions of her reign were no more severe than many on the European continent, but were unprecedented in England. |
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