Bloody Mary, an unloved and unhappy Queen
English Queen Mary I, daughter of King Henry VIII, was often known as "Bloody Mary" for the executions she undertook. She came to the throne in 1553, and ruled for five years.
Mary Tudor (1516 – 1558) was, for a long time, the only legitimate child of Henry VIII and his wife Catherine of Aragon. This troubled the king, as he was aware that there was no history of successful female rule in England. Also, his own father had usurped the throne at the end of the Wars of the Roses. The Tudor dynasty was not secure, and leaving the throne to a daughter seemed to be asking for trouble.
Henry became obsessed with the idea that a young lady-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn, could give him a male heir if only he was able to divest himself of his wife Catherine, and marry Anne instead. This struggle famously caused a break with the Church of Rome and the establishment of the Protestant religion in England.
As is well known, Henry VIII ultimately ran through six wives in his quest for a male heir "and a spare" - murdering two of them in the process.
Henry's longed-for only son, Edward, came to the throne as a child, but died after just a few years. Mary was next in line. However, as Henry had feared, a man - the Duke of Northumberland - attempted to snatch the throne from her, and put Lady Jane Grey on the throne, having conveniently married her to his son. However, the English people and much of the aristocracy turned to Mary, and she rode into London triumphant.
But Mary's reign turned sour within a few years. She was a staunch Catholic and hated the religious changes that had come with Henry's desire to defy the Pope. She tried to convert the country back to the old ways and brought the Spanish Inquisition to England, burning Protestants at the stake.
These gruesome executions, and Mary's ill-advised marriage to the Catholic King of Spain, turned the population against her. Mary's last years were miserable as she suffered the neglect of her husband and a humiliating and devastating phantom pregnancy.
There was general relief when Mary died without issue at the age of 42 after a reign of five years. Her successor was her half-sister Elizabeth, daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn.
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