the TUDOR TUTOR
Your cheeky guide to the dynastyArchive for Elizabeth I
A Grey Area in the Succession, part 1
It’s 1553. Henry VIII’s long-awaited son, who became Edward VI, is only 15 and has been reduced to a nearly-bald, coughing, vomiting, bloated mass of ulcers. (Tuberculosis is not pretty.) Who’ll take over when the sole male heir of the Tudor dynasty kicks the bucket? It gets complicated, so let’s have a look at the family tree, moving up a bit to Henry VII.
Henry VII, who swept in from Wales and won the crown from Richard III back in 1485 (thus starting the famous Tudor dynasty), had four children. From oldest to youngest, they were:
1) Arthur — He’d been married to Catherine of Aragon for a short time and died before they could have any children. She moved on to the next son in line…
2) Henry VIII — He changed England’s history forever by breaking with Rome all to try to have a son … and that kid was now on his deathbed. Looks like those daughters might finally come in handy. Elizabeth, a Protestant, had been declared illegitimate when his marriage to that temptress Anne Boleyn was conveniently wiped off the books so that he could marry wife #3, Jane Seymour (sickly Edward’s mom). Who’s left? Mary, a Catholic. Not ideal, but let’s see what the other choices are …
3) Margaret – She’d been sent up to Scotland to marry James IV. Their granddaughter is Mary, Queen of Scots. She’s a Catholic, and not a direct threat right now since Henry VIII’s Catholic daughter Mary is closer in the line of succession. (But she will be important when (a) Elizabeth becomes queen and has to insure she has no other threats to her crown, and (b) after Elizabeth dies with no heirs. That’s some time away, though.)
4) Mary — She married Charles Brandon and had a daughter, Frances, who married a Mr. Henry Grey. Together they had a little girl named Jane.
That’s where Lady Jane Grey comes in: She’s the only legitimate Protestant in the line of succession, the great-granddaughter of Henry VII.
Bloody Mary vs. Elizabeth “Gloriana”
If someone has a bad reputation, it could mean one or more of the following:
-They did things to deserve their reputation
-They made their enemies angry. These enemies then made up stories which were whispered and texted to everyone they knew, and probably posted on the Internet
-They made their enemies angry. These enemies then wrote history books and trashed them for generations to come
The Tudor queens Mary and Elizabeth were on opposite sides of the spectrum, and therefore natural enemies. (When they were younger, they were probably closer to being “frenemies.”) Mary was Catholic, Elizabeth was Protestant.
When Mary became queen, some people in England were just getting used to the idea of Protestantism. Mary’s father Henry VIII had broken with Catholic Rome to marry Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn. This created the Church of England, and the country was no longer dependent on Rome — a good thing in some people’s eyes. But when Mary became queen, Catholicism was front and center again, which not everyone liked. Especially when being Protestant turned you into a human torch! Close to 300 Protestants were burned at the stake during Mary’s reign.
When Elizabeth became queen, she kicked Rome out the back door once again and returned the country to Protestantism. Although she initially fined and jailed some Catholics, she had others executed. Most sources say that she did this only after there were threats on her life. Many say she killed more Catholics than Mary killed Protestants, but Mary is the one with the nickname “Bloody Mary” and Elizabeth is forever preserved in history books as “Gloriana,” a flattering title indeed. Why is this?
Let’s clear up a few things:
(1) Catholic vs Protestant was a huge deal during this time period in England. Remember, for some people the country was losing a religion it had identified with for ages. For others, yay! — The country was losing a religion it had identified with for ages! And if England were Catholic, as it was in Mary’s reign, certain other countries were their allies (which helped for political reasons) such as France and Spain. If England were Protestant, these countries became their enemies. So there was no “Kumbaya, everyone’s religion is equally okay.”
(2) The queen on the throne, whether it were Mary or Elizabeth, had to think about who her enemies were and who had the power to kick her off that throne. At the time, murdering those who could kick you off the throne was simply good politics and was done to help keep the country stable.
When Elizabeth died and James I (who was James VI of Scotland at the time, long story) became the new king, Protestantism was very much supported in England and each monarch from James on needed to keep that in mind to keep England from flipping its collective lid. James and his next few successors (Charles I, Charles II, and James II) either tolerated Catholicism in England or downright wanted to bring Catholic back. Finally, England passed an act to guarantee that a Catholic could never again be the monarch.
England has been defined by Protestantism (specifically the Church of England) ever since, and all the history books that had been written about Mary and Elizabeth favored the Protestant queen over the Catholic one. Regardless of how bloody her own reign may have been, Elizabeth went down in history as “Gloriana” and Mary became “Bloody Mary.”
