8-3QueenBeforeElizabeth

 Schumaker 1 Matt Schumaker English 8-3 6 April 2009  Queen Mary, Bloody Mary   According to Allison Weir, author of //The Children of Henry VII//, King Henry the VIII of England and Ireland was most famous for his separation from the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church and his six wives, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr. Henry had been married to Catherine of Aragon for 16 years, when he found Anne Boleyn. She refused to be with the King for a long time, but finally she gave in. By the time they married and had a child, another girl, King Henry was sick of her and moved on to Jane Seymour. He made sure Anne Boleyn was accused of treason so he wouldn’t look bad, and she was beheaded. Jane Seymour finally gave Henry the son he wanted, Prince Edward, but she died giving birth. King Henry’s next wife was Anne of Cleves, but that marriage was annulled right away. Henry had picked her from a portrait he saw, but when he met her, he didn’t like her. Katherine Howard was his fifth wife. Henry found out she had had affairs and she was executed. His last wife, Catherine Parr was probably his best marriage. They were a good match and lasted until King Henry died.  Lady Mary was the only living child of King Henry VIII and Princess Catherine of Aragon. Catherine was married to King Henry’s brother, but Henry pulled her away from him, (Weir p. 125). Katherine was unable to give him a male heir, so he asked the Pope to annul his marriage to the princess. He thought that their marriage would be considered illegal because she Schumaker 2 had been married to his brother. After six years, the Pope still had not granted King Henry the annulment, so Henry declared that the church of England separate from Rome. He named himself the head of the church and had his marriage to Catherine annulled, (Weir p. 127). In the meantime, he had already married Anne Boleyn. Catherine was banished from the court, and Mary never saw her again. In 1533, Mary was declared illegitimate and unfit for the throne by King Henry VIII so she couldn’t become queen. Later, Lady Jane Seymour, begged the king to let Mary back into her court, but she had to sign a contract that said her mother’s marriage was never legal. All these events had a terrible effect on Lady Mary, (Weir p. 128).  In her book titled, //New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors 1285-1603//, Susan Brigden explains that the one thing that helped Mary survive and was really important in her life was her Roman Catholic religion. She wanted to reform the Church of England back to the Roman Catholic Church. She believed in the faith her mother taught her and that it was heresy not to. Mary believed it was God’s will to get rid of the Protestant faith. Her beliefs would impact and affect the way she ruled England (Brigden p. 234).  In the section titled “Mary Tudor, Bloody Mary,” on the Elizabethan Era website, Jane Seymour, Mary’s stepmother, liked Mary and reconciled her with her father. This brought Mary back to the court and paved the way for Mary to finally be crowned Queen of England, France, and Ireland. One of the first things she did was write Pope Julius III, and ask him to take England back into the Catholic faith. She wanted to undo what King Henry VIII had done (Weir p. 135). She also accepted Prince Philip II of Spain’s marriage proposal. A lot of people in England were unhappy about both of these ideas. Many people wanted the Protestant Church to stay and didn’t Schumaker 3  like the idea of a foreigner marrying the Queen. Later, Queen Mary I became known as Bloody Mary because she had so many Protestants killed. 300 people perished in the flames for religious opinions, (Mary Tudor-Bloody Mary). <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Schumaker 4 <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Works Cited <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Brigden, Susan. //New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors 1485-1603//. New York: <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Viking, 2000. Print. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">"Mary Tudor, Bloody Mary." //Elizabethan Era// Web.09 Apr 2009. <http://www.elizabethan <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> era.org.uk/mary-tudor-bloody-mary.htm>. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Weir, Allison. //The Children of King Henry VIII//. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996. Print.