Mary Tudor: A Most Unhappy Queen

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Eventually, this mixture of fond goodwill and perverse pigheadedness proved the fuse to Henry’s powder keg. His fury and vengeance exploded into calculated sadism. At his command, Mary was refused food, stayed locked in her room for long periods of time and went short of warm clothing. Rumours were deliberately filtered through to her that Anne Boleyn meant to have her poisoned, tortured or raped. At the same time, Henry stepped up his demands, and Mary was badgered with repeated orders to recognize him as Supreme Head of the English Church. This was, in some ways, the most shattering command of all, for Mary was an extremely devout Catholic, with unshakable reverence for the Pope and all he represented.

The days when she was Henry’s treasure had vanished, and before long it took its toll on her. Mary’s affectionate nature became warped. She learned to meet all opposition with implacable defiance, and to distrust all Englishmen. Half Spanish by birth, Mary became more than half-Spanish in sympathy, and by the time the persecution ended in 1536 her personality was already irreparably scarred. In that momentous, eventful year, Catherine of Aragon died, Anne Boleyn was executed on 30th May, and Henry married his third wife, Jane Seymour. A fortnight later, he won his war with Mary.

On 15th June, Mary signed a document admitting that her parents’ marriage had been unlawful, that she herself was illegitimate, and that she recognized Henry as Supreme Head in Earth under Christ of the Church in England. Exactly why Mary gave in, no one really knows. Grief at her mother’s death, relief that the hated Anne Boleyn was gone, sheer exhaustion, ill health–all or any of these might have explained it. What is certain, though, is that afterwards, Mary was consumed with a sense of sin. In her own eyes, she had committed treason against all she most deeply believed to be right and true. She had offended God, and the crime had to be expiated. To the zealous, guilt-ridden Mary, that meant one thing–avenging the insults Henry had dealt her beloved Catholic Church.

The 11 years that remained of Henry’s life, and the subsequent six-year reign of King Edward VI, his son by Jane Seymour, served to harden Mary’s resolve to the proportions of a crusade. In breaking with Rome, Henry had meant to be Catholic without the Pope, an arrangement which suited his highly chauvinistic subjects. However, Protestant influences seeped through the breach and began to alter the pattern of English religious life even before Henry died in 1547. Henry recognized and reluctantly accepted the trend and had young Edward educated as a Protestant. After Edward became King, at the age of nine, the trend escalated, and an increasingly confused populace was presented with Protestant prayer books, Protestant ceremonial, married Protestant clergy, plain Protestant communion tables, plain Protestant church windows and several other strange innovations.

As a result, the old Catholic religion went underground. Mass was celebrated in private houses, carefully shaded candles were lit before statues of the Virgin Mary and the saints, and revered Catholic relics were concealed in doublets, cloaks, hats and hose. The heroine of secret Catholicism in England was, of course, Mary, the most defiant Catholic in the country. She was also the most vulnerable. With a Protestant Privy Council exploiting to the full the minority of a Protestant King, Mary was again in considerable danger. Her hidden safeguard was her cousin, Charles, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, the most powerful man in Europe. The danger that Charles might invade England if Mary came to harm was crucial in preserving her life and personal liberty.

Nevertheless, it did not stop the Privy Council from harassing her continually over the matter of celebrating Mass. Characteristically, if mulishly, Mary insisted on making a public ceremony of this most careful Catholic rite, despite several pleas from Charles himself that she be more discreet. Since Mary’s person had to be treated as sacrosanct, the Privy Council used members of her household as whipping boys: several of her chaplains and officials were imprisoned for popish practices, and others lived in constant peril of arrest. Mary never hesitated to protest at this persecution, and countered all the Council’s threats with regal contempt. Her defiant courage gave a great boost to her popularity and, not surprisingly, Mary soon acquired the status of a champion in the eyes of the beleaguered English. They had greatly sympathized with her despotic father, and now, some 20 years later, they regarded her as a bastion against tyranny of the Privy Council and of King Edward’s power-mad Protector, the Duke of Northumberland. These feelings expressed themselves in emotional demonstrations on Mary’s behalf, and whenever she appeared in public, she was mobbed and cheered by enthusiastic crowds.

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