Marie Ière Tudor
Marie Ière Tudor
Reine d'Angleterre et d'Irlande de 1553 à 1558, Marie Ière Tudor est la première femme à régner de plein droit sur l'Angleterre. Fille d'Henri VIII et de Catherine d'Aragon, elle restaura le catholicisme et persécuta les protestants, ce qui lui valut le surnom de « Bloody Mary ».
Key Facts
- 1516 : Naissance de Marie Tudor, fille d'Henri VIII et de Catherine d'Aragon
- 1553 : Monte sur le trône, première reine régnante d'Angleterre
- 1554 : Épouse Philippe II d'Espagne, renforçant l'alliance catholique
- 1554-1558 : Restaure le catholicisme et fait brûler environ 280 protestants
- 1558 : Perd Calais, dernier territoire anglais en France, et meurt sans héritier
Works & Achievements
An Act of Parliament repealing the Protestant religious legislation of Edward VI and restoring Catholic practices in England, the first major legislative measure of Mary's reign.
A diplomatic agreement governing Mary's union with the Habsburg heir, with safeguards designed to protect English independence from Spanish influence.
A solemn ceremony in which the papal legate absolved Parliament of the Henrician schism, officially restoring England to the Roman Catholic Church.
The revival of old laws permitting the burning of heretics, leading to the execution of approximately 283 people and earning Mary the nickname Bloody Mary.
Mary and her advisors undertook an administrative reorganisation and strengthening of the English fleet, laying institutional foundations that her sister Elizabeth I would go on to exploit with great success.
Anecdotes
Declared illegitimate by her father Henry VIII in 1533, following the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, young Mary was forced to sign a document acknowledging her own bastardy in order to avoid execution. This humiliation, which she never truly forgave, would shape her entire life and fuel her fervent attachment to Catholicism and to her mother's memory.
In 1554, a few months after her marriage to Philip II of Spain, Mary joyfully announced she was pregnant. Her belly grew, birth preparations were made, and the English people waited. But no child was born — it was a phantom pregnancy. The same phenomenon occurred again in 1558, leaving the queen without an heir and deeply wounded.
At his execution in Oxford in March 1556, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who had signed a recantation of his Protestant faith to escape the flames, changed his mind at the last moment. Upon reaching the stake, he deliberately thrust his right hand into the fire first, declaring that this hand had sinned by signing the abjuration. This dramatic act instantly transformed him into a martyr in the eyes of Protestants across Europe.
In January 1558, French forces under the Duke of Guise seized Calais, the last English territory on the continental mainland, held since 1347. The news broke Mary's heart, as she lay already dying. According to tradition, as reported by her ladies-in-waiting, she said: "When I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais lying in my heart."
When her half-brother Edward VI died in 1553, his will had named Lady Jane Grey as queen to keep Mary from the throne. Jane reigned for only nine days: Mary rallied her supporters in Norfolk and marched on London, where she was greeted with jubilation by the crowds. She initially showed clemency toward young Jane, but Wyatt's rebellion in 1554 ultimately forced her to have her beheaded.
Primary Sources
The queen has shown great resolve and remarkable courage in the face of Lady Jane Grey's supporters. She made her way to Norfolk, where her Catholic subjects rallied to her in large numbers, and her cause now appears secure.
The people cried Long live Queen Mary with such great joy that bells rang throughout the city, and bonfires were lit in the streets of London all through the night.
Cranmer, upon reaching the stake, refused all assistance and thrust his right hand into the flames, crying out in a steady voice: This unworthy hand has signed the error, therefore it is this hand that shall burn first.
We beseech Your Holiness to receive this kingdom of England back into the fold of the Holy Roman Church, from which our subjects and ourselves had strayed through the errors of our predecessors.
The said Philip, upon marrying the Queen of England, shall conform to the laws and customs of the realm, and shall introduce no foreign practice or influence into the governance of this country.
Key Places
Birthplace of Mary Tudor on 18 February 1516. This royal palace on the Thames was the heart of court life under the early Tudors.
Mary imprisoned Lady Jane Grey and her supporters here in 1553, along with other opponents. She herself had stayed in the Tower during the troubled periods of her childhood.
Site of Mary I's coronation on 1 October 1553 — the first coronation of a reigning queen of England — celebrated according to the restored Catholic rite.
A market district of London where many Protestant executions took place during Mary's reign, including several burnings at the stake that shocked a significant part of the London population.
Site of Mary's marriage to Philip II of Spain on 25 July 1554, a major diplomatic union of her reign that provoked fierce opposition among the English people.
The royal residence where Mary I died on 17 November 1558 after months of illness, leaving no heir — just hours before the death of Cardinal Pole.