Sisters That Changed History: Mary & Elizabeth Tudor Part I with #Giveaway

Blogger: Amber Schamel

In our exploration of Sisters That Changed History, we return to Tudor England and yet another set of powerful sisters, Mary & Elizabeth Tudor. Since there is so much to cover, I have broken it up into two posts. Part two coming July 2nd.

Two sisters could not have been more opposite. Mary was Catholic, Elizabeth Protestant. Mary executed over 300 subjects and was nicknamed “bloody Mary”, while Elizabeth was known for her commitment to English peace and prosperity. But both would leave a lasting impact on the world.

Mary's mother, Catherine of Aragon
(Public Domain)

While Mary is usually thought of in a horrible reputation, if we explore the events leading up to her reign, we can more easily understand her. Mary was the only child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon to live to adulthood. She was baptized into the Catholic church shortly after her birth on February 18, 1516. She was well educated and brought up mostly by her mother.

When her father lost hope of Catherine producing a male heir—at least one that would survive—he determined to divorce her. After over 20 years of marriage, he decided that marrying his brother’s widow was incest and therefore the marriage was null. He broke ties with the Catholic church over the dispute and married Anne Boleyn who then bare Elizabeth I.

One can’t imagine that a girl who watched her father break with the religious leaders she respected to marry her mother’s maid-of-honor to be very excited about the union. Needless to say, it didn’t make a very warm and fuzzy beginning to Mary and Elizabeth’s sisterly relations. If that weren’t enough, it wasn’t long before King Henry influenced Parliament to deem Mary illegitimate, which shoved her from the line of succession and into being a lady-in-waiting for her younger half-sister.

When Henry VIII died, Mary’s fortunes began to look up. Her young half-brother Edward inherited the throne, but Mary inherited estates and palaces. However, young Edward was also a Protestant and wished England to remain so. When he fell ill, he appointed an heir that would uphold their religious reforms. But Mary wouldn’t be so easily passed over.

This post doesn’t have room to go into the entire drama, so let’s just say that Mary got her way. She ascended to the throne and began drawing England back to the Catholic church. Her persecutions are well known.

Queen Mary and her husband Philip of Spain

As Mary grew older, she realized that unless she married and produced an heir, the throne would go to Elizabeth, and all the progress she'd made in reuniting England with Catholicism would be undone. That simply couldn’t happen. So, despite the public’s disapproval, she arranged a marriage to a Catholic Prince, Philip of Spain when she was 37 years old. Her marriage was unsuccessful and after several false pregnancies, she succumbed to an illness that is believed to be uterine cancer or ovarian cysts. She was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Upon her death, her husband, Prince Philip, wrote in a letter to his sister the princess of Portugal, "I felt a reasonable regret for her death.” Such was the intense romance of their marriage.

However, Mary did leave a lasting impact on the western world. She was the first queen to succeed in claiming the English throne. Her reign was a step toward the feminist movement. In fact, John Knox’s pamphlet First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (quite a mouthful of a title, hmm?) was directed mainly at her and her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. While most of Mary’s policies failed, and she left her country in a bad situation, many of Elizabeth’s successes began with Mary. Naval expansion, fiscal reform, and exploration of colonies being the notable ones. She also further pressed the Catholic vs. Protestant conflict, which in turn propelled the Reformation and the translation of Scriptures.

Next month we will move on to Elizabeth I, the younger sister. 

I'm just returning from a trip to Kent, England where I saw the Leeds Castle (Fodder for a future post, but King Henry VIII stayed here.) and I have a Tudor souvenir necklace to give away! It is a replica of a Tudor coin. 
Leave a comment telling me about your favorite tidbit of Tudor history to get your name in the drawing!

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Amber Schamel writes riveting stories that bring HIStory to life. She has a passion for travel, history, books and her Savior. This combination results in what her readers call "historical fiction at its finest".  Her title, Dawn of Liberty, was awarded the 2017 CSPA Book of the Year award in Historical Fiction. She lives in Colorado and spends half her time volunteering in the Ozarks. Visit her online at www.AmberSchamel.com/ and download a FREE story by subscribing to her Newsletter!