Queen Mary I, the monarch of England and Ireland since 1553, dies and is succeeded by her 25-year-old half-sister, Elizabeth.
The two half-sisters, both daughters of King Henry VIII, had a stormy relationship during Mary’s five-year reign. Mary, who was brought up as a Catholic, enacted pro-Catholic legislation and made efforts to restore the pope to supremacy in England. A Protestant rebellion ensued, and Queen Mary imprisoned Elizabeth, a Protestant, in the Tower of London on suspicion of complicity. After Mary’s death, Elizabeth survived several Catholic plots against her; though her ascension was greeted with approval by most of England’s lords, who were largely Protestant and hoped for greater religious tolerance under a Protestant queen.
Mary I was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. She was claimed illegitimate by her father and was forced to sign papers saying that he had never married her mother (Catherine of Aragon). Mary wasn’t allowed to see her mother and was sent away by Henry VIII. She followed the Catholic ways of her mother and became quite religious. Mary was angered that her father was turning Britain into Protestants. When her father finally died, at the age of 55, Mary tried to convince her 10-year-old brother- Edward- to
In July 1559, Mary and Francis assumed the royal titles of King and Queen of France since Henry II had died. Her happiness was short, after she learned the death of her mother in June 1560. Six months later, her husband King Francis II was also dead. Mary was devastated and extremely depressed. In spite of these personal tragedies, Mary chose to return to Scotland although it was a different country from the one she had left 13 years ago. In Mary’s absence the Protestant party had gained power in Scotland by abolishing the authority of the pope and forbidding the celebration of the Mass.
At the beginning of her reign, she made the Church of England the official religion of England and she fashioned her court after that of her fathers. For a woman during that era, Elizabeth was a very daring and smart ruler. For example, she secretly encouraged sailors such as Francis Drake to make raids on Spanish shipping and challenge their naval superiority. When she was a little girl, she was well educated and was able to speak several languages, including French, Spanish, and Latin. In addition, throughout Elizabeth's reign, there was always the threat of hostilities in some form or another. Elizabeth kept the peace between rival leaders of different religions by dominating her court so she could keep the balance of power.2 She was smart enough to come up with a plan which kept the church at bay with their questions of marriage.3 She also calmed the Spanish and the French by entertaining suitors of each respective country; Philip II of Spain and Duke of Anjou of France, but she never married either of them and was therefore known as " the Virgin queen".4 Elizabeth was a Protestant queen who was not always on good terms with most Catholic rulers of Europe. Because of that, there were several assassination plots against her so the Catholics could put Mary, Queen of Scots, in her place. During the 1580's, Elizabeth began to bring her full weight onto the catholic rebels. Hundreds of Catholics died at the stake just as the
When going into more detail about the failed attempts at marriage between both Mary and Elizabeth it is basically repeating the same thing. Which would be that Elizabeth tried but eventually said that she did not want to forsake her virginity to anyone so she had declined any request for her hand and stated that she was married to her country. Mary though did not want to be a virgin she did have three marriages that all failed and even died because someone wasn’t happy or someone cheated on someone. According to both sources by Harmon and Warnicke, both Mary and Elizabeth had some bad encounters with some trouble when they were younger. For Elizabeth it was when Elizabeth found out how Mary had come to get her way into the throne, and Elizabeth found out that Mary was working with people that was attempting to either assassinate or kidnap Elizabeth. Elizabeth kept Mary alive for many years moving her around from prison to prison, and eventually she found out that Mary was plotting once again against Elizabeth so she ordered that Mary, be executed even though she really didn’t want to. Mary too had run into some trouble multiple times in her younger days such as she had multiple threats of abductions against her life. According to Warnicke, “noblemen viewed women rulers as naturally subordinate to them and susceptible, like minors, to their authority if
Throughout most of Mary’s life she had a unique relationship with Elizabeth Queen of England.
The Elizabethan Era took place from 1558 to 1603. The Elizabethan era is also known as the Golden age and was during Elizabeth I reign. This epoch in English history witnessed many threats and changes in the tide of social, political and artistic life in England. This epoch was during the time of the Renaissance and was an age of exploration and expansion abroad. This was the last period before England joined a union with Scotland.
When Mary was the monarch of Scotland, the Calvinist nobles deposed of her, and she fled to England for safety (Spielvogel 408). Since she was the daughter of Henry VIII’s sister, Mary held a legitimate claim to the throne after Elizabeth. In fact, many Catholics saw Henry’s second marriage to Anne Boleyn as improper, making Mary the more fitting queen for England (Sifakis 1). Seeing opportunity in this woman who “had no intention of altering her faith,” the Catholics plotted to place her on the English throne (Black 68). They took part in many failed assassination plots on Elizabeth, one of them being the Babington Plot of 1586. This nefarious plan held Mary’s controversial involvement, leading to her trial, conviction, and execution (Sifakis 2). With a resolve “to end the threats to her regime,” Elizabeth ended her cousin’s life through a beheading (Spielvogel 408). Both Elizabeth’s decision to get rid of Mary and the construction of religious compromise were Machiavellian because of her pragmatic way of thinking to ensure a successful reign.
Mary’s uncle, Henry VIII, didn’t accept Mary having power at her age and he wanted the power. Of course, Mary’s mother didn’t allow that. Eventually Mary was engaged to her uncle’s son, Prince Edward of England. This idea was later rejected by the Scottish Catholics and this led to problems between England and Scotland, and Mary was sent away. Mary’s mom was French. Being that the French and the Scots had a long-lasting alliance, Mary was sent to and raised in France. At the age of five Mary was engaged to Francis, A four-year-old French heir, and this led to many other important changes in Mary’s life.
After Edwards’s death in 1553 his half-sister Mary I (1516-58) became Queen. Mary who was a devout Catholic began to undo the changes that Edward and Henry had started and set the nation back to the Catholic faith. During her reign (1553-1558) hundreds of Protestants, who refused to turn Catholic, were burned at the stake, this led to Mary acquiring the nickname ‘Bloody Mary’ (Steele & MacDonald, 2007).
Mary, to begin with, was polite to Elizabeth. Mary “looked at her sister with warmth and tolerance, provided her reconciliation to the Church could be brought about, Mary was ready, not entirely to trust her, but to treat her with sisterly kindness”(Jenkins, 1965, p. 41). Elizabeth outwardly converted to Catholicism for Mary, though she remained a protestant on the inside.
Eventually, she reconciled with Elizabeth and she became the next heir to England after Mary’s death. Mary suffered many terrible misfortunes over her lifetime from her parent’s divorce to her belief she was pregnant twice. One of the
Queen Elizabeth I left a great and lasting impact on the country of England. She became queen at twenty-five years old in 1558 and reigned successfully from November 17, 1558 to March 24, 1603, a total of forty-four years.
The long, lasting conflict between Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots was the fight over the throne. Elizabeth and Mary we second cousins and Mary thought she deserve the crown. The conflict between Elizabeth and Mary ended up leading to Mary’s death.
Sixteenth century England experienced a phenomenon sometimes referred to as the Age of Queens. The decisive power of the country was placed in women’s hands and their reigns were watched with a reasonable doubt. There is contrast of rule in terms of reigns between Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth of England, both of whom were engaged in a protracted struggle for the English throne. Beside the legitimacy of their claims, there are more significant considerations which predestined them to either increase or lose their power. The rule and attitudes of the two monarchs bore significant influence upon the times in which they lived, including social, political and legal precedents which were being challenged and in some cases reversed. The fact that both Queens encountered situations of striking similarity, serves as a suitable example for a remarkable comparison, helping to analyze the lives of the two Queens and how their lives diverged as a result of such encounters and their actions thereafter. They were both Queens, struggling for the throne, they were women as well as rivals; they both had affairs with married men, however, one managed a narrow escape from the disgraceful situation, while the other failed to do so. Mary grew to hate Anne Boleyn, mother of Elizabeth, because he took the position of her mother Catharine as Queen of England. Before Elizabeth came to the scene, Mary was loved and was the only child of King Henry VIII of
Elizabeth’s older half-sister, Mary Tudor came to the throne. Mary, who was Catholic, earned the nickname "Bloody Mary". During the time that Bloody Mary was at the throne she married Philip of Spain, soon to be Philip the second. However Parliament blocked his accession to the English throne. She burned many Protestants at the stake. When rebels wanted to place Elizabeth on the throne Queen Mary had her arrested and sent to the Tower of London and later on to Woodstock. She remained imprisoned for five years until Mary, near death, named Elizabeth her successor. On March 17, 1558, the last Tudor monarch of England ascended the throne.