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Registrato: 20/08/06 19:03 Messaggi: 16
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Mary I Tudor (Bloody Mary)
Mary was one of the unhappiest of queens. Separated from her mother at an early age she lived a lonely life surrounded by courtiers who were against her Catholic faith and her Spanish mother. In spite of this she was well accept-ed by her people when she claimed the throne as they were suspicious of any change in the succession established by her father.
Religion was her over-ruling passion in life and her main aim was the re-establishing of Catholicism in England. She did this very quickly by annulling all the Protestant statutes and reviving all the statutes on heresy, so giving a legal appearance to the religious persecution that followed. In order to restore papal authority she was advised to marry Philip II of Spain but this projected marriage led to rebellion as it was thought a Spanish king would claim too much power and introduce the Inquisition into England. She agreed not to marry without the consent of parliament and the rebellion was quelled. The result, however, was that the rebel leaders, together with Lady Jane Grey and her family, were arrested and executed, and her sister Elizabeth sent to the Tower. Parliament agreed to her marriage to Philip but he could not become king of England. A great wave of religious persecution followed in which near-ly three hundred people, includingThomas Cranmer, were burnt at the stake, and it is from this that she got her nickname. Her marriage to Philip was unhappy and childless and he remained only a short time in England. He convinced Mary into a disastrous war with France that resulted in thè loss of Calais, England's last French possession.
Mary died lonely and unloved as she had been for most of her life. |
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