Back to the Tudors calendar
Having become Queen the previous year,
in 1554 Mary married Philip, son of the King of Spain. Philip had been married before and had a son from this marriage. However, her English advisors wanted her
to marry an Englishman as did the general public.
Indeed there was a major rebellion against Mary planned by several nobles. Thomas Wyatt the Younger, James Croft, Peter Carew, and Henry Grey were to
lead rebels in Kent, Herefordshire, Devon, and Leicestershire, respectively. However some spies warned Mary and only the rebels led by Wyatt actually rebelled.
On Feb. 3, 1554, Wyatt entered the outskirts of London with some 3,000 men. Although he advanced quite quickly as far as Ludgate his followers lost
heart when Londoners failed to join their cause. After a brief fight, Wyatt surrendered. He was tried on March 15 and executed less than a month later. Wyatt had
originally supported Mary becoming Queen but, as a protestant, was worried when she started to turn against protestants and he saw her marriage to Phillip as the
final nail in the coffin; as it turned out, his.
Anyway Mary married Philip in July 1554. Philip was only interested in the marriage for political reasons and definitely wasn’t in love with Mary.
Furthermore he couldn’t speak English but Mary was now Queen of Naples and Queen of Jerusalem which Philip’s father, the King of Spain, claimed as his and had
given to Philip.
Shortly after the marriage Mary thought she was pregnant but it turned out to be wrong and then in August 1555 Philip left England to command his army
in Flanders. With her husband gone, Mary had to find things to do and she decided to not only restore the Catholic religion but also to burn many of those who
refused to agree. When she had actually come to the throne she promised that she would not make anyone follow her religion but now she forgot this. She introduced
something called the Heresy Act. Do you remember that a heretic is someone who doesn’t believe the same religion as the law of the country says they must? Nowadays
most people are free to believe what they want although religion still causes wars.
Two bishops, Ridley and Latimer, were burned at the stake in
Oxford in October 1555. They had been arrested earlier along with Archbishop Cranmer who, you may remember, had been leading the reformation. Cranmer was forced
to watch these two burnings and, thinking he was on to a good thing, immediately re-joined the Catholic faith. He was wrong in his thinking and was burned at the
stake the following March. I’m not convinced Cranmer really knew which religion he was as, on the day of his burning, he changed his mind again and said he wasn’t
part of the Catholic faith. It is thought over 300 people were burned during Mary''s reign for not changing their religion and at least 800 noblemen fled the country.
In January 1556, Mary's father-in-law abdicated and Philip became King of Spain, with Mary as his consort. They were still apart. Philip did return to
England from March to July 1557 to persuade Mary to support Spain in a renewed war against France. Mary was in favour of declaring war, but her councillors opposed
it because French trade would be lost, it was against the marriage treaty, and a lack of money from Edward VI's reign and a series of poor harvests meant England
lacked supplies and finances.
War was only declared in June 1557. In January 1558, French forces took Calais, England's sole remaining possession on the European mainland. According
to a story about Mary, she later said that, "When I am dead and opened, you shall find 'Calais' lying in my heart".
After Philip's visit in 1557, Mary thought she was pregnant again with a baby due in March 1558. However, no child was born, and Mary was forced to
accept that her protestant sister Elizabeth was her lawful successor.
Mary was weak and ill from May 1558 and she died on 17 November 1558 aged 42 at St. James's Palace, during an influenza epidemic that also claimed the life of the Archbishop of Canterbury on the same day. Philip, still overseas, wrote to his sister and said that “I felt a reasonable regret for her death." What a nice man (haha) and more of him later.
Forward to 1558AD
