Dear Mary,

MaryR
Heya Bloody Mary....

I have two questions for you..........

What were your feelings towards King Philip?
What were your successes and failures in your life/reign??

Please reply to BOTH my question.......

NM


Prince Philip was the key to reversing the reformation back to Roman Catholic, his powerful country and uncle the Emperor of Rome would be on my side if the liaison came about via our marriage. I was taken by his handsome picture too.
The biggest problem with the betroval was that he had lots of younger girl friends; he insisted we executed Jane Grey before he would marry me. I had promised Jane a life of seclusion and spare her life but the pressure forced me to go back on my word.
Philip came and stayed in England for a while, he persuaded me to be lenient towards my sister Elizabeth whom I suspected being a plotter for the Protestants. He actually saved her life as she was in the Tower of London and the shadow of the block.
Philip went back to Spain I never saw him again. He even tried to get Elizabeth betroved to his son but she ignored the offer completely. Mind you he was a bit ugly with his giant Hapsburg chin.

The only strong thing that came out of my reign was the strengthening of the Protestant Church because the people were so pleased to get Elizabeth as their Queen after my rule. The people saw me as having Bloodied hands, killing resistant Protestants who never gain up their new faith. I should have seen them in the same way I was subjected to the pressure by my father.
I lost control of Calais, so weakening the borders of England, thankfully father had built forts along the south coast and a navy. Queen Elizabeth was much more powerful that I ever was.

Hi Mary

What were some of your obstacles in restoring Catholicism to England and why?
Thanks Jarrett.


Too many obstacles and that is why I failed. The Catholic Church only changed from Papal Control to the Control of the monarch by my father Henry VIII, his new Church of England was still Catholic.
It was Thomas Seymour and Edward VI who changed the Catholic Church to be Protestant. I tried to bring the papal system back by marrying the King of Spain, who actually was a cousin on mine. I should have lowered my scope and only changed it back to the Church of England Catholic that would have been a much lesser change for the people.
The Pope was not liked at all in England by the people who remembered the days when papist took their money and they were not allowed to read the bible without paying the priest first.
Kill people because of their religious beliefs only makes martyrs and they get stronger. So burning Protestants was a cruel and stupid thing to do it just made me look a mad "Bloody Mary".
The English system of male dominance would have meant that by marrying the King of Spain we would become a Spanish colony. This caused the war with Spain and the armada with Queen Elizabeth I. So as a reversal of the reformation it was an astounding failure and caused the Church of Rome to be even more remote in the eyes of the people.

Mary R




Dear Mary,

We are a group of Year 8 students from Stocksbridge High School in Sheffield. We have been studying your reign and thinking about your reputation. These are some questions we would like to ask you:
1. Why did you burn and kill people?

2. Did you enjoy killing people?

3. Why did you part boil Wyatt after his death?

4. Did the fact that you were mistreated as a child, influence the way you felt and behaved in later life?

5. Why did you change from being a popular Queen at the start of your reign, to a cruel and hated one by the end?


We hope you are able to answer our questions, and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank-you
Class 8NA
Stocksbridge High School

Hello year 8 Class 8NA

Thank you for your enquiry and for your sharp questions. I must before I answer them put you in the view of life for Mary Tudor.
She was always wanted to be a boy by her father and a fair disappointment when she always took her Mothers side in any argument. Her Mother was a Spanish Princess before she became Queen, wife of King Henry VIII, so being a princess herself made her feel more towards her Mothers viewpoint. Now, her Father did not divorce her Mother, he annulled the marriage which means it was unlawful and therefore Mary became just plain old Lady Mary a clear demotion from that of Princess Mary. He Mother was demoted to Widowed wife of a dead Prince so was called Princess again.
Now her Father takes her Roman Catholic Church away and even gets her to look after the new baby with Anne Boleyn, the baby being Princess Elizabeth. Can you see why she resented her half sister and her father and the New Church Head Thomas Cranmer. Worse to come, her new baby Brother is going to be the next ruler of England; she has to look after him as well. He becomes King and changes the Church to Protestant; at least her Father’s church was still Catholic if not papal. Edward dies and the councillors do not pick her to be the next ruler, instead her half cousin Lady Jane Grey gets the throne. Mary has to raise an army and take London back by force.
Now Mary is Queen, she is fairly old to be a new Queen with new ideas, so she marries the King of our old arch enemy, Spain. This does not go down well in the country, as Mary promises to bring the Roman Catholic faith back to a land that now has a majority who don’t want it back. Force is applied, people are burnt for heresy and she gets the new Nickname Bloody Mary. Was she cruel, well yes very much so, with all the hurt inside her, she now let go of her self control. Thomas Cranmer was burnt at the stake but she ordered the fire not to be too large as she wanted him to burn slowly.
I have asked Mary if she enjoyed the killing of people, she shrugs her shoulders and walks away from the questioning. She does not care less.
When a commoner is found guilty of treason they are hung drawn and quartered, a punishment stretching back to 1066, their heads are par boiled to make then turn black before being stuck on a spike on London Bridge to warn others. To blacken one’s reputation came from this.
Mary was only popular with the Roman Catholics but by the end of her reign she was the most hated ever.

Hi Mary
What were your feelings when Anne Boleyn was executed?

She got what she deserved. It was her who forced father into annulling my Parents marriage and causing me to be demoted into a common Lady Mary from Princess of England. I do feel sorry for half sister Elizabeth, she does not know what’s going on as she is so young. I think the King and his cronies are up to something really bad just in case his new wife, Jane doesn’t produce the son he desires.

Hi Mary
Why did you insist on marrying the King of Spain, even though the English people hate the thought?

I am told my people will accept the need for me to marry a True Roman Catholic King and thus bring an end to this madness of Protestant Church. I do realise the norm of man’s possession and my Husband will be the King of England, but this I am sure will be accepted in due course. The one sad effect of my forthcoming marriage, is the death of my innocent second cousin Jane Grey. The Pope and Emperor of Rome insisted on her death to allow me to marry the Spanish King. Politics is such a murderous activity.


Hey Mary I've Got a couple of questions for You,

1. When you were queen, we know that you saw your half sister
Elizabeth as a threat, but what were your true feelings for her? I know that if I had a half sister I would love them like a normal sibling. Also what was your opinion of her and how did you rate her against yourself?
2. Did you ever have any pets or animals? If you did, did you torture it and burn it in your hatred like you did to hundreds of people who were faithful to their religion? If I was Queen I would be happy that my people were so faithful.

Please answer my questions,
However bloody you are!!!!

Thank You

KHSW girl

You portray a very strange viewpoint. You want personal answers yet you accuse me of great badness. The historical recording of my life leaves out all the heartache, insults and fear leaving only the last five years as a judge of my character.
My sister Elizabeth and I adored each other when she was very young, I was taught by my Mother to hate the Boleyn’s, yet Elizabeth was a bright, lovely child and I ended up loving her dearly. I was 17 years older and she was like my own daughter. We both underwent a poor upbringing, poor father. We both were demoted to mere Lady's from the Princess' we should have been. My health in my older years was poor and I knew I did not have a long time to achieve the one goal I was given by my Mother and her nephew, the Holy Roman Emperor. That was to return England from the Henrician Church back to the Pope.
Big let down from father when he told me to chaperone Elizabeth and then our new Brother Edward who would be getting the throne instead of either of us girls. When Edward became King, his power was used by the Seymour brothers and they brought in the Protestant Church, now not only had I been reduced to a child minder my Holy Church was completely taken away by non Royals, Edward was never string enough both physically and mentally to overcome the power of the Seymours and then the Dudley’s. The Dudley plot to take toe throne from my path and put poor little Jane Grey on it came to a nine day fiasco. The people came to my side, the Tudor side, they let me overthrow these imposters. The Pope and my Cousin the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire came into the scene. They forced me to execute poor Jane as a sign that the Roman catholic Church was back, and they let me marry the King of Spain who technically became the King of England upon the marriage. Poor health and a fear of dying before I could change the Church back and reinstate the Pope as our spiritual leader gave me the power to make drastic changes quickly and punish leaders of the opposition, I know about 300 people died horrible deaths but it was their resistance that made their fate. Elizabeth was plotting to overthrow me, she knew the people would go on her side as I had married a foreign King and they would not forgive me for that, she pretended not to be involved but I knew she was. I sent her in custody to the Tower of London to keep her out of the way.
You could say I was influenced greatly by the way my Father treaded my Mother, myself and his favourite daughter Elizabeth, the fate of the Boleyn girl was her own doing. If I had more time to correct his mistakes I would not have been so drastic. You must look at history with the view that it was the live of Human beings with all their frailties and their search for happiness and power. Many made mistakes, mistakes cost lives at this level, take a look at Iraq, invaded in the name of your Queen Elizabeth II.
Yes I had a pet dog, a Spaniel, my family had White greyhounds but I found them to be a sporting dog not a comfort at all. More people were executed under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I than my reign, the worst tyrannical reign with thousands of deaths was under the King James I who tried to kill off the Jesuit Catholics, and his Mother was of that religion! So in your exclamation of how Bloody do I feel. Not at all.

Being called Bloody Mary was then sign that the people were turncoats in their viewpoints, they loved me then they hated me staying in the direction of the political wind.

Queen Mary I.