Mary I
Mary I restored Catholicism to England for five years and burned some 280 people doing it. Born in 1516, the only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, she was heir to the throne, betrothed repeatedly for diplomacy, and educated to an exceptional standard. Her father's annulment destroyed her position. She was declared illegitimate at seventeen, separated from her mother, whom she never saw again, made to serve in her half-sister Elizabeth's household, and eventually forced to sign an acknowledgment that her parents' marriage was invalid — which she regarded as the worst act of her life. She kept her religion through her brother Edward VI's Protestant reign, hearing mass privately in defiance of the law. Edward died in 1553 having willed the crown to Lady Jane Grey. Mary raised East Anglia, marched on London, and took the throne to genuine popular acclaim. She then made two decisions that cost her that support. She married Philip of Spain in 1554, which was widely feared as subordinating England to a foreign power and provoked Wyatt's rebellion. And she restored papal authority and revived the heresy laws. The burnings began in 1555 and included Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer. They were counterproductive: they were public, they were resented, and Foxe's Book of Martyrs fixed them permanently in English memory. She had two phantom pregnancies. England lost Calais to France in 1558, and she is reported to have said it would be found written on her heart. She died in November 1558. Elizabeth succeeded her and reversed the settlement within a year.
- Lived: 1516 CE – 1558 CE
- Nationality: English
- Roles: queen, head_of_state
