Mary Tudor: A Life Book

Mary Tudor has variously been portrayed as a saintly and long-suffering woman who became a bigoted and incompetent queen, praised by historians for her personal qualities but condemned for her policies, and today best remembered as "Bloody Mary". This book, by a leading historian of the period, reassesses her life and reign. The daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Mary was the heir to the throne until the age of 17. As the Princess of Wales, Mary's childhood was a solitary one, spent in her own household, often away from both of her parents. This book examines the political circumstances in which Mary grew up, especially her role in international diplomacy. From the age of four she was used as a matrimonial pawn, betrothed successively to the Dauphin of France, James IV of Scotland and to her cousin, the Emperor Charles V. David Loades shows how Mary's upbringing and education had ill-equipped her for the events which were to confront her. After her displacement in the succession by her half sister, Elizabeth, she was unable to find the emotional support which she craved for when her childhood security had been destroyed, and her cousin Charles and his family became the chief focus of her loyalties. Although separated from Catherine, she clung to her maternal religion. She became an increasingly fervent Catholic, seeking spiritual solace in the mass, and supporting the Catholic rebellions of Edward's reign. The author argues that to Mary the extermination of protestant heresy was a moral imperative rather than a political expedient. As queen, and freed from many of the constraints that had been placed upon her over the previous 20 years, Mary was unable to reappraise her position, depending on her ministers and consort's judgement on the many matters which she did not consider fit for woman's judgement. Mary's own policies were dictated by long established loyalties and animosities. The picture that emerges from David Loades' biography is of an honest yet difficult and politically naive woman who converted her own prejudices into the public policy of the crown. With the changing circumstances of Elizabeth's reign, there was a conspicuous lack of political commitment to what Mary had represented.Read More