The Fascinating Mary I Tudor's Fault

Mary I Tudor is born into the Catholic household of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon on February 18th, 1516. She is the only child of this marriage to survive infancy, and thus she is treated with great reverence from a young age. Mary is raised as a devout Catholic by her mother Catherine, and is extensively tutored in a diverse array of subjects. Mary’s diverse tutelage is due in part to her mother 's misfortune in not being able to produce a male heir. Catherine realizes that this is a problem, and believes that Mary has the capability to rule England just like her mother Isabella I if a son were not to be born. Catherine takes it upon herself to have her daughter well educated, and even hires Juan Luis Vives to write a manuscript …show more content…
During this period almost three hundred individuals would be sentenced to burn at the stake for what would be considered by Mary as their heretical crimes. These burnings would always be done in some sort of public setting allowing the local populace to bear witness to these horrible executions.( Figure 2) Burning at the stake is one of the most gruesome forms of execution at this time, and would be a horrible sight to see for any commoner. The average person 's understanding of the situation would be that these individuals being burned were protestant, and that Mary was against Protestants. This kind of extreme hatred of Protestants which is propagated by individuals such as John Foxe truly garners Mary the title of Bloody Mary. Mary only further exacerbates the anxiety of the people by continuing to be married to Philip of Spain a Catholic noble who is so disliked by the people of England that a rebellion started just to prevent their marriage years earlier. In the eyes of the people Mary is both trying to stamp out Protestantism, and is bringing the country under a foreign influence. This combines into a potent mixture which will skew Mary’s public image throughout the remainder of her time as Queen of