Mary I
Maria I
Queen of England · Queen of Ireland · Queen of Spain (jure uxoris, 1556–1558)
1516 – 1558
Biography
First woman to rule England in her own right, after a youth of bastardization, exclusion, and pressured conformity to her father's church. She reversed the Edwardian Reformation, restored Catholic worship, and burned nearly three hundred Protestants at the stake — earning the posthumous nickname Bloody Mary. Her marriage to Philip II of Spain produced no children despite at least two false pregnancies; on her death the throne passed to her younger sister Elizabeth.
Events
On 25 July 1554 Mary Tudor married her cousin Philip of Spain, son of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, in Winchester Cathedral. The match was deeply unpopular in England — a Catholic prince of the rising Habsburg superpower marrying the reigning queen on terms widely seen as compromising English sovereignty. The marriage produced no children; on Mary's death Philip lost his English title and pursued the throne through war against her Protestant successor Elizabeth.
Also there: Philip II of Spain
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