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Mary Tudor

Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York, born in 1497, was noted for her beauty, gentleness of disposition, and vivacity of manner. Mary, who was educated a strict Catholic, was acknowledged the rightful heir, and succeeded to the throne; and the Catholic religion was again restored. Her short reign is noted for the cruel persecution of the English Reformers; and her character is painted by Protestant writers in the darkest colors ; but it may be remarked, by way of apology for her, that the treatment which both she and her mother had received from those who rejected the papal supremacy, was calculated to inflame her prejudices; that she was under the influence of evil counsellors; and that she lived in an age when the principles of religious toleration were not understood or practised by either Catholics or Protestants.

The five years of Mary's reign was the period of a Habsburg invasion of England, an invasion much more than half successful, as one rampart after another of national defence was carried, so that in 1558 England was already from almost every point of view a Habsburg kingdom, standing on the same level as the Low Countries. Deliverance, it is true, then came suddenly, but it came, as it were, from heaven, and was due to no effort made by the nation itself.

Scarcely any transition in history is so abrupt as that from Edward to Mary. It corresponded to a reaction in public feeling caused by the extravagances of Edwardian Protestantism; at the same time these very extravagances were caused in great part by the near prospect of so abrupt a change. At the moment when England seemed about to adopt in full the German Reformation, to become not merely Anglican but Protestant, and the leading state of the European opposition to the Habsburg, she suddenly abandoned everything that she had contended for since the Divorce was first agitated, and having, as it were, revived the early days of Wolsey, actually went further, passed over in European politics to the side of the Habsburg who now held the title of King of England, furnished a contingent to his armies, and suffered a miserable defeat in his cause.

The progress made by the Habsburg in England in these years was indeed the conquest of England, as conquest was practised among Christian states at that time. It was not such conquest as the Ottoman practised in the East or the Conquistadores in the Far West, but it was not unlike that by which the Habsburg destroyed the liberties of Castille, crushed Italy, and well-nigh crushed the Low Countries and Portugal. It was a process which began in royal marriage, and proceeded by religious persecution, supplemented at need by arms. In England the scheme was launched under the most favourable circumstances. For Mary Tudor, round whom the English firmly rallied, was herself half a Spaniard by blood, wholly a Spaniard by feeling, and scarcely was her throne secured to her than she rejected with contempt the idea of an English marriage, and gave her hand to Philip himself, the heir-apparent to half the world.

A religious Reign of Terror was about to set in for all Europe, and England entered into it somewhat sooner than the Continent, by the Marian persecution, which though not the most cruel of persecutions was perhaps that which fell most heavily upon eminent men and leaders of thought. Here was an engine by which the Habsburg might hope to consolidate his conquest of England. For the Terror was twofold: it was religious and political at the same time. There was the scaffold for Northumberland, Wyatt, and the Lady Jane; there was the stake for Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley and Hooper. And so long as the succession remained doubtful, this political reign of terror seemed likely to continue; now the succession had become more doubtful than ever since the legitimacy of Mary had been reasserted by Parliament, for the legitimacy of Mary meant the illegitimacy of Elizabeth.

Mary, in the second year after she succeeded to the throne, was married to Philip II. of Spain, a union unpopular with her subjects, and productive of little happiness to herself; and in the last year of her reign, the French took Calais, which had been in possession of the English 210 years. Soon after this event, the queen died, feeling bitter vexation for the loss, and for being aware that she was an object of aversion to her husband and to a great part of her subjects. She left few to lament her, and there was scarcely the semblance of sorrow for her death.