Mary Tudor, Mary I, or Bloody Mary, was the eldest child of Henry VIII and the only living child of his first wife Katherine of Aragon.
The story of her life is one of the most fascinating in English history. From her pampered childhood, her isolated and fearful teenage years to her unhappy adulthood as Queen of England; her life was a product of her circumstances and beliefs.
Bloody Mary* was the Mary of the last four years of her life. A staunch Catholic Queen in a religiously divided country she had nearly 300 heretics burned at the stake in a misguided effort to bring England back to the religion that had been her only constant comfort in a life filled with uncertainties.
*The name Bloody Mary has its origins in the anonymously authored History of Life and Bloody Reign and Death of Queen Mary, London, 1682
Author: Elisabeth Lee