Sharing more than just their father’s stubbornness and belief in their divine right to rule, Henry VIII’s daughters experienced similar situations regarding their status, difficulties with extended family members, and religious uprisings during their reigns, although the two queens' choices determined drastically different results.
The Act of Succession and Dangers of Marriage
Although both Mary and Elizabeth were welcomed with great fanfare upon their birth as princesses, Henry VIII’s desire for new wives and hope for sons caused a drastic shift in his daughters’ circumstances.
Mary, the daughter of Henry’s first wife Catherine of Aragon, enjoyed her status as an acknowledged princess and devoted daughter for several years before her mother was replaced in Henry’s affections by Anne Boleyn.
Elizabeth’s tenure as the favored princess and daughter to Anne Boleyn ended quickly after her mother was executed on May 19, 1536, a mere three years after marrying Henry.
Once Henry married the third of his six wives, Jane Seymour, and had his son, Edward, the two princesses were cast aside as Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth, losing much of their status in the process as a result of the Act of Succession of 1536.
While both Mary and Elizabeth were acknowledged by Henry as his daughters, each realized that their loss of security and legitimacy could greatly negatively impact them while they also witnessed the rapid and sometimes violent replacement of Henry’s wives. This years-long observation adversely affected their ideas on marriage, leading to later drastic decisions on their own marital prospects.
Creating New Religious Martyrs
Throughout their respective reigns, Mary and Elizabeth I each martyred multiple religious proponents. Mary, ruling from 1553 to 1558, executed about 300 people on grounds of heresy during her short reign, earning her the moniker of “Bloody Mary” as she pushed to reinstall Rome-based Catholicism in England.
This proved unpopular with a large percentage of England’s population since Henry had already defined himself as the Supreme Head of the church in England and his son Edward VI had specifically moved into Protestant territory during his own brief reign.
Elizabeth benefited from watching the paranoia caused by the severe shifts by the reigns of her Protestant brother Edward VI and of Catholic Mary’s. Instead of relentlessly attempting to restore Anglicanism in private homes no matter the cost, she preferred not to create new Catholic martyrs unless she felt the men and women were a threat to her position as England’s Queen. Unfortunately, she realized that she needed to take a stronger hand during the machinations of Mary, Queen of Scots’ supporters.
Still, because the deaths were spread out over many years of her reign from 1558 to 1603, her image remained less tarnished than Mary’s in spite of her own faults, especially since she also contributed to long stretches of peace, military achievements and a sense of stability.
Lady Jane Grey and Mary, Queen of Scots
As part of the religious wars between Anglicanism and other forms of Protestantism and Catholicism, the half-sisters also each found it necessary to behead a female cousin whose life threatened to make their positions precarious.
For Mary, this meant signing the death warrant for Lady Jane Grey, known as the “Queen of Nine Days.” While Mary realized that the teenager was ill-served by the ambitious relatives who surrounded her, Jane’s strict adherence to Protestantism and refusal to convert to Catholicism meant that she remained a rallying point for unhappy English Protestants who believed that Mary was not the valid monarch.
In turn, Elizabeth had to execute her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots, when Mary fled to England for refuge after failing miserably as Queen of Scotland. Hesitant to cause the death of a fellow queen, Elizabeth vacillated for years before taking the final measure. The Scottish Queen herself helped Elizabeth to finally choose execution through her own conspiratorial letters with Catholic supporters who hoped to reinstate a Catholic queen.
Queens Mary and Elizabeth I
Interestingly, the difficulties faced by both Mary and Elizabeth taught each queen very different lessons. Mary passionately clung to her religious convictions and attempted to return England’s official religious culture back to the days of her mother’s own time as queen.
Elizabeth, having the added wisdom from observing Mary’s reign, learned that patience, carefully displayed flashes of temper, well-chosen words and political expediency were absolutely necessary to maintain her throne, especially in the tumultuous early years of her reign.
These different approaches resulted in remarkably singular legacies for the Tudor queens.
Additional Sources
Graham, Roderick. The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots: An Accidental Tragedy. New York, NY: Pegasus Books, 2009.
Tremlett, Giles. Catherine of Aragon: The Spanish Queen of Henry VIII. New York, NY: Walker & Company, 2010.
Bonnye Good - Bonnye Busbice Good received an Editor's Choice award for her article on Your Historic Home's Interior Design Secrets and has also written ...
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