The Tudor Society
  • June 8 – Henry VIII’s eldest daughter, Mary, hopes for a reconciliation with her father

    A portrait of Mary I from 1544 by Master John

    On this day in Tudor history, 8 June 1536, Henry VIII’s eldest daughter, Mary, wrote to her father in hope of a reconciliation now that her stepmother, Anne Boleyn, was dead.

    Mary had been out of favour due to her refusal to accept the annulment of her parents’ marriage, her father’s supremacy and her status as illegitimate. She believed that Anne Boleyn was solely to blame for her troubles, writing that she understood that the king had “forgiven all her offences and withdrawn his displeasure”.

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  • The treatment of Mary Tudor (Mary I) Part 1

    I have very mixed feelings about Mary I, but I have to say that there is much to admire about her. Not only did she rally support against Wyatt’s Rebellion in 1554 and reign as the first official queen regnant; not only did she rally support for her claim to the throne in 1553, being prepared to give her life for it; but she also stood up to her father, King Henry VIII, and the bullies he got to do the king’s business, when she was just seventeen years old. She was a tough cookie.

    In today’s Claire Chats I talk about what happened to Mary from 1531 to 1534, what she went through.

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