"Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary."
She's held responsible for the burning of nearly 300 protestants, granting her the infamous title little girls chant today in dark mirrors. But do you know her true story? The story of how her father bastardi...
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(John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, was executed by Mary for attempting to rob her of the throne)
John Dudley surrendered with the notion that Mary would pardon him of his misdoing. In a letter to a friend, he explained that he was worth more alive than dead. He writes:
"Is my crime so heinous as no redemption but my blood can wash away the spots thereof? An old proverb there is and true that a living dog is better than a dead lion. O that it would please her good grace to give me life, yea, the life of a dog, that I might live and kiss her feet, and spend both life and all I have in her honourable service, as I have the best part already under her worthy brother and her most glorious father... O my good lord, remember how sweet life is and how bitter ye contrary." [32]
Yet Lady Jane Grey, the woman whom Dudley sought to put on the throne in place of Mary, attacked Dudley saying that no man who openly attacked the queen as he did should be granted mercy. Lady Grey saw herself as a victim of his quest for power and was reported as having said:
"He hath brought me and my stock in most miserable calamity and misery by his exceeding ambition. But for the answering that he hoped for his life by his turning, though other men be of that opinion, I utterly am not; for what man is there living, I pray you, although he had been innocent, that would hope of life in that case; being in the field against the queen in person as general, and after his taking, so hated and evil spoken of by the commons?" [33]
Mary agreed with Lady Grey's line of thought, and on August 22, 1553, a large crowd gathered to watch the beheading of John Dudley, who upon his scaffold called on all people to return to the Catholic faith and "made a full, explicit and allegedly spontaneous repudiation of Protestantism." [34] Although Mary showed mercy to the rest of the politicians who tried to keep her from becoming queen, the same restraint could not be extended to Dudley. Dudley's death was important because it showed how serious, yet at the same time merciful Mary was. Had the ruthless King Henry undergone such a struggle as Mary did, he might've had all the people affiliated with the rebellion executed. Evidence of this can be seen via Henry's staggering figures of persecutions throughout his reign, which numbered around 72,000. [35] Yet many people associate Mary as being "bloody" via the infamous legend that portrays her as a ruthless ruler. However, in her rise to the throne, she spared Lady Grey and focused her anger on Dudley. Porter explains it best when she writes, "his execution [was] an exemplary way of sending out the message that there would not be generalised retribution but that treason would not go unpunished." [36] Now with Dudley gone, she was able to focus on her coronation and set out an image of reforming England through the counter-reformation. But, a test of her strength and her ability to keep her hands on the throne would surely be tested in the wake of the Wyatt Rebellion—which changed Mary's personality to more of the hardened figure people take her as today.
*____________Author's Note____________*
Mary was being robbed of her throne by the final wishes of King Edward VI at the suggestion of John Dudley who wanted to compose an elaborate scheme to see his son Guilford Dudley, on the throne. In order to do this, he wanted Lady Grey appointed as Queen. Lady Grey was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII (King Henry VIII's father) and became the "nine-day-queen" although she was never formally coronated. This scheme, orchestrated by John Dudley, would force Mary to fight for the throne by going from town to town in order to amass an army who supported her valid claim to the throne. Composed mostly of disenfranchised Catholics, who saw their faith suddenly outlawed by the order of a zealous king, Mary's army was ready and willing to die for their faith and their true queen. She inspected her army like a King would, on her fiesty white horse.
Mary had become a force to be reckoned with.
And John Dudley noticed it big time. He surrendered before any blood was shed and called off his scheme to have Lady Grey placed on the throne. But in the end, the scheme to cross Mary would cause his own demise. However, she allowed Jane Grey to live, at least for now. She had nothing to do with this scheme. She was being used by men, something she was familiar with. After all, her father forced her to relinquish her title as princess and declare his marriage to her mother void.
Mary put forth a message to the kingdom by having John Dudley's head. She can be a merciful queen (by sparing almost everyone else who stood up against her), but she will also rein justice from the throne against those who try to take what was rightfully hers. Had she been a man, no one would bat an eyelash at her actions. In fact, they would probably wonder why more people weren't punished.
But Mary was a woman, and because of that, without a husband as king, they saw her rule as fragile. Now that she has secured her throne, she must constantly fight to keep it, as we shall see in the sections to come.
What are your thoughts of Queen Mary so far? I personally think she's a badass, but that's just me. 😊
