Veritas Temporis Filia: Part 1
Truth, the Daughter of Time
-motto of Queen Mary I of England
Just because I happened upon someone else's blog about her, I started thinking about Queen Mary, how she was the first queen regnant of England. And to date, she is the only Catholic queen regnant England has ever had. I figured she presented a perfect opportunity to bring together my two most passionate interests in this blog: history and religion. In my college history classes, a lot of my dissertations tied the subject to religion in some way, big or small. I see no reason not to continue that here.
If there was one constant thing in Mary Tudor's life, it was her faith. She was born on 18 February 1516 to the infamous King Henry VIII and his first Queen, Catherine of Aragon. All of them were devout Catholics, especially Catherine, who was the daughter of the titans known as the Catholic Kings of Spain: Ferdinand and Isabella. But as time wore on and Catherine had not given him a male heir, Henry became worried. He began to read very closely into the words of the Bible, especially one particular taboo set forth in Leviticus: "He that marrieth his brother's wife, doth an unlawful thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness. They shall be without children." (Leviticus 20:21) For Catherine was indeed the widow of Henry's older brother Arthur, upon whose death the pope had granted a dispensation for her to marry Henry (taking for truth the reports that the first marriage was never consummated and therefore not legal or binding).
When Henry confronted her and told her they must separate, having supposedly lived in sin for the past twenty years, Catherine would have none of it. Not only did she take it as an insult to her honor (she swore with God as her witness that she had been a virgin when Henry took her to wife, and therefore their marriage was valid after the wedding night), but she was fighting for her daughter's inheritance. If the marriage was declared invalid, that would mean Mary, Princess of Wales and Henry's only heir, was in fact no princess at all but a bastard, born outside of lawful wedlock.
Catherine and Mary refused to give in, but all their resistance proved futile. In January 1533, Henry married Anne Boleyn, a captivating woman who had turned his head and heart...and who was already pregnant with their child. He had his bishops declare his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon invalid, bestowing on her the title of Princess Dowager (acknowledging her as the widow of Arthur, Prince of Wales), and reducing Princess Mary to a nobody known simply as Lady Mary Tudor. Even after Queen Anne's hoped-for heir turned out to be another girl, the future Queen Elizabeth I, Henry still went forward with his plans to separate from the Church of Rome. In 1534 he had Parliament declare him as the Supreme Head of the Church of England, and ordered every subject on pain of a traitor's death to swear their support, both to this and to the invalidity of Henry's marriage to Catherine. Both Catherine and Mary, though forced to separate and forbidden contact with each other, refused to sign the double oath, though it meant certain death. Two of their biggest supporters, Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, were beheaded for treason when they resisted the reforms they viewed as heresy (and today both men are saints and martyrs honored in the Catholic Church).
Mary clung to her faith to survive, as well as to her hatred for Anne Boleyn and the new Princess of Wales, Elizabeth, whom Mary was forced to serve in the royal nursery. The year 1536 saw the death of both Mary's mother Catherine and her enemy Anne (the former of natural causes, the latter beheaded on false accusations of adultery and treason). But the danger was not past: if Mary continued to defy her father and refuse the double oath, she could very well face a traitor's death herself. Henry was not past such an extreme in his current mental state, swollen as he was (physically and figuratively) with power. She had no choice: she signed the oaths, swearing to the validity of the Church of England and to the invalidity of her mother's marriage...and hence to her own illegitimacy. However, she also wrote and signed a secret declaration to the Vatican and to her Catholic sympathizers in Europe, stating that she had only sworn the oaths under duress and therefore they were not binding. Though by her apparent concession she was welcomed back to court and back into her father's good graces, she never forgave herself for giving in when her mother and others had remained strong in their convictions.
-motto of Queen Mary I of England
Just because I happened upon someone else's blog about her, I started thinking about Queen Mary, how she was the first queen regnant of England. And to date, she is the only Catholic queen regnant England has ever had. I figured she presented a perfect opportunity to bring together my two most passionate interests in this blog: history and religion. In my college history classes, a lot of my dissertations tied the subject to religion in some way, big or small. I see no reason not to continue that here.
If there was one constant thing in Mary Tudor's life, it was her faith. She was born on 18 February 1516 to the infamous King Henry VIII and his first Queen, Catherine of Aragon. All of them were devout Catholics, especially Catherine, who was the daughter of the titans known as the Catholic Kings of Spain: Ferdinand and Isabella. But as time wore on and Catherine had not given him a male heir, Henry became worried. He began to read very closely into the words of the Bible, especially one particular taboo set forth in Leviticus: "He that marrieth his brother's wife, doth an unlawful thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness. They shall be without children." (Leviticus 20:21) For Catherine was indeed the widow of Henry's older brother Arthur, upon whose death the pope had granted a dispensation for her to marry Henry (taking for truth the reports that the first marriage was never consummated and therefore not legal or binding).
When Henry confronted her and told her they must separate, having supposedly lived in sin for the past twenty years, Catherine would have none of it. Not only did she take it as an insult to her honor (she swore with God as her witness that she had been a virgin when Henry took her to wife, and therefore their marriage was valid after the wedding night), but she was fighting for her daughter's inheritance. If the marriage was declared invalid, that would mean Mary, Princess of Wales and Henry's only heir, was in fact no princess at all but a bastard, born outside of lawful wedlock.
Catherine and Mary refused to give in, but all their resistance proved futile. In January 1533, Henry married Anne Boleyn, a captivating woman who had turned his head and heart...and who was already pregnant with their child. He had his bishops declare his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon invalid, bestowing on her the title of Princess Dowager (acknowledging her as the widow of Arthur, Prince of Wales), and reducing Princess Mary to a nobody known simply as Lady Mary Tudor. Even after Queen Anne's hoped-for heir turned out to be another girl, the future Queen Elizabeth I, Henry still went forward with his plans to separate from the Church of Rome. In 1534 he had Parliament declare him as the Supreme Head of the Church of England, and ordered every subject on pain of a traitor's death to swear their support, both to this and to the invalidity of Henry's marriage to Catherine. Both Catherine and Mary, though forced to separate and forbidden contact with each other, refused to sign the double oath, though it meant certain death. Two of their biggest supporters, Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, were beheaded for treason when they resisted the reforms they viewed as heresy (and today both men are saints and martyrs honored in the Catholic Church).
Mary clung to her faith to survive, as well as to her hatred for Anne Boleyn and the new Princess of Wales, Elizabeth, whom Mary was forced to serve in the royal nursery. The year 1536 saw the death of both Mary's mother Catherine and her enemy Anne (the former of natural causes, the latter beheaded on false accusations of adultery and treason). But the danger was not past: if Mary continued to defy her father and refuse the double oath, she could very well face a traitor's death herself. Henry was not past such an extreme in his current mental state, swollen as he was (physically and figuratively) with power. She had no choice: she signed the oaths, swearing to the validity of the Church of England and to the invalidity of her mother's marriage...and hence to her own illegitimacy. However, she also wrote and signed a secret declaration to the Vatican and to her Catholic sympathizers in Europe, stating that she had only sworn the oaths under duress and therefore they were not binding. Though by her apparent concession she was welcomed back to court and back into her father's good graces, she never forgave herself for giving in when her mother and others had remained strong in their convictions.
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