QUEEN MARY 1 - QUEEN REGNANTQUEEN MARY I OF ENGLAND - England's First Queen Regnant.There was a lot of opposition for Queen Mary 1, to overcome on her way to being crowned. With the introduction of the Third Act of Succession in the year 1544, both the Tudor princesses, the future Queen Mary of England and her half sister the future Queen Elizabeth 1 regained their places in the line of succession, although they still remained legally illegitimate. In 1547 when King Henry died,his son Edward Tudor succeeded him. Since Edward was still only a child of ten, the country was ruled by a regency council which was completely dominated by Protestants. As a result they did their utmost to force their faith upon the whole country, which by and large was still not ready for it, wanting to retain instead, the ancient faith of their fathers. There had always been religious differences between Edward Tudor and his half sister Mary Tudor, with the result that Edward did not want her to be crowned Queen Mary 1, who had remained steadfastly faithful to the old religion and who he feared would restore the country to the Roman Catholic Faith, undoing all his and his father's reforms in the process. With some of the most powerful people in the land, filled with greed and ambition guiding him, John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland among them, King Edward, who wanted to exclude his half sister, Mary Tudor from the succession was told by these advisors that he could not only disinherit one of his sisters, but Elizabeth Tudor would have to be disinherited also.
ABOVE: PORTRAIT OF QUEEN MARY OF ENGLAND. It was here,that the fate of one of the most unfortunate young women in our history was decided.In a plot that was none of her doing and completely out of her control,it was decided that King Edward would be succeeded by Dudley's daughter-in-law,Lady Jane Gray. To exclude his two sisters was to contravene the 1544 Act of Succession which had restored the future Queen Mary 1 and the future Queen Elizabeth 1 back to the line of succession and Dudley knew this.He was now embarking on a most deadly game.His plan just had to work otherwise the consequences for everyone involved would be fatal. As soon as he heard of the death of King Edward,Dudley put his plan into action.He persuaded the Council to summon Mary Tudor back to London before Edward's death had been made public,on the pretext that Edward was gravely ill and was requesting to see her.Once he had her isolated he would capture her before she had a chance to rally support and then he would have her imprisoned in the Tower of London. On the same day,that the privy council were considering what had to be done before proclaiming Lady Jane the Queen,the Earl of Arundel put together a letter informing Princess Mary of Edwards death.In the letter,he warned her of Nothumberland's plot to capture and imprison her,entreating her not to proceed with her journey to meet with the Council. On 10th July 1553,Lady Jane Grey assumed the throne as Queen of England.Mary Tudor fled to East Anglia as soon as she received the news,there she was completely overwhelmed with loyalty and support,whereupon Dudley's support immediately collapsed. This overwhelming support was undiminished at her triumphant procession into London to legally take the crown.Dudley was immediately arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Poor Lady Jane Gray was already there and although Mary Tudor fully understood that the unfortunate girl was just a pawn in Dudley's plans, under pressure from her advisors, who warned her that the threat to Mary's throne would remain, as long as Lady Jane Gray remained alive. She reluctantly let the execution of her young cousin go ahead.Lady Jane's fate was sealed when her father proclaimed Lady Jane Queen once again and joined an ill fated rebellion. Mary Tudor was crowned Queen on 1st October 1553 to become England's first Queen Regnant apart from the brief and very controversial reigns of Matilda(daughter and heir of King Henry I) and Lady Jane Grey.The reign of Queen Mary 1 had begun. |
