How Queen Mary Earned Her Bloody Reputation | Mary I - Bloody Mary | Chronicle

[Music] on a summer's day in 1553 after 10 days of traveling a magnificent possession reached the capitol [Music] at its head was mary tudor the eldest daughter of king henry viii she had come to claim her inheritance the crown of england mary entered the city of london in triumph on the 3rd of august 1553 the buildings of the city that mary knew have disappeared almost completely but its boundaries are the same of the modern city of london's financial district you see behind me mary entered from the east at all gate and she rode through streets hung with precious tapestries to the tower of london the people wet tears of joy and mary quoted ecstatically from the bible if god be with us who can be against us [Music] this day was mary's victory over all those who had opposed her but the joyful scenes were not to last mary was a queen driven by conscience and by faith she would send hundreds of her subjects to burn at the stake for what she believed was right a vision of england restored to its traditional catholic faith mary was born on the 18th of february 1516 at greenwich palace besides the river thames she was given a splendid christening and the bells rang for joy the princess mary was an extraordinarily important child her parents henry viii and catherine of aragon had already been married for seven years when she was born and they'd had several children but all the other children were either stillborn or they died shortly after birth mary was the first child to survive this meant that she was heir to the crown of england there was only one drawback mary was a girl and a woman had never ruled england as queen mary's destiny seemed clear she was a royal princess who would become a royal bride and only reign as a husband's wife the search for the right husband started early at phillips espiritu amen when mary was only two she was betrothed to the duffer the heir to the throne of france in a ceremony which mimicked all the features of a real wedding this was just the first of many engagements [Music] over the next 10 years the promise of mary's hand in marriage was repeatedly used to make treaties with other countries [Music] as daughter of king henry an heir to england mary was an attractive proposition [Music] but her mother's family was even grander catherine of aragon was descended from the great spanish royal family whose empire now stretched across most of europe and even to the new world of america catherine made sure that mary did not forget her spanish roots mary spoke spanish as well as english and proudly identified herself with her spanish family [Music] after her father the king mary was treated as the most important person in england she liked music dancing and games henry referred to her as his pearl in the world [Music] catherine too was devoted to mary and was fiercely ambitious for her daughter she made sure that mary's education would fit her for her destiny however great it might be this letter was written by catherine to mary when she was aged 8 or 9. as for your writing in latin i am glad that you shall change from me to master featherston catherine had begun by teaching mary latin herself but now she was to change to a professional tutor latin was a masculine subject catherine is determined that mary shall have good latin to fit her for that most masculine of roles rulership henry still had no other heir and catherine was preparing mary for the possibility that she might one day be queen of england in her own right age nine mary came here to ludlow to take up residence as the nominal head of the government of wales it was a highly symbolic move for the last 50 years every prince of wales had come here to ludlow to complete his education and to learn the business of ruling and the fact that mary though a woman was following in their footsteps showed that her father still regarded her as heir of england for the next three years mary spent much time at ludlow as princess of wales but the search for the right husband continued aged 11 she was to be inspected for a new french match mary was only a year away from the minimum age of marriage and her future as both a queen and a royal bride seemed assured but before the year was up disaster struck in 1528 mary left ludlow for the last time she returned to a court in turmoil for her father had decided to divorce her mother catherine had grown fat and ugly and henry had fallen passionately in love with ann berlin for the next five years henry searched for a way to marry anne but the pope would not allow him to divorce catherine eventually a cleric thomas cranmer came up with a solution as archbishop of canterbury he would be prepared to divorce henry and catherine in defiance of the pope mary would never forget or forgive what cranmer had done her childhood was over and in 1533 when mary was 17 her father finally married his mistress a few months later anne gave birth to a baby girl elizabeth who was proclaimed princess of wales there were now two queens and two princesses in england henry and anne could not sleep easy until katherine was compelled to renounce her title of queen and mary to give up hers of princess by the time elizabeth was born mary was a young woman she had to endure the humiliation of being sent to live at hatfield as a servant to the baby elizabeth around whom now everything revolves mary was stripped of her royal title and declared a bastard she was also to suffer at the hands of anne boleyn anne instructed mary's keeper at hatfield 2 slap and hit mary whenever she claimed to be a true princess and to swear at her as the cursed bastard she is mary would never forget this cruelty and she got no sympathy from her father because she refused to accept her mother's divorce henry disowned her as disobedient and refused her permission to see catherine mother and daughter were allowed only one brief visit in five years the contrast with the luxury and privilege of her childhood was bad enough still worse was the threat to the faith she'd learned at her mother's knee because henry also insisted she recognize him and not the pope a supreme head of the church [Music] this brutal treatment was to have a lasting effect mary would spend the rest of her life looking for ways to avenge it [Music] by the time mary was 20 she had lived through extreme highs and lows she had been worshipped as the future queen of england and is owned and disgraced as an illegitimate daughter in 1536 two momentous events occurred which would transform her life once more on the 7th of january mary's mother catherine of aragon died mary was overcome by grief she saw no future for herself in england and wrote to her cousin charles v begging him to help her flee to spain charles was the holy roman emperor he was the most powerful man in europe and mary's strongest ally but then only a few months later anne boleyn was arrested and condemned to death after eight years of exclusion mary now believed that there was a chance of reconciliation with her father these are the letters that mary wrote to her father and to her father's secretary cromwell in the weeks after anne boleyn's death mary thought that she could bring about a reconciliation with her father on her own terms she's quickly proved wrong and the letters depict a titanic struggle of wills between father and daughter the first of the letters is written on the 26th of may mary writes to cromwell please get permission from henry for me to write to him and on the 8th of june mary writes a letter to her father saying how delighted she is that he has forgiven all her offenses and withdrawn his displeasure but then the course of the next two days something goes badly wrong because henry makes clear that mary will surrender not on her terms but his and his terms are that she shall recognize the royal supremacy her mother's divorce and her own bastardy mary is distraught her usual need handwriting begins to disintegrate and she writes this desperate letter to cromwell please she said press me no more i will do all i can god and my conscience not offended for i assure you she continues i have done the utmost that my conscience will suffice but henry wouldn't be dictated to by his daughter or her conscience he had a statement drawn up which he ordered mary to sign if mary refused to obey she would be a traitor and risked a traitor's death this was no empty threat as a month earlier henry had executed his wife mary now faced the worst crisis of her short life and berlin had often threatened her with death if she did not surrender now her own father seemed about to carry out the threat and mary's wasn't the only life in danger for all her friends and supporters who pressed her claim to be the legitimate heiress to the throne were open to a charge of treason as well the wife of one of them wrote desperately to marry beseeching her for the passion of christ to do what her father wanted otherwise she was undone faced with this threat to her friends as well as to herself mary signed the hated piece of paper without even reading it she had betrayed herself her mother and her god [Music] the payoff for mary was a decade of peace henry finally had a son and with a male heir mary was no longer a threat henry even approved an act of parliament which stated that the line of succession was now edward then mary then elizabeth mary wasn't legitimated but she was recognized as a potential heir to the throne but thanks to her awkward status she remained unmarried then in 1547 henry died and mary was freed from his heavy hand he was succeeded by his son edward mary was edward's godmother and was very fond of the boy under the terms of her father's will mary was left a vast landed estate here in east anglia based on the confiscated estates of the dukes of norfolk it made her one of the richest landowners in the country for the first year of edward's reign mary lived contentedly in east anglia this peaceful existence might have continued had it not been for the attempts of edward and his government to revolutionize england and change it from a catholic to a protestant country mary was deeply committed to the old religion to its ritual and color to the latin of the services and above all she loved its central act of worship the mass in which the miraculous words of the priest spoken at the altar transformed the bread and the wine into the actual body and blood of christ's sacrifice upon the cross under henry viii this presented no problem as her father though he dissolved the monasteries and broken with rome had kept the old rituals unchanged but edward and his advisors led by archbishop cranmer wanted to change everything they wanted to replace what they saw as empty ritual with the pure word of god to have the services in english not latin and above all they wanted to abolish the idolatrous sacrifice of the mass as they called it and to substitute a simple act of commemoration for mary this was an abomination as it was for many people in the more conservative parts of the country the result was that mary became a symbol of resistance to a government whose extremism was making it widely unpopular mary's piety had never been particularly commented upon now age 31 she suddenly became deeply devout it was noted that she attended mass at least four times a day and spent hours in private prayer but in 1549 edward made it illegal for anyone to attend mass mary refused to obey her brother edward knew that mary could become a powerful figurehead for all those who opposed his government she had land support and she was his official heir he was forced to back down and allow mary to hear mass but only in private but mary didn't believe that the compromise could last in this crisis which existed largely in her own imagination mary laps once more into the state of victimhood of her father's reign she summoned the imperial ambassador to the house where she was staying at woodham near the essex coast here and she poured out her grief and her troubles this was a godless government she said that feared neither god nor man he was determined to make a martyr of her even as her father had done her only refuge was the emperor charles whom she regarded as her true father charles offered mary a radical solution flight he commissioned an imperial agent jayan dubois to mastermind the escape mary was living in the perfect spot close to molden on the essex coast two imperial ships would moor in the estuary by the cover of night mary would be rude out to the ships she would then sail away to the safety of catholic europe on the second of july dubois arrived at molden to carry out the plan days later rochester the head officer of mary's household and her principal confidential advisor summoned dubois to a clandestine meeting here in the graveyard at malden the scheme was unlikely to succeed rochester said the government had set watches on all the ports moreover he made clear that he disapproved of it in principle if edward died whilst mary was in exile he said she would forfeit all chants of the throne and he'd had edward's horoscope cast this showed that the boy king was likely to die within the year nevertheless he promised dubois would have the final decision once mary herself had made up her mind [Music] it was a make or break decision and mary found it almost impossible to choose dubois was eventually summoned to her house at woodham walter where he found her in a terrible state he reported that the princesses rooms were in chaos she was in great agitation packing up some of her property herself in long hop sacks trying to hide his irritation he told her she would like nothing with the emperor and that they must leave now or risk arrest the imperial ships have been spotted off the coast mary crumbled if she left the country she might never return if she stayed she feared for her life and her faith all she could do was repeat over and over what shall i do what is to become of me that strange incident in this remote corner of essex was a turning point in mary's life it may even have been the last moment that she experienced doubt for over the next few months she became increasingly confident that god had a role for her in england after all that she wouldn't have longed to wait in 1553 king edward vi died aged only 15. edward had been determined to have a protestant heir he defied his father's wishes and left the crown to his cousin lady jane gray on the 6th of july she was declared queen of england and even the ambassadors of mary's own cousin the emperor charles accepted her as queen but they reckoned without mary mary now knew that she was rightful queen of england and with her newfound sense of confidence she acted swiftly and decisively to make good her claim by force immediately she withdrew here to the great fortress of framlingham castle in her east anglian heartland armed men started to pour in from her own estates and the lands of friendly neighboring gentlemen but mary's support was far wider than this narrow conservative catholic base and even convinced protestants welcomed her as queen because she was a tudor and england's rightful heir as mary made her way through east anglia opposition faded away she was proclaimed queen from as far afield as gloucester to yorkshire she had a following of at least fifteen thousand men but not a single blow needed to be struck as she pushed on to the capital when she entered london bells were wrung bonfires lit and tadium sung for the new queen at last age 37 mary was crowned queen of england it seemed miraculous everything had turned round and once again she was the most exalted woman in england [Music] now mary could do what she wanted and rewrite history this is the house of lords record office here i kept the original copies of every act of parliament since the tudor period they're arranged monarch by monarch and year by year here's george the first then going along here the stuarts and around the corner the original axe for the tudor period they're different because they're flat so they're in boxes there are 17 boxes for mary's father henry viii down here are the boxes for her brother edward vi and at the bottom for mary herself one of the first acts of mary's reign put right what she believed was the greatest injustice of her father's reign this act states that there had been a conspiracy led by thomas cranmer to divorce her parents and make mary herself a bastard the act states categorically that henry and catherine were lawfully married in the eyes of god and that mary was the rightful heir to the throne magnificent words but there's so much sound and fury because mary already was queen and she was queen legitimately which is why her accession had been so popular but this act is about something else it's about mary's own state of mind she had always known whatever she'd said that she was really legitimate and the child of a legitimate marriage this act makes sure that the world outside recognized that inner certainty with the past now put right mary could turn to the future and her marriage [Music] her cousin the emperor charles v proposed his son philip the only trouble was that philip was spanish mary was the first queen of england in her own right but no one knew who would wield the real power if she married the english hated the idea of having a spanish king or was still becoming a mere satellite of the empire [Music] as usual in difficult circumstances mary appealed directly to god the queen the imperial ambassador and her chief lady in waiting went to the queen's private chapel they knelt before the sacrament on the altar and they sang the great latin hymn veni creator spiritus come holy ghost god descending mary then rose as one possessed and she said just as god had chosen joseph as the husband for the virgin mary so too god had chosen a husband for her and his name was philip and those whom god had joined let no man dare to put asunder having sworn on the sacrament that she would marry philip no amount of argument could change mary's mind she told parliament should i be forced to take a husband who would not be to my liking it would be the cause of my death for if i were married against my will i would not live three months and would have no children [Music] in the new year news reached mary of a conspiracy the issue of the spanish marriage was tearing her kingdom apart [Music] in kent a rich gentleman sir thomas wyatt had raised a following of over three thousand men he marched his men to london with the aim of deposing mary and placing her sister elizabeth with an english husband on the throne mary was isolated in london and heard daily reports of wyatt's terrifying advance she had few loyal forces in the capital to defend her and desperately needed support on the 1st of february 1554 mary went in procession to the guild hall here to speak to the people of london she went up to the hustings the platform from which candidates for office addressed their fellow citizens during london's annual elections and no politician has ever worked harder to win popular opinion than mary did in her speech she spoke in a deep resonant voice i am your lawful crowned queen she said then she held up her coronation ring with this ring i wedded my realm it has never left my finger and it will never leave my finger i am childless so i have never known the love that a mother feels for her child but i love you my people as a mother loves her child and i swear to you that i never intended nor ever shall marry without the consent of my counsel my parliament and you my people wyatt's men were closing in on the capital they crossed the thames at kingston and marched through knightsbridge wyatt was dangerously close to taking the city whilst everyone else was losing their head mary kept hers and though even rumors that she would lead her own troops this proved not to be necessary nevertheless when wyatt and the rebels approached the city from the west there were shocking almost comical scenes of cowardice and confusion amongst the royal guards but the city itself held firm and the gates were shut in wyatt's face trapped he'd no alternative but to surrender mary had won and she proved that a woman could be as good a leader as any man the leaders of the rebellion were swiftly executed elizabeth whose name had been used as a rallying cry for the rebels was imprisoned in the tower mary wouldn't risk her half-sister becoming a figurehead for discontent she'd never trusted nor really liked elizabeth the rivalry of the mothers descended to the daughters now she had a reason to get elizabeth out of the way [Music] 36 years after mary had been first betrothed she was finally to marry it was a moment she had spent most of her life preparing [Music] for on the 25th of july 1554 mary came here to winchester cathedral to be married she walked the vast length of the nave on an elevated walkway which had been built from the west doors to the steps of the choir there she climbed still higher to the platform on which the marriage itself took place she was given away by four noble men in the name of england and she swore the old catholic vows in which the woman promised to be bonnie and buxom in bed and aboard and instead of the jeweled bands that were then fashionable she wore a plain old-fashioned ring of gold because she said she would be married as maidens were in the olden times because mary was determined that amidst the pomp and circumstance for dynastic union it will be clear that hers was a real marriage based on love and intended to lead to the procreation of children there is no record of what philip himself thought of his new wife but the 38 year old mary did not make a very favorable impression on the spanish one quarter remarked she was a perfect saint who dressed badly and philip's closest confident praised his master on his tact and skill in dealing with a woman from whom he could expect neither physical pleasure nor satisfaction mary on the other hand seemed genuinely smitten by her new husband she wrote to her cousin and now father-in-law the emperor charles this marriage and alliance renders me happier than i can say as i daily discover in my king my husband and your son so many virtues and perfections that i constantly pray god to grant me grace to please him [Music] mary and phillips marriage was presented to the world as a new start for england a catholic england when mary came to the throne england had been separated from the catholic church of rome for almost 20 years in what was known as the great schism henry viii had made himself rather than the pope head of the church in england monasteries and abbys like tintern were destroyed because henry believed that they could not be obedient both to rome and to their king and country henry viii's campaign had been astonishingly successful but now that she was queen mary was determined to undo what her father had done she would restore not only the roman catholic religion she would also rewrite english history once more for mary england was and always would be a catholic country henry and edward's religious reforms were an aberration which could easily be wiped out and those who disagreed would be burned alive as heretics but mary believed that such resistance would be short-lived just over a year after mary came to the throne amid high ceremony and high emotion the schism was ended and england was joined once more to the mother church in rome on the 24th of november 1554 when the papal envoy met mary for the first time he greeted her in the opening phrases of the arva maria hail thou that art highly favored the lord is with thee blessed art thou amongst women these are the words of the annunciation in which the angel tells the virgin mary that she has conceived the christ child after the envoy left mary sent him a messenger to tell him that his prophetic salutation had been answered the babe she said had stirred in her womb a miracle had happened and despite her years mary was pregnant once again god had smiled on her in the spring of 1555 mary eagerly awaited the birth of her first child following the ancient ritual of queens of england she withdrew from public life and took to her chamber here at hampton court for her confinement all the chief gentlewomen of the country came to witness the birth elaborate baby clothes were embroidered rockers were employed and wet nurses brought in may passed but no baby appeared on the first of june mary reported some pain and physicians predicted the birth for the sixth but the day came and went now rumors were spread the queen was not pregnant at all but seriously ill perhaps even dead one woman it was rumored had been approached by the king's men to give up her new son as a substitute as the country waited the mood turned from celebration to despondency to contempt the summer was blighted by terrible storms and the harvest failed even the spanish ambassador was beginning to think the unthinkable the entire future turns on the confinement of the queen of which however there are no signs if all goes well the state of the country will improve if she is in error i foresee convulsions and disturbances such as no pen can describe by the end of july no one but the queen believed that she was really with child [Music] it was a desperate time for mary outside the palace her pregnancy had become a joke some said that the fetus was a monkey others that it was a pet dog others still said it would all end in wind but mary wouldn't give up and as late as july after 11 months of supposed pregnancy she was still convinced that she was with child for god's messenger had told her that she was pregnant he could not be wrong but finally even mary had to admit the truth and on the 4th of august with no public announcement she quietly slipped away from hampton court the pretense of pregnancy was over [Music] whether it was a phantom pregnancy or the result of a cyst or tumor is unclear but when philip realized that there was no baby and little prospect of one he decided that he'd more pressing concerns than england he left for the continent mary was distraught and spent long hours watching the waters of the thames which had carried philip away but mary's personal unhappiness did not deflect her from the policy of religious persecution on the contrary perhaps the protestants were proving unexpectedly courageous mary determined to match their obstinacy with her own hugh lavrov a lame old man and john apris a blind man were carried from newgate in the cart to stratford-lebo and most quietly in the fires praising god elizabeth cooper being condemned to be burned stood as still and as quiet as one most glad to finish that good work lord jesus have mercy upon me lord jesus received my spirit and these were the last words he was heard to utter but when he was black in the mouth and his tongue swollen that he could not speak yet his lips went john leaf was an apprentice to a tallow chandler when he came to the stake holding up his hands and casting his countenance up to heaven he cried oh england england repent thee of thy sins all these stories were recorded by john fox in his book of martyrs over 300 protestant men and women were burned for their beliefs over the next two years it was a horrible way to die and it could take an hour or more as the victims watched as their lower limbs were burned away and their extremities shriveled and blackened sometimes for mercy bags of gunpowder were tied around their necks to kill them quickly they rarely seem to have worked mary was wholly and personally committed to the policy of burning heretics alive not that she was especially cruel vindictive far from it she actually thought that she was doing good and rescuing england from itself for heresy as a kind of treason against god was the worst possible crime and deserved the worst possible punishment the burnings came to a head with the trial of cranmer the man who had presided over the divorce mary held him responsible for much of the unhappiness in her life now it was her chance for revenge mary of course wouldn't have called it revenge but justice cranmer was found guilty and sentenced to be burned alive but by this time cranmer was an old and broken man and the prospect of the terrible death by fire led him to recant he renounced his life's work and accepted once more the pope and the mass this was a tremendous propaganda victory for mary but there was a catch as the law then stood with his recantation cranmer's life should have been spared but mary wasn't going to let him escape so easily and both fox's account and mary's own letters make clear that she intervened personally to order that despite cranmer's recantation he should nevertheless burn mary's government decided to exploit the propaganda value of cranmer's recantation by ordering him to give a public reading of it just before his execution cranmer mounted the specially constructed stage and started to read suddenly it was clear that he was departing from his prepared text he renounced his recantation he said and then above the mounting hubbub he cried out that the pope was christ's enemy and antichrist and the mass was an idolatry amidst curses and cheers he was pulled from the stage and dragged to the place of execution he was chained to the stake and then in a gesture which is depicted in the most famous woodcut in fox's book of matas he stretched out his right hand into the flames so that the hand which had signed the recantation was burned off first it was a true martyrdom and the result was that cranma dead did even more damage to mary's cause than he'd been able to do when he was alive and mary had only herself and her insatiable desire for vengeance to blame the burnings became increasingly unpopular and to make matters worse for the third summer in a row the harvest failed and a deadly influenza epidemic broke out to add to her misery rumors reached mary from the continent that philip was having affairs she begged him to return [Music] i should become jealous and uneasy about you which will be worse to me than death for i have already begun to taste too much jealousy to my great regret and philip did return but only stayed four months by the time he left mary believed she was pregnant for the second time she even wrote a will clearly outlining the catholic england which her unborn child was heir to but by may 1558 once again no baby had arrived and mary was seriously ill the spanish ambassador reported that he found her weak and melancholic even though it was clear that mary would have no child she refused to recognize her half-sister as heir to the throne elizabeth was everything mary wasn't she was young beautiful and a symbol of hope mary hated her as the daughter of anne berlin the woman who had started off all the misery in mary's life meanwhile mary presided over the most significant english defeat in france after 211 years england lost calais its last foothold on the continent for mary this was a terrible blow which destroyed her credibility at home and abroad it was the final humiliation in september mary's illness became steadily worse and on the 7th of november she finally accepted that death was close now she had no alternative but to acknowledge that elizabeth would be her heir but she tried to make elizabeth swear to maintain the catholic restoration which had been mary's life's work mary was 42 not old even by the standards of the day she may have been suffering from ovarian cancer or she may merely have been a victim of the influenza epidemic which had already killed so many of her subjects that year [Music] mary died on the 17th of november 1558 during her last hours she often lapsed into a trance-like state in which he saw visions of little children playing on instruments and singing like angels but the fact that mary hadn't had a real child of her own meant that that vision of catholic england so confidently outlined in her will crumbled to nothing the monasteries that she'd refounded like westminster abbey here were dissolved and the monks are expelled and the husband whom she'd love so deeply wrote that he felt a moderate grief for her and promptly started to sue for the hand of her successor and her successor of course was elizabeth daughter of the hated anne boleyn mary is cheated even in her grave because she's not buried with her mother catherine as she'd requested but with elizabeth there is a magnificent tomb over the grave but it is a monument only to elizabeth mary instead is commemorated by a simple slab of black marble that and the name of perpetual infamy bloody mary

Channel: Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries

Views: 887,360

Keywords: history documentary, medieval history documentary, middle ages, medieval history, the middle ages, bloody mary, mary I, mary tudor, tudor history, tudor royal, tudor documentary, david starkey, david starkey documentary, british tudors, the real tudors, british history documentary, british tudor history documentary, british medieval history documentary, chronicle

Id: tPSbKfirBpM

Length: 48min 5sec (2885 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 30 2021