Mary I

Mary I. (1516-58), Queen of England, was the daughter of Henry VIII. and Catharine of Aragon (q.v.), and began her life under favourable auspices, and had Cardinal Wolsey as godfather. At the age of 10 she had a court of her own at, Ludlow, and many arrangements were made from time to time as to her future marriage; but the divorce of Catharine and the ascendency of Anne Boleyn wrought a great change in her circumstances. Declared illegitimate, she had to be content with a situation altogether subordinate to that of her younger sister, and, though the death of Anne Boleyn and its results brought some amelioration, she was still treated with considerable harshness by her father. Still at his death Henry had so much sense of justice as to provide for her in his will. Her chief advisers were Gardiner and the Emperor Charles V., and her marriage with Philip, son of the latter, was the principal cause of her later unpopularity, first as introducing the Spanish Inquisition into England, and secondly as being in itself displeasing to the English, who already felt distrust of the queen on account of her religion.