Mary Tudor © Unknown Artist – The National Portrait Gallery
Mary Tudor was born on 18 February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, England, to her royal parents King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine of Aragon. She was the only one of their offspring to make it into adulthood, which displeased her father and burdened her mother. Katherine doted on her nonetheless, seeing that she received the best education available.
Mary’s early years were sweet and peaceful. Katherine talked with Spanish humanist Juan Luís Vives to counsel her regarding Mary’s education and he in turn wrote De Institutione Feminae Christianae just for her. The most precious jewel, as her dad used to call her, spent her time learning Latin, French and Spanish, as well as courtly skills like dancing and playing the virginals. In 1528 she suffered from a bout of smallpox but got over it with ease and it is believed she had trouble with her eyesight, just like Henry, making her gaze an intimidating one. But all in all, she looked healthy and was quickly developing and becoming a marriageable teen with red cheeks in which Katherine deposited every hope. This intensified once Mary turned 9 years old and both Katherine and Henry understood that there’d be no more children from them both.
Late 1520’s saw the beginning of Mary’s nightmares. As Henry grew impatient with his wife, he started to think that their marriage was being chastised by God and that he ought to find his much desired male heir elsewhere. Long story short, by the end of the decade the King had torn apart from the Queen and was trying to wed Anne Boleyn by abandoning Rome’s Catholicism and creating a new faith that let him get a divorce. This situation wasn’t only a political and religious scandal within England and Europe, but it was the destruction of every single piece of Mary’s life up until that point. Mary, who adored her pious mother, watched her being moved from castle to castle while Anne paraded her status at court. To make matters worse, she had a front seat to witness Henry VIII’s war against Catholicism, which was Mary’s faith, as well as her mom’s and her grandparents’.
All of this may be the reason for her first big demonstration of illness, in 1530. At 14 years old, she had already started her puberty and suffered from debilitating headaches and pain aches each month, being diagnosed with ‘strangulation of the womb’ by her mother’s apothecary and physician. This diagnosis worried everyone, as they wondered who would accept to marry her were she to be unfit to conceive. Her periods brought her episodes of deep sadness that she referred to as ‘melancholy’ and ever since their parents’ messy separation she was often depressed and anxious. It was worsened when Henry forbade Katherine and Mary to meet or even write to each other, leaving them both sad and concerned whenever one of them was sick. Probably due to everything going on, Mary was said to be showing symptoms of hysteria for weeks in April of 1531. As part of her treatment, she practiced horseback riding regularly until she was sent to live with her half-sister Elizabeth, losing her freedom and her role at court.
By late 1534, Mary’s situation was dire. Parliament had passed the new Act of Succession and Henry was forcing everyone to swear an oath on it. Refusing to do so meant torture or even death. Mary was under lots of stress as she persistently rebuffed any attempt to make her accept Anne as Queen and Elizabeth as the rightful heir above herself. She never called her sister Princess and instead she kept calling Katherine Queen. This led to another bout of illness right before turning nineteen. She was relegated to bed, with severe stomach aches and indigestion. Lady Shelton, who was in charge at Elizabeth’s household, called for an apothecary that didn’t know about Mary’s issues as Katherine’s had, and prescribed medicine that worsened her condition, possibly due to an unknown allergic reaction or an involuntary psychological response.
Katherine begged to be able to see her child, writing: ‘The comfort and cheerfulness she would have with me would be half her cure. I have found this by experience, being ill of the same sickness’. Mary kept getting weaker but no one wanted to risk their heads treating her in case she didn’t make it out alive so ambassador Eustace Chapuys took the matter on his own ands and got through to Thomas Cromwell, who got the King to send one of his personal physicians to care for Mary. Doctor Butts explained to the King that his daughter needed to be cared for under certain circumstances in order to live a healthy life but Henry was not having it and thus Mary did a quick recovery before coming down again with a relapse shortly after.
One year later, doctors were called again to treat a rheum on her head.
Nowadays, specialists that have read about her symptoms believe that she might’ve had endometriosis, cancer or ovarian cysts, made worse by all her anxiety and personal problems.
These subsided a bit after signing Henry’s Act of Succession and being somewhat restored into favour at court, receiving better living conditions. Alas, the King died and Edward took the throne, Mary falling ill while inspecting her new states in November 1547. She was depressed, as she tended to be around fall and winter, which could be some kind of seasonal depression, even though it didn’t occur every single year.
Her youngest brother and King, who had tragically lost his mother when he was just a newborn, was raised as a Protestant and he kept their father’s reforms going during his brief reign. This undoubtedly made Mary feel upset and unsafe once again while quarreling with Edward regarding her beliefs and spiritual practices. The boy King would grow to be more attached to Elizabeth than to Mary because of it.
In 1553 Edward VI unexpectedly passed away and Mary took the crown by force after Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen following Edward’s new Act of Succession that tried to prevent another return to Catholicism. And turn back to Rome she did. Refused the title of Head of the Church and married Spanish Felipe II on July 25 1554 to help her fight against Protestantism in England.
Soon after, and at the age of 37, Mary thought she had finally conceived. Her health during the supposed pregnancy was perfect and Felipe waited it out by her side. In April, Mary retired to confinement, expecting to give birth. On the 30th of that month it was announced that a prince had been born and everyone celebrated his arrival. Unfortunately, there was no baby to dote upon and doctors tried to pacify her by saying they must’ve gotten the due date wrong and it was a matter of waiting a bit more. The Queen closed herself off, being shattered, feeling humiliated and descending into depression once more, becoming pale and frail as days passed. On 21 of May, Mary admitted there wouldn’t be a birth as her belly had almost disappeared and her health was looking up again, deciding to move to another property to let Hampton Court be cleaned and taken care of. One of multiple phantom pregnancies that Mary would go on to endure, possibly caused by ovarian dropsy, though we will never truly know.
Felipe left and she was left to handle the country alone, this beginning her insomnia. She feared she’d be murdered by the rebels and it started to take a toll on her appearance. After Felipe’s last visit, Mary was convinced this time she was indeed pregnant, her stomach quickly growing. Sadly, it was just another false alarm that destroyed Mary’s dreams of creating a family alongside her estranged husband.
In 1558 Mary came down with a bit of fever and dropsy and had lost most of her vision, having brief lapses of mental confusion. It would come and go, making her miserable and susceptible to her bouts of deep sadness. By October it looked like she might not ever recover. When she was able she met with her council. Felipe sent her his personal physician to aid her.
In November, lots of members of her household started to move to Elizabeth’s to prepare for her own accession to the throne, leaving Mary blind, alone and weak, surrounded only by her closest servants while coming in and out of consciousness.
Early in the morning of the 17th of November, Mary attended Mass on time to die that same afternoon.
She didn’t get to reunite in death with her late mother as she wished. Instead she’s now resting painlessly and in peace alongside her sister Elizabeth.
Let’s hope she’s better now remembering a prayer she wrote in 1549:
‘This natural life of ours is but a pilgrimage from this wandering world, and exile from our own country: that is to say, a way from all misery to thee (Lord) which art our whole felicity. And lest the pleasantness and commodity of this life should withdraw us from the going to the right and speedy way to thee, thou dost stir and provoke us forward, and as yet ward prick us with thorns, to the intent we should covet a quiet rest, and end of our journey. Therefore sickness, weepings, sorrow, mourning, and in conclusion all adversities be unto us as spurs; with the which we being dull horses, or rather very asses, are forced not to remain long in this transitory way. Wherefore Lord, give us grace to forget this wayfaring journey, and to remember our proper and true country. And if thou do add a weight of adversity, add thereunto strength, that we shall not be overcome with that burden: but having our minds continually erected and lift up to thee, we may be able to strongly bear it. Lord! all things be thine; therefore do with all things, without any exception, as shall seem convenient to thine unsearchable wisdom. And give us grace never to will but as thou wilt. So be it.'
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