Does Mary I deserve the title of Bloody Mary? Mary I of Scotland was the first child of King Henry VIII. Her mother was Catherine of Aragon of Spain, a religious catholic. Mary, too, was brought up as a catholic. However, when it seemed unlikely that Catherine would be able to produce a male heir for Henry, he wanted a divorce.
Mary came to the throne in 1553 only after crushing a plot by the leaders of the Protestant elite to place her cousin, Lady Jane Grey, on the throne, instead of her. She had promised mercy to many of the rebellion's leaders, but in 1554 there were two more disturbances against her rule. They were orchestrated by Jane Grey's father, the marquis of Dorset, and Sir Thomas Wyatt, son of a family with strong emotional ties to the Boleyns (and, thus, Elizabeth, Mary's Protestant half-sister.) This showed that there was strong Protestant sympathies against Mary and that leniency would not prevent them from rising up against her again. Thus, political brutality was called for.
Henry VIII is often remembered as the English monarch who broke with the Roman Church. However, Henry was only attracted to Protestant doctrine in a limited way, as the years 1530-1547 demonstrate. Between the years 1530-1534, Henry tried to secure the Pope's permission to divorce Catherine of Aragon, by threatening first the English clergy and then the Pope's powers in England. When the Pope still did not grant the divorce, Henry undertook the most extreme of measures, claiming jurisdiction over the English Church for himself. The Act of Royal Supremacy of 1534 stated that the Crown was reclaiming powers that it had always possessed; powers that Rome had usurped during the previous four hundred years - a fact which Henry and his advisors firmly believed.
Edwards marriage to Woodville was said to show favouritism as he subsequently gave the Woodville family titles and arranged the best marriages possible for Elizabeth’s sister, meaning that Warwick’s daughters did not get the desired marriages. This alienated Warwick and made him resent the King. The lack of land an titles given to the kings brother, George duke of Clarence also alienated him, making him and Warwick join together to become over mighty and eventually end in 3 rebellions lead by Clarence and Warwick. These rebellions prove that Edward did not deal effectively with his over might subjects or nobles as the eventually ended up deposes him and putting Henry IV back on the throne. Overall, I think that although Edward had some successes, for example showing Warwick at the
Even though the ideas about gender at the time greatly influenced Queen Elizabeth I’s rule, she brought much success and political stability to the nation of England during her rule. During Elizabeth’s reign, religious peoples leaned towards the view that women shouldn’t be ruling. She responded to these thoughts by showing her anger and expressing how much strong leadership she possessed. Throughout Elizabeth’s rule in England, she faced much opposition from the church. John Knox, a Scottish religious reformer, explores the idea that women are utterly forbidden to occupy the place of God in religious offices.
As is clear from Source B this act is overturned by his son’s Devise. Edward was able to do this with the assistance from his council and as result his two sisters were declared illegitimate. One reason for this aside from the fact that they are female is their religion. Mary was strictly catholic, Edward however was Protestant and he and his council wished for England to continue to be in the hands of a protestant ruler therefore they were once again removed from the
Many people in the court was surprised that Henry had sustained his relationship with Anne for so long as he was well known for keeping short relations with his female companions. This suggests that his feeling for her were of true love. Others however say that there was no male heir in succession. Henry had few options he could let Mary take the throne which could lead to a civil war as it had done with the last queen to inherited the throne, he could have married Mary off and hoped she produced a heir before his death, or his illegitimate son ‘Duke of Richmond’ could take the throne, however this would be have been unpopular with nobility and could result in someone else with illegitimate claim to the throne. England was an unstable country in this period in history and a civil war would have left it valuable to attacks and invasions.
When I thought of polygamy I thought of grown men marring many women, which some of them at very young ages. I have been raised to believe marriage should be between one man and one woman. I could never wrap my head around this cultural practice. I now realize the women are the ones who suffer the most. The practice of polygamy distorts the meaning of marriage.
Many believe that the fact that Lloyd George replaced Asquith as Prime Minister in 1916 held reasonable importance. Asquith was not a supporter of women’s suffrage and had been against giving women the vote. Paula Bartley says “Asquith’s remarks about the female electors of Paisley in 1920 suggest he still resented women’s involvement in Parliament – ‘a dim lot, for the most part hopelessly ignorant of politics’.” This sums up his feeling towards women. Lloyd George, on the other hand, “was sympathetic to women’s suffrage.” Another reason for women gaining enfranchisement was because other countries were doing it too and Britain felt the need to comply. Women in New Zealand were enfranchised in 1893, women in Australia in 1902 and women in Canada in 1917.
They rarely addressed themselves to national issues. 4. In the era of personal monarchy, the characteristics of the individual king or queen were bound to have an impact on the workings of politics. As a woman in a mans world, Elizabeth learned to use her gender to good effect. She countered the problems of her questionable legitimacy, England’s weak international standing and the need to re-establish a Protestant church in a Catholic land.