Guest Author - Nicola Jane Soen
England, as most know has not been Catholic, unlike Europe for centuries. But it was not Henry VIII who turned the English away from Catholicism. It is true he planted the seed. However it was a devout Catholic who did the most terrible damage to the Faith; without even realizing it. Had she known she would have been heartbroken, as returning England to its founding faith was her greatest desire. Her name was Mary Tudor, Eldest child of Henry VIII.
Mary was born in 1516 to Katherine of Aragon and Henry VIII. They had many years of fruitless childbearing and Mary was the only survivor of numerous pregnancies. So she was special, especially to her mother. But by now Henry was trying to divorce his wife, for Anne Boleyn. To do this he had defied the Pope and broken with Rome. This meant that Catholicism was no longer the English faith, but that Henry instead of the Pope was head of the church. Apart from that not much changed for the average English person going to the church. The monasteries were stripped it is true, but for the lowly, the loss of the monks charity and help was possibly the worst at that time, of all the upheavals’ they were forced to endure.
Mary however was learned. She ‘knew’ the Catholic faith was the only faith and that all other ideologies were not only heretical but led to hell. Not only that, but her father had taken away her status and made her illegitimate, a huge stigma in those times. She was forced into the service of her ‘legitimate’ half sister Elizabeth; as a maid; and heard her step mother Anne Boleyn say she could be beaten to ‘show her, her place’ and to show her that she had to obey this servitude. She also lost her title of Princess, that went to Elizabeth and she was hence forth known as The Lady Mary.
Losing all visitation rights to her mother, who died without seeing her; being forced to accept illegitimacy and seeing people being beheaded, tortured and killed for not agreeing with Henry; as well as the removal of the Faith from Rome changed Mary completely; from the happy, bright child to an uptight, stubborn, bitterly zealous woman.
On assention to the throne in 1553 at the age of 37, and having no husband, due to neglect and political exclusion; Mary quickly married Catholic, Philip II, of Spain. With full intention of bringing erring Protestant England back to the mother faith. Normally both generous and kind to people (those who loved her testified to this), religious zeal turned Mary into a monster. Blindly believing she was doing God’s work she burned more people at the stake than many monarchs ever had. Choosing Catholic advisers, she set about purging the country of its sin. Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer were among the Protestant bishops burned for heresy. Normally there was allowed a recant at the stake itself; this meant that if one repented and went back to Catholicism one would not burn, but Mary eventually had this stopped, in case ‘they were not really repentant.’
She had so far failed to bare children, and her half sister, Elizabeth, who had come near to death, and being Protestant, began to hope. Finally the Queen believed she was with child. Philip had left yet again and returned to Spain. He did not love Mary, as she was 11 years older, and had just married her because of his duty to the Pope. However though her belly swelled it was not a child but a tumour that grew in it and finally even Mary could no longer deceive herself. Everyone knew she had no child. She had been rejoiced over like no other monarch in living memory when she acceded to the throne, but when she died in 1558; she had only reigned five years, and was the most hated monarch England has ever known. Catholicism was never again to rule as the religion in England because of Mary’s zeal at forcing it on the public. For that terror she earned herself the infamous name of Bloody Mary.
