Mary I of England

Mary I
Portrait by Antonis Mor, 1554
Queen of England and Ireland (more...)
Reign	July 1553[a] – 17 November 1558
Coronation	1 October 1553
Predecessor	Jane (disputed) or Edward VI
Successor	Elizabeth I
Co-monarch	Philip (1554–1558)
Queen consort of Spain
Tenure	16 January 1556 – 17 November 1558
Born	18 February 1516 Palace of Placentia, Greenwich, England
Died	17 November 1558 (aged 42) St James's Palace, Westminster, England
Burial	14 December 1558 Westminster Abbey, London
Spouse	Philip II of Spain ​ (m. 1554)​
House	Tudor
Father	Henry VIII of England
Mother	Catherine of Aragon
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain and the Habsburg dominions as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, King Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.

Mary was the only surviving child of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. She was declared illegitimate and barred from the line of succession following the annulment of her parents' marriage in 1533, though she would later be restored via the Third Succession Act 1543. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded their father in 1547 at the age of nine. When Edward became terminally ill in 1553, he attempted to remove Mary from the line of succession because he supposed, correctly, that she would reverse the Protestant reforms that had taken place during his reign. Upon his death, leading politicians proclaimed Mary's and Edward's Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey, as queen instead. Mary speedily assembled a force in East Anglia and deposed Jane, who was eventually beheaded. Mary was—excluding the disputed reigns of Jane and the Empress Matilda—the first queen regnant of England. In July 1554, she married Prince Philip of Spain, becoming queen consort of Habsburg Spain on his accession in 1556.

After Mary's death in 1558, her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism in England was reversed by her younger half-sister and successor, Elizabeth I.

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