MARY I OF BLOODY MARY, FIRST QUEEN REGNANT TO RULE DIED 1558 NOVEMBER 17
MARY I OF BLOODY MARY, FIRST QUEEN REGNANT TO RULE DIED 1558 NOVEMBER 17 Mary I was England’s first queen regnant, that is, the first queen to rule in her own right rather than by being the wife of a reigning king. The daughter of King Henry VIII, Mary, a devout Catholic, ascended to the throne in 1553. During her five-year reign, she worked to restore Catholicism as England’s state religion and sanctioned the persecution of Protestants, hundreds of whom were burned at the stake, earning her the nickname Bloody Mary. Find out more about the turbulent life of this Tudor monarch. 1. She had lots of stepmothers. Born at Greenwich Palace on February 18, 1516 (seven years after the 1509 marriage of her parents, King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon,) Mary was their only child to survive past infancy. In the 1520s, Henry, unhappy his wife hadn’t produced a male heir, decided to end their marriage and wed Anne Boleyn, the sister of one of his former mistresses. In 1527, Henry...