Princess Mary Tudor Of England : Family tree by comrade28

[edit] Queen of France
A sketch of Mary during her brief period as Queen of France
A sketch of Mary during her brief period as Queen of France

Mary was the fifth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the youngest to survive infancy. She was born at Richmond Palace. She and her brother Henry VIII were close when they were children he named his daughter, the future Queen Mary, after her and the warship Mary Rose was also named in her honour.

Known in her youth as one of the most beautiful Princesses of Europe[1], Mary was betrothed in December 1507 to Charles of Castile, later Holy Roman Emperor. However, changes in the political alliances of the European powers meant this wedding did not take place[2]. Instead, Cardinal Wolsey negotiated a peace treaty with France, and on October 9, 1514, at the age of 18, Mary married its 52-year-old King Louis XII at Abbeville. Despite two previous marriages, the king had no living sons and sought to produce an heir; but Louis died on January 1, 1515, less than three months after he married Mary, reputedly worn out by his exertions in the bedchamber. Their union produced no children. Despite the short duration of the marriage, Mary's English contemporaries frequently referred to her as 'the French Queen'

[edit] Duchess of Suffolk

Mary had been unhappy with her marriage to Louis, as at this time she was almost certainly already in love with Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk.[3] Henry knew of his sister's feelings[4] but wanted any future marriage to be to his advantage. When he sent Brandon to bring Mary back to England in late January 1515, he made the Duke promise that he would not propose to her.[5] However, the couple married in secret in France on March 3, 1515. Technically this was treason, as Brandon had married a Royal Princess without Henry's consent. The King was outraged, and the Privy Council urged that Brandon should be imprisoned or executed. Due to the intervention of Wolsey, and Henry's affection for both his sister and Brandon, the couple were let off with a heavy fine.[6] They were officially married on May 13, 1515 at Greenwich Palace.
Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon
Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon

After the marriage, Mary spent most of her time at the Duke's country seat of Westhorpe Hall in Suffolk.[7] She and Brandon had three children:

Relations between Henry VIII and Mary were strained in the late 1520s when she opposed the King's attempt to obtain an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, whom Mary had known for many years. She had developed a strong dislike for the future Queen Anne Boleyn,[8] whom she had first encountered in France.[9]

Mary died at Westhorpe Hall, Westhorpe, Suffolk on June 25, 1533, and was initially buried at the abbey at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Her body was moved to nearby St. Mary's Church, also in Bury St Edmunds, when the abbey was destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Her husband soon married their son's fiancee, fourteen year-old Catherine Willoughby. In 1546, shortly after the Duke's death, there were rumours in England and in the Netherlands that Henry was planning to discard Catherine Parr and marry Catherine Willoughby. As she had been married to his brother-in-law, this would have been difficult under church law. She is not thought to have desired marriage to Henry.[citation needed]

[edit] In popular culture

Mary was portrayed by silent screen star Marion Davies in the 1922 film When Knighthood Was in Flower, reputed to have been, at the time of its release, the most expensive film ever made. It was one of Davies' biggest hits. Another fictionalized version of Mary's marital adventures is portrayed in the 1953 Walt Disney film The Sword and the Rose starring Richard Todd and Glynis Johns.

She is also the subject of the novels Mary, Queen of France by Jean Plaidy, The Reluctant Queen by Molly Costain Haycraft, and Princess of Desire by Maureen Peters. The novel of When Knighthood Was in Flower, by Edwin Caskoden (the pen name of Charles Major) was published in 1898, and was the source material for both the Davies and the Disney films. She was also fictionalized in the historical fiction novel The Last Boleyn by Karen Harper.

The drama series The Tudors portrays Mary and Charles's relationship, though the character is named Princess Margaret, and is a composite of Mary and her sister Margaret Tudor, portrayed by Gabrielle Anwar. Charles Brandon is portrayed by Henry Cavill. Many liberties have been taken with the story. For example, in the television series, Henry arranges his sister's marriage with the aged King of Portugal, not of France, in the late 1520s. Margaret/Mary then kills her husband. Another fictitious sub-plot has Henry making Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk so the latter would be of appropriate rank to give away Henry's sister at her supposed wedding to the King of Portugal. In the story, the Tudor/Brandon marriage soon cools and no mention is made of their three children. Yet another discontinuity relates to Henry's sister dying before Wolsey (who died in 1530).

[edit] Ancestry
Ancestors of Mary Tudor, Queen of France[show]

16. Maredudd ap Tudur

8. Owen Tudor

17. Margaret ferch Dafydd

4. Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond

18. Charles VI of France

9. Catherine of Valois

19. Isabeau of Bavaria

2. Henry VII of England

20. John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset

10. John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset

21. Margaret Holland

5. Lady Margaret Beaufort

22. John de Beauchamp, 3rd Baron Beauchamp

11. Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso

23. Edith Stourton

1. Mary Tudor

24. Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge

12. Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York

25. Anne de Mortimer

6. Edward IV of England

26. Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland

13. Cecily Neville

27. Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland

3. Elizabeth of York

28. Sir Richard Wydevill

14. Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers

29. Elizabeth Bodulgate

7. Elizabeth Woodville

30. Peter I, Comte de Saint-Pol

15. Jacquetta of Luxembourg

31. Margaret de Baux

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 169. Erasmus said of her that "Nature never formed anything more beautiful."
2. ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 169.
3. ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 173.
4. ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 173. Letters from 1515 indicate that Mary agreed to wed Louis only on condition that "if she survived him, she should marry whom she liked."
5. ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 178.
6. ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 178, 184. The fine of £24,000 approximately equivalent to £7,200,000 today was later reduced by Henry.
7. ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 185.
8. ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 310.
9. ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 175. Anne and her sister Mary Boleyn were maids of honour in the entourage that accompanied Mary to France for her wedding.

[edit] References

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