Mary Tudor: The Tragical History of the First Queen of England

Although achieving notoriety as the persecutor of Protestants, Mary I of England had to contend with great personal, religious and dynastic stress. Her mother, Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife, fell from grace while Mary was still young, and her own future seemed bleak. Her eventual reign and its tortuous lead-up were set against the political and religious confusion that Henry VIII bequeathed to his kingdom. Despite this, Mary established the precedents for queenly power that her 'glorious' half sister and dynastic competitor Elizabeth could later exploit. David Loades, one of the UK's leading experts on Mary, provides the full personal and political story behind the queen. Her steeliness belied an emotional fragility, and her doomed marriage to the King of Spain threatened the peace of the realm. Original documents, letters and color illustrations combine with the text to make an absorbing historical journey.