Friday, 13 March 2009

Did Bloody Mary deserve her reputation?

Did Bloody Mary deserve her reputation? It is a question that has been repeatedly by historians. My personal verdict is no. She gained her reputation because she burned so many Protestants but I think that it was no fault of her own. Her father, Henry VIII became rabidly anti-Catholic after the Reformation of the English Churches. Mary was also the daughter of a women that he had divorced and hated. Henry, as the head of the Church that said that his marriage with Catherine of Aragon wasn't legally binding making Mary illegitimate. As a result he mistreated her which heightened her dislike of Protestants.During her reign she was under high mental pressure and stress. Her husband, Phillip II of Spain, the one man that she really loved abandoned her causing to sink into periods of sever depression. She also suffered from numerous phantom pregnancies and became for a child that she could never have. As a result she was highly unstable and couldn't be held responsible for her actions.

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