Right To Rule: The Female Fight

The Female Fight

With its recurring wars and religious conflicts, the Tudor period was easily one of the most tumultuous in England's chequered history. Cousins fought cousins for the crown. Churches were brought to the ground, and Princesses fought for their own right to rule.

Everyone knows the story of Elizabeth I, the Queen who defied her ministers to remain unmarried, who defeated an armada, and who restored England to the powerful nation it had been before religious radicalisation had weakened it. Yet it was another Tudor queen who pre-dated Elizabeth that laid the foundations for the first steps towards women's equality.
Her half sister, Mary Tudor was the first woman to ever be crowned Queen of England in her own right. Yet she (and her equally obscure younger brother Edward,) continue to languish under the shadows of the two giants of Tudor history: Elizabeth and Henry VIII.

Subservient to nobody, Mary became a figurehead for women's independence when she won the throne of England after nine terror-filled days that threatened to evoke a civil war that would have surpassed the bloodiness of the Wars of the Roses.
Fanatically religious even by the standards of the day, Mary had been brought up to believe it was Gods will she would become Queen by her equally religious mother, Katharine of Aragon. However, Marys more conservative father, Henry VIII, viewed the prospect of his only heir being female as not only a threat to the stability of the realm, but a denigration of his own potency.

The only example in history of a female succession had been when Henry I died leaving his only surviving daughter Matilda to inherit his country. With female rights of inheritance unclear, factions quickly began to lend their weight to her cousin and rival, Stephen of Blois.
For 19 years, Matilda and Stephen fought a bitter battle for the English crown. Although Matilda briefly prevailed, her arrogance at her right to rule quickly alienated most of her powerful supporters and her attempt to be crowned at Westminster Abbey lead to violent revolts against her, causing her to flee overseas, leaving Stephen to rule England.
It was a damning legacy that filled the sovereigns and nobles of middle-aged England with dread. Never again, must there be a female succession. It was a fate Henry VIII was determined to avoid. And so began his mission: to secure his dynasty by procuring a male heir.
Three wives were sacrificed on the altar of his ambitions before the birth of his only son and heir, Prince Edward in October 1537.

Although Edward succeeded his father, it was only by five years. During which time, the protestant church rituals that are still practised today were inaugurated into worship. Yet the new religion caused consternation between Edward and his catholic half-sister Mary, and their once close relationship quickly grew cold.
Determined to keep his religious changes in place, Edward drafted a device that bypassed the succession of not only Mary, but Elizabeth also, in favour of the yet to be born male issue of his cousin, Lady Jane Grey. Edward, it seemed shared his fathers' misogyny about women rulers.
However as Edward grew to realise he was dying, he accepted that he did not have enough time for Lady Jane to produce a son and begrudgingly left the throne to her, with the stipulation she was to be followed only by her male heirs.
When Mary learnt she had been disinherited, there was only one option in her mind. Her brothers' premature death at 15 years old, vindicated her lifelong conviction she was destined to be Queen.
With just a handful of servants, she galloped across the East Anglia countryside, where thousands flocked to join her every day. It was a huge gamble that saw Mary emerge as victor, but her overwhelming popularity did not last for the remaining five years of her life.
Her decision to marry her cousin, Philip of Spain corroded the goodwill of both the nobles and common folk alike. But it was her persecution of Protestants that completely eradicated her legacy as a brave and courageous woman, staining her with the sobriquet "Bloody Mary."
Indeed so reviled were her people by her that upon her death, celebrations ran rampant throughout the country.
It was not an ideal conclusion for the reign of the first crowned Queen of England, who had fought so hard for her independent right to rule. England would only achieve that forty-five years later, when, after a stable and secure reign, Elizabeth I became a legend.