The stories of these queens are not like the stories of Margaret of Anjou or Isabella of France. Those two fought for the right to rule on behalf of their sons and their husbands were the true kings, in law if not in practice. Instead, these three Tudor women found themselves in a position where there were no men eligible to take the throne, so a woman, for the first time, would have to rule n her own right. But, they would each find that power was not easily held in the hands of a woman in the Middle Ages.
This tale begins in 1553 with the death of the 15 year old King Edward VI. Edward was the only son of King Henry VIII and was the reason that Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon did not live out the rest of their days as queen. His death was a crisis among the nobles, because, for the first time, all of the prospective rulers after Edward's death were female.
When Henry died, Edward was nine years old and it was assumed that Edward's children would take the throne after him. Unfortunately, because he died so young, no such offspring existed. Instead, according to Henry, he would be succeeded by his oldest half sister Mary, then Elizabeth. Edward also had seven cousins, but they too were all women. Edward had been brought up amongst ardently Protestant tutors and had therefore grown into a devout Anglican Protestant. His sister Mary was also a radically devout Catholic.
Henry had been the one to break from the Catholic Church and make himself the head of the Church of England, but Edward was the true believer and brought about the Protestant Reformation. Despite his youth, Edward was persistent in wiping away the remnants of Catholicism by getting rid of Latin masses and incense and rosaries and replacing them with modern English prayer books and such. Edward, therefore, desperately wanted to avoid putting a regent on the throne that would bring England back to Catholicism. He declared that both of his half sisters were bastards, just as his father had declared many years ago. After all, English rulers, Edward claimed, had to be legitimate and Protestant, which ruled out his sisters and his cousin Mary of Scots. They also had to be male, so he did not end up leaving his throne to a person that actually existed, but instead to the future sons of his cousin Jane Grey, who shared his fierce Protestant faith. He added Jane to this just a small while before his death.
All of this happened without the knowledge of Mary, Elizabeth, or Jane. The Duke of Northumberland was part of Edward's inner council and was the one who suggested Jane Grey as an option. This was especially good for him as she had just married his son, Guilford Dudley. Jane showed every sign of being smart and capable, but the news took her by surprise and in the end, her father in law succeeded in manipulating her to take the throne, even though she thought that Mary was the rightful heir. Even though she was still dealing with her grief and surprise over Edward's death, she appeared ready to rule to her best ability. The rest of England, not to mention the rest of Europe didn't quite know what to make of the situation. It was especially shocking to Guilford who assumed that Edward's death meant that he would now be king. Jane was adamant that he was not king. Even though she wasn't sure if the crown was rightfully hers, she was certain it wasn't Guilford's.
This argument over what to do with Guilford caused quite a bit of grief between Jane, her husband, and Northumberland. She said she would make him a duke, but not a king. This was a sign to Northumberland that Jane would not be as easily controlled as he originally thought. However, Northumberland was far from the most pressing issue at hand. That title belonged to Mary. Henry had argued that because Mary was a woman, her right to rule was not equivalent to that of Edward's, but that argument hardly stood the same ground against Jane.
Mary caught wind of a plan of Northumberland to arrest her, so she fled to a safe fortress in Suffolk. Mary was now far away from the center of things and from her supporters which made her cause look hopeless. Fortunately for her, she was much more popular than the Duke of Northumberland and her men had much more passion for what they were fighting for. Northumberland was beheaded and Jane was imprisoned in the Tower where she had been preparing for her coronation. Mary was reluctant to execute Jane because she rightly believed that Jane was simply a pawn in a much larger game. Also, despite the fact that Mary ascended the throne with overwhelming popularity, the people might react differently to her murdering her opponent.
In 1553, Mary became the first anointed Queen of England to be sole ruler of the realm. Her coronation was the same that any King of England would have had. Now, all were in agreement that Mary needed a husband. Mary had not been married before because she had been declared illegitimate and therefore was somewhat "unwedable". Even Mary thought that she needed to be married, and fast. She was 37 and needed to put a Catholic heir on the throne.
This dilemma raised a multitude of questions. First there was the question of what the husband of the ruling queen would be. Then there is the question of where he should hail from. Some thought that she should marry an Englishman, believing that if she married a foreigner, that England would have that foreigner as their king. These people believed that she should marry Edward Courtney, Earl of Devon. However, Mary did not believe that she should marry one of her own subjects. She thought that a good Christian wife should not be able to lord over her husband as she would be forced to do. She would have to marry someone of equal status as her, and she would not allow him to rule over England. The person she chose was Philip II of Spain, who was the son of her cousin, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. This has been seen as the defining mistake of her reign.
However, it is not difficult to understand why she would choose Philip for the role of husband. She was in the difficult position of figuring out how to have a husband who would not compromise her ability to rule her kingdom. After all, her father had done the same thing when he married her mother, Catherine of Aragon. Still, the country panicked and a small group of rebellious nobles, led by Sir Thomas Wyatt attempted to remove Mary from the throne by once again replacing her with the Lady Jane Grey, or with her sister Elizabeth. Mary rallied her subjects with a speech that reminded them that she was their sovereign and was therefore married to England. She called herself not only the lady and mistress of the country, but the mother as well. By the next morning, the rebellion had been quashed by the council who now had renewed support in her cause, rallied by her passionate speech.
Unfortunately for Jane Grey, after this point Mary realized that Jane would always be a threat to her reign as long, and as long as Jane was alive, there would continuously be some kind of plot to get her on the throne. This forced Mary's hand and she signed the execution papers. Jane was beheaded less than a week after the rebellion fell.
Even though the revolt had failed, the fears about Mary and her Spanish fiancée continued. Despite this opposition, Mary and Philip married in 1554. Philip was 27 and Queen Mary was 38. A treaty was written up that discussed the terms of their marriage, and it was careful to prevent Philip from intervening in English affairs. In November 1554, it was announced that Mary was pregnant. Mary retreated from court, as was custom for a pregnant queen, and everybody in England waited on baited breath to discover whether or not they had a new heir. Mary's belly had been growing quite clearly in the defined shape of a pregnant woman, and doctors back then could never quite prove a pregnancy with 100% accuracy. In April 1555, there was a rumor in London that Mary had given birth to a son, but these were quickly denied. In July, the queen reemerged into society, and it became clear that Mary had not been pregnant after all. Mary was devastated, and this would not be the last unsuccessful pregnancy that would haunt Mary's reign.
One of the problems that didn't allow her to become pregnant easily was that Philip was the king of Spain. In their marriage treaty, it was stated that Mary was not allowed to leave the country, so she and Philip were never together for long. He had to leave a couple of months after Mary's phantom pregnancy had ended, but was able to return in 1557. In January 1558, Mary announced that she was seven months pregnant. She waited extra long after the humiliation of last time to make doubly sure, but after some time passed, it became clear that, once again, there was no baby to be found. Mary was now 42 and her dreams of a child looked to be fruitless.
Now that Mary was fairly certain that she would never have the Catholic heir that she wanted, the next best thing that she could do was to strengthen the Catholic faith in England, which had suffered so greatly under Edward's rule. In 1554, Mary had reinstated the heresy laws that had been in action before her father had created the Church of England. The laws were harsh and merciless and before 1558, nearly 280 Protestants had been killed. It was this intolerant murder that gained her the moniker "Bloody Mary", which still follows her to this day.
Mary died in a lethal flu epidemic in the summer of 1558. Before she died, she acknowledged Elizabeth, who up to this point had been living in the Tower, as her heir, begging her not to let the country lose the Catholic faith that she had tried so hard to uphold.
Elizabeth was crowned Queen of England the next day in Westminster Abbey, at age 25. Unfortunately, many of the problems that Mary faced would be felt by Elizabeth as well. The men in her life thought that the religion if whatever husband that Elizabeth chose would be the religion of the nation. Everybody was vying for her hand. King Philip, her former brother-in-law, would be the first choice for a foreign Catholic king. Some of her Protestant councilors, primarily William Cecil, favored the crown prince of Sweden, who sent expensive gifts to persuade her. There were several contender among the Englishmen as well.
In 1559, Parliament gave the queen a petition that she should marry and give England an heir. Elizabeth returned that, until she found a husband who would care for her realm as much as she would, she would remain unmarried and that she would, in all likelihood, die a virgin. Her declaration was brave and unexpected, but not taken too seriously. After all, Elizabeth was only 25, and had years left yet.
In religious affairs, Elizabeth was moderate, unlike both Edward and Mary. She came up with an open ended church that she was the head of that gave into neither side of the religious debate. This and many more decisions like it, shows off Elizabeth's clever and quick witted way of ruling.
In the interim, Philip of Spain had grown tired of waiting and married a French princess. In 1588, he decided to invade England with his armada. Elizabeth had no husband to lead the army for her, so she did it herself, and at age 54, rallied her armies against the largest armada in the world. She rode out to her army in a silver breastplate on a white horse, carrying a sword. The armada was soon wiped out by a strong storm which man saw as the hand of God assisting Elizabeth and her troops.
Elizabeth's support in the country was overwhelmingly strong and she ruled for many years, but because she gave up any chance of children so that she could remain powerful, she also gave up any chance of having an heir. She became ill at the age of 69 and refused to make a will or name an heir. However, she could not live forever. She died in March of 1603, and with her died the Tudor line.
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