Reign of Queen Mary I of England

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Tweet Report an Error

Born on February 18th 1516 , daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon, Mary had been declared an illegitimate heir by the 1534 Act of Succession. When Henry died, the throne fell to Mary's half brother, Edward VI, who in turn bequeathed his throne to Lady Jane Grey. After Jane had reigned for only nine days (July 10th-19th 1553), Mary seized the crown, proclaiming herself Queen with the support of the public and making it one of her first political acts to renounce the Act that had branded her mother's marriage illegitimate and jeopardised her succession.

A devout Catholic, Mary aimed to rebuild links to Rome which had been severed by Henry VIII, who had appointed himself …

287 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Reign of Queen Mary I of England". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 June 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=922, accessed 23 November 2024.]

922 Reign of Queen Mary I of England 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.