Henry the 8th daughters MARY the first Queen to succeed after him?

Question

n of england HELLO!!! IT WAS MARY 1 THE FIRST CHILD HENRY HAD THE TRUE QUEEN AFTER HER MOTHER, SHE IS THE RIGHTFUL HEIR!! she was a queen so why does people ignore that and talk about elizabeth so much, IT WASNT UNTIL MARY DIED DID ELIZABETH EVEN GET TO THE THRONE.

Answer 1

people talk about elizabeth so much because

1) Mary brought a foreign king to rule england (she married a spaniard), she started the inquisition in england (her religion was the only religion), she laid a heavy tax, and she used up most of the treasury

2) Elizabeth was the "virgin queen", she was a queen for the people, "they were her children", at the time people believed the women were weak and could not rule, Elizabeth did it all herself, no husband

Answer 2

Leaving aside the issue of whether Elizabeth was legitimate - which Mary acknowledged by making her the successor - history is written by the rulers, and England was righteously and rigidly protestant for nearly three centuries after the death of Mary.The catholics didn't get a lot of their rights back under law until 1822 and a catholic still can't be monarch of England.

So the protestants wrote the history, which meant Mary got either a bad press or none at all.

She was a complex character, and of interest to various fields of study, most importantly to medical/psychiatric fields because her health, physical and mental, determined much of her reign.

Answer 3

Elizabeth was more interesting and exciting.  Mary was very strict.  And Elizabeth shocked everyone by succeeding in ruling by herself for a very long time.  (She didn't get married and didn't get killed which, after her father's reign, was quite an acienvement.  And she was outrageous and got away with it.

Answer 4

Probably a lot of pro-protestant propaganda in writing the history books is a factor involved.  Edward VI's dramatic lunging of the English Church into hard line European reformed theology was strong opposed by the populace and the revised (butchered)Book of Common Prayer, which originally was the Mass re-written into English had hardly taken a hold when Edward VI died.  Attempts to foist a pretender unto the throne in the guise of Lady Jane Gray was soon toppled amidst joyous scenes of the people welcoming their rightful Monarch, Queen Mary as She rode into London to take up Her rightful legacy.  However, the short reign was soon eclipsed by Her younger half sister's 40 odd year reign.    

Answer 5

While I completely respect that Mary was the legitimate heir to the throne after Edward, and I can wholly understand why she tried to enforce the things that she did, she completely went about it the wrong way and put England in serious jeopardy through her actions.

Elizabeth righted her wrongs and led the country into a very prosperous period.

I mean It's simply the fact that you can't stand up next to somebody who succeeded you and in many ways bettered your achievements. People are more interested in Historys 'winners'.

Answer 6

Mary l was certainly the Heiress Presumptive to the throne during her brother's reign (Edward Vl - son of Henry and Jane Seymour) and definitely the legitimate heir to her brother who died at a young age. However, I think Lady Jane Grey was placed on the throne after Edward's death but was deposed after 9 days and eventually beheaded by Mary.

Answer 7

You are absolutely right! Mary was the legitimate heir to the throne of England. Old Bess was Henrys b*****d daughter with Anne Boleyn. The political power behind Elizabeths rise to the throne was all about sacking the monasteries and dividing up their holdings among the "nobility" of England. Read The Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland. It was written by a British protestant who researched the history of it. You will be amazed!

Answer 8

Maybe Liz had better PR people???  That plus QEI had single handedly brought England to its "Golden Age", whereas her sister won the dubious sobriquet of "Bloody Mary" because of all of her religious persecutions against the protestants. That is to say,  England is indebted to Elizabeth for the Anglican Church; of course, they will focus on her reign than Mary's.

Answer 9

People talk about Elizabeth I more because she was on the throne for over 44 years whereas Mary was only Queen for just over 5 years.

Elizabeth I's reign saw many more changes than Mary's, it was also a lot less bloodthirsty. Mary's reign saw over 200 beheadings (only notables/aristocracy were beheaded) which is five times as many as all the other Tudor Monarchs combined.

Answer 10

Mary isn't talked about as much because people view her as the bad sister.  To everyone Elizabeth was the good sister.

Mary is the rightful Queen, and she wouldn't have done a lot of what she did if her dad wasn't the way he was.  Anne Boleyn ruined Mary's life.  Elizabeth is technically a b*****d daughter.  If Henry the 8th had had a son that had lived to rule, Elizabeth would not have ruled.  She did do a lot of good things.  But only because Mary had to be the strict one and clean up the mess of an empire that Britain was after Henry the 8th married Anne Boleyn and after he died.  Anne Boleyn was the start of all of the problems.  Mary fixed those problems, and Elizabeth got to claim all of the fame for what Mary started to do but could not finish because she died.

Answer 11

Mary was NOT the first child Henry and Catherine had: there were at least 3 older children that died during childbrith or in their first few days. And no: Mary was NOT the first Queen to succeed Henry - Lady Jane Grey (as per Edward's will) was.

As for why British talk so much about Elizabeth, 'forgetting' Mary, it is because:

1) Mary rules for less then 5 years

2) Mary's reign was less-then-popular, given she tried to brink back the Catholic religion

3) Her marriage to Philip of Spain and subsequent support of his war with France were even more unpopular then her religion.

4) Elizabeth reigned for around 50 years

5) Her age is called 'The Golden Age', for her reign saw unprecedented number of great writers, poets, painters and other people of art

6) She managed to win over the Spanish Armada (even if with  the help of a pirate and weather)

7) She stabilized the country, her reign saw economic growth

8) People heads were chopped off not that often as during the reigns of Henry and Mary

If you would like more reasons, you'd better read more biograpies of the 2 Queens. Personally I believe that had Mary became Queen in a Catholic country, had she been married earlier and had children, then she had all chances of being quite a good Queen.

Answer 12

There's no question of "rightful her."  Al three of the children of Henry's marriages were rightful heirs in their turn.  In fact, the order in which he named them as heirs in his will is the same order in which any British monarch's children would succeed today: sons in order of birth (in this case, the only one), then daughers in orderof birth (Mary first, then Elizabeth).Although Mary was the first woman to be monarch of England in her own right, the fact remains that Elizabeth was a far greater one. Mary made an unsuccessful marriage, persecuted Protestants, and lost the last English holding on the continent of Europe; Elizabeth never married (so that many single men of rank continued to hope for years), did her best to walk a fine line between Catholicism and Protestantism, inspired her navy to repel the Spanish Armada, provided an atmosphere in which the arts could flourish, and began English colonization of the New World.  It does help, of course, that Elizabeth's reign was almost nine times as long as Mary's.

EDIT:  BTW, since Edawrd VI was only sixteen when he died  (i. e. a minor, not yet ruling in his own name), would his will have had any legal validity?

Answer 13

Mary has been written from public memory because she was a bloodthirsty fundamentalist Catholic freakoid.

Answer 14

If you want to be accurate... the House of Tudor were usurpers to the thrown of England.  Richard of York's family had a much stronger claim to the thrown of England than Henry Tudor.

Therefore, Mary wasn't the rightful heir to the English.  Her grandfather was a Lancastrian... and Welsh.  Edward (Earl of Warwick) had a stronger claim to the English throne than the House of Tudor.  The only reason the Tudor's ascended the throne was because Henry married Elizabeth of York - thereby uniting the House of Lancaster with the House of York.

Maybe you should read the War of the Roses.

Oh... and don't forget... Henry VIII had to marry his brother's widow (Catherine of Aragon) to become the Prince of Wales, thereby ascending to the thrown of England.  So your hypothesis that Mary was the "rightful queen" is based on the treachery and treason of the House of Tudor.

Answer 15

Mary's reign was a retrospective hiatus, which misaligns with the other Monarchs of the Tudor Dynasty.

Mary was daughter of the first (Catholic) wife of Henry VIII, who was the only one he could get divorced from by the Pope on the grounds of being the widow of his dead brother.

She tried to turn back Henry's Protestant Reformation in England, and was in discussions with Phillip II of Spain regarding a marriage treaty. At the time, Philip II was the most powerful King in Europe and England's "boogey-man" enemy. She also died after 6 years on the throne.

Elizabeth's reign had much greater significance and interest. She was a Protestant Queen, very much continuing in the direction her Dynasty had set. This makes Elizabeth's reign look like a Tudor reign, and Mary looks like an aberration.

Elizabeth continued to develop and strengthen the Church of England in her own grip for her entire reign. The attempts Phillip II of Spain made to negotiate a marriage treaty were rebuffed.

The Cult of Gloriana grown around her by scholars, play-writes, and artists brought forth an enormous increase in levels of creativity.

She never married because it would mean either marrying Phillip of Spain or another King (which would mean explaining to Phillip why she had turned Phillip down). Last and most important, her reign was much longer so she had time to do more.