Mary I of England Mary I ( 18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558 ) was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death . Her brutal persecution of Protestants caused her opponents to give her the sobriquet " Bloody Mary " . She was the only child born of the ill - fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon who survived to adulthood . Her younger half - brother , Edward VI , succeeded Henry in 1547 . When Edward became mortally ill in 1553 , he attempted to remove Mary from the line of succession because of religious differences . On his death , their cousin Lady Jane Grey was at first proclaimed queen . Mary assembled a force in East Anglia and successfully deposed Jane , who was ultimately beheaded . In 1554 , Mary married Philip of Spain , becoming queen consort of Habsburg Spain on his accession in 1556 . As the fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty , Mary is remembered for her restoration of Roman Catholicism after the short - lived Protestant reign of her half - brother . During her five - year reign , she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions . Her re - establishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed after her death in 1558 by her younger half - sister and successor , Elizabeth I . Birth and family . Mary was born on 18 February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich , London . She was the only child of King Henry VIII and his first wife , Catherine of Aragon , to survive infancy . Her mother had many miscarriages ; before Mary ' s birth , four previous pregnancies had resulted in a stillborn daughter and three short - lived or stillborn sons , including Henry , Duke of Cornwall . She was baptised into the Catholic faith at the Church of the Observant Friars in Greenwich three days after her birth . Her godparents included her great - aunt the Countess of Devon , Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey , and the Duchess of Norfolk . Henry VIII ' s cousin once removed , Margaret Pole , 8th Countess of Salisbury , stood sponsor for Mary ' s confirmation , which was held immediately after the baptism . The following year , Mary became a godmother herself when she was named as one of the sponsors of her cousin Frances Brandon . In 1520 , the Countess of Salisbury was appointed Mary ' s governess . Sir John Hussey , later Lord Hussey , was her from 1530 , and his wife , Lady Anne , daughter of George Grey , 2nd Earl of Kent , was one of Mary ' s attendants . Education and marriage plans . Mary was a precocious child . In July 1520 , when scarcely four and a half years old , she entertained a visiting French delegation with a performance on the virginals ( a type of harpsichord ) . A great part of her early education came from her mother , who consulted the Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives for advice and commissioned him to write " De Institutione Feminae Christianae " , a treatise on the education of girls . By the age of nine , Mary could read and write Latin . She studied French , Spanish , music , dance , and perhaps Greek . Henry VIII doted on his daughter and boasted to the Venetian ambassador Sebastian Giustiniani , " This girl never cries " . Despite his affection for Mary , Henry was deeply disappointed that his marriage had produced no sons . By the time Mary was nine years old , it was apparent that Henry and Catherine would have no more children , leaving Henry without a legitimate male heir . In 1525 , Henry sent Mary to the border of Wales to preside , presumably in name only , over the Council of Wales and the Marches . She was given her own court based at Ludlow Castle and many of the royal prerogative s normally reserved for the Prince of Wales . Vives and others called her the Princess of Wales , although she was never technically invested with the title . She appears to have spent three years in the Welsh Marches , making regular visits to her father ' s court , before returning permanently to the home counties around London in mid - 1528 . Throughout Mary ' s childhood , Henry negotiated potential future marriages for her . When she was only two years old , she was promised to the Dauphin , the infant son of King Francis I of France , but the contract was repudiated after three years . In 1522 , at the age of six , she was instead contracted to marry her 22 - year - old first cousin , Holy Roman Emperor Charles V . However , the engagement was broken off within a few years by Charles with Henry ' s agreement . Cardinal Wolsey , Henry ' s chief adviser , then resumed marriage negotiations with the French , and Henry suggested that Mary marry the Dauphin ' s father , King Francis I himself , who was eager for an alliance with England . A marriage treaty was signed which provided that Mary marry either Francis I or his second son Henry , Duke of Orleans , but Wolsey secured an alliance with France without the marriage . According to a Venetian observer , Mario Savorgnano , Mary was developing into a pretty , well - proportioned young lady with a fine complexion . Adolescence . Meanwhile , the marriage of Mary ' s parents was in jeopardy . Disappointed at the lack of a male heir , and eager to re - marry , Henry attempted to have his marriage to Catherine annulled , but Pope Clement VII refused his requests . Henry claimed , citing biblical passages ( Leviticus 20 : 21 ) , that his marriage to Catherine was unclean because she was the widow of his brother ( Mary ' s uncle ) Arthur . Catherine claimed that her marriage to Arthur was never consummate d , and so was not a valid marriage . Indeed , her first marriage had been annulled by a previous pope , Julius II , on that basis . Clement may have been reluctant to act because he was influenced by Charles V , Catherine ' s nephew and Mary ' s former betrothed , whose troops had surrounded and occupied Rome in the War of the League of Cognac . From 1531 , Mary was often sick with irregular menstruation and depression , although it is not clear whether this was caused by stress , puberty or a more deep - seated disease . She was not permitted to see her mother , who had been sent to live away from court by Henry . In early 1533 , Henry married Anne Boleyn , who was pregnant with his child , and in May Thomas Cranmer , the Archbishop of Canterbury , formally declared the marriage with Catherine void , and the marriage to Anne valid . Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church and declared himself Supreme Head of the Church of England . Catherine was demoted to Dowager Princess of Wales ( a title she would have held as the widow of Arthur ) , and Mary was deemed illegitimate . She was styled " The Lady Mary " rather than Princess , and her place in the line of succession was transferred to her newborn half - sister , Elizabeth , Anne ' s daughter . Mary ' s own household was dissolved ; her servants ( including the Countess of Salisbury ) were dismissed from her service , and in December 1533 she was sent to join the household of the infant Elizabeth at Hatfield , Hertfordshire . Mary determinedly refused to acknowledge that Anne was the queen or that Elizabeth was a princess , further enraging King Henry . Under strain and with her movements restricted , Mary was frequently ill , which the royal physician attributed to her " ill treatment " . The Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys became her close adviser , and interceded , unsuccessfully , on her behalf at court . The relationship between Mary and her father worsened ; they did not speak to each other for three years . Although both she and her mother were ill , Mary was refused permission to visit Catherine . When Catherine died in 1536 , Mary was " inconsolable " . Catherine was interred in Peterborough Cathedral while Mary grieved in semi - seclusion at Hunsdon in Hertfordshire . Adulthood . In 1536 , Queen Anne fell from the king ' s favour and was beheaded . Elizabeth , like Mary , was downgraded to the status of Lady and removed from the line of succession . Within two weeks of Anne ' s execution , Henry married Jane Seymour . Jane urged her husband to make peace with Mary . Henry insisted that Mary recognise him as head of the Church of England , repudiate papal authority , acknowledge that the marriage between her parents was unlawful , and accept her own illegitimacy . She attempted to reconcile with him by submitting to his authority as far as " God and my conscience " permitted , but she was eventually bullied into signing a document agreeing to all of Henry ' s demands . Reconciled with her father , Mary resumed her place at court . Henry granted her a household ( which included the reinstatement of Mary ' s favourite Susan Clarencieux ) . Her privy purse expenses for this period show that Hatfield House , the Palace of Beaulieu ( also called Newhall ) , Richmond and Hunsdon were among her principal places of residence , as well as Henry ' s palaces at Greenwich , Westminster and Hampton Court . Her expenses included fine clothes and gambling at cards , one of her favourite pastimes . Rebels in the North of England , including Lord Hussey , Mary ' s former chamberlain , campaigned against Henry ' s religious reforms , and one of their demands was that Mary be made legitimate . The rebellion , known as the Pilgrimage of Grace , was ruthlessly suppressed . Along with other rebels , Hussey was executed , but there was no suggestion that Mary was directly involved . The following year , 1537 , Jane died after giving birth to a son , Edward . Mary was made godmother to her half - brother and acted as chief mourner at the queen ' s funeral . Mary was courted by Duke Philip of Bavaria from late 1539 , but Philip was Lutheran and his suit for her hand was unsuccessful . Over 1539 , the king ' s chief minister , Thomas Cromwell , negotiated a potential alliance with the Duchy of Cleves . Suggestions that Mary marry the Duke of Cleves , who was the same age , came to nothing , but a match between Henry and the Duke ' s sister Anne was agreed . When the king saw Anne for the first time in late December 1539 , a week before the scheduled wedding , he did not find her attractive but was unable , for diplomatic reasons and in the absence of a suitable pretext , to cancel the marriage . Cromwell fell from favour and was arrested for treason in June 1540 ; one of the unlikely charges against him was that he had plotted to marry Mary himself . Anne consented to the annulment of the marriage , which had not been consummated , and Cromwell was beheaded . In 1541 , Henry had the Countess of Salisbury , Mary ' s old governess and godmother , executed on the pretext of a Catholic plot , in which her son ( Reginald Pole ) was implicated . Her executioner was " a wretched and blundering youth " who " literally hacked her head and shoulders to pieces " . In 1542 , following the execution of Henry ' s fifth wife , Catherine Howard , the unmarried Henry invited Mary to attend the royal Christmas festivities . At court , while her father was between marriages and without a consort , Mary acted as hostess . In 1543 , Henry married his sixth and last wife , Catherine Parr , who was able to bring the family closer together . Henry returned Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession , through the Act of Succession 1544 , placing them after Edward . However , both remained legally illegitimate . In 1547 , Henry died and Edward succeeded as Edward VI . Mary inherited estates in Norfolk , Suffolk and Essex , and was granted Hunsdon and Beaulieu as her own . Since Edward was still a child , rule passed to a regency council dominated by Protestants , who attempted to establish their faith throughout the country . For example , the Act of Uniformity 1549 prescribed Protestant rites for church services , such as the use of Thomas Cranmer ' s new " Book of Common Prayer " . Mary remained faithful to Roman Catholicism , and defiantly celebrated the traditional mass in her own chapel . She appealed to her cousin Charles V to apply diplomatic pressure demanding that she be able to practice her religion . For most of Edward ' s reign , Mary remained on her own estates , and rarely attended court . A plan between May and July 1550 to smuggle her out of England to the safety of the European mainland came to nothing . Religious differences between Mary and Edward continued . When Mary was in her thirties , she attended a reunion with Edward and Elizabeth for Christmas 1550 , where 13 - year - old Edward embarrassed Mary , and reduced both her and himself to tears in front of the court , by publicly reproving her for ignoring his laws regarding worship . Mary repeatedly refused Edward ' s demands that she abandon Catholicism , and Edward repeatedly refused to drop his demands . Accession . On 6 July 1553 , at the age of 15 , Edward VI died from a lung infection , possibly tuberculosis . He did not want the crown to go to Mary because he feared she would restore Catholicism and undo his reforms , as well as those of Henry VIII , and so he planned to exclude her from the line of succession . His advisers , however , told him that he could not disinherit only one of his sisters , but that he would have to disinherit Elizabeth as well , even though she embraced the Church of England . Guided by John Dudley , 1st Duke of Northumberland , and perhaps others , Edward excluded both of his sisters from the line of succession in his will . Contradicting the Succession Act , which restored Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession , Edward named Dudley ' s daughter - in - law Lady Jane Grey , the granddaughter of Henry VIII ' s younger sister Mary , as his successor . Lady Jane ' s mother was Frances Brandon , who was Mary ' s cousin and goddaughter . Just before Edward VI ' s death , Mary was summoned to London to visit her dying brother . She was warned , however , that the summons was a pretext on which to capture her and thereby facilitate Lady Jane ' s accession to the throne . Instead of heading to London from her residence at Hunsdon , Mary fled into East Anglia , where she owned extensive estates and Dudley had ruthlessly put down Kett ' s Rebellion . Many adherents to the Catholic faith , opponents of Dudley , lived there . On 9 July , from Kenninghall , Norfolk , she wrote to the privy council with orders for her proclamation as Edward ' s successor . On 10 July 1553 , Lady Jane was proclaimed queen by Dudley and his supporters , and on the same day Mary ' s letter to the council arrived in London . By 12 July , Mary and her supporters had assembled a military force at Framlingham Castle , Suffolk . Dudley ' s support collapsed , and Mary ' s grew . Jane was deposed on 19 July . She and Dudley were imprisoned in the Tower of London . Mary rode triumphantly into London on 3 August 1553 on a wave of popular support . She was accompanied by her half - sister Elizabeth , and a procession of over 800 nobles and gentlemen . One of Mary ' s first actions as queen was to order the release of the Roman Catholic Duke of Norfolk and Stephen Gardiner from imprisonment in the Tower of London , as well as her kinsman Edward Courtenay . Mary understood that the young Lady Jane was essentially a pawn in Dudley ' s scheme , and Dudley was the only conspirator of rank executed for high treason in the immediate aftermath of the coup . Lady Jane and her husband , Lord Guildford Dudley , though found guilty , were kept under guard in the Tower rather than immediately executed , while Lady Jane ' s father , Henry Grey , 1st Duke of Suffolk , was released . Mary was left in a difficult position , as almost all the Privy Counsellors had been implicated in the plot to put Lady Jane on the throne . She appointed Gardiner to the council and made him both Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor , offices he held until his death in November 1555 . Susan Clarencieux became Mistress of the Robes . On 1 October 1553 , Gardiner crowned Mary at Westminster Abbey . Spanish marriage . At age 37 , Mary turned her attention to finding a husband and producing an heir , thus preventing the Protestant Elizabeth ( still her successor under the terms of Henry VIII ' s will and the Act of Succession of 1544 ) from succeeding to the throne . Edward Courtenay and Reginald Pole were both mentioned as prospective suitors , but her cousin Charles V suggested she marry his only son , Prince Philip of Spain . Philip had a son from a previous marriage , and was heir apparent to vast territories in Continental Europe and the New World . As part of the marriage negotiations , a portrait of Philip by Titian was sent to her in September 1553 . Lord Chancellor Gardiner and the House of Commons unsuccessfully petitioned her to consider marrying an Englishman , fearing that England would be relegated to a dependency of the Habsburgs . The marriage was unpopular with the English ; Gardiner and his allies opposed it on the basis of patriotism , while Protestants were motivated by a fear of Catholicism . When Mary insisted on marrying Philip , insurrections broke out . Thomas Wyatt the younger led a force from Kent to depose Mary in favour of Elizabeth , as part of a wider conspiracy now known as Wyatt ' s rebellion , which also involved the Duke of Suffolk , the father of Lady Jane . Mary declared publicly that she would summon Parliament to discuss the marriage , and if Parliament decided that the marriage was not to the advantage of the kingdom , she would refrain from pursuing it . On reaching London , Wyatt was defeated and captured . Wyatt , the Duke of Suffolk , his daughter Lady Jane , and her husband Guildford Dudley were executed . Courtenay , who was implicated in the plot , was imprisoned , and then exiled . Elizabeth , though protesting her innocence in the Wyatt affair , was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two months , then was put under house arrest at Woodstock Palace . Mary was — excluding the brief , disputed reigns of Jane Grey and Empress Matilda — England ' s first queen regnant . Further , under the English common law doctrine of " jure uxoris " , the property and titles belonging to a woman became her husband ' s upon marriage , and it was feared that any man she married would thereby become King of England in fact and in name . While Mary ' s grandparents , Ferdinand and Isabella , had retained sovereignty of their own realms during their marriage , there was no precedent to follow in England . Under the terms of Queen Mary ' s Marriage Act , Philip was to be styled " King of England " , all official documents ( including Acts of Parliament ) were to be dated with both their names , and Parliament was to be called under the joint authority of the couple , for Mary ' s lifetime only . England would not be obliged to provide military support to Philip ' s father in any war , and Philip could not act without his wife ' s consent or appoint foreigners to office in England . Philip was unhappy at the conditions imposed , but he was ready to agree for the sake of securing the marriage . He had no amorous feelings toward Mary and sought the marriage for its political and strategic gains ; Philip ' s aide Ruy Gómez de Silva wrote to a correspondent in Brussels , " the marriage was concluded for no fleshly consideration , but in order to remedy the disorders of this kingdom and to preserve the Low Countries . " To elevate his son to Mary ' s rank , Emperor Charles V ceded the crown of Naples , as well as his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem , to Philip . Therefore , Mary became Queen of Naples and titular Queen of Jerusalem upon marriage . Their marriage at Winchester Cathedral on 25 July 1554 took place just two days after their first meeting . Philip could not speak English , and so they spoke in a mixture of Spanish , French , and Latin . False pregnancy . In September 1554 , Mary stopped menstruating . She gained weight , and felt nauseous in the mornings . Virtually the whole court , including her doctors , thought she was pregnant . Parliament passed an act making Philip regent in the event of Mary ' s death in childbirth . In the last week of April 1555 , Elizabeth was released from house arrest , and called to court as a witness to the birth , which was expected imminently . According to Giovanni Michieli , the Venetian ambassador , Philip may have planned to marry Elizabeth in the event of Mary ' s death in childbirth , but in a letter to his brother - in - law , Maximilian of Austria , Philip expressed uncertainty as to whether his wife was pregnant . Thanksgiving services in the diocese of London were held at the end of April after false rumours that Mary had given birth to a son spread across Europe . Through May and June , the apparent delay in delivery fed gossip that Mary was not pregnant . Susan Clarencieux revealed her doubts to the French ambassador , Antoine de Noailles . Mary continued to exhibit signs of pregnancy until July 1555 , when her abdomen receded . There was no baby . Michieli dismissively ridiculed the pregnancy as more likely to " end in wind rather than anything else " . It was most likely a false pregnancy , perhaps induced by Mary ' s overwhelming desire to have a child . In August , soon after the disgrace of the false pregnancy , which Mary considered to be " God ' s punishment " for her having " tolerated heretics " in her realm , Philip left England to command his armies against France in Flanders . Mary was heartbroken and fell into a deep depression . Michieli was touched by the queen ' s grief ; he wrote she was " extraordinarily in love " with her husband , and was disconsolate at his departure . Elizabeth remained at court until October , apparently restored to favour . In the absence of any children , Philip was concerned that after Mary and Elizabeth , one of the next claimants to the English throne was the Queen of Scots , who was betrothed to the Dauphin of France . Philip persuaded Mary that Elizabeth should marry his cousin , Emmanuel Philibert , Duke of Savoy , to secure the Catholic succession and preserve the Habsburg interest in England , but Elizabeth refused to comply and parliamentary consent was unlikely . Religious policy . In the month following her accession , Mary issued a proclamation that she would not compel any of her subjects to follow her religion , but by the end of September leading reforming churchmen , such as John Bradford , John Rogers , John Hooper , Hugh Latimer and Thomas Cranmer were imprisoned . Mary ' s first Parliament , which assembled in early October 1553 , declared the marriage of her parents valid , and abolished Edward ' s religious laws . Church doctrine was restored to the form it had taken in the 1539 Six Articles , which , for example , re - affirmed clerical celibacy . Married priests were deprived of their benefice s . Mary had always rejected the break with Rome instituted by her father and the establishment of Protestantism by Edward VI . She and her husband wanted England to reconcile with Rome . Philip persuaded Parliament to repeal the Protestant religious laws passed by Mary ' s father , thus returning the English church to Roman jurisdiction . Reaching an agreement took many months , and Mary and Pope Julius III had to make a major concession : the monastery lands confiscated under Henry were not returned to the church but remained in the hands of the new landowners , who were very influential . By the end of 1554 , the pope had approved the deal , and the Heresy Acts were revived . Under the Heresy Acts , numerous Protestants were executed in the Marian persecutions . Many rich Protestants , including John Foxe , chose exile , and around 800 left the country . The first executions occurred over a period of five days in early February 1555 : John Rogers on 4 February , Laurence Saunders on 8 February , and Rowland Taylor and John Hooper on 9 February . The imprisoned Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer was forced to watch Bishops Ridley and Latimer being burned at the stake . Cranmer recanted , repudiated Protestant theology , and rejoined the Catholic faith . Under the normal process of the law , he should have been absolved as a repentant . Mary , however , refused to reprieve him . On the day of his burning , he dramatically withdrew his recantation . All told 283 were executed , most by burning . The burnings proved so unpopular , that even Alfonso de Castro , one of Philip ' s own ecclesiastical staff , condemned them , and Philip ' s adviser , Simon Renard , warned him that such " cruel enforcement " could " cause a revolt " . Mary persevered with the policy , which continued until her death and exacerbated anti - Catholic and anti - Spanish feeling among the English people . The victims of the persecutions became lauded as martyrs . Reginald Pole , the son of Mary ' s executed governess , and once considered a suitor , arrived as papal legate in November 1554 . He was ordained a priest and appointed Archbishop of Canterbury immediately after Cranmer ' s death in March 1556 . Foreign policy . Furthering the Tudor conquest of Ireland , under Mary ' s reign English colonists were settled in the Irish Midlands to reduce the attacks on the Pale ( the area around Dublin controlled by the English ) . Queen ' s and King ' s Counties ( now Counties Laois and Offaly ) were founded , and their plantation began . Their principal towns were respectively named Maryborough ( now Portlaoise ) and Philipstown ( now Daingean ) . In January 1556 , Mary ' s father - in - law abdicated and Philip became King of Spain , with Mary as his consort . They were still apart ; Philip was declared king in Brussels , but Mary stayed in England . Philip negotiated an unsteady truce with the French in February 1556 . The following month , the French ambassador in England , Antoine de Noailles , was implicated in a plot against Mary when Sir Henry Dudley , a second cousin of the executed Duke of Northumberland , attempted to assemble an invasion force in France . The plot , known as the Dudley conspiracy , was betrayed , and the conspirators in England were rounded up . Dudley remained in exile in France , and Noailles prudently left Britain . Philip returned to England from March to July 1557 to persuade Mary to support Spain in a renewed war against France . Mary was in favour of declaring war , but her councillors opposed it because French trade would be jeopardised , it contravened the marriage treaty , and a bad economic legacy from Edward VI ' s reign and a series of poor harvests meant England lacked supplies and finances . War was only declared in June 1557 after Reginald Pole ' s nephew , Thomas Stafford , invaded England and seized Scarborough Castle with French help in a failed attempt to depose Mary . As a result of the war , relations between England and the Papacy became strained , since Pope Paul IV was allied with Henry II of France . In January 1558 , French forces took Calais , England ' s sole remaining possession on the European mainland . Although the territory was financially burdensome , it was an ideological loss that damaged Mary ' s prestige . According to Holinshed ' s Chronicles , Mary later lamented , " When I am dead and opened , you shall find ' Calais ' lying in my heart " . Commerce and revenue . The years of Mary ' s reign were consistently wet . The persistent rain and subsequent flooding led to famine . Another problem was the decline of the Antwerp cloth trade . Despite Mary ' s marriage to Philip , England did not benefit from Spain ' s enormously lucrative trade with the New World . The Spanish guarded their trade routes jealously , and Mary could not condone illegitimate trade ( in the form of piracy ) because she was married to the King of Spain . In an attempt to increase trade and rescue the English economy , Mary ' s counsellors continued Northumberland ' s policy of seeking out new commercial opportunities . She granted a royal charter to the Muscovy Company , whose first governor was Sebastian Cabot , and commissioned a world atlas from Diogo Homem . Adventurers like John Lok and William Towerson sailed south in an attempt to develop links with the coast of Africa . Financially , Mary ' s regime tried to reconcile a modern form of government — with correspondingly higher spending — with a medieval system of collecting taxation and dues . Mary retained the Edwardian appointee William Paulet , 1st Marquess of Winchester , as Lord High Treasurer and assigned him to oversee the revenue collection system . A failure to apply new tariffs to new forms of imports meant that a key source of revenue was neglected . To solve this problem , Mary ' s government published a revised " Book of Rates " ( 1558 ) , which listed the tariffs and duties for every import . This publication was not extensively reviewed until 1604 . English coinage was debased under both Henry VIII and Edward VI . Mary drafted plans for currency reform but they were not implemented until after her death . Death . After Philip ' s visit in 1557 , Mary thought herself pregnant again with a baby due in March 1558 . She decreed in her will that her husband be the regent during the minority of her child . However , no child was born , and Mary was forced to accept that Elizabeth was her lawful successor . Mary was weak and ill from May 1558 , and died aged 42 at St . James ' s Palace during an influenza epidemic that also claimed the life of Reginald Pole later the same day , 17 November 1558 . She was in pain , possibly from ovarian cyst s or uterine cancer . She was succeeded by her half - sister . Philip , who was in Brussels , wrote to his sister Joan : " I felt a reasonable regret for her death . " Although her will stated that she wished to be buried next to her mother , Mary was interred in Westminster Abbey on 14 December in a tomb she would eventually share with Elizabeth . The Latin inscription on their tomb , " Regno consortes et urna , hic obdormimus Elizabetha et Maria sorores , in spe resurrectionis " ( affixed there by James VI of Scotland when he succeeded Elizabeth as King James I of England ) translates to " Consorts in realm and tomb , here we sleep , Elizabeth and Mary , sisters , in hope of resurrection " . Legacy . At her funeral service , John White ( the Bishop of Winchester ) praised Mary : " She was a king ' s daughter ; she was a king ' s sister ; she was a king ' s wife . She was a queen , and by the same title a king also . " She was the first woman to successfully claim the throne of England , despite competing claims and determined opposition , and enjoyed popular support and sympathy during the earliest parts of her reign , especially from the Roman Catholic population . Catholic historians , such as John Lingard , thought Mary ' s policies failed not because they were wrong but because she had too short a reign to establish them and because of natural disasters beyond her control . However , her marriage to Philip was unpopular among her subjects , and her religious policies resulted in deep - seated resentment . The military losses in France , poor weather and failed harvests increased public discontent . Philip spent most of his time abroad , while his wife remained in England , leaving her depressed at his absence and undermined by their inability to have children . After Mary ' s death , he sought to marry Elizabeth , but she refused him . Thirty years later , he sent the Spanish Armada to overthrow Elizabeth , without success . By the seventeenth century , Mary ' s persecution of Protestants had led them to call her " Bloody Mary " . John Knox attacked her in " The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women " , published in 1558 , and she was prominently featured and vilified in " Actes and Monuments " , published by John Foxe in 1563 , five years after her death . Subsequent editions of the book remained popular with Protestants throughout the following centuries , and helped shape enduring perceptions of Mary as a bloodthirsty tyrant . In the mid - twentieth century , H . F . M . Prescott attempted to redress the tradition that Mary was intolerant and authoritarian by writing more objectively , and scholarship since then has tended to view the older , simpler , partisan assessments of Mary with greater scepticism . Although Mary ' s rule was ultimately ineffectual and unpopular , the policies of fiscal reform , naval expansion and colonial exploration that were later lauded as Elizabethan accomplishments were started in Mary ' s reign . Titles , style and arms . When Mary ascended the throne , she was proclaimed under the same official style as Henry VIII and Edward VI : " Mary , by the Grace of God , Queen of England , France and Ireland , Defender of the Faith , and of the Church of England and of Ireland on Earth Supreme Head " . The title Supreme Head of the Church was repugnant to Mary ' s Catholicism , and she omitted it from Christmas 1553 . Under Mary ' s marriage treaty with Philip , the official joint style reflected not only Mary ' s but also Philip ' s dominions and claims : " Philip and Mary , by the grace of God , King and Queen of England , France , Naples , Jerusalem , and Ireland , Defenders of the Faith , Princes of Spain and Sicily , Archduke s of Austria , Dukes of Milan , Burgundy and Brabant , Counts of Habsburg , Flanders and Tyrol " . This style , which had been in use since 1554 , was replaced when Philip inherited the Spanish Crown in 1556 with " Philip and Mary , by the Grace of God King and Queen of England , Spain , France , both the Sicilies , Jerusalem and Ireland , Defenders of the Faith , Archdukes of Austria , Dukes of Burgundy , Milan and Brabant , Counts of Habsburg , Flanders and Tyrol " . Mary I ' s coat of arms was the same as those used by all her predecessors since Henry IV : Quarterly , Azure three fleurs - de - lys Or [ for France ] and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or ( for England ) . Sometimes , her arms were impaled ( depicted side - by - side ) with those of her husband . She adopted " Truth , the Daughter of Time " ( ) as her personal motto . Ancestry . Both Mary and Philip were descended from legitimate children of John of Gaunt , 1st Duke of Lancaster , by his first two wives , a relationship which was used to portray Philip as an English king . Mary descended from the Duke of Lancaster by all three of his wives , Blanche of Lancaster , Constance of Castile , and Katherine Swynford .