What did Mary I (“Bloody Mary”) really look like?
Mary I is a somewhat forgotten figure in Tudor history - her five year reign squeezed between those of her half siblings, Edward VI and Elizabeth I. Her religious zeal has earned her the moniker, “bloody Mary”. But was Mary really the bloody despot that history remembers?
What did Mary I really look like? Are her portraits an accurate representation of the Queen? We’ll examine her portraiture and reveal facial reconstructions down below.
Early Life
A miniature portrait of Mary at age six, attributed to Horenbout (also Horenbolte).
On the 18th of February, 1516, Princess Mary’s life began with stinging disappointment.. Her parents, King Henry VIII, and Catherine of Aragon, had been praying for a healthy, living child for years.
And even though Mary was healthy, she was not the boy her father desired.
However, Mary was still loved, and could still be useful to her family, as a marriage pawn. By the age of 6, Mary had already been betrothed twice, first to the Dauphin of France, and then the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. But neither arrangement had been successful.
Her mother Catherine loved her deeply, and devoted a great deal of time to her education. Mary received a comprehensive humanist education, with the Catholic religion at its center.
By all accounts, Mary was a solemn, but confident child. She was small and delicate, with the famous gold-red Tudor hair, intelligent bright blue eyes, and a beautiful rosy complexion.
It’s hard to tell whether Mary’s quiet, mostly serious demeanor was just her nature, or whether it was a reaction to the turbulence of her childhood. She must have understood on some level just how “disappointing” she was to her father, and she must have felt the tension between her parents - the whispers of Henry’s discontent around the court.
A Change of Religion in England
My reconstruction of Henry VIII as a young man.
Henry’s infatuation with having a son had slowly overtaken him, and by 1527, after several miscarriages and stillbirths, the marriage of Catherine and Henry was irretrievably broken, and his affair with a woman named Anne Boleyn was becoming more intense.
Henry was convinced that Catherine’s “inability” to give him a male heir was a punishment from God, and he was taking dramatic steps to divorce her. He started by petitioning the pope to declare that their marriage was invalid.
My reconstruction of a young Catherine of Aragon.
By 1531, Catherine had been banished from court, leaving Henry, her daughter, and her home for the last 20 years behind.
For Mary, it must have felt like her life was falling apart around her. She became frequently ill, in bed constantly with horrible menstruation symptoms as well as depression.
After the King finally received his divorce, and his marriage with Catherine was declared void, Mary was deemed illegitimate. She was swiftly stripped of her title as Princess, becoming known as only the “Lady Mary”.
Henry’s divorce had come at a high price: a break with Rome and the Catholic Religion, with Henry himself becoming the head of the new Church of England.
This in and of itself was enough to devastate Mary, whose personal faith had only grown in these last few trying years. Henry was now pressuring Mary to sign a document acknowledging him as the head of the church of England, and accepting her own illegitimacy.
She knew she could only refuse to sign it for so long.
She would sign the document, with Historian James Froude saying that she “disdainfully set her name to the paper.”
The king restricted her movements and forbade her from seeing or writing to her mother, increasingly punishing her in an effort to force Mary to acknowledge his supremacy.
Even when her mother was reported to be gravely ill, Mary was still not allowed to see her.
When Catherine passed away in 1536, Mary was inconsolable.
By 1536, after just 3 years of marriage and one daughter, Henry’s second marriage had also dissolved, only this time, Henry was not as patient with the divorce process. He whipped up some false adultery charges, and had Anne Boelyn executed.
He would go on to marry a woman named Jane Seymour, just two weeks after Anne’s execution. Jane had seen the devastation - to the Royal Family, and to England, that the last few years had brought, and she urged Henry to consider reconciling with his eldest daughter.
Lady Mary was allowed to resume her place at court. She was granted a household, and her expenses show she spent lavishly on fine clothes and card game bets.
Now 21, her life seemed to finally take shape. She had her friends and family around her, and Queen Jane Seymour had been especially supportive of Mary, with the two becoming especially close.
But Mary’s contentment didn’t last long.
A New Heir
My reconstruction of Jane Seymour.
In 1537, Jane Seymour gave birth to a healthy son, Edward. As the realm and Henry rejoiced, Jane was becoming deathly ill.
She passed away just days after the birth, probably from childbed fever.
Also around this time, religious tension in England was reaching a fever pitch. Catholic rebellions and plots were becoming more common. And Mary, who was still a fierce Catholic in her heart, felt like she was in danger. Her godmother, the Countess of Salisbury, had recently been executed in 1541 for her son’s part in the Exeter Conspiracy.
Mary spent much of the next few years in Hertfordshire, avoiding London, and her Father, as much as she could. Henry seemed to be going off the rails. He had already been married twice since Jane Seymour - his most recent marriage ending in the execution of his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, in 1542.
By 1543, as his health began to fail him, Henry already had his eye on a new wife, who would come to be his last - Catherine Parr.
While she was Protestant leaning, Catherine did much to mend the relationship between Henry and his children, and she became close with all three.
Catherine was influential in Henry’s new Act of Succession, which put both Mary and Elizabeth back in line for the throne, after their brother Edward.
Even though the three Tudor siblings disagreed on matters of Religion, they enjoyed a close relationship. Although Edward had grown up living with Elizabeth, it was Mary who had become his favorite.
In a letter to his eldest half sister, he sweetly wrote that “loved her most.”
But their relationship was about to be tested.
The Reign of Edward VI & Catholic Devastation
My reconstruction of the young Edward VI.
In January of 1547, King Henry VIII died, Edward VI succeeded him at just 9 years old, and it quickly became apparent that Edward was determined to be a defender of the protestant faith.
While historians disagree about how much Edward personally did during his reign, his rule was devastating towards Catholics.
He banned many old Catholic rituals, such as the use of rosaries, the casting of holy water, and pilgrimages. He even abolished mass. Mary could no longer freely practice her religion.
By 1552, Edward and Mary, who were once so close, were now bitter enemies, poised to become figureheads of a long and dragged out conflict.
Yet only a few months later, Edward became very ill, and his doctors agreed the illness would likely be fatal.
Not wanting Mary to take the throne after him, Edward would devise his own plan for his succession.
He would deny his own sisters, calling them bastards, and instead choose his Protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey to be Queen after his death.
On the 6th of July 1553, after only six years as King, Edward VI passed away.
Following news of her brother’s death, Mary sent a letter to the Privy Council demanding them to recognize her as Queen:
The council didn’t listen.
But as Queen Jane was being led to the Tower for her coronation, London was eerily quiet. There was no cheering, no celebrating in the streets.
The people wanted Mary.
King Henry’s divorce and separation from the Catholic Church all those years ago was a very unpopular move. There were still plenty of Noblemen ready to support a Catholic Monarch, and most of England agreed that the succession had been stolen from her.
Very quickly, Mary had amassed enough support to ride into London, and claim her crown.
After just nine days as Queen, Jane Grey was overthrown, arrested, and sadly, later executed.
A Catholic Queen for England
Mary I by Anthonis Mor - one of my all-time favorite Tudor portraits.
At the age of 37, the Lady Mary, her father’s disappointment, became Queen Mary I of England.
Her early reign was spent reversing many of her father’s Protestant policies. Mary issued a proclamation stating that she would not force the people of England to be Catholic - but this platform didn’t last long.
By 1553, high ranking Protestant clergy were imprisoned, and in her first Parliament, she obliterated Edward VI’s religious laws.
England was even returned to the Pope’s jurisdiction. And soon, in a move that made English Protestants extremely nervous, Mary revived several acts against religious heresy.
In addition to reforming Religion, Mary had also set her sights on marriage. It would be necessary to produce an heir, and she was beginning to leave child-bearing age. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V suggested a match: his own son, Philip of Spain.
While it was a powerful match between two countries, the people of England were not as keen. There was a fear that naming Philip King would allow Spain to have too much power in England, and that he could easily manipulate his wife.
After some negotiations, both parties reached a compromise. Philip would be styled as the “King of England,” but Mary would not be obligated to provide Spain military support. Philip would have some power, but not as much as he liked.
For Philip, the marriage was not a love match, but a political need. But Mary it seems, had great love for her husband. She also had a great desire for a child of her own.
In September of 1554, it seemed that her prayers were answered. She started to gain weight and experience pregnancy symptoms like nausea and a missed period. Her physicians and court rejoiced.
But several months later, many were starting to doubt the Queen’s authenticity, and Philip wrote to his brother-in-law saying that he didn’t believe Mary was actually pregnant.
As time passed, and her predicted due date came and went, Mary’s abdomen receded, and everyone tried to quietly move on. It appears that Mary was suffering from a False Pregnancy, sometimes caused by hormonal imbalances, but usually caused by the extreme desire to have a child.
This part of Mary’s life is just truly heartbreaking to me. She had such a turbulent life, and the tragedy of this must have just broken her down. She fell into a deep depression.
It’s unclear how much Mary’s state of mind influenced the coming events, but in February of 1555, executions began. 283 Protestants were burned at the stake that year, on Mary’s orders.
Soon, Mary’s depression had also turned into health issues and weakness, possibly from cancer. She experienced another heartbreaking false pregnancy in 1557, and it became clear that she would not be able to have a child.
Mary was forced to swallow a bitter pill: her protestant half-sister, Elizabeth, would reign after her.
Although short, Mary’s reign was not an unsuccessful one. Her Catholic policies were greatly welcomed in a country that had whiplash from religious turmoil. She was praised for being a strong, forthright monarch, whose faith was unrelenting.
Already weak, Mary I’s condition deteriorated during an Influenza outbreak in London.
On November 17, 1558, Queen Mary I, died.
Did Mary I deserve the title, “Bloody Mary”?
This is hard to say with certainty. Since her half-sister, Elizabeth I ruled after her for a very long time, and was a solidly Protestant monarch, there was a lot of anti-Catholic rhetoric in England in the years following.
During her 5-year reign, Mary burned 283 Protestants at the stake. While this is a brutal way to die, it was the common execution style for heretics at the time. Her father, Henry VIII also executed religious heretics: 81 to be exact. And her half sister Elizabeth also executed heretics, but usually charged them with treason instead, which helped her optics.
However, Mary was the most “bloody” of her family in terms of religious burnings.
One main account that cemented Mary’s bad reputation with Protestants was the book written by John Foxe, known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. It included a detailed account of every Protestant Martyr in England’s history who died under Catholicism, and was quite vivid in detail. It also included some gruesome custom-made woodcut illustrations that turned many against Mary.
Foxe’s book was published not long after Mary’s death, and public opinion was turned against her. Recent scholarship takes a more balanced approach to Mary’s life, which I’m sure she would appreciate.
So, what did Queen Mary I really look like?
Mary at age 6, by Horenbout
We are lucky to have quite a few portraits from Mary’s lifetime, starting when she was very young. This Horenbout miniature was painted when Mary was just 6 years old, for her betrothal to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.
Although she looks older than 6 in this portrait, you can see the qualities that were remarked upon throughout Mary’s youth: That she had golden hair that later darkened to red, with a rosy and smooth complexion similar to that of her mother, Catherine of Aragon, and the blue eyes of her Father Henry.
Her betrothed said of this portrait: “She promises to become a handsome lady, although it is difficult to form an idea of her beauty, as she is still so small.”
After this image, we don’t have a reliable portrait until 1544, when Mary was 28. In this image, we can see how small Mary was. It was frequently remarked that she was very thin and had a delicate build.
Mary at age 28, by Master John
French ambassador Marillac said Mary was “In face like her father, especially about the mouth…Her beauty is mediocre.”
The most remarkable and detailed portrait of Mary come to us from her reign. The 1554 image by Antonis Mor, made from life, is one of the best and most lifelike Tudor portraits I’ve ever seen.
Like her Tudor relatives, Mary understood the importance of portraits for political means. She is painted here with plenty of pomp, and also an admirable amount of authenticity. She doesn’t appear to be artificially glossed over, or smoothed out. She is just herself.
Mary at age 38, by Anthonis Mor
One vanity Mary had was in clothing, and jewels. She liked to dress in the embellished French fashion, which was very decorative, and considered gaudy by the Spanish.
One disapproving Spanish source said: “The Queen is not at all beautiful: she is small, with a white complexion and has no eyebrows. She is a perfect saint and dresses badly.”
A slightly more favorable description of the Queen during this time comes from the Venetian Ambassador Soranzo, who wrote: “Her eyes are white and large…her face is round, with a nose rather low and wide, and were her age not on the decline she might be called handsome.”
One of my favorite parts of this image is the large pearl hanging from her necklace. It’s a 64 carat teardrop shaped jewel that was mistaken for hundreds of years as a famous Spanish pearl called La Peregrina. At the time of its discovery, La Peregrina was the largest and most magnificent pearl ever found, and it was thought to have passed to Mary during her marriage to Philip of Spain.
La Peregrina eventually made its way to Sotheby’s auction house in the 1960s, where it was purchased by Richard Burton for Elizabeth Taylor.
Upon looking into the history of the Pearl, Burton even acquired this portrait of Mary I, thinking that the pearls were one in the same.
When Burton realized his mistake, he sheepishly donated the portrait to the National Portrait Gallery, where it hangs today.
This portrait version, which was painted by Hans Eworth, was apparently disliked by Mary’s husband, Philip, who said it exaggerated her attractiveness.
I’ve used the lifelike Antonis Mor image for my re-creation, and then also created a younger version of Mary from it as well.
So let’s see the face of Queen Mary I, brought to life, now:
