Mary I of England

Mary I of England was the first queen to rule England in her own right. She was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, who was divorced by Henry in order to marry Anne Boleyn and have a male heir. Mary was declared illegitimate and deprived of her title as princess, but she remained loyal to her mother and to the Catholic faith. She was restored to the line of succession by the Third Succession Act in 1543, after Henry had married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr. Mary became queen in 1553, after the death of her half-brother Edward VI, who had tried to exclude her from the throne in favour of his Protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey. Mary swiftly deposed Jane and reversed the Protestant reforms that Edward had introduced. She married Philip II of Spain in 1554, hoping to have a Catholic heir and strengthen the alliance with Spain. However, the marriage was unpopular with the English people and produced no children. Mary also faced several rebellions, such as Wyatt's Rebellion in 1554 and the Northern Rebellion in 1569. Mary is best known for her attempt to restore Catholicism to England and to undo the religious changes made by her father and brother. She revived the laws against heresy and ordered the burning of over 280 Protestant dissenters, earning her the nickname "Bloody Mary" by her opponents. She also tried to restore the monastic lands that had been confiscated by Henry VIII, but met with resistance from Parliament. She faced a war with France that resulted in the loss of Calais, England's last possession on the continent. Mary died on 17 November 1558, aged 42, after suffering from influenza and possibly ovarian cancer. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, where she shares a tomb with her half-sister Elizabeth I, who succeeded her as queen and reversed her religious policies.