Here, we’re focusing on a reigning Queen, a woman who ruled in her own right, with full sovereign power, and not those who held the title of Queen through marriage. England’s royal succession was, until the 16th century, passed down to male heirs. It was only during the turbulent period of the Tudor reign that women were able to claim their title as Queen.
In the 12th century, however, there was a time when Henry I designated his daughter, Empress Matilda, as heir, but her cousin, Stephen of Blois, disputed this, sparking a long civil war. Matilda held considerable power and influence in medieval England but she was never crowned and never formally proclaimed Queen.
Between 1553 and 1603, three women made consecutive claims to the title of Queen of England, and each can attest to being the first in some way. Lady Jane Grey was the first woman to contend for the title, but was not officially crowned and was removed within just 9 days, before she could truly reign. Mary I was the first queen crowned to rule England in her own right, and her sister, Elizabeth I, was the only woman to govern England without a husband.
Overall, Mary I is considered to be the first Queen Regnant of England. She reigned from 1553 to 1558.
Here, learn more about Mary I’s reign and the places connected to her life.
Mary Tudor: princess and the succession crisis
Mary was born on 18 February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, London, to Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Her own royal household was established at the palace from a young age, and she was baptised in the nearby Church of the Observant Friars.
Aged 9, Mary was sent to Ludlow Castle in Shropshire to preside over the Council of Wales and the Marches. Though never formally titled Princess of Wales, she effectively held that role and ruled at the centre of her own court. It was during this time that she began to learn about governance, diplomacy and court politics.
In 1528, Mary returned to London. By this time, Henry VIII began to doubt the validity of his marriage to Katherine, after suffering many miscarriages and stillbirths. To Henry’s growing frustration, he had no male heir. Henry’s excuse for annulment stemmed from the fact that Katherine had been briefly married to Henry’s elder brother, Arthur, who died in 1502.
Henry became determined to secure an annulment so he could marry courtier Anne Boleyn, in what became known as ‘The King’s Great Matter’. In 1531, Katherine was banished from court, eventually settling at Kimbolton Castle. Mary was prohibited from seeing her mother, causing great emotional strain.
After years of debate with the Pope around his marriage, Henry broke with Rome and married Anne in a secret ceremony in January 1533. Mary’s half-sister, Princess Elizabeth, was born in September 1533. Henry was officially declared the Supreme Head of the Church of England by Parliament in 1534.
This changed Mary’s life in an instant. She was no longer seen as Henry’s heir to the English throne. She was now considered illegitimate and stripped of her title of ‘princess’.
Now known as ‘Lady Mary’, her dedicated household was dismantled, and she was ordered to move to Hatfield to serve Princess Elizabeth’s household. Mary’s relationship with her family worsened as she refused to acknowledge Anne and Elizabeth’s royal titles.
When Mary’s mother died in 1536, she was “inconsolable”. Katherine was interred in Peterborough Cathedral, while Mary grieved in semi-seclusion at Hunsdon in Hertfordshire.
Things changed once again when Anne Boleyn was executed, and Henry VIII married Jane Seymour, who gave birth to the long-awaited male heir, Edward, in 1537. Henry VIII died in 1547, leaving his 9-year-old son to succeed him.
After a 6-year reign, Edward VI’s health deteriorated. He and his council were determined to have a successor who would uphold the new Church of England and not return to the Catholic faith. John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, encouraged the King to consider his cousin, the Protestant Jane Grey.
Edward firmly believed that Mary and Elizabeth were illegitimate and, therefore, composed a draft document titled “My devise for the succession”, which outlined that the crown should be passed to Jane Grey.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Who was Lady Jane Grey?
Jane was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII, the grand-niece of Henry VIII, and the first cousin once removed of Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I.
At age 10, Jane was sent to the household of Thomas Seymour at Sudeley Castle and spent much of her childhood under his influence. It was Thomas’s intention to marry Jane to her cousin, King Edward.
However, in January 1553, Edward became unwell, created a new line of succession, and named Jane his heir. John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who was leading Edward’s council at the time, married her to his son the same year at Durham House in London, hoping that if Edward died, his son would ultimately become King.
Edward died at Greenwich Palace at the age of 15. His new succession meant that on 10 July 1553, Lady Jane Grey was given the title of Queen of England.
After hearing the news of the new succession, Mary Tudor quickly raised support for her claim to the throne. She inherited large estates in East Anglia from her father and, along with them, received support from local landowners and the nobility. Mary arrived at Framlingham Castle on 12 July, 1553. Its strategic position allowed her to gather thousands of supporters from local Suffolk nobility and commoners.
While at Framlingham, she learned that Northumberland had surrendered and the Privy Council had declared her Queen. In less than a fortnight, Mary and her supporters succeeded in reinstating her as the crown’s successor.
Jane was later executed for treason in 1554, after Mary was fearful of an uprising to reinstate Jane after her unpopular marriage to the Catholic Philip of Spain. Jane’s incredibly short reign and lack of a coronation mean that not many regard her as the official first Queen of England.
Mary I: The First Queen of England
The coronation of Mary I as Queen of England and Ireland took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on 1 October 1553.
Mary’s reign faced much opposition, mainly due to her insistence on restoring Catholicism and the Pope’s supremacy in England. During her reign, over 250 protestants were burned at the stake, earning her the nickname of ‘Bloody Mary’.
Her popularity waned further when, in 1554, she married Philip at Winchester Cathedral. Philip was the son of the Spanish King Charles V, who later became Philip II of Spain. Many feared that this marriage alliance would lead to Spain taking control of England’s political power, as well as the reinstatement of Catholicism.
When Mary I insisted on marrying Philip of Spain, unrest erupted, leading Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger to conduct a rebellion from Kent, aiming to replace her with her half-sister, Elizabeth. Although Wyatt gathered around 2,500 men and gained support when part of the government army defected, Mary’s quick moves to fortify London and rally citizens led to the rebels’ defeat and Wyatt’s capture.
The aftermath saw the executions of Wyatt and many others. Elizabeth, despite denying involvement, was imprisoned in the Tower of London and later placed under house arrest.
Mary was keen to produce an heir and secure her succession, especially given the knowledge that her Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth, was next in line to the throne and would reverse her work to reinstate the Catholic Church in England. Mary believed she was pregnant multiple times; however, no child came.
Both triumphs and pitfalls marked Mary’s reign. She worked to restore the dignity and authority of queenship and restored papal supremacy in England. Her government also made meaningful administrative gains, including reforming financial systems to increase crown revenues and expanding trade into new regions such as Guinea, the Baltic, and Russia. This new financial gain enabled naval rebuilding, for which her sister, Elizabeth I, became famous.
However, her reign is also remembered for a series of poor harvests and devastating influenza outbreaks, leading to widespread famine and social strain. One of the most significant casualties, the loss of Calais, England’s last foothold on the continent, in 1558 during the Anglo-French war, was seen as a humiliating blow.
She died on 17 November 1558, aged 42, at St James’s Palace, London.
Despite Mary’s commitment to intense religious reform, when she died childless, her half-sister Elizabeth succeeded her, once again shifting back to the Protestant Church of England.
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