Mary Tudor was born to King Henry VIII of England and his first wife Queen Catherine of Aragon on February 18, 1516 and was to be the couple's only child to survive infancy. She was named after King Henry's younger sister, looked after by her own household whose members dressed in Mary's colors of blue and green. She was slender, with long red hair that her father loved to show off and was a very quiet and well behaved child. However, Henry intended to use her only as a bargaining tool in diplomacy and he arranged for Mary's first engagement when she was only two years old to the Dauphin of France. Through the influence of her mother, Mary was given an excellent education. Although she never enjoyed intellectual pursuits, aspiring only ever to be a wife and mother, she nevertheless was well versed in all subjects and could speak English, French, Latin, Spanish and Italian. She was also an accomplished rider, good at sewing and embroidery and was very musical.
However, Mary's childhood was, all in all, far from a happy one. Henry VIII first pushed her aside in favor of his bastard son. Nonetheless, he did make Mary Princess of Wales but everything changed when Henry VIII began his affair with Anne Boleyn. When the King moved to divorce Queen Catherine, it meant that Mary would lose everything. Mary saw her mother treated horribly and forced to endure terrible humiliation in the King's lust to rid himself of her to marry his mistress. Ultimately, Henry VIII, who had once been hailed as the champion of Christendom and given the title "Defender of the Faith" by the Pope, broke with Rome when the Holy Father, Clement VII, refused to allow him to divorce his lawful wife. Henry founded the Church of England with himself as Supreme Head of it and gave himself permission to cast off his loyal wife to marry his mistress and make her his Queen. Since Henry declared that his marriage to Queen Catherine had been invalid it also meant that he made his daughter Mary a bastard and cruelly treated her as such for many years.
This was a time of great suffering and hardship for Mary, only her intense Catholic devotion, learned from her mother, gave her comfort. A woman of simple tastes, she had wanted nothing more than to marry a devout Catholic husband and have her own family. As a young child the king had betrothed her several times, such as to the Dauphin of France, the Duke of Orleans or to her cousin the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Now that the King had declared her a bastard and all but dis-owned her as a child because of her devotion and sympathy to her betrayed mother, it seemed that her dreams of marriage and family would never come true. Anne Boleyn treated Mary horribly and forced her to work as a nurse for Anne and Henry's daughter Elizabeth who had replaced her. Some hard feelings would be natural, but Mary loved children and grew very fond of her baby half-sister.
Henry was certainly never above cruelty to his own family, especially when it came to matters of his own indulgence. Mary was particularly troublesome for him. Raised as a devout Catholic by her mother, Mary refused to acknowledge her father as supreme head of the church and zealously held that the Pope was the one and only head of the Church on earth. For this she was persecuted and threatened, at one point her father even ordered her to be imprisoned in the Tower of London, but this was avoided and eventually, worn down by immense pressure, and to her great regret ever after she finally gave in and signed the oath the King demanded of her on June 15, 1536. Half a year later she was allowed to return to court after being totally ignored by her father for the last ten years.
Mary did finally enjoy some good fortune with the downfall of Anne Boleyn. After failing to give Henry the son he wanted, and with the former mistress being given a taste of her own medicine as the King began lusting after another woman, Anne Boleyn was divorced and executed on charges of adultery and thus treason. Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour had been a lady in waiting to the tragic Queen Catherine and was determined to work a reconciliation between the King and Mary. This at last came about, though Mary was still horrified to discover how many of the King's boot-lickers had advised him to have her killed for standing by her mother and the Catholic faith. On October 12, 1537 Jane Seymour did what no other wife of his ever could and gave Henry VIII a son and heir, Prince Edward. Since her beloved mother had died some time ago, Mary was willing to recognize this young half-brother as the heir to the throne and future King of England.
