Mary Tudor, Queen of France
- This article is about Mary, queen consort of France. For her niece and namesake, Mary Tudor, queen regnant of England, see Mary I of England.
| English Royalty |
| House of Tudor |
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| Henry VII |
Mary Rose Tudor (March 18 1496 – June 25 1533) was the younger sister of Henry VII of England and queen consort of France due to her marriage to Louis XII. After his death, she married Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk.
Queen of France
Mary was the fifth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the youngest to survive infancy. She and her brother Henry VIII were close when they were children – he named his daughter, the future Queen Mary, after her and the warship Mary Rose was also named in her honour.
Known in her youth as one of the most beautiful princesses of Europe[1], Mary was betrothed in December 1507 to Charles of Burgundy, later Holy Roman Emperor. However, changes in the political alliances of the European powers meant this wedding did not take place[2]. Instead, Cardinal Wolsey negotiated a peace treaty with France, and on October 9 1514, at the age of 18, Mary married its 52-year-old king Louis XII at Abbeville. Despite two previous marriages, the king had no living sons and sought to produce an heir; but Louis died on January 1 1515, less than three months after he married Mary, reputedly worn out by his exertions in the bed chamber. Their union produced no children. Despite the short duration of the marriage, Mary's English contemporaries frequently referred to her as 'the French Queen'.
Duchess of Suffolk
Mary had been unhappy with her marriage to Louis, as at this time she was almost certainly already in love with Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk[3]. Henry knew of his sister's feelings[4] but wanted any future marriage to be to his advantage. When he sent Suffolk to bring Mary back to England in late January 1515, he made the Duke promise that he would not propose to her[5]. However, the couple married in secret in France on March 3 1515. Technically this was treason, as Suffolk had married a royal princess without Henry's consent. The king was outraged, and the Privy Council urged that Brandon should be imprisoned or executed. Due to the intervention of Wolsey, and Henry's affection for both his sister and Suffolk, the couple were let off with a heavy fine[6]. They were officially married on May 13 1515 at Greenwich Palace.
After the marriage, Mary spent most of her time at the Duke's country seat of Westhorpe Hall in Suffolk[7]. She and Brandon had three children:
- Henry Brandon, 1st Earl of Lincoln (March 11 1516 – March 8, 1534)
- Lady Frances Brandon (July 16 1517 – November 20 1559), who married Henry Grey, 3rd Marquess of Dorset, and was the mother of Lady Jane Grey
- Lady Eleanor Brandon (1519 – September 27, 1547), who married Henry Clifford, 2nd Earl of Cumberland.
Relations between Henry VIII and Mary were strained in the late 1520s when she opposed the King's attempt to obtain an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, whom Mary had known for many years. She had developed a strong dislike for the future queen Anne Boleyn[8], whom she had first encountered in France[9].
Mary died at Westhorpe on June 25 1533, and was initially buried at the abbey at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Her body was moved to nearby St. Mary's Church when the abbey was destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries.
In popular culture
Mary was portrayed by silent screen star Marion Davies in the 1922 film When Knighthood Was in Flower, reputed to have been at the time of its release the most expensive film ever made. It was one of Davies' biggest hits. Another fictionalized version of Mary's marital adventures is portrayed in the 1953 Walt Disney film The Sword and the Rose starring Richard Todd and Glynis Johns.
She is also the subject of the novels Mary, Queen of France by Jean Plaidy, The Reluctant Queen by Molly Costain Haycraft, and Princess of Desire by Maureen Peters. The novel of When Knighthood Was in Flower, by Edwin Caskoden (the pen name of Charles Major) was published in 1898, and was the source material for both the Davies and the Disney films.
The drama series The Tudors portrays Mary and Charles' relationship, though the character is named Princess Margaret, and is a composite of Mary and her sister Margaret Tudor, portrayed by Gabrielle Anwar. Charles Brandon is portrayed by Henry Cavill. Several liberties have been taken with the story such as Henry arranges her marriage with the aged King of Portugal, not France, Margaret/Mary actually kills her husband, and Charles is made Duke of Suffolk in order to be able to give Margaret/Mary away at the wedding. The series does not mention her three children by Brandon. It also has her dying before Wolsey (who died in 1530).
Notes
- ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 169. Erasmus said of her that "Nature never formed anything more beautiful."
- ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 169.
- ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 173.
- ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 173. Letters from 1515 indicate that Mary agreed to wed Louis only on condition that "if she survived him, she should marry whom she liked."
- ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 178.
- ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 178,184. The fine of £24,000 – approximately equivalent to £7,200,000 today – was later reduced by Henry.
- ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 185.
- ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 310.
- ^ Weir, Henry VIII, p. 175. Anne and her sister Mary Boleyn were maids of honour in the entourage that accompanied Mary to France for her wedding.
References
- W.C. Richardson, Mary Tudor: The White Queen, ISBN 0-7206-5206-5
- Alison Plowden, Lady Jane Grey and the House of Suffolk, ISBN 0-531-15000-3
- Maria Perry, The Sisters of Henry VIII: The Tumultuous Lives of Margaret of Scotland and Mary of France, ISBN 0-306-80989-3
- Alison Weir, Henry VIII: King and Court, ISBN 0-7126-6451-3