Tuesday 14th November 2006
Do you think that Mary Tudor deserved her title “Bloody Mary” or was she simply misunderstood?
Historians still disagree about Mary. Some think she is bloody while others think she was just misunderstood. In this C.H.A.T. I will discuss whether Mary was bloody or misunderstood. In my conclusion I will give my opinion about Mary.
In 1533 Mary started to burn innocent Protestants alive. Mary killed 283 victims including Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and Ridley. Mary was only on the throne for 5 years and managed to burn alive 283 heretics. While Henry VIIII was on the throne for 38 years and burned alive 81 people. Edward VI was on the throne for 6 years and burned alive 2 people and Elizabeth was on the throne for 45 years and burned alive 5 people. Source E page 23 – worksheet. “…but it was Mary who insisted on continuing…” Even though Mary had a chance of saying no to the executions but she wanted to execute them without thought. A historian writes this in 1990. It is reliable because he can look at all the information about Mary so then he made a researched opinion. Source C page 13 worksheet – “onlookers wept, others gathered up ash and bone” After Mary had killed all the Protestants, all the people were sad and some were crying while others tried to gather up the ash and bone to bury it. This is a letter to Philip of Spain from his ambassador in 1555. It is useful and reliable as he is describing the feeling of the people. This is further confirmed by source F page 17 – textbook, “Queen Mary died. All the churches in London rang their bells…Bonfires were lit…”, this source is saying that once Mary had died everyone was so happy they started to lit bonfires etc. This is an account from a diary of a Londoner written when Mary died. He wrote this because he wanted to express the joy that everyone was feeling once Mary had died. Not only did she burn 283 heretics but also in her 5 years she killed 8300 people. Source B worksheet page 23, “neither man, women nor child were spared…all went to the fire” All heretics would have been burned alive. John Foxe wrote this in 1559. This is not reliable as he was a Protestant and wanted Mary to look bloody, however there are some true facts e.g. Mary did kill Ridely etc. John Foxe wrote a book in exile called Foxes book of Martyrs, which included all the killings that happened and showed illustration of the Protestants who were burned alive and published it after Mary died so he wouldn’t be burned alive (1563). It was the best seller after the Bible in England. That was why Mary was known as “Bloody Mary”.
