Person of the Month

Mary was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and Katharine of Aragon. After a happy and privileged childhood, she was thrust aside by the marriage of Henry to Anne Boleyn and forced to agree she was illegitimate. Returned to the succession by Parliamentary Act in 1544, there was an attempt to block her accession that she resisted with spirit and determination. Unfortunately, memories of the more successful aspects of her reign are overshadowed by the remembrance of religious persecution.

Mary has been the subject of several modern biographies, including those by Linda Porter, Anna Whitelock and John Edwards, and some interesting collections of essays, such as that edited by Susan Doran and Thomas Freeman, reviewed here.