Queen of England and Ireland (1553–58), the only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. During her parents’ divorce proceedings, she was separated from her mother (1531), never to be reunited. She was banished from court, declared illegitimate, and barred from the throne before being restored to the succession in 1544.

During the reign of her half-brother Edward VI she clung tenaciously to her Catholic faith. Then she outmanoeuvred Lady Jane Grey to win the throne, and appeared to enjoy considerable public support, despite being the first ruling queen since Matilda. Many people had remained loyal to the old Catholic religious forms, and there was little opposition to her reversal of Edward VI’s Protestant legislation, but her projected marriage to the future Philip II of Spain (1554) provoked Wyatt’s Rebellion. She proceeded with the marriage, which turned out to be unhappy and childless.

After 1554 she relied increasingly on Reginald Pole for guidance in the reversal of Henry VIII’s Reformation, except for the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the revival of severe heresy laws. Between 1555 and 1558 nearly 300 Protestants were executed including Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, earning her the name “Bloody Mary”. She also lost popularity through her foreign policy. In 1557 Philip dragged England into the final phase of the European Habsburg-Valois struggle and England lost Calais, its last outpost on the Continent.