Mary Tudor (queen consort of France)
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- This article is about Mary Tudor, queen consort of France. For her niece and namesake, Mary Tudor, queen regnant of England, see Mary I of England.
Mary was the fifth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the youngest to survive infancy. Her brother Henry VIII was quite close to her when they were children. He named his daughter, the future Queen Mary, after her and the warship Mary Rose was also named in his sister's honour.
Known in her youth as one of the most beautiful princesses of Europe, Mary was betrothed to Charles of Burgundy, later Holy Roman Emperor. However, this wedding did not take place, and on October 9 1514, at the age of 18, Mary married the 52-year-old Louis XII of France 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, and their union produced no children. Despite the short duration of the marriage, Mary's English contemporaries frequently referred to her as 'the French Queen'.
Mary had been unhappy with her marriage to Louis, as at this time she was almost certainly in love with Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. In late January 1515, Henry sent Suffolk to France to bring Mary back to England. The couple married in secret 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. However, due to the intervention of Cardinal Wolsey and Henry's affection for both his sister and Suffolk, the couple were let off with a heavy fine. They were officially married on May 13 1515 at Greenwich Palace.
Mary and Suffolk 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.
Mary is buried at the ruined abbey at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
In popular culture
Mary was portrayed by silent screen star Marion Davies in the 1922 film When Knighthood Was in Flower, which is 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.
References
- W.C. Richardson, Mary Tudor: The White Queen, ISBN 0720652065
- Alison Plowden, Lady Jane Grey and the House of Suffolk, ISBN 0531150003
- Maria Perry, The Sisters of Henry VIII: The Tumultuous Lives of Margaret of Scotland and Mary of France, ISBN 0306809893
- Alison Weir, Henry VIII: King and Court, ISBN 0712664513
External links
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