British royalty, the daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine. She was beautiful and precocious, entertaining visitors at four and knowing her Latin by nine. She adored her dad and had a happy childhood up to the age of ten when Henry divorced her mom and married Anne Boleyn. She was not allowed to see her mother, even when she died 1/17/1536.
After Anne Boleyn was put to death, Mary was returned to court, a period of religious and political intrigue and instability. When Henry VIII died 1/28/1547 OS, Mary’s half-brother Edward took the throne until he died of TB on 7/06/1553, leaving the throne to Mary. After an aborted nine-day reign by the Protestant Lady Jane Grey, Mary Tudor was crowned Queen Mary I.
As a 38-year-old virgin, Mary married 27-year-old Philip II of Spain, loving him passionately. While she was well liked, Protestants viewed her with suspicion that turned into unrest when she married the Catholic Philip. As her reign progressed, Mary’s behavior became more bizarre. She did not have the hoped-for male child, and the handsome Philip deserted her. Increasingly fixated on religious fanaticism, starting on 4 February 1555, she had 300 protestant martyrs put to the stake, gaining the tile of Bloody Mary.
With a history of poor health, she was often ill, and died as a despised, dried-up old crone at 42 on 17 November 1558 OS, London.
Link to Wikipedia biography