MARY I., Queen of England, daughter of Henry VIII. by his first wife, Catharine of Aragon, was b. at Greenwich on Feb. 18, 1517. She was m her early years a great iavorite with her father, who had her carefully educated after the masculine fashion of her time. Erasnaus praises particularly the style of her Latin letters. At the age of seven she was betrothed to the emperor Charles V. •, but when Henry sought a divorce from queen Catharine, the Spanish monarch broke off the engagement. Her father then tried to marry her to Francis I. of France, but his desig,n did not succeed. Francis, however, asked for his second son, the duke of Orleans, but Henry in turn refused. After the birth of Elizabeth, Henry's affections were diverted to that princess; and when James V. of Scotland sought the hand of Mary, it was refused, on the ground that the issue of such union might imperil the right of Anne Boleyn's children to the crown. This was virtually c•mdemnino• Mary to celibacy, and doubtless had the effect of making her still more attached to the Catholic party, to which, on account of her training, her natural tendencies, and the wrongs of ber mother, she was already closely allied. Several other matrimonial negotiations, with the prince of Portugal, the duke of Cleves, and the duke of Bavaria, also came to nothing. About this time she was in great danger of losing her life, on account of her strong attachment to her mother's interests. Toward the close of Henry's reign, better prospects opened out for her; in 1544 she was restored to her place in the line of succession, of which she had been deprived, and she lived on very good terms with Catharine Parr, the last of her father's numerous wives. During
the reign of her half-brother, Edward VI., she lived in retirement, but had three more -offers of marriage—from the duke of Brunswick, the markgraf of Brandenburg, and the infante of Portugal—none of which was accepted. On the death of Edward in 1553 she was proclahne,d queen; and after a brief and imbecile struggle on the part of those who advocated the claims of lady Jane Grey, 'MS crowned in October of the same year by Stephen Gardiner, bishol) of Winchester. A fierce spirit in favor of the papacy soon began to show itself, although it does not appear that Mary herself was at first disposed to be severe; she even occasionally interfered to mitigate the cruelties of Gardiner and Bonner; but after her marriage with Philip of Spain (.Ti 25, 1554), to whose father she had been betrothed many years before, a worse spirit took possession of her, or at least worse counsels prevailed; and those bloody persecutions began which have given ber an odious name in history. Her domestic life was wretched; Philip, whom she loved with a morbid passion, proved a sour, selfish, and he,artless husband. Site had no children, and exasperation and loneliness working upon a temper naturally obstinate and sullen, without doubt rendered her more compliant to the sanguinary policy of the reactionary bishops. Fortunately for England, her reign was brief. She died—sfter much suffer ing from dropsy aud nervous debility—Nov. 17, 1558. She has been made the subject ef a tragedy by Alfred Tennyson.