MARY I. of England, daughter of Henry VIII.
by Catharine of Spain, queen and tyrant of England,
succeeded her half-brother Edward VI. in 1553. If
she had been educated in Spain, and an inquisitor had
been her preceptor, she could not have imbibed more
strongly the bloody principles of Romish persecution;
and to the eternal disgrace of the English prelacy,
though the reformation had taken root in both uni-
versities, she found English bishops ready to carry her
cruel designs to subvert it, into effectual execution.
Upon her accession to the throne, she declared, in her
speech to the council, that she would not persecute her
Pro-
Mary. Protestant subjects; but in the following month, she prohibited preaching without a special licence: before the expiration of three months, the Protestant bishops were excluded the house of lords, and all the statutes of Edward VI. respecting the Protestant religion were repealed; and before she had enjoyed the crown a year, archbishop Cranmer, who had saved her life when her father had resolved to take off her head, and the bishops Ridley and Latimer, were condemned for heresy at Oxford, and afterwards burnt. In 1556, the persecution became general; and Protestants of all ranks and ages, and of both sexes, fell victims to paltry fury. It is observable, likewise, that the same perfidious violation of promises and treaties prevailed in the queen's council, with respect to public affairs. By the treaty of marriage concluded between the queen and Philip prince of Spain, son of the famous emperor Charles le Quint, in 1554, it was expressly stipulated, that England should not be engaged in any wars with France on account of Spain; yet in 1557, Philip, who had brought immense sums of money into England, procured an offensive and defensive alliance against France, from the English administration, and 8000 of the queen's choicest troops were sent over to the assistance of the Spaniards in the Low Countries: the loss of Calais to the French was the first fruit of this war; and some assert, that upon this single occasion the queen showed a strong attachment to her native country, lamenting this stroke so deeply, that it occasioned her death; but it is better authenticated, that she was carried off by an epidemic fever, which raged so violently that it did not leave a sufficient number of men in health to get in the harvest. She died in 1558, in the 43d year of her age, and sixth of her reign.
MARY of Medicis, wife of Henry IV. king of France, was declared sole regent of the kingdom in 1610, during the confection which the assassination of that beloved king had occasioned. By her ambitious intrigues, the nation lost all its influence abroad, and was torn to pieces at home by contending factions. After several vicissitudes of fortune, she was abandoned by her son Lewis XIII. whose reign had been constantly disturbed by the civil commotions she had occasioned; and died in indigence at Brussels, in 1642, aged 68. She built the superb palace of Luxembourg at Paris, and embellished that city with aqueducts and other ornaments.