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Did you know that somebody (I don’t know who) had to convince Henry VIII not to have his own daughter executed because she simply refused to accept the end of her parent’s marriage and having to be called ‘Lady Mary.’

Well, that’s not simple, but that isn’t the point.

The point is that Henry might’ve executed Mary.

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This Day in Tudor History

20 May 1536

Henry VIII is betrothed to Jane Seymour at 9AM

Could’ve done this yesterday with Anne Boleyn’s execution but yeah.

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So, today I was watching ‘The Chase’, and one of questions was “Which year did Anne Boleyn marry Henry VIII and have her daughter, Elizabeth I?” or something along the lines of that. The options were 1532, 1533 and 1534.

I obviously knew the answer, but the other person didn’t. They chose 1534, and I was laughing at them because I knew they had the answer wrong.

Tudor knowledge comes in handy for games shows.

Remember that. 

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Alright, so I have something to discuss.

We all know what Mary looks like... right?

Something like this

But... if we look at all the other portraits of Mary, the only ones that look similar are from her time as queen.

There’s the image of her from when she is around six or so (I’d guess) and she has red hair. Red hair runs through the Tudor line, however, and Mary apparently had dark auburn type hair when she was older.

Here is the image:

With Henry VIII’s family portrait with which he had Jane Seymour as his true wife, Mary does seem to keep a familiar appearance to this. Her hair is darker, however. This painting was made c. 1543-45, so Mary would've been in her late 20′s. 

The similarity isn't that significant, but they look more alike in these two images than they do in others. Mary also looks way to young here to be nearly 30, and couldn't have changed so much to look like she did when she was queen. But we should remember how distanced Mary and Elizabeth are from Henry and his wife and son. They are clearly not the main subject of the picture. 

Another image of Mary is from when she was 28 years old. It states so in the Roman Numerals in the background; XXVIII. 

This image obviously isn’t as detailed as some of the others are. This portrait is the one most people would think of when someone is talking about Mary. In this portrait, Mary does look more her age, but let’s remember that 10 years later, all of her portraits have her looking like this:

Also, with the 28 year old Mary image from above, she looks nothing like Mary does in the family portrait... so... which one should we believe? They are both supposed to be the same age, yet, why do they look so different?

The only true idea we have of Mary is when she was queen and was in her late 30′s. But what about her childhood and early adulthood? 

Well. There is a sketch made by Hans Holbein in 1536 of Mary, when she would've been 20. 

But, while this image provides some insight, it would've been a lot better if it had been painted also. We all know how great a Renaissance painter Holbein was, so we can believe that this would resemble Mary, but with all these different images of her, which one would be correct?  

Will we ever really know what Mary truly looked like?

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This Day In Tudor History

April 30th 1555

Rumors had spread that Queen Mary had given birth to a son, but, due to it being a phantom pregnancy, proved false.

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This Day In Tudor History

April 23rd 1546.

William Shakespeare was born (Approx.)

I could have done this yesterday and the day before as there was stuff I could’ve done... but... no...

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I die a Queen, but would rather die the wife of Culpeper.

Kathryn Howard, 13th February 1542

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Actually, I think they’re both the same... just different in a way.

I get how everyone thinks Anne Boleyn was this amazing beauty or whatever, but her portraits kind of annoy me. No offence to Anne Boleyn fans, but her face looks kind of weird in both portraits, in fact, it’s her miniature ones that look the best to me;

And this seemingly more detailed one:

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It is said that this is the earliest known picture of Elizabeth I. I don’t know for sure, as I haven’t looked into it much, but I guess I can see a little resemblance.

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So I went to the library yesterday and borrowed “Anne of Cleves. Henry VIII’s Discarded Bride.” by Elizabeth Norton and I thought that Henry didn’t marry for three years because he was grieving so much over Jane Seymour.

No. They were trying for another bride... Mary of Guise and Christina of Denmark were two of them. Along with Anne’s younger sister Amelia.

Wow.

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First post on my first blog I’m doing by myself with an actual theme... So here’s Henry VII and VIII in Horrible Histories doing a fist bump.