King Henry VIII and Queen Anne Boleyn
The above portraits are of Elizabeth Tudors birth parents, King Henry VIII and Queen Anne Boleyn. Unfortunately, Anne Boleyn was only able to share two years of her life with daughter Elizabeth due to King Henry VIII's charges against Anne for adultery and high treason which led to her execution in 1536. King Henry VIII was the third Tudor to proceed to the English throne after his elder brother and father whom defeated and killed Richard III in battle which started the Tudor monarchy.
Queen Mary I was the eldest child of King Henry VIII and Spanish Princess (also the first wife of both King Arthur and King Henry VIII) Katherine of Aragon. Mary was also half sister of Queen Elizabeth I. Queen Katherine was unable to give birth to a son for the very persistent and short tempered King. After twenty four years of marriage, King Henry VIII took extraordinary measures to annul their marriage. For example, King Henry VIII claimed that Katherine and Henry's marriage was illegitimate from the very beginning because she was his brothers widow. After the King of England sought permission from the Holy Pope, and received many rejections, he declared a New Church of England separate from the Roman Catholic Church from which he was later excommunicated due to placing himself head of his own church. Mary grew up to be a strong Catholic just like her mother. When succeeding to the throne, she sought out hundreds of executions on those who practiced the Protestant faith, which gave her the nickname "Bloody Mary".
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Young Princess Elizabeth |
King Edward VI was the only legitimate and "proper" heir to the throne after his father passed away from health issues in 1547. Edwards mother was Jane Seymour, King Henry VIII's third wife who died from tuberculosis at the age of twenty eight. Edward was only ten years old when he inherited the throne and shortly at the age of sixteen, died from health issues like his father. In Edwards will he stated that his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, were to take the throne instead of his sisters. King Edward VI was able to do so by diminishing his fathers Succession to the Crown Act which proclaimed both girls (Mary and Elizabeth) heir to the throne after their half brother. After Jane Grey's coronation, the people of England disagreed with the new Queen. Nine days later, Queen Mary I took the crown.
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