Mary was baptised into the Catholic faith at the Church of the Observant Friars in Greenwich three days after her birth. [5] Her godparents included Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey; her great-aunt Catherine, Countess of Devon; and Agnes Howard, Duchess of Norfolk. [6] Henry VIII's first cousin once removed, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, stood sponsor for Mary's confirmation, which was conducted immediately after the baptism. [7] The following year, Mary became a godmother herself when she was named as one of the sponsors of her cousin Frances Brandon. [8] In 1520, the Countess of Salisbury was appointed Mary's governess. [9] Sir John Hussey (later Lord Hussey) was her chamberlain from 1530, and his wife Lady Anne, daughter of George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent, was one of Mary's attendants. [10] Childhood [ edit ] Catherine of Aragon, 1520, Mary's mother Mary in 1522, at the time of her engagement to Emperor Charles V. She is aged 6 and wears a rectangular brooch inscribed "The Emperour". [11] Once Chen leaps past Austen’s plot, “Mary B” becomes more fully inspired and free to upend Austen’s novel. Darcy’s storied estate, Pemberley, becomes a gilded cage for Elizabeth; Mary’s impetuous sister Lydia, who eloped to London, learns what little support society has for a woman without money or education.

Ridley, Jasper (2001). Bloody Mary's Martyrs: The Story of England's Terror. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 0-7867-0854-9. The allegations included claims of inappropriate touching, making sexual advances, and exposing himself to female staff members. The weather during the years of Mary's reign was consistently wet. The persistent rain and flooding led to famine. [142] Another problem was the decline of the Antwerp cloth trade. [143] Despite Mary's marriage to Philip, England did not benefit from Spain's enormously lucrative trade with the New World. [144] The mercantilist Spanish guarded their trade routes jealously, and Mary could not condone English smuggling or piracy against her husband. [145] In an attempt to increase trade and rescue the English economy, Mary's counsellors continued Northumberland's policy of seeking out new commercial opportunities. She granted a royal charter to the Muscovy Company under governor Sebastian Cabot, [146] and commissioned a world atlas from Diogo Homem. [147] Adventurers such as John Lok and William Towerson sailed south in an attempt to develop links with the coast of Africa. [148] Sometimes the disparity between the opinions of professional reviewers and ordinary readers is huge, and that has certainly been the case here. Reviewers seem to love the liberties that Katherine J. Chen has taken with Austen’s characters; an unusual number of early readers are outraged.

Mary was born on 18 February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, England. She was the only child of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to survive infancy. Her mother had suffered many miscarriages and stillbirths. [3] Before Mary's birth, four previous pregnancies had resulted in a stillborn daughter and three short-lived or stillborn sons, including Henry, Duke of Cornwall. [4] Wernham, R. B. (1966). Before the Armada: The Growth of English Foreign Policy, 1485–1588. London: Jonathan Cape. Both Mary and Philip were descended from John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, a relationship that was used to portray Philip as an English king. [177] Family of Mary I of England Part 2: this was certainly not Austen… this was more Brontë with its dark reflection and soul shriveling, dejected angst. Mary was a series of contradictions and a far cry from Austen’s character. Who was this woman? What was her purpose in the story except to pull the reader down into her world of being bullied, neglected and ignored by everyone around her. With every ray of sunshine, our author provided a cloud or pouring rain. With every compliment, we were given a resounding negative feature of her person or character. Why am I still reading this book?

Mary I's coat of arms was the same as those used by all her predecessors since Henry IV: Quarterly, Azure three fleurs-de-lys Or [for France] and Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or ( for England). Sometimes, her arms were impaled (depicted side-by-side) with those of her husband. She adopted "Truth, the Daughter of Time" ( Latin: Veritas Temporis Filia) as her personal motto. [176] Genealogy [ edit ]

Prescott, H. F. M. (1952). Mary Tudor: The Spanish Tudor. Second edition. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. Now aged 37, Mary turned her attention to finding a husband and producing an heir, which would prevent the Protestant Elizabeth (still next-in-line under the terms of Henry VIII's will and the Act of Succession of 1544) from succeeding to the throne. Edward Courtenay and Reginald Pole were both mentioned as prospective suitors, but her first cousin Charles V suggested she marry his only legitimate son, Philip. [85] The Spanish prince had been widowed a few years before by the death of his first wife, Maria Manuela of Portugal, mother of his son Carlos and was the heir apparent to vast territories in Continental Europe and the New World. Both Philip and Mary were descendants of John of Gaunt and in Mary's case, the ancestry was by double lineage. [ citation needed] As part of the marriage negotiations, a portrait of Philip by Titian was sent to Mary in the latter half of 1553. [86] Jane Austen had little to say in “Pride and Prejudice” about the middle Bennet daughter, Mary, and most of it was dismissive. She is “the only plain one in the family,” who “had neither genius nor taste,” with a weak voice and an affection for “threadbare morality.”