Notably, also at age six, Mary became motherless when Elizabeth of York died following the birth of the final royal child, Catherine, who also died. The following year, it was noted that a number of payments were made to the royal apothecary (which continued through 1509), indicating that Mary's health may have been fragile between these years - ages 7-12. Despite whatever potential health issues ailed her, however, she was known as one of the most beautiful princesses in Christendom (as this portrait from 1516 illustrates). If she was indeed a sickly child, it doesn't appear to have affected her appearance, and by the time she reached age ten, offers from European kingdoms were being made for her hand. She was described a few years later (at the age of eighteen) in this way: 'handsome and well favoured, were not her eyes and eyebrows too light; she is slight, rather than defective from corpulence, and conducts herself with so much grace, and has such good manners, that for her age of 18 years - and she does not look more - she is a paradise.'
On 21 December 1507, a betrothal agreement was made with the Holy Roman Emperor, promising her to his young son, Charles (who was four years younger than Mary). However, the betrothal was called off in 1513, and the following year a new - and far less enticing, I would imagine - arrangement was made by Cardinal Wolsey. On 9 October 1514, the eighteen-year-old Mary was married to the 52-year-old French king, Louis XII. Though this arrangement certainly didn't appeal to Mary from an attraction standpoint, her royal husband was certainly thrilled to marry such a beauty - referring to her as a 'nymph from heaven.' And despite her own disinterest, her lively and friendly personality showed itself upon meeting her royal groom, when she reportedly blew a kiss to him in greeting (which delighted him).
We know that Mary had been unhappy with the arrangement to marry the old French king, and it has been argued that, at the time of her first marriage, she was already in love with her brother's close friend, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. A letter dated from 1515 makes clear Mary's own understanding that she had been promised the ability to marry whoever she might choose, following the death of the French king. Indeed, she argued that this was the reason for her agreement to the match in the first place. However, her older brother and king of England, Henry VIII, sought to plan a new marriage for his sister upon her first husband's death - likely seeking a match that would serve England's political interests, as the marriages of princesses were intended to do. Some possible husbands included Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, and Charles III, Duke of Savoy. Even King Francis I (her husband's successor as king of France) threw his hat in the ring - though he was already married to Queen Claude.
When this news reached Henry, he was irate. Charles - his closest friend - had committed treason against the English Crown by taking a royal bride without the king's consent. The privy council urged him to take swift action against the duke (and as a traitor, Charles was subject to the very real possibility of imprisonment and execution). But affection for Charles (and of course, for Mary) saved him from death - and instead the couple was fined heavily by the Crown for their offense. They were reportedly required to pay £24,000 (the equivalent of roughly £7,200,000 in today's value) in yearly installments of £1,000 - though this was later decreased when Henry calmed down. In addition, Mary was forced to hand over her £200,000 dowry from the king of France, as well as all valuables given to her by her first husband. In short, her second marriage - which was clearly pursued in the name of love - came at a heavy financial cost. However, the princess never appeared to regret the decision.
Following the ordeal of her second wedding and having finally regained Henry's favor (the two were allowed to have a second grand wedding at Greenwich Palace in Mary 1515), she once again found herself at odds with her royal brother when she opposed his determination to annul his first marriage with Catherine of Aragon. As a supporter of the 'true faith' of Rome, Mary reportedly despised Anne Boleyn - who caught the king's attention sometime around the mid-1520s. Whether she had already formed this opinion of Anne while interacting with her in France is unclear, but during the king's 'Great Matter', Mary was decidedly on Catherine's side.
However, as we know, the annulment went forward and Henry VIII's second marriage took place in 1533 - the same year that Mary succumbed to illness, dying on 25 June at Westhorpe Hall at the age of 37. It is suspected that she had suffered from a lengthy bout of the sweating sickness - although modern medical experts and historians have also speculated about tuberculosis, appendicitis, and cancer.
Following her death, Mary's embalmed body lay in state at Westhorpe Hall for three weeks prior to her elaborate funeral at Westminster Abbey on 20 July. Her husband - now widowed for a third time, would marry his son's betrothed, the fourteen-year-old lady Katherine Willoughby, within months of Mary's death. (But that's a blog post for another time.)
Today we remember a Tudor lady who very much did things her own way - bypassing Henry VIII's political ambitions for her life, taking her future into her own hands, and marrying for love. This was a luxury that very few princesses of the time were afforded, and it makes Mary an interesting and notable Tudor figure in her own right.
- Wikipedia (Mary Tudor, Elizabeth of York, Charles Brandon)
- Gregory, Philippa, "Birth of Mary Tudor" (philippagregory.com)