Queen Mary of England aka "Bloody Mary" and our society today

[LynneSin]

In the airport I picked up a book I thought would be an interesting read for the plane ride home. To be honest the book "The Queen's Fool" didn't come out the way I expected but more like a bad harlequin romance without any juice sex scenes in it. However, I've continued to read it for one reason and that's to learn more about Queen Mary of England (Henry VIII eldest daughter and Queen Elizabeth I's half sister).

The one good thing about the book though is how the man character, a girl picked to be a fool in the royal courts of England interacts with not only Mary & Elizabeth but even King Edwards (who served briefly after Henry died) but mostly focusing on the reign of Mary. I've never did much reading about Bloody Mary instead being a big fan of Queen Elizabeth I (I've read books on QEI which will touch briefly on her siblings).

But the ironic thing about reading this book was the details of the terror that went on during Bloody Mary's reign. This was a historical fiction which will place fiction characters into real-life history and the author did do an excellent job taking you back to the late 1500's and Queen Mary's rule. Mary was called Bloody Mary because of Mary's attempts to purge everyone who didn't believe in the Catholic faith through jailing, torture, hanging and burning at the stake (the stake was more of her husband's idea since he was privy to the Spanish Inquisition).

Now this is not to disparage Catholics, it just happens to be that Mary was a Catholic and felt it her personal duty to "Save" everyone from the damnations of hell even if she had to torture them to convert to Catholicism. But what has intrigued me about this book is the scary thought that we have so many potential "Bloody Mary's" out there as spokespersons for the Xtian Fundamentalist movement. And what worries me is how close our country is to being a society where we will be converting everyone to the chosen faith using whatever means possible. Today we have lone wolves out there using Jesus as their reason to kill Women Health professions and anyone who refuses to help restore a feeding tube to a brain-dead woman. But every year it seems there are more and more of these lone wolves out there that the lone will almost no longer apply to them.

Just how close are we to a society run by those who would kill anyone considered a heretic - and believe me even us Christians would be suspect if we aren't following the Xtianity approved by their leaders.

What are you folks thoughts?

[HockeyMom]

1. Elizabeth did the same

to Catholics in England. Just different sides of the same coin. Anyway you look at it killing in the name of religion is bad, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, whatever.

[LynneSin]

3. She did it, but not to the extent that Mary had

Mary's was much more bloodier whereas Elizabeth focused on purging just those who were out to remove her from the throne and their associtates

[curlyred]

2. to be fair..

Elizabeth was responsible for more that a few deaths of people she considered "heretics" as well.

I would like to think that as a society we have grown beyond sanctioning death for those with whom we disagree. It just amazes me that some people are such fanatics...like those Phelps people, who were in Denver this weekend protesting at a number of mainline churches, because those churches dare to preach that God loves everyone. Imagine that.

I can't imagine that the American people as a whole would allow themselves to be governed by the "Taliborn-again.". My fear is that these people are so insidious that we would have no idea until it was too late.

[Bridget Burke]

4. And Elizabeth's dad killed quite a few Catholics...

But "Bloody Mary" got her name because her side "lost" England. Not that there's any excuse for killing in the name of God.

Oh, & let's not forget Oliver Cromwell!

[curlyred]

6. of course, they both had the same daddy

which may have something to do with the whole matter. :)

[slackmaster]

5. I'd like to ditch work and dive into a Bloody Mary right now

:toast:

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. I've thought about that.

I was reading about "Bloody" Mary, myself, recently. One of my ancestors was barbecued during her Great Crusade to Stamp Out Heresy.

I don't think that something like that can happen in America. If the government were to collapse, and the nation descended into anarchy, I CAN see it happening in some parts of the country, but barring that sort of situation it's unlikely.

[bleedingheart]

8. Mary I of England...a tragic figure

The beloved only child of Henry VIII and his wife Catherine of Aragon. Her grandmother, Isabella the Catholic, along with her grandfather Ferdinand were instrumental in unifying Spain and to many they were the first to utilize the Inquisition for their dynastic benefit...Her aunt was the Mad Queen Juana of Spain...deposed by her sons and locked away...(there is a cool movie about her...)

Mary grew up loved and adored until her father realized that her mother was not going to give birth to any sons...then she watched as her mother was cast aside as her father literally took on a new religion in order to divorce himself from her mother. During her life, her father used her as a pawn..promising her hand to many princes etc...but no match ever went through during her youth...which probably gave her great disappointment as she grew older...basically motherless, fatherless and without anyone of her own...

More than likely she turned to religion in her "exile" to comfort herself...and then when she assumed the throne she married her cousin Phillip of Spain who probably influenced her even more...personally I have a feeling his influence was key to the torture of protestants.
...oh and that pesky heir issue came about during her reign as well...as she was eager to produce a child but bore none...

[JNelson6563]

10. There were other things besides religion at stake here

Let us not forget Lady Jane Gray, the Queen of nine days. Mary had to seize her throne and it was a cabal of those who profitted handsomely by the despoiling of religious houses. Much wealth was gained by the fall of Catholicism in England and nobody was eager to give it back.

Mary was very religious and the reasons you give are all contributors. Phillip didn't want any other contenders around and did his best to get Mary to whack Ellizabeth. Of course the slimey specimien that he was, after Mary's death he tried to hit on Elizabeth too but that's another matter.

Elizabeth was far less interested in religion than Mary, or Edward for that matter. It was more an effort to keep her throne safe from papal loyalists than anything that drove the movement of persecuting those who held the wrong religious views. Leave us not forget the papal bulls issued that urged good Catholics in England to dis-obey their Queen and, if I recall correctly, didn't he wish her great harm in one of those? The scheme Mary Queen of Scots was cuaght in didn't help the cause of England's Catholics either.

I enjoyed your post Bleedingheart, thought I'd add a few thoughts.

Julie

[mmonk]

9. That's the thing with religion

and violence. One action begins a reaction. Henry VIII, then Mary, then Elizabeth. The whole foundation for the argument of separation of Church and State.