Mary Tudor, Queen of France
1496-1533. Daughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Sister of Henry VIII. Not to be confused with the other Mary Tudor, Mary I, her niece who was named after her.
Mary became the wife of King Louis XII of France and thereby Queen of France. After his death she secretly married Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. Her granddaughter Jane I became Queen of England in 1533.
Early Life
Mary Tudor was the youngest living daughter of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. She was born at the Palace of Richmond in March 1496. Her mother died 7 years later in 1503.
When Mary was eight years old, her older sister Margaret left England to marry King James IV of Scotland. She and her brother Henry, who will become Henry VIII, were the only children left at court and so grew very close. Henry even named his first-born daughter, Mary, after his sister.
Mary was said to be very beautiful and had a lot of admirers. Her father made plans for her to marry Charles V (who is later known as Holy Roman Emperor), a nephew of Catherine of Aragon. The negotiations continued until after Henry VII’s death and were later cancelled by Henry VIII. Instead he planned for his sister to marry the fifty-two year-old King of France, Louis XII. Mary did not like the prospect of marrying such an old man and there are rumors that she only obeyed under one condition: Henry had to promise her that - when her husband died - she could take a second husband that she chose herself. At that time she was allegedly already in love with Charles Brandon, a close friend of her brother.
First Marriage: Queen of France
When she was 18 years old, Mary married King Louis XII of France on 9 October 1514 at Abbeville. She was being crowned Queen of France on 5 November 1514. Despite having been married twice, Louis had no sons and hoped to produce an heir with Mary. But not even three months after the wedding Louis died on 1 January 1515.
Second Marriage: Duchess of Suffolk
After her first husband died, Mary took Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk for her second husband. They married secretly in France without the consent of King Henry VIII. The marriage was technically treason and Henry was outraged because he planned to marry his sister off for political aims again. He considered to execute Charles Brandon, but after some negotiations with the help of Thomas Wolsey, he decided that the couple had to return Mary’s dowry and pay a fine. With marrying Charles Brandon, Mary took a husband below her rank. With the annual fine they had to pay to the King, she could no longer live the splendid life she was used to as a Princess and Queen. Mary was always referred to as Queen of France and never as the Duchess of Suffolk although she was longer a Duchess than she was a Queen.
Mary and Charles had four children: Henry Brandon (1516-1522), Frances (1517-1559), Eleanor (1519-1547) and Henry (1523-1534). Mary’s daughter Frances was the mother of Lady Jane Grey, who was monarch of England and Ireland from 10 July until 19 July 1553.
Death
Mary died 25 June 1533 at her home, Westhorpe Hall in Suffolk, after being ill for some time. It is not known what exactly she suffered from. The theories range from angina to tuberculosis and cancer. Mary was buried at Bury St Edmunds.
Sources
Chapman, Hester Wolferstan: The sisters of Henry VIII: Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland (November 1489-October 1541), Mary Tudor, Queen of France and Duchess of Suffolk (March 1496-June 1533). London: Jonathan Cape, 1969.
Maurer, Michael: Kleine Geschichte Englands. Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam jun., 2007.
Perry, Maria: Sisters to the King: The tumultuous lives of Henry VIII's sisters - Margaret of Scotland and Mary of France. London: Carlton Books, 1998.