By the end of her reign, Mary I’s relationship with her half-sister and successor, Elizabeth, was at an all-time low. But had the Tudor siblings always been such bitter enemies? Nicola Tallis reveals how the duo’s bond was both broken and strengthened by events beyond their control
On 17 November 1558, Mary I died and was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth. Upon receiving the news, Elizabeth declared that “the law of nature moveth me to sorrow for my sister”, for whom she professed to have wept tears of sorrow. Yet, despite her claim, there were few people who believed her to be sincere. Throughout the course of Mary’s reign, the relationship between the two sisters – who had once been close – had broken down beyond repair.
Elizabeth and Mary’s bond had faced significant challenges from the start, through no fault of either party. Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn, had caused Mary great unhappiness, for her father Henry VIII’s intense passion for Anne had been the catalyst for his separation from Catherine of Aragon, Mary’s mother.
By the time of Elizabeth’s birth on 7 September 1533, the teenage Mary had been rendered illegitimate by her father, their relationship lay in tatters, and her loathing for Anne Boleyn had peaked.
Though Elizabeth’s gender may have come as a disappointment to her parents, Henry still acknowledged her to be his legitimate heir, with pertinent consequences for Mary. The same day that Elizabeth was born, orders were given that Mary “the true princess should not be so called”, for instead, Elizabeth alone bore the title of ‘princess’.
At three months old Elizabeth was sent to Hatfield, Hertfordshire, where her nursery was to be established, and she was soon joined by an unwilling Mary. Though Mary agreed that she might refer to Elizabeth as her sister, she utterly refused to have anything to do with the infant. Her insolence ensured that she remained estranged from her father, and was treated harshly by both Anne Boleyn and her relatives who oversaw life at Hatfield.
Finding common ground
For the first two and a half years of her life, Elizabeth took precedence over her sister – but Mary nevertheless took any opportunity she could to supersede her. Once, when the pair were travelling, Mary deliberately spurred her horse forward before Elizabeth’s litter, and she also took care to secure a better position whenever the two were in the royal barge. When it came to status, she would not willingly submit to second place.
In 1536, however, everything changed. On 19 May, Anne Boleyn was executed on charges of adultery, incest and treason – charges that were almost certainly falsified. We will never know the full extent of the impact her mother’s loss had on Elizabeth, who was not yet three years old, but it led to a dramatic shift in her relationship with Mary.
The sisters were now of equal status, for with the fall of Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth was – like Mary – declared illegitimate. With Anne removed and Elizabeth motherless, Mary began to bond with her much younger sibling. So much so that, just two months after Anne’s death, she told their father that Elizabeth was “such a child toward, as I doubt not but your Highness shall have cause to rejoice of in time coming”.
Over the course of the following decade, Elizabeth and Mary’s relationship grew stronger, and the two were frequently seen together. Mary took a close interest in her sibling, whom she lavished with affection and gifts, including money with which to play card games, and silver thread to embroider a box.
She also rewarded Elizabeth’s minstrels, so we can surmise that the sisters spent time together enjoying entertainments. Likewise, Mary grew close to members of her sister’s household, with whom she sometimes also exchanged gifts.
Throughout their father’s reign the two sisters paid the occasional visit to court, and after Henry married Katherine Parr in 1543, they were there more regularly. When Katherine later assumed the role of regent in 1544, both Elizabeth and Mary spent the summer with her, enjoying a short progress in Surrey and Kent. They appeared every inch a happy family unit.
Switching allegiances
The royal family experienced further upheaval, however, when Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547. Elizabeth and Mary’s nine-year-old half-brother, Edward, succeeded the throne, and this changed the course not only of the sisters’ lives, but also marked the start of another change in their relationship.
No longer would they spend as much time together, for Mary now established her own household while Elizabeth moved to join that of Katherine Parr – an arrangement that was thrown into disarray when Katherine discovered that her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, had been showing Elizabeth far more attention than was appropriate.
Katherine died from complications after childbirth in 1548, and Elizabeth, now 15, set up her own home. Though she and Mary kept in touch, the time they spent together during Edward’s reign was infrequent. Just one letter between them survives from this period, written by Elizabeth to her “Good sister”. It was a friendly piece of correspondence in which Elizabeth remarked that “you may well see by my writing so oft, how pleasant it is to me”. But it would not be long before her relationship with Mary was put to the test once more.
In the spring of 1553, 15-year-old Edward VI’s health began to fail, and on 6 July, he died. Determined to ensure a Protestant succession, which he knew would be impossible if the fervently Catholic Mary succeeded him, the young monarch had, shortly before his death, drafted a ‘Devise’ that excluded both Mary and Elizabeth from the succession on the grounds of their illegitimacy.
Instead, Edward’s ‘Devise’ named their cousin Lady Jane Grey as heir. However, after a reign that lasted a mere nine days, Jane was deposed, and Mary declared queen in her stead. Elizabeth had been silent as the battle for power between Jane and Mary played out, but upon Mary’s accession, she wasted no time in writing to congratulate her sister.
Determined to be seen by Mary’s side and aware that, for the first time, her sister wielded authority over her, Elizabeth set out to meet Mary in person and “offer her fealty as was fitting”. She was welcomed “with great warmth”, and the following day Elizabeth joined the queen as Mary made her ceremonial entry into London.
She could not have failed to notice Mary’s popularity, for the Londoners were out in full force to celebrate the queen’s accession. It was a triumphant moment for Mary, and one that Elizabeth was there to share with her.
Suspicion and intrigue
As Mary’s reign began, relations between the two half-sisters were warm, and the queen showed her younger sibling “every mark of honour”. But behind the scenes, Elizabeth had enemies who were working to undermine it. She was, after all, now heir to the throne, and having been raised a Protestant, she was also on the opposite side of the religious spectrum to Mary.
The queen’s chief supporters, the imperial ambassadors of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, believed Elizabeth to be “clever and sly”, and were adamant that she could not be trusted. Their views were reinforced when, within weeks of Mary’s accession, pressure was brought to bear on Elizabeth to conform to the religious changes Mary was implementing.
Although she appeared to do so, there were few who believed her to be sincere. The queen herself became suspicious when Elizabeth once tried to excuse herself from attending mass by complaining loudly “that her stomach ached”. Mary nevertheless attempted to push her doubts to one side, reverting to type and lavishing gifts of jewellery upon her sister.
Further cracks in the siblings’ relation- ship appeared following the queen’s first parliament in October. The session saw the legislation declaring Mary illegitimate reversed, which, coupled with her queen- ship, rendered her far superior to Elizabeth in status.
This, along with the hostility instilled by Elizabeth’s enemies, seems to have led to a change in her attitude and mindset, for Mary now held Elizabeth “in small account”. She became determined not to allow her sister to succeed her, because of her “heretical opinions, illegitimacy and characteristics in which she resembled her mother”. By December, the atmosphere had become so toxic that Elizabeth withdrew from court, but her situation was soon to take an even more drastic downward turn.
In early 1554, a group of Protestants led by the Kentish nobleman Sir Thomas Wyatt staged an uprising in opposition to Mary’s planned marriage to Philip of Spain. Elizabeth was herself implicated in the rebellion, of which she seems to have had some knowledge and which, though crushed, saw her cousin Lady Jane Grey executed on account of her father’s complicity.
Elizabeth was summoned to London, but when she reached the Palace of Whitehall, Mary refused to see her, telling the imperial ambassador Simon Renard that “Elizabeth’s character was just what she had always believed it to be”. She was adamant that her sister had been plotting against her, and to try to force Elizabeth to confess her guilt, gave orders for her to be sent to the Tower of London.
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Irreparable damage
Knowing that her mother had lost her life within the Tower’s walls, Elizabeth panicked and wrote Mary a desperate letter in which she urged her “to remember your last promise and my last demand, that I be not condemned without answer and due proof”. By the time Elizabeth had finished writing, the tide of the Thames had changed direction, thereby preventing access to the Tower for another few hours.
Yet Mary remained unswayed by her sister’s pleas, and instead ordered her to be conveyed to the Tower the next day. It would prove to be the most terrifying ordeal of Elizabeth’s life, and one from which her relationship with Mary would never recover.
Elizabeth maintained that “she had never been guilty of having acted or said anything against the queen”, and despite the best efforts of Mary’s councillors to wring a confession from her, she never provided one. Mary nevertheless remained convinced of her sister’s wrongdoing, but as the weeks passed it became clear that there were no lawful grounds on which the queen could act against her.
Mary was at last forced to concede that Elizabeth could not remain in the Tower, but she was determined not to allow her to go free. After two months in the fortress, on 19 May – the anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s execution – Elizabeth was removed and began her journey to Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, where she was to spend almost another year under house arrest.
Though at Woodstock Elizabeth was allowed to write occasional letters to Mary, one of which Renard claimed was “as bold as anything I have ever seen”, she was largely ignored by her sister. Mary was instead busy preparing for her wedding to Philip of Spain, which took place in July.
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Thoughts of Elizabeth’s fate continued to occupy her mind, though, and in April 1555 she finally summoned her sister to Hampton Court. Here, Mary was awaiting the arrival of her first child – a child that would replace Elizabeth as Mary’s heir, much to her gratification.
When the sisters at last came face to face for the first time in over a year, there was no happy reunion. Instead, Mary greeted Elizabeth coldly, still seething that “you will not confess your offence, but stand stoutly to your truth”. It was clear that she had no desire to reconcile despite Elizabeth’s assurances that she was “your true subject”.
Mary would have no child, and it is feasible that she experienced a phantom pregnancy. Her sorrow did nothing to mellow her attitude towards Elizabeth, who to her displeasure remained her heir. With one eye to the future, Mary’s husband Philip, however, recognised the sense of keeping his wife’s sister on side, and Elizabeth later acknowledged that Philip had “shown her favour and helped to obtain her release”. She was now at her liberty. To please her husband, Mary tried to dissemble “her hatred and anger as much as she can”, endeavouring in public to receive Elizabeth “with every sort of graciousness and honour”. But it was all an act.
Succession crisis
As Mary’s reign progressed and it became clear that she would not produce a child, Elizabeth’s confidence grew. Despite further plots against the queen – notably a failed conspiracy led by Henry Dudley, in which several of Elizabeth’s servants were implicated – Mary dared not act against her sister. She had no child of her own to succeed her, and was thus acutely aware that – whether she liked it or not – Elizabeth was looking increasingly likely to succeed her as queen.
She nevertheless bore Elizabeth an “evil disposition” and declared her disbelief in her sister’s parentage, for she was “born of an infamous woman”. Prompted by fruitless rumours that the queen was again pregnant, the siblings met for the last time in February 1558, by which time Mary’s grasp on power was getting weaker by the day.
There was to be no reconciliation between the two, and as Mary’s health grew progressively worse that autumn, her antipathy towards Elizabeth remained. She “would never call her sister, nor be persuaded that she was her father’s daughter”. It was not until 6 November that, realising she was in the final stages of her life, Mary formally acknowledged Elizabeth as her heir. Though she had long been considering alternative successors, including her cousin Lady Margaret Douglas, Mary was aware that Elizabeth was the only heir that her council – and her people – would accept.
Eleven days later, Mary died, and though Elizabeth paid for her sister’s funeral, she ignored her wishes that she be buried alongside her mother, Catherine of Aragon. Indeed, the bitterness that had enveloped the final years of the sisters’ relationship continued long after Mary’s demise, with a Spanish envoy claiming that Elizabeth remained “highly indignant” about the treatment she had received during her reign. Their fates had been entwined since the beginning, but it was a sad conclusion for the siblings who had once been so close.
Sibling rivalry
How Henry VIII’s longed-for male hair, Prince Edward, changed the family dynamic
In October 1537, Elizabeth and Mary welcomed a new sibling when their stepmother Jane Seymour gave birth to the king’s long-awaited male heir, Prince Edward. Both sisters played key roles at the christening, with Elizabeth tasked with carrying the child’s christening robes and Mary made the baby’s godmother.
Elizabeth and Mary doted on Edward, and during their father’s reign the trio could often be found in one another’s company. On one occasion Elizabeth gave her brother a shirt she had embroidered herself, and another time sent him her portrait.
With just four years between them, Elizabeth and Edward were natural playmates, and they also had religion in common – a subject that would later be a bone of contention between Edward and Mary. This became apparent at Christmas 1550, when the three royal siblings spent the festive season together for the last time. In a heated confrontation, Edward (by now Edward VI) took the opportunity to berate Mary for her failure to conform to his Protestant religious policies, leaving them both in tears.
By New Year Mary had left court, leaving Edward and Elizabeth to enjoy the feasts staged for the occasion. Though Mary would later be received “very kindly” by Edward, religion continued to divide them. Elizabeth, meanwhile, took pride in being “the King’s Majesty’s most honourable sister”, and was always treated with reverence at his court. His death, in 1553, came as a crushing blow to her.
Nicola Tallis is an author and historian. Her latest book is Young Elizabeth: Princess. Prisoner. Queen (Michael O’Mara, 2024)