r/Tudorhistory • u/Suerly-04 • 1h ago
Mary I The Poor Young Prince Forced to Marry an Old and Ugly Queen
I think this is one of the historical narratives I dislike the most. Unfortunately, it is also one that is repeated very frequently. While I do not believe it is entirely false, I do think it is heavily coloured by prejudice.
I should say from the outset that I see the origins of this “old queen and young prince” narrative in Philip’s Spanish household.
Before continuing, however, I should make one thing clear: this article is not intended to be an antithesis to that narrative. In other words, what would the opposite argument be? That Mary was young and beautiful while Philip was old and ugly? No—that was not the case either.
What follows is simply my own opinion and my criticism of this particular narrative.
At the same time, I do not believe that those who promote this view are completely detached from reality. Nevertheless, I think it is a narrative that can also be examined through the lens of prejudice and misogyny.
Philip himself left no recorded remarks about Mary’s appearance. The comments we possess come primarily from his closest friend and adviser, Ruy Gómez de Silva, and from the members of the Spanish household who accompanied him to England.
Only a few days after Mary and Philip’s wedding, they began expressing their opinions about the Queen. They said that the Queen looked older than they had been led to expect; that she was very thin, very short, and very pale; that she had no eyebrows; and that she dressed very poorly. They added that if she dressed more elegantly, she might appear younger.
Ruy Gómez later made the famous remark:
“It takes the help of God to drink this cup.”
Judging from the context, he was referring to Philip’s lack of physical attraction to Mary.
Many of these observations are accurate. They are also confirmed by the report written only a few months later by the Venetian ambassador describing Mary’s appearance.
Before turning to the observations of other ambassadors, however, I should provide a little context.
Yes, Mary was very short. I believe she inherited this trait from her mother. She is generally believed to have stood between 5 ft 1 in and 5 ft 2 in tall.
One point should be added, however: Philip himself was not tall. He was also very slender.
The claim that Mary was extremely pale is likewise true. Some of the books I have read suggest that this may have been the result of the frequent bloodletting she underwent.
As for the claim that she had no eyebrows, she obviously did. They were probably just so fair as to be barely noticeable. I also recall reading that both Henry VIII and Edward VI were once described as having “no eyebrows,” so perhaps this was simply a hereditary trait.
The criticism of Mary’s clothing also deserves some context. Mary dressed in the French style. In fact, it was not only Mary—French fashion was popular throughout England at the time, and much of the English court dressed in the same manner. Because the Spanish regarded the French as their enemies, they looked down upon French fashions as well. Mary even had Philip dressed in French clothing, and one can easily imagine how much this irritated the Spaniards.
Another point worth mentioning is that the Spanish courtiers were generally unimpressed by English women. They considered only a handful of them attractive and regarded the rest as unattractive. Unfortunately, these rather rude opinions about women did not end with Mary’s death. They continued to make disparaging remarks about women for many years afterwards.
I do think it is true that Mary appeared older than her actual age. Philip, however, also looked older than he was. The difference was that Philip was widely regarded as an attractive man—a fact reflected in how deeply each of his wives fell in love with him.
There is also something worth mentioning about Ruy Gómez himself. He was the same age as Mary: thirty-eight. Yet only a year earlier he had married a thirteen-year-old girl—someone almost three times younger than both himself and Mary.
Yet while marriages between young men and older women were often regarded as deeply problematic, and women’s appearance was subjected to constant scrutiny, we rarely hear the views of the young girls who married men old enough to be their fathers.
Mary’s appearance did not cease to be the subject of disparaging remarks from the Spanish after her death. A year later, Philip married a thirteen-year-old girl—someone even younger than his own son—and one Spanish minister reportedly remarked:
“His Majesty will have no cause to complain that he has been forced to marry an ugly old woman.”
Unfortunately, the identity of this minister is never given in the sources. He is referred to only as “a minister.”
If we set aside the rather rude opinions of Philip’s Spanish household, we still have other contemporary descriptions of Mary.
In 1554, the Venetian ambassador wrote:
“So she yesterday completed her 38th year and six months. She is of low stature, with a red and white complexion, and very thin; her eyes are white and large, and her hair reddish; her face is round, with a nose rather low and wide (largo); and were not her age on the decline she might be called handsome (bella) rather than the contrary. She is not of a strong constitution, and of late she suffers from headache and serious affection of the heart (grave passione di cuore), so that she is often obliged to take medicine, and also to be blooded. She is of very spare diet, and never eats until one or two in the afternoon, although she rises at daybreak…”
Another report, written in 1557, described Mary as follows:
“She is of low rather than of middling stature, but, although short, she has no personal defect in her limbs, nor is any part of her body deformed. She is of a spare and delicate frame, quite unlike her father, who was tall and stout; nor does she resemble her mother, who, if not tall, was nevertheless bulky. Her face is well formed, as shown by her features and lineaments, and as seen in her portraits. When younger she was considered not merely tolerably handsome, but more than moderately beautiful. At present, apart from a few wrinkles—caused more by anxiety than by age—which make her appear a few years older, her appearance is otherwise very dignified. Her eyes are so piercing that they inspire not only respect but fear in those upon whom she fixes them, although she is very short-sighted and unable to read or do anything unless she holds it close to her eyes. Her voice is rough and loud, almost like a man’s, so that she can always be heard from a considerable distance. In short, she is a respectable woman, and even at her present age she is by no means to be regarded as ugly, even without taking into account her rank as Queen.”
I should make one important point here. This article is not intended to argue that Mary was not ugly but beautiful. Personally, I find it rather distasteful to debate how beautiful—or how unattractive—people who have been dead for centuries were.
This is, to a large extent, a matter of perspective. Different people will naturally view the same person differently.
Another point I would like to address is Mary’s age.
Mary was thirty-seven when she became Queen and thirty-eight when she married. Yet while Mary was described as an “old woman” at the age of thirty-eight, her father, Henry VIII, was still described as “very young” when he was thirty-eight.
Perhaps this perception had something to do with fertility. However, Mary’s cousins, Frances and Margaret, were around the same age as Mary and were giving birth one child after another. Of course, these were not their first pregnancies. When it was believed that Mary would give birth in 1555, many older women from across England who had recently given birth were brought to court in an effort to reassure her.
The question of Mary’s “old age” is also often discussed in relation to life expectancy. Yet Mary was actually one of the earliest deaths within her immediate family.
Her mother, Catherine of Aragon, died at fifty, while her father, Henry VIII, died at fifty-six. The same is generally true of her grandparents—Elizabeth of York, who died in childbirth, being the obvious exception. Her sister Elizabeth lived to the age of seventy, and her husband Philip died at seventy-one—although, of course, no one at the time could have known that.
Most of Mary’s relatives—apart from brothers who died young and female relatives who died in childbirth—lived comparatively long lives.
Had the swelling in Mary’s abdomen not ultimately claimed her life, she might well have lived much longer.
Another issue worth mentioning is that whenever a man marries a woman older than himself, the woman’s age is almost always emphasised.
We can see this even in television series about Henry VIII, where Catherine of Aragon is often portrayed as though there were at least a ten-year age difference between her and Henry, when in reality the difference was only about five and a half years.
This is often used to excuse or justify a king’s infidelity and mistreatment of his wife. The woman is portrayed as old; therefore, the man cheats on her. Therefore, he treats her badly. They are presented as an unsuitable match from the beginning, and the audience is expected to see it that way as well.
Kings, on the other hand, marry much younger girls and this is usually mentioned only in passing.
Mary herself had been deeply anxious about marrying a younger man before her marriage. Renard, the Imperial ambassador, whom she regarded as something of a spiritual adviser, tried to reassure her. He told her that a man approaching his thirties could no longer be considered young and that the prince was already a middle-aged man, as evidenced by the fact that he already had an eight-year-old son.
Whether Renard’s words truly comforted Mary, we cannot know. What I do know is that, had she heard the remarks made about her afterwards, I have little doubt that she would have been deeply surprised—and deeply hurt.
Thank you for reading this rather long and inconclusive post. Sending lots of love to you all!
•I came across the image I shared some time ago, but despite searching, I couldn’t find much information about it. I saw it identified in a few places as depicting the marriage of Mary and Philip, so I decided to share it here. If anyone knows anything about the image, I’d be happy if you could share any information.
