Bloody Mary的传说
玛丽一世（1553~1558在位）成长于欧洲宗教改革的汹涌大潮之中，其时英国也成为天主教和新教进行殊死搏杀的场所。她的母亲凯瑟琳是一位笃信天主教的西班牙公主，而她的父亲亨利八世为了达到与她母亲离婚的目的，不惜背叛天主教，与罗马教皇决裂，并在国内扶持新教，迫害天主教徒。也许由于上述的成长,也许源于她本人古板、固执的性格，她成为了一个死硬的天主教徒，并对新教有着刻骨的仇恨。成年后，她因为拒绝改信新教而几乎被亨利八世推上叛国的审判台，后来又与当时天主教世界的捍卫者——西班牙国王菲利普二世结婚。登上王位后，她立即宣布恢复天主教，并对新教徒采取了高压政策，屠杀其中的激进分子，在她统治5年中，有300余人被烧死在火刑柱上，包括那个敢于宣布她父母的婚姻为无效、她为私生女的克兰默大主教等，而被迫流亡国外的新教徒则不计其数。她终于以其暴行获得了英国人民对其“血腥玛丽”的称谓。她病死时，据说整个伦敦响起了欢庆的钟声，即位的就是她的妹妹、后来成为一代名君的伊丽莎白一世。Mary Tudor was the most hated queen in British history. During her 5-year reign, she threw all England into chaos. Mary beheaded traitors, murdered heretics and had pregnant women burned to death in the name of her religious fanaticism. The entire nation lived in fear.
Make no mistake about it, the burning of somebody at the stake is a very nasty business. It takes a long time to die. The smell of human burning fat would have been overpowering.
There were nearly 300 burnt in about 3 and half years in Mary's reign, which was actually more than the Spanish Inquisition and the French Chambre Ardente put together in the same period.
Thousands fled into hiding, and the streets of English cities were polluted with the putrid smell of burning flesh. She created such terror that she is known as Bloody Mary.
Mary Tudor was born in Greenwich in 1516. She was the only surviving child of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
The reaction to Mary's birth is one of happiness but very muted happiness really, people were not cheered up by the fact that the child that was born and lived was a daughter. Henry wanted a son to succeed him. And Mary’s arrival was seen as a second rate birth. After several miscarriages and 5 dead children, Mary’s mother Catherine of Aragon went through the menopause. Henry knew that she could never provide him with the male heir he so desperately wanted.
Henry realized that there would be no son and began asking, "well, why?" And his answer was, "well, God doesn't want me to have a son, because my marriage is wrong, my marriage doesn't exist."
England was a Catholic country, but the pope would not allow Henry to annul his marriage.Henry broke from Rome and declared himself the supreme head of the new Church of England.
In January 1533, after learning that one of his courtiers Ann Boleyn was pregnant, Henry secretly married her to avoid the risk of having a bastard son. But Ann gave birth to a girl--Mary's stepsister Elizabeth.
Four months later, his Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer declared Henry's marriage to Catherine null and absolutely void and pronounced his marriage to Ann good and lawful. Mary was 17 years old.
Therefore, Mary was illegitimate. Suddenly this child who's been treated like the most special girl around is told that she has to say from now on she is a bastard.
Like her mother, Mary refused to accept this decree. The bond between mother and daughter became stronger. They were totally dedicated to the traditional form of Catholicism that Henry had abolished.
Right at the center of Mary's life was a drama, it's called the mass. It's a drama of light and color and Latin and music, and at the heart of it you make God on a table out of bread and wine, and for Mary that was absolutely central.
When Catherine's health began to deteriorate, Mary was banished from her room. Catherine died in 1536 without ever seeing her daughter again. Mary finally signed her father's active succession in the same year, but she didn't hide her hatred of Ann Boleyn.
I think Mary is pushed aside by Ann Boleyn; there is no doubt about that. She would have regarded as her mother regarded Ann Boleyn as what the Spanish ambassador always calls Ann Boleyn which is "The Whore".
She is very obstinate, very difficult, I mean that comes out very clearly in her conflict with her father and in her relations with Ann Boleyn. What you see is what you get and pretty rough it is too when she's in that mood.
Now in her early 20s, the constant psychological strain began to take its toll on Mary's health.
It's a period of enormous stress for her, I mean, she has menstrual problems anyway, almost from the word go and they get very much worse.
Her disfavor with her father led Mary to live in fear of her life.
There are rumors in 1534 and 1535 of Mary's execution. The rumors are circulating amongst the ambassadors and amongst Mary's support network, a court. Certainly Mary has a profound fear of being poisoned. And this fear never really leaves her.
Mary's fragile physical and mental state took a further blow when Henry finally had a child with his fourth wife Jane Seymour in 1537.
Henry VIII at last has his long looked-for male heir, and there is tremendous rejoicing at court, and there's tremendous rejoicing all over England as well. Hogsheads of wine are broken open at market crosses in parish churches. People celebrate. People set off fireworks and bonfires.
With his male heir in place, Henry VIII decided to rewrite the succession.
Obviously the person who would succeed would be his son. But what would happen after that? Well he did have these two bastard daughters Mary and Elizabeth. And so Henry decided he'd get the succession tidied up in the order: Edward first, then Mary, then Elizabeth.
Henry VIII died in 1547 when Mary was 34. Her brother Edward became king at the age of 9, under the protection of protestant advisors.
He's a young, healthy, vigorous prince, but he's also a convinced protestant. He's a serious evangelical. He is far, far more protestant than Henry VIII has ever been.
I think Mary is drastically shocked by the direction that Edwardian religious policy takes. Churches are being white washed; statues and stained glass windows are being taken out; protestant doctrines are being officially preached in the church and the Mass is replaced with a service in English. And it's that that sparks Mary's really conspicuous disobedience to the government of her young brother.
During Edward's reign, I think she must have felt that this was it, there was no future, and there will be no chance that her beloved world, her religion, anything would survive the entire Protestant Revolution which Edward was carrying out.
The years of stress and illness had turned Mary into a pale, bitter woman. Her faith became her obsession. On several occasions, Edward sent deputations to persuade Mary to accept his new religion. Sticking to her religious principles, she refused to bow to her younger brother's demands.
The Mass, the Sacrament of the Altar, is central to her personal faith. And it's Edward's councilors, it's the heretics who try to get rid of that, and it’s why she hates heretics.
Her stand was supported by the Spanish monarchy, who were burning protestants at the stake for rejecting Catholicism. But in England, these heretics were in power. There seemed no chance of returning to the catholic faith while her brother was on the throne. Edward suddenly became ill in 1553, and the royal succession was again thrown into chaos. ] :victory: thanks a lot! :victory: thanks a lot!
页:
[1]