On July 20, 1554 Prince Philip arrived in England to marry Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII. Mary’s love life, like much in the rest of her life, was sad, and didn’t end well. She had originally been betrothed to Philips’s father, the Emperor Charles V, when she was still a child, but that was called off when the Emperor couldn’t wait for her to come of age, and married a woman with whom he could have children. After Mary was declared illegitimate when her father married Anne Boleyn, her prospects on the marriage market plummeted.
When she became Queen, she negotiated a marriage with Philip that was deeply unpopular. People were afraid that he would become the King of England, and add the country to his growing dominions. The English did not want to be subjects of the Emperor. Mary seems to have felt she was in love with Phillip and she believed herself to be pregnant almost immediately after the marriage. Sadly, she would go on to have phantom pregnancies, and eventually, Phillip left England to see to his other lands.
But there was much more optimism for an heir and a reconciliation with the Catholic church when he first arrived today, July 20.
That’s your Tudor Minute for today. Remember you can dive deeper into life in 16th century England through the Renaissance English History Podcast at englandcast.com
Suggested link:
Tudor Summit: Melita Thomas on Mary Tudor
Episode 23: Mary Tudor (Mary I)
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop.
She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 30 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history (how exciting when she got to interview Alison for the first time!). In addition to history, she is passionate about travel, and has lived in 3 countries and 4 states (not counting her perpetual state of confusion), and her family (who help her host her YouTube channel occasionally).
