Coronation of Mary I of England
The coronation of Mary I as Queen of England and Ireland took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on Sunday 1 October 1553. This was the first coronation of a queen regnant in England, a female ruler in her own right. The ceremony was therefore transformed. Ritual and costume were interlinked. Contemporary records insist the proceedings were performed "according to the precedents", but mostly these were provisions made previously for queens consort.
Mary I of England depicted crowned on her Groat
Mary I of England enthroned by angels depicted on a 1553 plea roll, with flowing hair.
Royal Entry of Queen Mary I with Princess Elizabeth into London in a 1910 painting by Byam Shaw
Jane Lumley, Baroness Lumley rode in a chariot during the Royal Entry, then aged around 16
Mary I, also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain and the Habsburg dominions as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, King Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.
Portrait by Antonis Mor, 1554
Catherine of Aragon, 1520, Mary's mother
Mary in 1522, at the time of her engagement to Emperor Charles V. She is aged 6 and wears a rectangular brooch inscribed "The Emperour".
Mary in 1544