'Bloody' Mary II

Mary Tudor loved her father Henry VIII. Her earliest memories were of a devoted, doting father - a father who delighted in freeing his little girl from her hairnet, revealing to all a cascade of silver-blonde hair tumbling down her back. Not only was Mary a pretty child, she was also known to be very bright. 'Priest,' she said at two, pointing to a musician who was also a cleric. When we remember Mary's future aspirations, her first historically documented word can be considered quite apt and prophetic.

Mary's education was all one could expect for a princess born during the Renaissance. Just as Isabella and Ferninard -the parents of Catherine of Aragon - found for their children the best tutors in their dominions, Catherine of Aragon ensured the very same for her only surviving child. Regarding Mary as the heir to her father's kingdom, Catherine, no doubt, would have remembered the stories of how unprepared her own mother had been when she ascended the Castilian throne. Inheriting the throne after the death of her half -brother, Isabella of Spain did not fail her four daughters as her own parents had her, leaving her to learn Latin- the language of diplomacy- as queen and adult.

And good thing too.

Catherine's intelligence was something never in doubt. Betrothed to Arthur Tudor by the time she was three, her parents educated Catherine to be not only a fit consort to a King but also able to take on the mantle of a Queen. Indeed, during the early years of her marriage to Henry Tudor, the English court had a reputation for learning as well as piety, probably stemming greatly from the Queen's encouragement of her husband's better traits as well as her very own nature.

In the golden glow of these first years of Henry's reign - when his subjects gloried in their handsome, noble King, possessing thighs nobly proportioned - scholars of high repute visited his court freely and Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia. These were also the years when a young King - forgetful of his hunts for a time- laboured to write a book defending the papacy. The book earned him the pope's hard won gratitude and the award of a title: 'Defender of the faith,' a title still used by the British royal family today.

Mary -during these same golden years - spent her childhood learning Latin, French, Spanish and Italian from respected scholars, studying contemporary works from intellectuals such as William Lilly. Not as a renowned linguist as her younger sister Elizabeth would one day be, nevertheless, she spoke fluently the first three languages while Italian she could read and understand if spoken. Mary- also like her younger sister- loved to dance and inherited some of the musical gifts of her father, being very accomplished on the spinet.

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