I have danced around the story of Mary Tudor, oldest daughter of Henry VIII, for far too long. It's finally time to recognize Mary with her own episode, the perfect story to wrap up Women's History Month. This is a tragic story. The lot cast upon Mary was often cruel and unjust, her life marred by trauma and heartache. But it's also a story of triumph, an underdog rising up, overcoming insurmountable challenges to claim her rightful place as England's first ever queen regnant. Despite being villainized by history ever since, cast as "Bloody Mary," the stuff of childhood urban legends and sleepover games, Mary was no more evil than her father and brother who came before her or her sister, Elizabeth I, who came after her. So what happened? Why has the myth of "Bloody Mary" persisted for so long and who was Mary Tudor, Queen Mary I, really? Let's fix that.

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Sources:

• Royal Museums Greenwich "Why is Mary I Known As 'Bloody Mary?'"
• History Extra "The lost heirs of Henry VIII"
• Smithsonian Magazine "The Myth of Bloody Mary"
• History.com "What Inspired Queen 'Bloody' Mary's Gruesome Nickname?"
• The Fitzwilliam Museum "Mary Tudor"
• Tudor Extra "The Illness, Death, and Burial of Mary I"
• Wikipedia "Mary I of England"
• Wikipedia "The Education of a Christian Woman"

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