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Henry VIII's Sister Mary Tudor, Queen of France, Had a Love Life Almost As Scandalous As Her Brother

Photo credit: Hearst Owned
Photo credit: Hearst Owned

From Town & Country

Whether for good or ill, there's no denying that King Henry VIII was one of England's most influential monarchs. His reign would lead the country into the Reformation, establish the Church of England, and ultimately lead to the history-making rules of his two daughters, Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I. So perhaps its no surprise that with so many seismic shifts of power surrounding the man himself, Henry VIII's siblings have gotten less of the historical limelight.

But Henry did have siblings who survived infancy, three of them in fact; his older brother, Arthur, whose death at age 15 led Henry to become heir to the throne; his older sister Margaret, wife of James IV of Scotland and grandmother of Mary, Queen of Scots; and his baby sister, Mary, the former Queen of France whose secret marriage proved that Henry VIII wasn't the only Tudor who could live life like a period drama.

She was betrothed twice.

Not to be confused with her niece, Mary I of England, Mary Tudor was the youngest surviving child of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Born in 1495 or 1496 (there is some scholarly debate on about the year, though 1496 is thought to be more likely) Mary was a beautiful girl, traditionally educated in French, Latin, embroidery, dancing, and music.

As a child, her father promised her hand in marriage to Charles of Castile, later to become Holy Roman emperor Charles V and the nephew of Henry VIII's first wife Catherine of Aragon. However, following Henry VII's death in 1509, Mary's brother Henry, now on the throne, decided that betrothing his sister to the king of France would be more politically advantageous. In 1514 he renounced the original match and agreed to have the teenaged Mary wed France's 52 year old King Louis XII. The wedding took place on October 9 of that year, making Mary Louis's third wife and the reigning Queen of France. The drama, however, was just getting started.

Photo credit: Hulton Archive - Getty Images
Photo credit: Hulton Archive - Getty Images

She secretly married Henry VIII's best friend.

Before her marriage to Louis XII, Mary extracted a promise from her brother that if the French king should die before her, she would be free to marry a man of her choosing. Though it's not entirely clear if her was already in love with someone else, it wasn't long after Louis XII's death on New Year's Day 1515, not quite three months since their wedding, that her eye settled on Henry's closest friend, Charles Brandon, 1st duke of Suffolk.

Brandon, who had only been granted his duchy a year previous by Henry VIII, was sent to France following the king's death as an ambassador for Henry VIII's court, tacitly to offer his congratulations Louis's successor, Francis I. As for his real mission sources differ whether Brandon was really meant to retrieve Henry's beloved little sister or to promote a new marriage for the young widow. Whatever his original intentions, Mary and Brandon married in a secret ceremony while still in France mere weeks after her husband's death.

Henry VIII was infuriated by the affair—not only did the marriage eliminate Mary's value for political negotiations but by marrying the sister of the sovereign without his permission, Brandon had broken royal protocol and tradition. Some of Brandon's enemies at court went so far as to call the marriage an act of treason and called for the nobleman's head. Nonetheless after the couple returned to England Brandon was able to progressively work his way back into the king's good graces, in part by tithing him a large sum of money along, possibly, with the aid of Henry's then-trusted advisor Cardinal Wolsey.

Photo credit: Christophel Fine Art - Getty Images
Photo credit: Christophel Fine Art - Getty Images

Her granddaughter almost became Queen of England.

Mary lived in England with Charles Brandon for the remainder of her life, bearing him four children before she passed away in 1533 at the age of 37. But the crown wasn't quite done with Mary's branch of the family tree just yet—while she herself had served as queen of France for a matter of weeks, one of her descendants would cut their rule even shorter.

After the death of Henry VIII, the rule of England passed to his nine year old son, Edward VI. Edward himself passed away a few years later at the age of 15, but in the months before his death, the heirless king drafted a will renouncing his half sisters Mary I and Elizabeth I (both of whom had been declared illegitimate during Henry VIII's rule but remained in the line of succession following the Third Succession Act of 1543) and naming his cousin Lady Jane Grey, granddaughter of Mary Tudor, and her male heirs as next in line for the throne. Following Edward's death, Jane was briefly hailed as the future queen, but political support for Mary I quickly turned the tide and Jane was imprisoned and executed for treason a year later, remembered by history as "The Nine Days Queen."

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