Bloody Mary? The reign and reputation of Mary I

Transcription

1 Bloody Mary? The reign and reputation of Mary I Start date 29 August 2014 End date 31 August 2014 Venue Madingley Hall Madingley Cambridge Tutor Dr Ceri Law Course code 1415NRX008 Director of Programmes For further information on this course, please contact Emma Jennings Linda Fisher, Academic Programme Manager on Liz Deacon, Programme Administrator on To book See: or telephone Tutor biography Ceri Law recently completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge on sixteenth-century English religious history, and is currently working for the School of History, Queen Mary, as a Teaching Fellow, lecturing and teaching on a range of undergraduate courses on early modern Britain and Europe. Her research interests include the social impact of doctrinal change in the early modern period, and the nature and implications of reluctant religious conformity.

2 Course programme Friday 29 August 2014 Please plan to arrive between 16:30 and 18:30. You can meet other course members in the bar which opens at 18:15. Tea and coffee making facilities are available in the study bedrooms. 19:00 Dinner 20:30 22:00 Introduction: the reputation of Mary Tudor This session will begin with a brief general overview of the reign of Mary Tudor, and her long-standing reputation as Bloody Mary. We ll look together at a number of assessments of Mary, ranging from her contemporaries to the present, and begin to question why views on her have differed so dramatically. 22:00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion Saturday 30 August :30 Breakfast 09:00 10:30 Making it to the throne 10:30 Coffee Mary I did not have an easy path to the throne: the inconstancy of her father, Henry VIII, made her childhood turbulent, and she only eventually became queen after struggling with those who wanted to see Lady Jane Grey, not Mary, on the throne. In this session we will consider Mary s accession, and the implications it had for the rest of her reign. 11:00 12:30 The Marian state: government, war and finance 13:00 Lunch 14:00 16:00 Free 16:00 16:30 Tea Mary s government has frequently been seen as domestically inefficient and militarily disastrous. Here we ll look at some of the details of Mary s regime and its operation over the five years of her reign, then make our own assessments of its achievements and errors. 16:30 18:00 The aims and course of Mary s religious policy Religious policy is probably the single most controversial feature of Mary s reign. We ll consider Mary s restoration of Catholicism in England: what were her religious aims? How were these brought about? How successful was her religious policy? Was it ever realistic to imagine that England could be a Catholic country once again?

3 18:00 18:30 Free 18:30 20:00 Dinner 20:00 21:30 Burnings and persecutions After considering the aims of Marian religious policy earlier in the afternoon, in this session we ll turn to the most infamous aspect of this: the persecution and execution of Protestant dissidents. It is from this campaign that Mary gained the nickname of Bloody Mary, and it is frequently seen as the defining feature of her rule. Looking at this one aspect of her rule in more detail will thus help students decide for themselves how far this reputation is deserved. 21:30 Terrace bar open for informal discussion Sunday 31 August :30 Breakfast 09:00 10:30 The problems of a queen: marriage, succession and image 10:30 Coffee As the first woman to rule England alone and uncontested, Mary faced some unique problems. Marriage, the continuation of the dynasty, and the issue of how to present yourself as a monarch were all more difficult for a queen than a king. We ll consider these problems, and how far her gender affected both Mary s rule and historians opinions on it. 11:00 12:30 Conclusion: evaluating Bloody Mary 12:45 Lunch We ll end by reflecting on the issues raised by this course, and by discussing how far Mary s reputation seems to be deserved. Particularly close attention will be paid to how far our understanding of Marian England has been distorted by the biases of later generations, allowing students to decide for themselves: has history done Mary I a disservice? The course will disperse after lunch

4 Course syllabus Aims: 1. To consider and discuss the major events and themes of the reign of Mary I. 2. To assess and compare various opinions on Mary, and for students to evaluate them against their understanding of the period. 3. To analyse how far later preoccupations have shaped Mary s historical reputation. Content: This course will consider various aspects of the reign of Mary I, and evaluate how far these seem to support her historical reputation as Bloody Mary. After beginning with an overview of that reputation, and how it has changed through time, we ll then spend the remaining sessions looking at several key themes of the period: the start of the reign, and Mary s struggle for the throne; Marian government and her domestic and foreign policies; the religious and spiritual aspects of this regime (including an in-depth study of the infamous Marian persecution); and royal marriage and succession, and the accompanying problems that inevitably faced an early modern queen. Across the weekend we will thus be analysing and evaluating the aims and achievements of Mary I and her government. By the end students will therefore be able to form their own conclusions, and to decide for themselves the answer to the central question of this course: is Mary s poor historical reputation unfair? Presentation of the course: This course will be taught through a mixture of presentations by the tutor and class discussions. Outcomes: As a result of the course, within the constraints of the time available, students should be able to: 1. Develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of the reign of Mary I. 2. Analyse Mary s historical reputation, and evaluate how far they believe it to be supported by the events and evidence of the period itself.

5 Reading and resources list Listed below are a number of texts that might be of interest for future reference, but do not need to be bought (or consulted) for the course. Author Title Publisher and date David Loades The reign of Mary Tudor Routledge, 1991 Susan Doran and Tom Freeman Mary Tudor: old and new perspectives Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 Robert Tittler The reign of Mary I Longman, 1991 Judith M. Richards Mary Tudor Routledge, 2008 Anna Whitelock Mary Tudor: England s first queen Bloomsbury, 2010 Eamon Duffy Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary Tudor Yale University Press, 2010 Note Students of the Institute of Continuing Education are entitled to 20% discount on books published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) which are purchased at the Press bookshop, 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge (Mon-Sat 9am 5:30pm, Sun 11am 5pm). A letter or confirming acceptance on to a current Institute course should be taken as evidence of enrolment. Information correct as of: 04 August 2014