ladyoflancaster: Mary Tudor, Queen Dowager of France Mary was the youngest child of Henry VII of Eng
ladyoflancaster:Mary Tudor, Queen Dowager of FranceMary was the youngest child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York. She was born upon the 18th of March in the year 1496 at Richmond Palace. The final 6 years of her father’s reign was were talk and inquiries to pursuing a foreign match for the young princess. And for her father, it was a match between her and Charles Habsburg, the future King of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor. It was apart of the Burgundian English alliance Henry VII was pursuing. Her education seems quite decent enough, Jane Popincourt was employed as a tutor to teach both Mary and her sister Margaret French. So in addition to probably being able to read and write, Mary spoke French and Latin and learned how to embroider, dance, and play music. Mary grew to be a very beautiful woman, with waist length red golden hair, grey eyes, pale skin and she was tall. All these traits made her an attractive princess of the royal blood. However as often happens, Mary found herself marrying a different royal prince than Charles of Spain. on the 9th of October in the year 1514, Princess Mary was married to Louis XII of France. Mary was 18 and Louis was 53. The Princess was not pleased with her foreign marriage and before leaving to marry Louis, she made her royal brother promise her that if she wed Louis and then he died before she did, she would be allowed to choose her next marriage. Louis XII of France died on the 1st of January 1515, leaving Mary a widow. Mary soon quickly acted upon the promise she had gained from her brother and married the Duke of Suffolk, Charles Brandon on the 3rd of March. The couple were punished for the transgression and were fined. Mary ended up giving Charles at least four children, two of which lived well into adulthood. Frances Brandon and Eleanor Brandon. Mary also cared for Charles daughters from his previous marriage, Anne and Mary Brandon. After her marriage to Charles, it seems that Mary was away from court most of the time. Mary did support Katherine of Aragon during her brother’s attempts to annual their marriage. She died at the age of 37 on the 25th of June in 1533.Sources: several sources were used in the writing of this post. -- source link
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