Mary

Mary, name of 2 English queens. Mary I (1516–58), daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, succeeded Edward VI in 1553. She strove to restore Roman Catholicism in England. Some 300 Protestants were burnt as heretics—a persecution unparalleled in England, which earned her the name “Bloody Mary.” Her unpopular alliance with and marriage to Philip II of Spain (1554) led to war with France and the loss of Calais (1558). Mary II (1662–94) was the Protestant daughter of James II and the wife (1677) of her cousin William of Orange, the Protestant ruler of the Netherlands. She helped found the College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1693. In the Glorious Revolution of 1688, William's forces attacked England, causing James to flee. Mary II was proclaimed joint sovereign with William in 1689.