| As the first female ruler in England,Queen Mary was faced with the problems of legal inheritance,the legitimacy of female rule and the civil unrest caused by her marriage with the Spanish prince Philip at the beginning of her reign.From these three crises,this paper discusses how Queen Mary deals with these challenges and how to establish the female authority of England successfully,and shape her own image in the process of dealing with it.The study of Queen Mary for Tudor female royal power provides a new perspective for the royal power of the Tudor Dynasty,thus broadens and deepens the investigation of the royal power,and enriches the exploration of political culture of this period.The first challenge Queen Mary faced after she came to power was the legality of succession to the throne.The question of Queen Mary's right of inheritance began with the divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon,and Princess Mary was forced to become a bastard.During the reign of Henry VIII,three acts of Succession to the throne and the testament of 1546 made Mary fall into the conflict of having the right of succession to the throne and keeping an illegal status at the same time,which directly led to letters patent issued by Edward VI to revoke Mary's right of inheritance and the outbreak of the war of succession in 1553.It lays a hidden danger for Mary's smooth succession to the throne.After defeating of the Duke of Northumberland in the war of succession in 1553,Mary succeeded as the queen of England.However,there are still many questions about the legitimacy of Queen Mary's succession.In order to deal with this crisis,Mary mainly adopted two strategies,firstly,the right of legal succession was confirmed by the Act of the Queen's Tittle,the act emphasized Mary's father Henry ?and her mother Catherine's marriage is legal and blessed by God.Emphasize Mary's legitimate status as a married child,so as to prove that it is legal for Queen Mary to inherit the throne.Secondly,the use of public propaganda,through shaping the image of military leaders,highlighting the ceremony of entering the city and other ceremonies to strengthen the English people's recognition of the legitimacy of the Queen's succession to the throne.The second challenge that Queen Mary faces during her reign is the general doubt on the legitimacy of female rule in traditional society.In the 16th century,influenced by the traditional idea that men are superior to women,people thought that women are frail,cowardly and irrational compared with men.Women are the second-class gender,and women should completely obey the rule of men.And in the Tudor era,which took"order" seriously,there was a strong reaction for women to take charge of political authority,because female rule violated not only normal gender relations but also normal political order.That's the reason why most people at that time held a negative attitude towards the female rule of the country.especially the Protestants lashed out at the rule of Queen Mary.In order to solve the question of the legitimacy of gynecocracy,Queen Mary mainly adopted the strategy of public opinion propaganda,which cooperated with text propaganda and ceremony rituals to strengthen the legitimacy of her rule.In terms of textual publicity,Mary's government funded the publication of works by Catholics who cited classics to defend Queen Mary's rule and rationalize women's rule.Meanwhile,through various ceremonies and rituals in public,such as anointing coronation,royal touch healing and so on,it emphasizes the divine right of monarchy,emphasizes Queen Mary is the ruler chosen by God to work for the well-being of the people of England on behalf of God,highlights the divinity and legitimacy of the Queen.Queen Mary's marriage crisis is the third serious challenge in the course of Mary's reign.Marriage has always been very important to the royals of various countries,and the problem becomes more difficult when the queen,who has the right to rule a country,is faced with a marriage choice than the male ruler.In addition to the imbalance between the traditional gender roles in the family and the state after the Queen's marriage,the choice of marriage object has become a big problem.Whether the queen marries with a native or a foreigner,it will bring a lot of troubles.In 1554,as soon as the news of Mary's decision to marry Philip of Spain broke out,the rebellion against Anglo-Spanish marriage led by Thomas Wyatt broke out.which was the biggest ruling crisis of Mary's reign.After pacifying the Wyatt rebellion,Mary,in order to stabilize the hearts and minds of the British people and stabilize her internal affairs,on the one hand,passed the Act for the Queen's Regal Power and the Act of Queen's Marriage in 1554 to determine that Mary was the only queen of England and enjoyed the sole dominion.Philip's power in Britain was greatly limited and Philip was excluded from British political affairs.On the other hand,a variety of ways are used in public,such as rituals and political language to shape the image that the status of the Queen is higher than that of Philip and the Queen,making it clear that Queen Mary is the sole and supreme ruler of England.To sum up,Mary I,the first female ruler of England,established female political authority in the traditional male-dominated society by means of Parliament legislation and public propaganda,completed the shaping of the female monarch image,established the Queen's exclusive status,and provided reference for the later female monarchy in England.In addition,in the study of Queen Mary's rule,we can also see the interaction and game among ideas,religious factions,parliamentary power and royal power in early modern England,so as to further deepen the understanding of female politics and Tudor political culture. |
PDF Full Text Request