The Writing Desk: Death of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk and Queen of France

25 June 2022

Death of Mary Tudor, Duchess of Suffolk and Queen of France

I was inspired to learn about the life of henry VIII's little sister, Mary Tudor, after I researched her birth and early life for my book, Henry – Book Three of the Tudor Trilogy. In the trilogy I’d moved forward one generation with each book, so it appealed to me to write a ‘sequel’ which did the same. I’d become intrigued with Mary’s story of how she risked everything to defy her brother when he became King Henry VIII.

I discoverd a fascinating book, The French Queen's Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Europe (Queenship and Power) by Erin Sadlack, which includes all Mary’s surviving letters, many with replies, as well as an insightful analysis of her state of mind at the time.

I wanted to explore Mary’s vulnerability as well as her strengths, and to understand he she felt when her brother, King Henry VIII, broke off her engagement to young Prince Charles, future Emperor of Rome, to marry her off to the fifty-two-year-old King Louis XII of France. Although Mary was barely eighteen at the time, Henry saw his younger sister as a small price to pay for a treaty with France.

I enjoyed untangling the many myths about what happened next, from causing the death of King Louis with her ‘passionate exertions’ to her dying of ‘grief at her brother’s divorce from her friend Catherine of Aragon.’ I also had the benefit of knowing a great deal about the people and places of Mary’s world.

The difficulties came when I had to show Mary’s struggles with the dangers of medieval childbirth. I was present at my daughter’s and my son’s births, and there are plenty of historical accounts to draw from, but I believe only a woman can fully understand how it feels to bring a new life into the world.

Mary suffered from a recurring illness throughout her life, and died aged only thirty seven years old, at Westhorpe Hall in Suffolk, on the 25th of June 1533, having never fully recovered from catching the sweating sickness she caught five years before.

The companion book to Mary - Tudor Princess, tells the story of Mary Tudor's husband, Charles Brandon, who was King Henry VIII's lifelong friend. Brandon - Tudor Knight, as well as the story of Brandon's last wife, Katherine Willoughby, Katherine - Tudor Duchess, are available on Amazon as the Brandon trilogy.

Tony Riches