Mary I of England, also known as Mary Tudor and as Bloody Mary for her ruthless persecution of the Protestant population of England, was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. She was mostly neglected through her childhood, as Henry was desperate for a male heir and showed little care or affection towards his daughters. At the age of nine, she was sent to preside over Wales (in name only) with her own court and had limited interactions with her father until his death. Her hatred for her father was further fuelled by the fact that, in the later years of her adolescence, he would not even permit her to see her mother, who became gravely ill and eventually died in 1536, leaving Mary inconsolable.
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