This was her victory.
At last her cousin Jane Grey had been overthrown (as Mary had known from the very beginning she would be) and Mary could finally assume her rightful place as Queen of England.
As much as Mary longed to be the Queen of England at last, she had never expected it to happen. Her poor, sweet, misguided brother Edward.
Who would have known that at just 15 a previously healthy young King would die? If her father had known what was going to happen all those years ago when he began his quest to destroy the Catholic Church precisely to gain a male heir. He might not have bothered since now his only two remaining heirs to the English throne were women.
One was his true, legitimate eldest daughter, who had thought her turn would never come.
While the other was the girl who was never supposed to exist, never mind become Queen of England but now that possibility seemed much more likely.
But Mary's true triumph came a week after her coronation.
" People of England." Archbishop Gardiner announced. " The marriage of the Queen's parents, His Royal Majesty King Henry VIII and Her Royal Majesty Queen Katharine of Aragon has been declared legal and valid, by Parliament and the Catholic Church. Meaning that Her Majesty the Queen has always been the true and legitimate heir of good King Henry and Queen Katharine."
It was done.
Although Mary accepted that many in her country did not want a Catholic and a Queen on the throne the act had passed.
No one had contested it.
Not even Elizabeth.
At long last, she was legitimate again.
It was what had plagued her for most of her life, refusing to sign the oath until she collapsed under the intense pressure from Cromwell and her father and signed.
This declaration meant the world to her. It meant that in the eyes of the Catholic church, her cousin The Holy Roman Emperor and the other great Catholic powers of Europe she was legitimate and that the subsequent oath that she had made was made under duress.
Mary knew that her reign would be difficult. Even a week after her Coronation the Privy council was already pressuring her to find a husband. She was also faced with the difficult task of bringing a country that had been Protestant for so many years back to the one true church. As well as the even more difficult decision of what to do with her cousin Lady Jane Grey, her husband Guliford Dudley and her father-in-law John Dudley and the countless others who had plotted against her. She knew that John Dudley, at least would have to die.
And as much as she despised the man, Mary had to admit that she was loathe to kill anyone at all, never mind in the first few weeks of her reign. But, as her Privy Council constantly reminded her, all sovereigns have to crush rebellions during their reign or they will be otherthrown.
Above all, she must set a good example to her people.
But come what may during her reign, Mary's world was in balance once again.
They had recognized the eternal truth.
She was once again, after 20 years (although she had always been), the true heir to the throne and the first and only beloved daughter of King Henry and his one true wife, Queen Katharine of Aragon.
For whatever reason God had seen fit to take Edward from this world and somehow, somehow, she was now Queen of England, Ireland and France.
This was her birthright.
This was her destiny.
