Bloody Mary

"This historical biography reads like the liveliest fiction" with an "utterly fascinating" portrait of the legendary queen and her world (Chicago Tribune).

Here is the tragic, stormy life of Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Her story is a chronicle of courage and faith, betrayal and treachery—all set amidst the splendor, pageantry, squalor, and intrigue of sixteenth-century Europe.


The history of Mary Tudor is an improbable blend of triumph, humiliation, heartbreak, and devotion. In Bloody Mary, historian Carolly Erickson recounts it all against the turbulent background of European politics, war, and religious strife of the mid-1500s. The result is a rare portrait of the times and of a woman elevated to unprecedented power in a world ruled and defined by men.