Queen Mary II Committed History’s Most Infamous Betrayal D
just a few short years into Queen Mary II’s controversial Reign disaster suddenly struck though in the prime of her life Mary woke up one morning looked in the mirror and discovered a horrifying sight her worst nightmare had come true Mary II got very lucky when she was born Not only was her Uncle Charles II the current King of England but her own father James was next in line for the throne this meant her childhood was full to the brim with fet feasts and everything a little princess could ever want yet despite this luxury there was rot at the heart of Mary’s family Mary’s mother and Hyde knew she had to do her Duty as a royal wife and she gave birth to an incredible eight children over the course of her marriage tragically however times were rough during the 17th
century and only Mary and her younger sister Anne survived childhood though Mary II grew up surrounded by death she was about to receive the real blow of her young life before Mary was even 10 years old she experienced every child’s worst nightmare her poor mother Anne after Decades of near incessant pregnancy succumbed to breast cancer shortly after giving birth to yet another child who who didn’t survive infancy yeah that one sentence pretty much sums up why being a woman in the restoration was a load of hot garbage and while the vulnerable Mary II mourned her mother deeply her passing had other huge consequences although Mary’s Uncle Charles was the reigning King he had no other heirs translation all of his
attention was on Mary with no mother around to protect her this was a very bad thing Charles controlled almost every aspect of Mary’s life forcing both her and her sister an to become Anglican even though their parents were both Catholic and making them live entirely apart from their family just to make sure as we’ll see this tragic childhood would have major major consequences for Mary II but for right now she had more immediate heartbreak on the way just 2 years after her mother’s passing Mary II got the shock of her life her Father James still hoping there was time to pop out a male heir to supplant his daughters quickly remarried he chose the Catholic Maria of modana as his new bride a beautiful Italian Aristocrat who was utterly devoted to
him but there were two extremely awkward issues with this [Music] see Mary’s new stepmother was big trouble for the English Court the Anglican Powers hated that Maria of modana was Catholic particularly since James was next in line for the throne but this especially bothered our girl Mary who had been fully indoctrinated by her isolated lonely upbringing now as a devout Anglican she deeply disapproved of her dad’s second wife only issue number two was the real doozy when Mary II’s Father James was scouting Europe for a new wife he must have had one consideration in mind long-term fertility because when the princess’s stepmother arrived on the scene she was only 15 years old just a mere 4 years older than Mary realistically the two women could have
been Playmates but behind the scenes Mary II was doing some very adult things herself starting from when she was only 9 years old Mary II started up a scandalous correspondence after making friends with Francis apsley the young daughter of courtier the princess began writing letters to a girl and not just any letters the missives were fiery and passionate with Mary giving herself the name Mary chlorine and abs the name aelia then as time wore on the letters went from intense to alarming eventually Mary the second so clearly idolized Francis that the other girl began to feel their correspondence was inappropriate and started to reply back in a more normal distant manner to this day historians are divided about the nature of their relationship and
some may have believed Mary harbored deep romantic feelings for the girl in any case she still kept writing to Francis until her life took a Twist that shook her to her core before Mary was even 15 years old the men in her family began looking for a potential Suitor for her after all as a princess of England and a current heir to the throne what else was she going to do with her life except get married and have babies at first it looked like Mary’s husband was going to the oldest son of King Louie the 14th of France at least if her Uncle Charles II had anything to say about it instead a much stranger Choice emerged before long everyone was eyeing up Prince William of Orange the stat holder of Holland as Mary’s new bow not
that he was any Prince Charming though Protestant like Mary William also happened to be 11 years older than her only interested in the power the match would gain him and he was her cousin to boot still Mary’s father and Uncle didn’t seem to mind these hurdles but as for what Mary thought her response was Infamous at the time Mary was still crushing hard on Francis apsley so when her Father James told not asked his daughter that she was going to marry some random Old Dutch dude Mary almost burst immediately into tears and she didn’t stop reportedly she wept all that afternoon and the following day again thank God we’re not women in the restoration unfortunately for poor Mary it was about to get a whole lot
worse Mary’s wedding day on November 4 1677 was a dark one for the naive princess according to even more reports she wept throughout the ceremony having still not have come to terms with the fact that she was now some stranger’s wife when her aunt tried to comfort her by saying when I came to England I had not even seen the king Mary snaap back in reference to her new Dutch Destiny Madame you came into England but I am going out of England then it went from sad to excruciating get ready for some more bizarre restoration practices because after Mary II’s wedding came her public bedding ceremony Yep this was where a room of people were supposed to lead the Newly Weds to the marriage bed and then often watch them consummate the union
look I know that sounds incredibly awful but in practice it was even more horrific than it sounds although public beddings were a big thing in an age obsessed with making sure women had legitimate male heirs Mary’s was more ridiculous than most practically her entire family attended the ceremony and her uncle King Charles II even drew the bed curtains encouraging Mary’s new husband William to lay her down and get going as a monarch put it so eloquently now nephew to your work hey St George for England and as it happened the ritual was a little too successful our poor Mary II could never catch a break besides enduring a nightmare Journey over to her new home in Holland the English princess quickly
discovered her pregnancy just months after her marriage yes she was barely out of childhood herself and now she was carrying a child although she must have been terrified about her future her husband William did not help matters Mary II already spent so much of her life in near isolation and moving halfway across Europe to Holland certainly didn’t solve her problems she was alone there most of the time too since William was frequently away on Military campaigns it got so bad that even Mary’s family never the most affectionate started thinking William as a cold fish nonetheless eager to connect with her husband a pregnant Mary made the effort to visit him while he was in the city of breida little did she know she
was walking into an ordeal from which she could never recover while in Brea Mary the second realized something was seriously wrong she suffered a violent miscarriage of her baby kicking off a period of intense illness over the next couple of years indeed many historians believe that this first miscarriage went so ay it rendered her permanently infertile whatever the truth Mary was crestfallen over the loss of her child and her continued inability to Bear William a son it was a brutal loss of innocence and in hindsight it explains why Mary II suddenly began to show her rebellious Street [Music] by the 1680s both William and Mary were well aware that her uncle King Charles II was getting old and that her Father James was poised to become
king in February 1685 when Mary II was just 23 years old King Charles II did indeed die making her father King James II and Mary officially the heir presumptive to the English throne as a cucumber Mary was playing a game of cards when her husband William came into the room and told her she was this close to the crown Nothing Was the Same Again from almost the moment her father became king Mary II transformed from daughter to rival she hated practically everything her father did as Monarch and she could hardly believe that one of his first acts was to Grant religious freedoms to some of his Catholic and non-anglican Friends Mary thought this was downright illegal and even wrote to the Archbishop
of Canterbury to complain ooh but Daddy struck back James and Mary had never been particularly close as she grew up and the cracks between father and daughter were starting to show in a big way annoyed at his daughter’s attempts to undermine him James started to attack her marriage he wasn’t subtle about it either soon enough James was claiming that Mary’s husband William was cheating on her and none other than with one of the ladies in Waiting Elizabeth V Mary didn’t handle this well by this point Mary had grown very fond of the husband she once despised and she was a Gass at and disbelieving of her father mother’s Petty Whispers nonetheless she couldn’t get them out of her head and decided to see
for herself one evening she posted up at Elizabeth V’s bed chamber at an ungodly late hour to see if she would catch William creeping out she didn’t have to wait long to find out the truth as Mary kept a jealous eye on Elizabeth’s store she witnessed a hard breaking sight her husband William slowly made his way out beside herself a furious Mary confronted William and laid into him about his good Forno ways of course the prince dauntly denied that there was any kind of affair going on between them and Mary actually believed him although she forgave she definitely didn’t forget good Christian that she was Mary really did move on from this episode although it was only after she got a
certain Revenge just in case there was any truth to the rumors Mary fired her whole staff including the offending lady in waiting Elizabeth Villers and sent them packing back to England if she thought that this was the last of her father’s intrigues he quickly proved her very wrong then everything came to an Infamous head in 1688 Mary’s stepmother Maria of Modena gave birth at last to a healthy male Heir James Francis who would certainly be raised Catholic the thought of a Catholic successor threw much of England into a tail spin but Mary herself Was Out For Blood people were so angry about the birth they started saying someone must have snuck the boy in a via a
warming pan to hide the fact that Maria of modana had really had yet another stillborn child moreover the biggest proponent of the swarming pan baby conspiracy was none other than our girl Mary who was convinced her baby brother wasn’t really her brother so she took matters into her own hands over the next months Mary II and her husband plotted one of the most notorious betrayals in the anals of English History and it was Mary who had convinced William to take up the call since she was the real ays to the English Throne William was worried about her upstaging him like a true lady McBeth Mary soothed his ego told him she would be his rightand woman and promised
to do all that lay in her power to make him King for life yet also like lady McBeth the road she was going down had a Mighty High toll in November 1688 Mary completed her treachery that month Williams forces lay hand in England and all two easily routed the English in what everyone soon called the Glorious Revolution in another month her Father James fled to France with his tail between his legs abandoning his kingdom and leaving his daughter to her bloody spoils the deed was finally done and as soon Mary discovered it could not be undone when Mary heard of her father’s disgrace she didn’t feel triumphant instead lingering guilt began creeping in that slowly but surely would eat her up until her dying days
although she insisted that she only wanted to pivotally save church and state she knew she had desecrated the Commandment honor thy father so as she traveled to England to collect her crown alongside William she spoke of how my father’s misfortunes dashed her secret joy and as it happened her father had one final knife to twist in her side as Mary and William finagled with the English Parliament to Stage a coronation James watched enviously and bitterly from France then he dealt his daughter a cruel blow the UR while King wrote her a nasty rant about how she was an ungrateful disloyal daughter further driving Mary into guilt when she should have been basking in her and her husband’s Glory not that her first impression on the English people went well
when Mary and William entered London for the first time after their Glorious Revolution Maria was so distraught about her father that William had to order her to be cheerful however many including her sister Anne’s friend Sarah Churchill thought she was too cheerful for an Unfaithful daughter and they criticized her for being a stone cold witch in April 1689 the fruit of of all Mary’s drivings finally came to bear when she and William were jointly crowned king and queen of England in Westminster Abbey it was nothing like she expected for one the Archbishop of canterburry refused to perform the coronation because of the couple’s Invasion for another Mary thought the ceremony was all vanity and while William thought it was popish
still Mary had now achieved everything she had ever wanted so why did it all go so wrong in 1694 Mary contracted the dreaded small poox her reaction was Swift and brutal taking the pragmatic perspective she dismissed absolutely everyone who didn’t have any immunity from her presence hoping to contain the illness she even hoped to recover she was after all only 32 years old and had all the doctor’s money could buy tragically that’s not what had happened just days into Mary’s bout with small poox something miraculous seemed to happen the small poox lesian on her skin disappeared leaving her face smooth of Pock Mark in The Telltale way Mary also felt better and began to believe that she’d actually had the less fatal
measles this entire time fate however had one more cruel twist in store little did Mary know she was indeed suffering from small boox and at an extremely lethal case at that The Disappearance of the marks was actually the disease turning Inward and attacking her on a deeper level after the brief reprieve the queen fell sicker than ever and on December 28th 1694 she passed barely into her third ities after Mary passed her journals revealed a heartbreaking truth she believed that the trials of the later part of her life according to Mary it was divine punishment for her sin and participating in the Glorious Revolution and overthrowing her own father and she wasn’t the only one Mary’s Legacy is still muddled and modern historians
continue to parse through what it means she spoke that truth when she told her husband she wasn’t after power but she still did a dang good job as Queen with Mary’s tumultuous life it’s fitting that her mother and father named her after another dramatic Queen Mary Queen of Scots
