Posted by Janet
on 1/11/2009, 1:40:06, in reply to "Re: In life Mary was a liability…."
Unlike her sister Mary. Elizabeth did not feel the need to validate her parents’ marriage, even though legally she remained the illegitimate child of Henry VIII, she was able to succeed based on Henry’s will which set out the succession and allowed his illegitimate daughters Mary and Elizabeth to succeed their legitimate brother.
Whereas Queen Mary had a rather easy task of restoring her mother’s reputation, Catherine of Aragon was one of the most beloved of all English Queens, Elizabeth was also probably aware that her mother’s reputation was at that time at least beyond repair, Anne was widely hated in her own lifetime, very few people were saddened by her demise and Elizabeth would likely have had little knowledge of her mother, as discussing Anne Boleyn was very controversial at court. In those superstitious times she was widely believed to have been a witch, it would not have been beneficial to Elizabeth’s own image to remind people who her mother was.
It seems for Elizabeth, the past was best left alone. It is interesting however that throughout her reign Elizabeth displayed patronage on her cousins, the children of Mary Boleyn.
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