Michael’s Reviews > The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy > Status Update

Death of Queen Mary, aka "Bloody Mary".

Death of Queen Mary, aka "Bloody Mary".

Poor rule was rarely portrayed as sufficient justification for dethronement in the later Middle Ages. Who was to say what poor rule was, or when it occurred, or how far it was safe to go in correcting it?

Notoriously cruel, suspicious, untrustworthy, and violent, [King] John's reputation is not salvaged by an alleged constructive interest in administration or by assertions that contemporary writers were monks who resented his treatment of the Church....