The First Queen of England: The Myth of "Bloody Mary" -- Linda Porter, c. 2007.

The First Queen of England: The Myth of "Bloody Mary" -- Linda Porter, c. 2007. BMAR.

This is an incredibly good book. It was this book that suggested to me to start a library of British royalty, with a limited bookshelf, only one book for each king / queen -- and, thus, of course, the "best" book. For Queen Mary this would be the book though it might be interesting to read Alison Weir's biography of Queen Mary 1. 

So, Mary 1, dies in 1558 and Elizabeth assumes the throne, and rules for about 45 years.

• Sir Henry Neville: 1564 - 1615.
• William Shakespeare: 1564 - 1616.
• plays: first played in London by 1592 and wrote his final plays just a couple of years before his death, in 1616; link here.

Part 1: The Tudor Rose, 1516 - 1528

 Henry VIII and first wife. Birth to Katherine of Aragon. Ferdinand and Isabella. Pre-teen, sent to Marches of Wales. Age 16 -- newcomer appears -- one of Katherine's entourage: Anne Boleyn. Changes everything.

Part II: The Rejected Princess, 1528 - 1547

1525.
Henry VIII: 34 years old
Katherine: 40 years old; only one surviving child, a female, Mary; would never have another child; wife of 18 years;
Mary: their only daughter, 9 years old

Henry VIII: ready to move on.
if it had not been Anne Boleyn, it would have been someone else
Anne: mid-20s -- sexy
turned down Henry; made him even more in love with her;

Anne Boleyn -- the future step-mom and Mary -- the future step-daughter became mortal enemies -- and then came Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, LOL.

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Queen Mary: The First Queen Of England

Linda Porter, c. 1995, p. 401:

Disease was stalking Mary's kingdom. In 1557, Charles Wriothesley wrote in his Chornicle:

'This summer reigned in England diverse strange and new sicknesses, taking men and women in their heads; as strange agues and fevers, whereof many died.'

In the countryside and in the towns people began to fall ill with unexplained fevers and a general malaise that sapped their strength, often over a long period of time.

Death was not always sudden, but for many it was inseparable.

During the summer of 1558, the situation deteriorated, accelerating to produce the greatest mortality crisis off the 16th century.

The result was a demographic disaster of huge proportions, with nearly 40 per cent of the country affected.

In 1558 / 1559, the number of deaths reported was 124 per cent above the national average. Burials exceeded baptisms in parish registers almost everywhere.

Among the major towns of England, only Hull and Shrewsbury were not severely affected. The situation grew worse as the summer gave way to autumn. In the fields the harvest lay ungathered:

'Much corn was lost .. for lack off workmen and labourers;"

... affected, more than half the people in Portsmouth, Southampton and the island (Isle of Wight), itself
... a month later, in Dover, people arriving from Calais dying daily
... the epidemic came after a year of good harvests and was particularly deadly among the well-nourished ruling class. This points to it being a new type of virus, probably related to influenze
... it was certainly not the plague, whose symptoms were well known and recognizsed, nor does it seem to have been an outbreak of the sweating sickness, which had last visited England in 1551 ... sweating sickness, also, most likely viral
... chief among the victims of that terrible ear: Cardinal Pole and Queen Mary herself.

Well read infectious disease scientists, like Tony Fauci, were very, very aware of these regional and global epidemics, and the fact that "we" still had no specific cure for viral diseases, like the antibiotics we have for bacterial disease. 

The more one reads ... well, if you know, you know.

Epilogue:

Reginald Pole (12 March 1500 – 17 November 1558) was an English cardinal of the Catholic Church and the last Catholic archbishop of Canterbury, holding the office from 1556 to 1558, during the Counter-Reformation. Died of the same viral disease as Queen Mary, about twelve hours later.