Before My Accent to the Throne

     I was born September 7 1533. My father was Henry VIII. My mother was Anne Boleyn, his second wife. Henry VIII wrongly accused my mother of adultery because he had grown tired of her and she wouldn’t produce a son. Anne Boleyn was beheaded when I was just three years old and I was declared illegitimate. Even though my official status was just an illegitimate child of Henry VIII, I was raised as part of the royal family. I was granted an excellent education. I excelled in music and was fluent in Greek, Latin, French, Italian and Spanish. When my father died, I was third in line for the throne, my sickly brother Edward first, then Mary and finally myself.  I moved in with my step mother Catherine Parr. Tomas Seymour asked me to marry him but I said no because I wanted to wait until I was older, if I ever married at all. He married Catherine instead. It bothered me to have Mr. Seymour living in the same house as me. He harassed me and would come into my chambers early in the morning uninvited.

     Edward died of a sickness shortly after assuming the throne. Mary took over and tried to change the religion of England completely into Catholicism. There were several plots to dislodge Mary from the throne and place me on instead. In 1554, Sir Thomas Wyatt attempted to overthrow Mary. My sister suspected incorrectly that Sir Thomas was working with me against her. And I was put in the tower of London. He was caught and executed. Sir Thomas made an official statement before his death clearing my name of the treason suspected against me. Mary couldn’t prove that I had done anything wrong, but still was suspicious of me. I was put under genteel confinement at Woodstock House, where I stayed until Mary died November 17 1558 of an unknown sickness.