Mary Tudor

Mary Tudor appears in the novel not as a present-day character but as a ruler remembered through Thomas Woolgar’s account of sixteenth-century religious conflict. In Thomas Woolgar’s Chronicle Manuscript, her reign supplies the political and religious setting for the proceedings against Einor, and her name becomes part of the uncertainty surrounding Einor’s final curse.

Identity and Historical Setting

Thomas’s narrative associates Mary Tudor with the brief Catholic reign that followed the Protestant rule of Edward VI. It describes her as a queen who favored Thomas’s father, Sir John Woolgar, for his loyalty to the Catholic Church. The manuscript also places her rule within a period of persecution: Thomas claims that two hundred or more heretics had already been burned, and recalls witnessing two such executions near Lewes. These details are presented through his retrospective testimony, rather than through a scene in which Mary herself appears.

The broader history of the Woolgar family is set against changing religious authority. After Henry VIII granted Stapley Manor and its estate to Richard Staffon, the property later passed to Sir John Woolgar as a reward for his service to the Catholic Church during Henry’s reign. Thomas’s account then describes Sir John as favored under Mary Tudor. The succession of rulers and transfers of favor makes political allegiance part of the family history surrounding the manuscript, although it does not establish that Mary personally arranged the estate’s transfer.

Mary Tudor and the Case Against Einor

Mary’s authority becomes most consequential when Thomas describes the decision to denounce Einor. After the Prioress confronted him with the consequences of his relationship with Einor and the deaths of children, Thomas shifted responsibility onto Einor and accepted the explanation that she was a witch and profaner. He says that Mary had decreed that witches and dissenters should be driven from the realm and from mortal life; invoking that climate, he helped send the Summoner to arrange Einor’s confinement and trial.

Thomas’s account therefore links royal religious policy to local action without making Mary a direct participant in Einor’s fate. The denunciation is also entangled with Thomas’s self-protection: he feared that the truth about his own conduct would implicate him, and he presents himself as a victim of Einor’s influence. His testimony about the queen’s policy belongs to a confession that repeatedly shifts between admitting guilt and seeking to explain it away. The manuscript supports the importance of Mary’s reign to Thomas’s justification, but it does not independently confirm the accuracy of every claim he makes about her decrees.

The Curse and Its Uncertain Name

Mary Tudor’s name returns in Thomas’s account of Einor’s execution. He says that Einor cursed those present and their descendants, and that she also cursed Mary. Thomas cannot determine whether she meant the Virgin Mary or Queen Mary. The uncertainty is left unresolved, turning the shared name into a hinge between the religious and political worlds of the manuscript.

That ambiguity also complicates the account’s moral balance. Thomas portrays Einor as a threat to the Christian community, yet records that the crowd’s violence and his own participation in the accusation helped bring about her death. The curse consequently reaches beyond a single ruler: its possible targets include both the sacred figure and the reigning queen, while its stated reach extends to the villagers and their descendants. Mary Tudor’s role in the novel rests on this convergence of royal authority, religious conflict, and a testimony whose author admits guilt but cannot be treated as an impartial witness.