Mary I it was estimated that more than 10 percent of the population of the Republic of Suriname was descended from six Maroon or “Bush Negro” communities or tribes that formed in the 1500s and waged a centurylong war for liberation against the Dutch authorities before finally winning their freedom in 1762 The collective memory of the modern-day descendants of such Maroon societies has provided fertile ground for historians, anthropologists, linguists, and other scholars interested in exploring this chapter of the history of Africans in the Americas See also slave trade, Africa and the Further reading: Campbell, Mavis Christine The Maroons of Jamaica, 1655–1796: A History of Resistance, Collaboration and Betrayal Granby, MA: Bergin & Garvey, 1988; Hoogbergen, Wim S M Brill The Boni Maroon Wars in Suriname Boston: Academic Publishers, 1997; Learning, Hugo Prosper Hidden Americans: Maroons of Virginia and the Carolinas New York: Garland Publishing, 1995; Price, Richard, ed Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979; Price, Richard First-Time: The Historical Vision of an Afro-American People Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983; Thompson, Alvin O Flight to Freedom: African Runaways and Maroons in the Americas Kingston, Jamaica: University of West Indies Press, 2006 Michael J Schroeder Mary I (Bloody Mary) (1516–1558) Catholic Tudor queen of England Mary I, queen of England, was born on February 18, 1516, in Greenwich Palace in London, England Her father, Henry VIII, of the House of Tudor, had also been born at Greenwich on June 28, 1491 Mary was the fifth child of Henry and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon Although there was jubilation at Greenwich at Mary’s birth, Henry VIII was disappointed in that Catherine of Aragon had failed to deliver a son Mary would be the only one of Catherine and Henry VIII’s children who would live to adulthood In an age when monarchs were preferably men, young Mary’s purpose diplomatically was to secure a strategic nuptial alliance for her father In Henry VIII’s eyes, the only way to secure the throne in the Tudor family—and to make it a true dynasty—was to have a male son who would succeed 233 him as king Consequently, Henry began his quest to divorce Catherine of Aragon to marry again in the hopes of producing a male Tudor heir However, to assure the succession of the Tudors to the throne, Mary was recognized by her father as princess of Wales, which meant that, should her father die without male issue, she would succeed him as Queen Mary I In the end, Henry had his marriage to Catherine of Aragon dissolved, and he wed his mistress Anne Boleyn, who was crowned queen of England in 1533 Pregnant at the time of her marriage to Henry, she gave birth to the princess Elizabeth, the future Elizabeth I, in September 1533 Still the king determined to have his way in all things, Henry was frustrated in his pursuit of a male Tudor heir In 1534, Henry had Parliament pass the Act of Supremacy, which made him the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England, known as the Church of England As far as Princess Mary was concerned, she was placed in almost double jeopardy, because she still held out for her mother and for the Catholic Church Boleyn was her bitter enemy, especially after the birth of Elizabeth as Mary’s rival for the throne, and it was feared that Boleyn would demand Mary’s execution Finally, under the entreaty of the king’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, Mary assented to the Act of Supremacy When Anne Boleyn was executed for adultery in May 1536, much of the danger passed for Mary Henry’s next wife, Jane Seymour, finally provided a male heir, Edward VI, in October 1537 Seymour began a reconciliation with Mary, who still had a spot in her father’s heart as his “chiefest jewel.” Tragically, Jane would die soon after childbirth and Edward would only rule from 1547 to 1553, at which time Mary became queen When Mary ascended the throne in July 1553, she trod lightly at first on the issue of religion, not wishing to shake England by revoking the Act of Settlement and the new order that had come with it However, Mary did have Henry’s divorce from her mother declared invalid, legally making Elizabeth a bastard The half sisters carried on harsh competition for a rightful claim to the throne Elizabeth was implicated in two plots against Mary, one led by Sir Thomas Wyatt in 1554 that caused Elizabeth to be sent temporarily to the Tower of London Eventually Mary’s affection for the Catholic Church brought personal disaster In November 1554, Reginald Cardinal Poole brought from the Vatican the terms by which Rome would accept England back into