Renaissance · Europe · Politics

1554

Mary I Marries Philip of Spain

July 25, 1554

At Winchester Cathedral, Queen Mary married Philip, heir to the Spanish and Habsburg empires, in a ceremony combining Castilian and English traditions. The match was unpopular in England from the beginning. Philip would spend little time with his wife and leave her nothing but heartbreak and a phantom pregnancy. The treaty limited Philip's English powers, but the restrictions did little to mollify hostile English public opinion about the Spanish match.