S02E04: Bloody Mary | Lucy Worsley Investigates

Duration: 58'51''

Synopsis

Does 'Bloody Mary', England’s first crowned queen, deserve her reputation? Lucy Worsley investigates, asking whether Mary should be remembered as a pioneer or a tyrant.

Further Information

More clips from Lucy Worsley Investigates

S02E01: Jack the Ripper | Lucy Worsley Investigates

S02E01: Jack the Ripper | Lucy Worsley Investigates

BBC Two | 2025 | 58'59''

How did the Jack the Ripper case shape the way true crime is covered today? Lucy Worsley investigates how these shocking ...

S02E02: The Gunpowder Plot | Lucy Worsley Investigates

S02E02: The Gunpowder Plot | Lucy Worsley Investigates

BBC Two | 2025 | 59'00''

On 5 November 1605, a group of conspirators planned to blow up parliament. Lucy Worsley investigates the Gunpowder Plo...

S02E03: 1066 | Lucy Worsley Investigates

S02E03: 1066 | Lucy Worsley Investigates

BBC Two | 2025 | 58'59''

Was winning the Battle of Hastings in 1066 all it took for William to become King? Lucy Worsley investigates the aftermath to reveal...

S02E01: Jack the Ripper | Lucy Worsley Investigates

S02E01: Jack the Ripper | Lucy Worsley Investigates

BBC Two | 2025 | 58'59''

How did the Jack the Ripper case shape the way true crime is covered today? Lucy Worsley investigates how these shocking ...

S02E02: The Gunpowder Plot | Lucy Worsley Investigates

S02E02: The Gunpowder Plot | Lucy Worsley Investigates

BBC Two | 2025 | 59'00''

On 5 November 1605, a group of conspirators planned to blow up parliament. Lucy Worsley investigates the Gunpowder Plo...

S02E03: 1066 | Lucy Worsley Investigates

S02E03: 1066 | Lucy Worsley Investigates

BBC Two | 2025 | 58'59''

Was winning the Battle of Hastings in 1066 all it took for William to become King? Lucy Worsley investigates the aftermath to reveal...

More resources about Tudor England

04: The Battle Against the Spanish Armada | Battlefield Britain

04: The Battle Against the Spanish Armada | Battlefield Britain

BBC Two | 2004 | 58'48''

Peter and Dan Snow take a look at the battles that shaped our nation. Drake's unlikely sea victory against th...

01: Elizabeth I | Queens that Changed the World

01: Elizabeth I | Queens that Changed the World

Channel 4 | 2023 | 46'43''

Elizabeth I pacified a divided nation, and foiled multiple plots against her. English culture flourished under her reign, and...

Episode 1 | Elizabeth I's Secret Agents

Episode 1 | Elizabeth I's Secret Agents

BBC Two | 2017 | 58'46''

A look at the world's first secret service. When the pope declares Queen Elizabeth I a heretic, spymaster William Cecil must stop the...

Bloody Queens: Elizabeth and Mary

Bloody Queens: Elizabeth and Mary

BBC Two | 2016 | 59'09''

Drama revealing the intimate and ultimately deadly relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, using the words of the ...

Episode 1 | Edward and Mary: The Unknown Tudors

Episode 1 | Edward and Mary: The Unknown Tudors

Channel 4 | 2002 | 49'05''

The story of two of Henry VIII's most extraordinary children, Mary 1st and Edward VI - England's fundamentalists.

02: The Battle for England | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

02: The Battle for England | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

BBC Two | 2015 | 58'42''

Dan Snow relives fierce sea battles and looks behind the scenes in the court of Elizabeth I as the Spanish fleet...

Religious reform under Edward VI | A History of Britain by Simon Schama

Religious reform under Edward VI | A History of Britain by Simon Schama

BBC Two | 2000 | 3'38''

Simon Schama discusses the religious reform under Edward VI.

01: Day One | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

01: Day One | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

BBC Two | 2015 | 58'54''

Anita Dobson stars as Elizabeth I, and Dan Snow tells the story of how England came within a whisker of disaster in summer 1588.

S01E02: The Spanish Armada | Royal History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

S01E02: The Spanish Armada | Royal History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

BBC Two | 2020 | 58'56''

Lucy Worsley discovers how the history of the Spanish Armada has been manipulated and mythologise...

S01E02: The Virgin Queen | David Starkey's Elizabeth

S01E02: The Virgin Queen | David Starkey's Elizabeth

Channel 4 | 2000 | 49'40''

David Starkey explores the tensions created by Elizabeth I's reluctance to marry,which strained the political and religi...

01: The Common People | Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England

01: The Common People | Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England

BBC Two | 2013 | 58'43''

Dr. Ian Mortimer undertakes a present-tense journey through the world of Queen Elizabeth the First. Thi...

06: Mary, Queen of Scots | Historyonics

06: Mary, Queen of Scots | Historyonics

BBC One | 2004 | 29'24''

Nick Knowles asks whether Mary, Queen of Scots, one of history's most famous monarchs, was a manipulator or a martyr.

07: Elizabeth I | Great Britons (2002)

07: Elizabeth I | Great Britons (2002)

BBC Two | 2002 | 58'19''

Michael Portillo champions Elizabeth I, arguing that she fought religious fanaticism, established Britain's tradition of tolerance, an...

Fireships | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

Fireships | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

BBC Two | 2015 | 4'57''

Dan Snow explores the English use of fireships against the Spanish Armada.

04: Peasants' Revolt to Tudors | Michael Wood's Story of England

04: Peasants' Revolt to Tudors | Michael Wood's Story of England

BBC Four | 2010 | 59'08''

A portrait of one village through the whole of English history. Amazing finds in the school archive help tra...

What Caused the Spanish Armada? | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

What Caused the Spanish Armada? | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

BBC Two | 2015 | 4'47''

Dan Snow discusses the foundations of what caused the Spanish Armada.

03: Jane, Mary and Elizabeth | She-Wolves: England's Early Queens

03: Jane, Mary and Elizabeth | She-Wolves: England's Early Queens

BBC Four | 2012 | 58'46''

Helen Castor explores the lives of the Tudor queens Jane, Mary and Elizabeth, and how each struggled with w...

01: Seeying the Worlde | What The Tudors Did For Us

01: Seeying the Worlde | What The Tudors Did For Us

BBC Two | 2002 | 32'54''

The development of scientific instruments gave the Tudors new worlds to explore, both on land and on sea. And did the Eng...

S01E04: Gloriana | David Starkey's Elizabeth

S01E04: Gloriana | David Starkey's Elizabeth

Channel 4 | 2000 | 49'44''

After the Armada was defeated Elizabeth I ushered in a golden age in English society. With a flourishing of literature,an age of...

04: Learning Zone | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

04: Learning Zone | Armada: 12 Days to Save England

BBC Two | 2015 | 29'12''

Aboard a yacht on the seas of the battle, sailor and historian Dan Snow describes the key characters, weapons and stories...

More from Lucy Worsley

The American Revolution: 01: The Break-Up | Lucy Worsley Investigates

The American Revolution: 01: The Break-Up | Lucy Worsley Investigates

BBC Two | 2026 | 59'03''

Lucy Worsley investigates the turning points that led to America’s declaration of independence from Bri...

Episode 3 | Lucy Worsley's Victorian Murder Club

Episode 3 | Lucy Worsley's Victorian Murder Club

BBC Two | 2025 | 58'53''

The trail has gone cold, but could a new murder 12 years later provide fresh leads? Lucy Worsley’s hunt for a Victorian seri...

Florence Nightingale: Nursing Pioneer

Florence Nightingale: Nursing Pioneer

BBC Four | 2023 | 1'11'10''

Film following the life of an extraordinary woman, a trailblazer who revolutionised modern nursing and reformed healthcare at home and ...

Bombing London | Blitz Spirit with Lucy Worsley

Bombing London | Blitz Spirit with Lucy Worsley

BBC One | 2021 | 13'35''

Covering the Germans bombing London and the impact including government censorship of the newspapers.

S01E03: Queen Anne and the Union | Royal History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

S01E03: Queen Anne and the Union | Royal History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

BBC Two | 2020 | 59'02''

Lucy Worsley explores how Queen Anne's legacy has been marred by historical fibs.

02: The American Civil War | American History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

02: The American Civil War | American History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

BBC Four | 2019 | 59'04''

Lucy Worsley shows how the history of the American Civil War has been retold over time, in mov...

A Merry Tudor Christmas with Lucy Worsley

A Merry Tudor Christmas with Lucy Worsley

BBC Two | 2019 | 58'59''

Recreating festivities from Henry VIII's era, Lucy Worsley dresses, eats, drinks, sings and parties like it is 500 years ago - disc...

Lucy Worsley's Christmas Carol Odyssey

Lucy Worsley's Christmas Carol Odyssey

BBC Four | 2019 | 58'58''

Lucy Worsley reveals the surprising stories behind our favourite Christmas carols. From pagan rituals to religious conflicts, French d...

Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley

Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley

BBC One | 2018 | 1'28'57''

Documentary, presented by Lucy Worsley, which uses dramatised testimony to tell the story of a group of working-class women conducting a dange...

03: The Jewel in the Crown | British History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

03: The Jewel in the Crown | British History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

BBC Four | 2017 | 59'11''

Lucy explores how British history is a concoction of fibs. She debunks the fibs that surround t...

03: The Road to Revolution | Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley

03: The Road to Revolution | Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley

BBC Four | 2016 | 58'49''

Lucy investigates how the Romanov family's grip on Russia unravelled in their final centur...

Episode 1 | Six Wives with Lucy Worsley

Episode 1 | Six Wives with Lucy Worsley

BBC One | 2016 | 57'37''

Documentary series featuring dramatic reconstruction in which Lucy Worsley delves into the personal lives of Henry VIII's wives, begi...

Dancing through the Blitz: Blackpool's Big Band Story

Dancing through the Blitz: Blackpool's Big Band Story

BBC Two | 2015 | 1'29'01''

Documentary film celebrating the big band sound and uncovering the social history behind the music that kept the nation...

Georgian Architecture | The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain

Georgian Architecture | The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain

BBC Four | 2014 | 3'51''

Lucy Worsley investigates Georgian neo-Palladian architecture.

02: Bad Blood: Stuarts to Hanoverians | Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changed History

02: Bad Blood: Stuarts to Hanoverians | Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changed History

BBC Two | 2013 | 59'03''

Lucy Worsley explores how the health of monarchs has shaped the nation. She looks at t...

01: The Living Room | If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home

01: The Living Room | If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home

BBC Four | 2011 | 59'01''

Lucy Worsley looks at the history of the living room from a medieval great hall, through a Georgian drawin...