She was weak backstabber when she and her Dutch husband stole the throne from her father. Talk about poor King Lear and his daughters! She was just a rubber stamp for Dutch William and his thieving pards.

Small-minded religious bigot who did her best to place her country beneath the heel of her Spanish husband and the Catholic church. Fortunate her reign was short.

I assume this is about Mary I (Tudor) and not Mary II (Stuart). Mary I was unfortunately a woman embittered by her father Henry 8 who declared her illegitimate. She tried to return her kingdom to the catholic church by killing and punishing those who were protestant, which earned her the nickname Bloody Mary. But, her father had been even bloodier.

To the shock and horror of the popular historical view, I am somewhat sympathetic towards Mary, both towards her policies and towards her as a person. While it was true that her reign was marked by economic and religious turmoil and a loss of national pride, she did manage to re-organize the militia and navy, start the Muscovy country which opened trade with Russia and borrowed loans at very reasonable rates of interest to repay the debts of Henry and Edward's protectors --- The reputation of Bloody Mary seems a little exacerbated. The fact was, Mary's story was a very sad one. Mary's early childhood was one of great privilege, she was of course, England's princess, even cold-hearted Henry (VIII) called her his pearl. Her mother, Catherine of Aragon taught her latin, which she excelled in and it was clear from an early age that she was a devout catholic. When Catherine was forcibly divorced by Henry in favor of Anne Boleyn, Mary was barred from seeing her mother by Henry. Mary was bastardized by her father and her new half-sister Elizabeth was now the one who was exalted as a princess. Anne, Mary's stepmother frequently told her she was worthless and called her a whore. Mary was even threatened with death by her own father if she did not go along with his demands. Mary was in her late thirties by the time she ascended the throne and she set about undoing all the radical protestant reforms committed by her brother and father. On her hit list was foremost Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury who had helped Henry divorce Catherine and split with Rome. This was a curious event. Before the burning, Cranmer was asked to recant his protestantism and he did so. However Mary made a huge mistake in declaring Cranmer needed to be executed anyway. So then, when asked to publicly recite his written recantation Cranmer deviated from it and instead declared he still had a protestant faith and before dying, actually burnt off the hand he had written the recantation with. So Cranmer died a martyr because of Mary's desire for vengeance. Mary was married to Phillip of Spain, twelve years her junior. Phillip cared little for Mary, tragically though, Mary was very deeply in love with Phillip and whenever he left her (witch was often and for long periods) she was known to gaze out to the spot on the ocean where she last saw his departing ship, awaiting his return. Mary needed to produce a child to assure the Catholic succession (otherwise, the next in line for the throne was her protestant sister, Elizabeth). However Mary was well past child bearing age (by medieval standards at least) and she had phantom pregnancies where she deluded herself for years that she was pregnant. Her courtiers began to laugh at her joking that she might be pregnant with a monkey or just wind. Mary was alone at the time of her death, Phillip had left when he realized Mary's pregnancies were false (of her death he was moderately sad) and she had been forced to accept Elizabeth would take the throne and to give up all hope of Catholic restoration (her greatest dream). This was a mature and sensible thing to do and avoided a potential civil war. The sad legacy of Mary remains the same as always though, today she is buried next to her sister Elizabeth, who has plaques proclaiming her greatness. Mary's tomb is lower down and her simple plaque reads the sad moniker Bloody Mary.