Childhood is meant to be a time of innocence and stability. A time when you're sheltered from the often cruel world into which you're born. No such luck for the girl who would become Queen Mary I.
The first 20 years of Mary's life can best be described as a rollercoaster ride – a ride on which she was cherished, mollycoddled and groomed for power, before being ostracised and humiliated. These were hardly the ingredients needed to produce a well-rounded adult.
Even when Queen Catherine of Aragon gave birth to Mary –
