#history infographics

The Tudor kill count infographic I did attracted a fair few comments, so I thought I’d share some ideas with you. The primary aim of the graphic was to poke people into considering a different take on the given nicknames of Defender of the faith and “Bloody” Mary. To me, it doesn’t matter if you disagreed with the nicknames or agreed; the most important thing I was trying to get across was not to blindly take these assumptions at face value and first CONSIDER other pieces of information. I will repeat, whether this information enforces your previous opinion or not, it is the QUESTIONING FIRST that is important.

And I based on this I think our generation of historians are growing more and more likely to get it right purely because you guys are commenting and questioning and being cynical about the information I put on the infographic. And that is THE most important skill for a historian..

So to end, my personal favourite comment: “you think you know a story, but you only know how it ends”

This is awesome; although we’re talking about a much longer period of time with Henry (I think it’s the Terrible Tudors that do a chart which compares frequency, where Mary does come out highest), she wasn’t some mass murdering psychopath monarch. Or, rather, she wasn’t the onlymass murdering psychopath.

We’ll ignore the debate over how many people emigrated though.

Ummm… Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems there weren’t many people left for Mary to execute AND much less time to do it in.

While I agree that “Bloody Mary” is an unfair title, let’s also remember that Henry VIII ruled for almost forty years, whilst his eldest daughter only ruled for five years.

Which means that Henry executed approximately 1900 people a year during his reign, and Mary executed 60. And yet, Mary is the bloody one…

*Shakes fist at John Foxe*

It’s really dumb, agreed. But I can explain why history has made that distinction:

1) Mary turned the tables and executed almost solely Protestants, whereas Henry just kind of executed…whomever he wanted.

2) Mary was a woman. The fact that a supposedly gentle, docile woman could kill so many people was astonishing in that day and age.

she’s called “bloody mary” because she was A) a catholic, and B) all of her executions took place within the span of like, 5 years. history is always controlled by sentiment.

I’m sure the graphic is just pointing out the irony of their titles v. how many people they actually killed.

yeah, i suppose i did come off a bit harsh, re-reading that. i just wanted to explain (very simply, mind you) the moniker. 

Oh, I here ya :D Bloody Mary has her name because of the opinions of her subjects and the religion of her times—no doubt there. There was plenty of opposition during Henry’s reign, but we don’t here much about it except for his marriage scandal(s).

i feel like we can just blame elizabethan and whig historians for this mess. 

our generation of historians willtotallyget it right this time around. *said every historian that ever existed.*

This is all quite true, BUT…let’s talk about specifics. First of all, Henry ordered most people beheaded (some hung), whereas Mary had them burnt, a much more painful death. Secondly, Henry rarely went to any of the executions that he’d ordered; Mary liked to go to hers. Lastly, reputation was a key factor in the nicknames: Henry remained a very popular king throughout his reign, despite the church fiasco and all his marriages. Mary, on the other hand, made an incredible unpopular Spanish marriage (with her cousin, but that was pretty much normal then) and plunged the country back into chaos when she tried to bring back Catholicism. So, despite the disparity between Henry’s kills and Mary’s, there’s a reason she’s remembered more for hers