Mary I was crowned today in 1553 at Westminster Abbey. She had defeated the attempt to replace her with the Protestant Jane Grey and commanded great popular support. Her half-sister Elizabeth and former stepmother Anne of Cleves followed her into the Abbey for the triumphant first coronation of a queen regnant in England. The crown was placed on her head by Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester, who had married Henry VIII and Kateryn Parr. But it was a sign of the times to come that Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury, a reformer, was imprisoned in the Tower. Mary's reign was to be marked by religious conflict as she struggled to rid England of Protestantism.
This beautiful psalter was bound in red velvet and presented to Mary after her coronation. The book dates from c.1310 and it’s possible it belonged to Isabella of France. The shape on the front cover is a pomegranate, the badge of Mary and her mother Katherine of Aragon.
You can see all the pages from the psalter here:
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts...
Images: Mary Tudor, Queen of England, second wife of Philip II, by Antonio Moro, 1554, Museo Nacional del Prado; British Library