What was the situation with Mary I of England and Philip? Can they be described as joint rulers? If so why and if not why not

by Vallien

Not to be confused with William and Mary. I'm not looking for answered about those two.

mimicofmodes

Not really.

There was a lot of anxiety before Mary became queen about the possibility of an English queen regnant somehow destroying the country by marrying a foreigner. When Edward VI was writing up the letters patent to keep the crown away from his half-sisters Elizabeth and Mary, it was on the basis that

should [they] then happen to marry with any stranger borne out of this realme, that then the same stranger, havinge the governmente and the imperiall crowne in his hands, would rather adhere and practice to have the lawes and customes of his or their owne native countrey or countreyes to be practised or put in use within this realme, then the lawes, statutes, and customes here of longe time used, wherupon the title of inheritance of all and singular our loving subjects doe depend, which would tende to the utter subversion of the comon-welth of this our realme, which God defend.

Concern about Mary specifically marrying from abroad and therefore being the vector of this kind of subversion was so well established that after his death, his de facto regent, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, went so far as to spread rumors that she had gone to the southeast of the country to prepare for an invasion from the continent that would put her on the throne rather than his daughter-in-law, who had been chosen by Edward as his successor. In fact, Mary raised a force of Englishmen there that did the job under her own command.

So once she was fully in power, outlining the role of any eventual husband was known to be something that required finesse. She initially portrayed herself as married to her kingdom and only prepared to marry a human man at her council's behest - optics, you know - but she personally and secretly accepted Philip as her husband-to-be via the imperial ambassador on her own initiative. Parliament was not generally on board with it, but they had little choice but to go along. What they could do was make sure the treaty for the marriage was as beneficial to England as possible. Philip had to swear to respect his wife's country's laws and customs and to be a subject of the queen, while no Spaniards would be allowed to sit on her council, to own any castles or forts in England, or to hold office; he was given the title of king "ioyntely togeder with the said most noble Quene his wif" and supposed to sign all important documents along with her, but he had no authority to give out offices or lands on his own to build up a personal support base. At the same time, there was always the possibility of patriarchal custom winning out in practice, and Mary allowing Philip to do whatever he wanted (especially as English opposition to the marriage was a lot less intense than later Protestant histories would put it) ... but it didn't come to pass. Their marriage was fairly short, and he didn't even spend all of it in England.