Reign of Mary Tudor, 1553–58 (AQA A-Level History): Revision Notes

Reign of Mary Tudor, 1553–58

Mary became queen in July 1553 after the failed attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne. Her accession was initially popular, yet by her death in November 1558 her reputation had declined sharply. This period reveals the challenges faced by a female Catholic monarch attempting to reverse the Reformation in a country that had experienced religious change for nearly a generation.

Mary's succession and initial support

Mary secured the throne against Northumberland's attempt to install Lady Jane Grey. Her success demonstrated widespread support for legitimate succession, even though many of her supporters were Protestant. However, Mary misread this backing, interpreting it as enthusiasm for restoring Catholicism rather than a defence of rightful inheritance and opposition to Northumberland's scheming.

Religious reform under Mary

Aims and motivations

Mary's central objective was to restore traditional Catholic doctrines, services and ornamentation to the English Church. Raised as a devout Catholic by her mother, Catherine of Aragon, Mary had witnessed her father Henry VIII manipulate religion to divorce Catherine and seize control of the Church. She viewed the break with Rome as both sinful and illegal. The destruction of Church property and the introduction of Protestant practices under Edward VI reinforced her determination to restore the old faith.

Legislative changes

Parliament assembled in October 1553. The obedient majority in the House of Commons reversed all religious legislation passed during Edward VI's reign. This restored the doctrine of the Church of England to its position at Henry VIII's death in 1547. Mary initially proceeded cautiously, persuaded by her advisers to move slowly.

Her confidence grew after Cardinal Reginald Pole returned from exile in Catholic Europe to England in November 1554. Parliament then passed the Second Act of Repeal in January 1555. This abolished all doctrinal legislation enacted since 1529, including the 1534 Act of Supremacy. Papal authority as head of the Church was thus reinstated.

Implementation of Catholic practices

Mary remained convinced that Protestantism lacked deep roots in English culture and could not survive without state support. Government policy therefore divided into two approaches: education and persecution.

To ensure Catholicism took root properly, emphasis was placed on improved training and supervision of parish priests. Bishops received instructions to establish local training schools and conduct regular inspections of priests in their dioceses. National decrees set standards expected from priests. New editions of the Prayer Book and Bible were issued for guidance.

The persecution policy

Royal authority and persecution The policy that has most shaped Mary's historical reputation as 'Bloody Mary' was her systematic persecution of Protestants. Leading Protestant clergy, including Archbishop Cranmer, were arrested and replaced by committed Catholics. Within a year of Mary's accession, the senior clergy had been purged of Protestant elements. Work began on compelling parish priests who had married either to abandon their families or resign their positions.

Parliament revived the heresy laws that had operated during Henry VIII's reign. Protestants who refused to renounce their faith were burned at the stake in their local community as a warning to others. Executions commenced in February 1555 and continued throughout Mary's reign. They claimed both high-ranking victims such as Cranmer and many ordinary people unable to escape abroad. Approximately 300 Protestants were burned in total.

Notable executions

Bishops Latimer and Ridley were burnt at the stake in Oxford in 1555. According to John Foxe's account, published in his Book of Martyrs (1563), the execution was brutal and prolonged. Latimer reportedly encouraged Ridley with the words:

Ridley's death was particularly agonising due to the way the fire burned.

Archbishop Cranmer was burnt in Oxford in March 1556. His death held particular significance because he had been the guiding force behind the introduction of Protestantism from 1533, when he became Archbishop of Canterbury, through to the end of Edward VI's reign. Under Mary, he initially recanted his Protestant beliefs but then withdrew his recantation. Mary, who held Cranmer responsible for her mother's suffering, refused to see him spared even when he recanted, believing she had no option but to proceed with his execution.

Opposition and consequences

Mary viewed the executions as necessary to cleanse the country of Protestant heresy. Her advisers were less persuaded. As the death toll mounted, signs of opposition to the policy began appearing. Executing subjects in such a visible manner in their own communities inadvertently transformed many into public heroes.

English Protestants who had fled abroad produced propaganda associating Catholicism with intolerance and over-powerful government, which helped undermine Mary's popularity. Yet the effects of the burnings can be overstated. Beyond London, there is limited evidence of strong reactions. Much historical writing since Mary's reign has been heavily influenced by the propaganda of Foxe and others during Elizabeth I's subsequent reign when Protestantism was restored.

The Spanish marriage

Context and negotiations

Mary came to the throne aged 37 and unmarried, raising questions about the succession. Her Protestant younger sister, Elizabeth, would inherit if Mary died without an heir. Mary reasoned that if Catholicism was to survive beyond her reign, she must marry and produce an heir to continue her work. The age-old Tudor succession problem resurfaced.

As Catherine of Aragon's daughter, Mary was close to her Spanish relatives and had been considered a possible wife for Charles V. By 1553, the scheme discussed involved marriage to Charles's son, Philip. Mary discussed the possibility with Simon Renard, the imperial ambassador and a close personal friend.

Opposition to the marriage

Opposition centred on two concerns:

• Religious fears: Philip was a staunch Catholic. Protestants worried he would strengthen Mary's determination to reverse the Reformation in England.

• Political concerns: Philip was heir to the throne of Spain and its vast empire in Europe and the Americas. Critics, correctly, assumed he would use England as a tool to advance Spanish ambitions and would disregard the country's interests. Questions also arose about how France would react if England and Spain drew together so closely, and implications for relations with Scotland.

Marriage terms and reality

Mary was desperate to marry Philip (who was her cousin once removed) but careful enough to limit his power within England. By the terms of the marriage agreement, Philip was to be called King but possessed none of the powers associated with the title. He was also forbidden from bringing foreigners into English government and had no claim to the throne if Mary died. In effect, the agreement created a marriage of convenience and carefully limited potential damage to English interests.

Mary pressed ahead with the marriage, which took place in July 1554. She always valued the relationship with Philip more than he did. After he became King of Spain in 1556, Philip paid Mary only one brief visit, largely to persuade her to join him in waging war against France.

Wyatt's Rebellion, February 1554

Planning and causes

In early 1554, as news of Mary's impending marriage to Philip of Spain leaked from court, Sir Thomas Wyatt, a member of the gentry in Kent, began planning what has been rather romantically portrayed as a nationalist, Protestant rebellion against Mary. Wyatt and others plotted to overthrow the Queen and replace her with Edward Courtenay, the great-grandson of the fifteenth-century Yorkist King Edward IV (and the only male claimant to the throne by descent). Courtenay would strengthen his weak connection to the Tudor Crown by marrying Princess Elizabeth.

The rebellion has often been conveniently labelled as anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish. Whilst the marriage contract stated that Philip would have no power over English internal affairs, considerable xenophobia existed in the country. Wyatt probably feared the government would be controlled by Spain or at least by Spanish interests.

It is also accurate that the rebels supported Protestantism. This religious motive was identified as the cause of the rebellion in a book written by John Proctor immediately afterwards, commissioned by the government to divert attention away from the unpopular marriage.

Course of events

The original plan involved four rebellions against Mary beginning in March 1554: one in Devon where the Western Rebellion had occurred; one in Leicestershire led by Lady Jane Grey's father; one on the Welsh border; and one in Kent, led by Wyatt.

Maintaining secrecy proved difficult for these plans. The plotters had to advance their timetable to the beginning of February to maintain the element of surprise. Three of the four uprisings simply failed to materialise. Only Wyatt achieved sufficient support, gathering approximately 3,000 men in total.

He marched his rebel army into London but found London Bridge closed against him. In the confusion that followed, Wyatt failed to convince Londoners to join him and the rebellion collapsed within a week.

Consequences

Unlike the Western Rising and Kett's Rebellion of 1549, Wyatt's actions were serious because he threatened the capital, though the failure of the City to support him meant the danger posed by the rebels was reduced.

Mary ordered the execution of Wyatt, Lady Jane Grey and her husband, and approximately a hundred other conspirators. Princess Elizabeth was also arrested on suspicion of complicity, but released after no solid evidence could be found to implicate her.

Foreign policy under Mary

War with France

Although few Englishmen wanted it, the natural outcome of Mary's marriage was war. Philip made no secret of wanting England's help against France in the final stages of the struggle between the Spanish Habsburgs and the French Valois monarchy. He placed Mary under considerable pressure to declare war.

By declaring war, Mary undid the diplomacy of Northumberland and returned English foreign policy to its traditional anti-French footing. She declared war on France in June 1557 and sent troops across the Channel to join her husband's forces. Together, they achieved victory in the battle of Saint-Quentin, but Spain was too exhausted financially to follow this up.

Loss of Calais

Within a year, France had not only recovered but had seized Calais from the English. Although this would have been impossible to defend in the long term, it was a terrible blow to national pride. Calais represented the last outpost of the great mediaeval empire that had included England and half of France. England's severance from the continent seemed to symbolise the limited role the country could play in European affairs.

Mary's reputation and achievements

Negative interpretations

It is tempting to leave the story of Mary's reign focused on misjudged religious and foreign policies which sacrificed English interests to win approval from Spain, and to portray Mary as caught between a sad victim and a self-deluding idealist. Her government also had to contend with the consequences of bad harvests in 1555–57, which led to severe malnutrition and some starvation. Virulent outbreaks of plague started in 1556 and continued into Elizabeth's reign.

Administrative and financial improvements

Concentrating only on the problems would ignore the achievements of her reign. These have been overshadowed by the high-profile disasters, but remain important if we are to gauge the extent of the 'mid-Tudor crisis' in the 1550s.

Behind the scenes, a quiet strengthening of government and royal finances was taking place:

• The role of the Privy Council in managing daily government administration was becoming more established. Sub-committees were used to deal with specialised issues (such as the war against France).
• Efforts were made to make revenue collection more efficient. Northumberland had begun this campaign in 1552 by setting up a royal commission, transferring more responsibility to the Exchequer.
• A new Book of Rates was introduced in May 1558 to improve Crown income from customs duties.
• Plans were drawn up to revalue the currency after the 'Great Debasement' of the 1540s.

Military and naval reforms

Mary's government has also been credited with reviving England's military and naval tradition, providing Elizabeth with the means to resist Spain later in the century. During the Northumberland regime, standards of maintenance of the royal fleet had been allowed to slip, and a number of ships had been decommissioned, leaving Mary with just three serviceable warships.

A major programme of rebuilding and refitting was begun under Mary and by 1558 there had been a return to the fleet level of that at the end of Henry VIII's reign. The government also modernised the army. The 1558 Militia Act laid down a system of Commissioners of Muster with responsibility for organising the recruitment of regional militias in wartime, whilst the Arms Act of the same year established better procedures for supplying weapons to the royal forces.

Balanced assessment

Despite the above, Mary is still often labelled a failure. Protestants were indeed burnt at the stake, but more were killed under Cromwell in the 1530s. Compared with what was happening in places in Europe, her policy was relatively moderate. Rebellions occurred throughout the century, and she defeated Wyatt and his followers with ease.

She suffered some divisions within her Privy Councillors, but so did other Tudor monarchs. Her foreign policy, though ill-advised, was no more foolish than some other expeditions in the Tudor period.

Historiographical interpretations

Historian G.R. Elton, writing in Reform and Reformation, England 1509–1558 (1977), offered a harsh assessment:

Key dates: The reign of Mary Tudor, 1553–58

Date	Event
July 1553	Mary proclaimed Queen
Jan 1554	Marriage Treaty with Spain
Feb 1554	Wyatt's rebellion
July 1554	Mary married Philip of Spain
Jan 1555	Papal supremacy of Church restored; Edwardian reforms abolished
Feb 1555	First executions of Protestant heretics
Jan 1556	Philip became King of Spain
March 1556	Execution of Cranmer
Sept 1556	Worst harvest of sixteenth century (following very poor harvest of 1555)
June 1557	War against France to support Philip II
Jan 1558	Loss of Calais
Nov 1558	Death of Mary; smooth accession of Elizabeth I

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