Bloody Mary
The life of Lady Jane’s successor stands as testament to the stupidity of hereditary positions of power. As we saw above, Mary’s immediate steps upon taking the throne, after arresting her enemies, were to reinstall Catholicism as the official religion of England. In itself, this represented but a reversion to the common form of devotion practiced two decades before. However, the stringent means she used to turn England back into a Catholic nation reeked of fanaticism, leading as they did to the inhumane executions of 300 people, and justifiably earned her the soubriquet, ‘Bloody Mary’. Let us briefly examine her.
Like her father, Mary was obsessed with the matter of progeny. She was 37 when she came to the throne, unmarried, and childless. She instantly set about the task of finding a husband in order to produce an heir to prevent her Protestant sister, Elizabeth, taking the throne (Henry’s Third Succession Act had been reinstated). Her choice, Philip of Spain, was unpopular with all but her: English law dictated that a husband would own all of his wife’s possessions upon marrying her. England did not want a Spanish king, and so his tenure was legally limited only to Mary’s lifetime.
Although this nullified the threat of England becoming a Spanish colony, Philip’s fervent Catholicism brought out the worst in his broody wife. He personally persuaded Parliament to repeal Henry VIII’s laws in order to return England to the jurisdiction of the Vatican. The royal couple also reinstated the heresy acts, in order to whittle out anyone whose religious beliefs and practices deviated from strict Catholic dogma. Known as the Marian Persecutions, this period of history saw men, women, and children burned at the stake. Most famously, this included bishops Latimer and Ridley and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer.
Although she succeeded in returning England to Catholicism in her lifetime, Mary’s horrific cruelty and intolerance actually worked to inspire hatred of Rome once she died. She died childless and heartbroken at her husband’s frequent lengthy absences, having mercifully reigned only 5 terrible years. Her half-sister, Elizabeth, then came to the throne to everyone’s relief, and instantly set about reverting England to the Protestantism Henry had introduced. The three men mentioned above were burned in the city of Oxford, and were celebrated as the Oxford Martyrs after Mary’s death. In particular, Cranmer’s valiant conduct at his execution was lauded.
Cranmer had recanted his Protestant faith, and wrote a document confirming his return to Catholicism. Mary decided she may as well burn him anyway, but what he did next shocked everyone. Walking to the fire lit for his execution in 1556, he proclaimed the Pope to be the Antichrist, went back on his previous recantation of the Protestant faith, and thrust his right hand into the fire, the very member used to write the aforementioned document. Burning it off, he cried, ‘this hand hath offended! O! This unworthy hand!’ Cranmer’s example was a rallying cry for Protestants around the country.