Mary I of England
Daughter of Henry VIII and queen of England from 1553. Her Parliament returned the English church to obedience to Rome and revived the laws against heresy, under which Protestants were burned from 1555 until her death.
Mary was proclaimed queen in London on 19 July 1553 (Machyn, Diary 19 July 1553). The statute that restored the pope’s authority in England addresses her as the daughter of Henry VIII and speaks of her marriage to “the king our sovereign lord your husband”, Philip; it records that Parliament asked through the two of them to be absolved of schism by the legate Reginald Pole (Second Act of Repeal, 1554, in Gee and Hardy, pp. 385–387).
The same Parliament revived the medieval statutes against heresy (Revival of the Heresy Acts, 1554, in Gee and Hardy, p. 384). In May 1555 a letter in the names of the king and queen told the bishop of London to proceed against obstinate heretics according to the laws (Foxe, Acts and Monuments vol. 7, p. 86). The burnings that followed are described in the Burning of Protestants under Mary I. Mary died on 17 November 1558 and her sister Elizabeth I was proclaimed the same day (Machyn, Diary 17 November 1558). Twelve years later a papal bull remembered her as the lawful queen who had restored the Catholic faith (Pius V, Regnans in excelsis 2).
In the timeline
- 1555 to 1558, firm dateThe Burning of Protestants under Mary I
Under Mary I, Parliament returns England to obedience to Rome and revives the medieval heresy laws. From 1555 to 1558 Protestants who will not recant are burned, among them the bishops Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer. John Foxe’s book records them as martyrs.
Primary sources
The Diary of Henry Machyn
- Machyn, Diary 19 July 1553british-history.ac.uk
- Machyn, Diary 17 November 1558british-history.ac.uk
Regnans in excelsis
- Pius V, Regnans in excelsis 2papalencyclicals.net