Changes in governance at the centre - Extent Your Knowledge

Sir Thomas Wyatt’s rebellion (1554)

Sir Thomas Wyatt and a group of Protestant gentry and nobility plotted a rising in protest over Mary I’s marriage to Philip II of Spain. The marriage was one step in Mary’s plans to return England to full Roman Catholicism, but some Protestants felt threatened by this. The plotters may have even been considering removing Mary and replacing her with her Protestant sister Elizabeth. However, the rebellion failed; Wyatt and his conspirators were imprisoned in the Tower, tried and executed for treason.

The Hunne Case

Richard Hunne was a London merchant. In 1511, his infant son died, and the local parish priest asked for the usual mortuary fee (payment for burial). Hunne refused to pay and was sued in the Church courts, which found against him. Hunne was then accused of heresy and sent to the Bishop of London’s prison. In December 1514, Hunne was found hanged in his cell. The Church claimed it was a case of suicide. Despite his death. Hunne was put on trial for heresy. He was found guilty and his corpse was ceremonially burned. This case caused considerable anger and resentment in London and fuelled anticlericalism in parliament.

Martin Luther and reformer ideas

Martin Luther was a German monk who challenged the teachings of the Catholic Church. His Ninety-Five Theses (1517) attacked practices such as the granting of indulgences. Luther went on to reject Catholic teaching on purgatory and transubstantiation. His ideas were spread widely across Europe and influenced some English courtiers, such as Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Cranmer and Anne Boleyn. Luther’s reformer ideas eventually became known as ‘Protestantism’.

Peter Wentworth (1524-97)

Wentworth was a Puritan MP in the parliaments of 1571, 1572, 1586, 1589 and 1593. He had powerful connections as he was brother-in-law to the councillor Sir Francis Walsingham, but these connections did not prevent him getting into trouble for his outbursts in parliament. Wentworth also attempted to get his tract A Pithie Exhortation of her Majestie for establishing her successor to the crowne published. This led to his imprisonment in 1591-92. Wentworth’s final attempt to raise the issue of the succession led to his final arrest in 1593 and imprisonment until his death in 1597, because he would not apologise to the queen.