Mary I: 1553-1558

Causes of Wyatts Rebellion 1554

- religion
- xenophobia
- decline in local cloth industry (prexisting problem)
- noble led rebellion

Was Wyatts rebellion threatening

YES:
- Wyatt was able to raise a force of nearly 3000 men while Mary's Council couldn't decide what to do
- resulted in the execution of Lady Jane Grey an innocent victim of her father's support for the rebellion
- Elisabeth was arrested and sent to the tower but she was eventually released

NO:
- Mary gave a rousing speech to Londoners at the Guildhall on 1st Feb 1554 - Londoners remained loyal to Mary
- although opposition to Mary was strong it was not as strong as the feeling had been to put her on the throne
- Mary behaved bravely and resolutely and her councillors kept their head - Wyatt surrenders at Ludgate

Mary I's aims

- restore catholicism
- marriage
- produce an heir

The Marriage Treaty - January 1554

- Philip had no regal power (cannot pass laws or call a regency council)
- if the marriage was childless succession would pass to Elizabeth

1554

parliament rejected a bill which included Philip in a treason bill

1555

Parliament blocked Philip's coronation as King

When were Mary's suspected pregnancies

- end of 1554
- beginning of 1558

1553-55 : Mary inherits the throne

SITUATION IN EUROPE:
- 1553, Charles V (Mary's main supporter in Europe) was in struggle of his part of the Habsburg-Valois conflict (HRE+Spain v France)
- By 1555 he had abdicated; Philip II (CV's son) had taken over the west (Spain & Spanish Netherlands and Ferdinand (CV's brother) took control of the East (HRE)
SITUATION IN ENGLAND:
- Mary's marriage to Philip made England a submissive satellite in orbit around the massive Habsburg power
- Wyatts Rebellion: Spanish people are attacked
- Mary desired to remain at peace and acted as a mediator between France and Spain in the spring of 1555
- By the summer of 1555 it was clear that Mary was not going to have any children so Philip left Spain

1556-67

SITUATION IN EUROPE:
- Truce between the Habsburgs and Valois in FEB 1556
- SEPT 1556 Philip attacked the anti-Spanish Pope Paul IV who was allied to the French (doesn't help Mary unite England under the Pope)
- Henry II (France) countered and England came under pressure to join the war on the Spanish side (Mary had to choose between her 2 great loves, Catholicism and Philip)
SITUATION IN ENGLAND:
- Jan 1557 Mary sentt 6000 troops to the Netherlands to help them resist the French attack (helped protect English trade interests)
- Philip demanded English support, March 1557 he returned to England (after 2 years away) to claim funds, naval support and troops. Mary refused
- April 1557: France supported the invasion attempt of Protestant exile Thomas Stafford (weak claim to English throne). France had also been tolerating exiled English protestants, rumours that Henry II was going to try to recapture Calais
- April 1557: Stafford attacked Scarborough with French weapons but was arrested in 3 days
- 7th June 1557: England declared war on France (retaliation to England supporting Stafford). 7000 soldiers sent to help the 70000 Spanish and Imperial army. Philip defeated Henry at the battle of St Quentin with minimal help from the English

1558

SITUATION IN ENGLAND:
- Calais recaptured in 3 weeks a 2000 English troops lacked resources so stood no chance against the 27000 French forces
SITUATION IN EUROPE:
- Philip's success in 1557 and his financial exhuastion made him look to bring an end to the Habsburg Valois conflict. Signed a peace treaty in April 1559.
- Philip made no attempt to recapture Calais

March 1553 - 1554: Restoration of Anglo-Catholicism

- August 1553: proclamation of religious conformity (prominent Protestant clergy deprived of livings)
- September 1553: Cranmer, Latimer imprisoned
- August 1553: parliament refused to repeal the act of supremacy, passed Act of Repeal instead - undid all of Edwardian reformation revived mass, ritual worship, clerical celibacy, transubstantiation. Church aligned with 1547 Act of 6 Articles
- December 1553: Mary gave up title as supreme head of the church
- January 1554: Mass exile of 800 protestants
- March 1554: Royal injunctions issued - supress heresy, married clergy, reordain clergy, restore holy days, Bishops replaced by Catholics

Extent of opposition to the restoration of Anglo-Catholicism March 1553-1554

- refused to repeal the act of supremacy - limited opposition as only towards restoration of church land and Pope as supreme head
- parliament initially rejected the heresy laws but once it was agreed that monastic land would not be restored to church ownership it was passed

November 1554 onwards: Return to the Church of Rome

- Nov 1554: Cardinal Pole returns to England - sentence of excomunication is lifted
- Parliament passed second act of repeal - undid all anti-papal legislation since 1529 and Henrican reformation

Extent of the opposition towards the return to the Church of Rome

- no opposition as people wanted to stay in power

1555 onwards: Consolidation of the Marian Church

- 1555: publication of Bishop Bonners book of Homilies
- JAN 1555: Mary appointed commissioner to attempt to refound monastries
- FEB 1555: John Rodgers first martyr - burned under heresy laws
- 16th OCT 1555: Ridley and Latymer burned for heresy
- DEC 1555: Reginald Pole -\> Archbishop of Cantebury until FEB 1556
- FEB 1556: Archbishop of Cantebury issued 12 decrees on clerical discipline against absenteeism, pluralism and heresy
- Many protestants burned
- 21st MARCH 1556: Cranmer recanted all refractions (declared himself a Protestant and was burned at the stake)
- 1557: refoundation of small religious houses
- 10th NOV 1558: 10 Protestants burned at the stake in Canterbury (300 burned in total)

What was the main facotor hindering Catholic restoration in Mary's reign

- the shortness of her reign
- undercurrent for the failure of the Catholic restoration despite significant change she made during her reign

How did Pole hinder the Catholic restoration in Mary's reign

- Pole did not give the ecclesiastical policy his full attention
- due to his responsibility for seeking peace between the Habsburgs and the French
- Pole's scheme to overhaul church finance required 2 huge surveys which took 18 months - cumberson task
- Pole's strategy to restore catholicism relied on the active involvement of the Catholic bishops but there weren't enough as Catholicism hadn't existed for the past 20 years

How did the change in the Pope hinder the Catholic restoration during Mary's reign?

- Pope Julius III a personal friend of Pole had died in March 1555
- new Pope Paul IV was anti-Habsburg and in dispute with Philip II

How did the Marian government hinder the restoration of Catholicism?

- it failed to realise the potential of literacy and printing
- critical works from Protestants outnumbered publications that supported Mary's policies 2:1

When was the marriage of Mary I to Philip II of Spain?

1554

How did Philips view of England change between 1555-1556?

- abdication of CV (close friend of Mary's) (HRE) spitting empire between Philip II and Ferdinand
- through Mary loosing her main supporter in Europe, England is seen as less dominant, Mary does not have the support from Ferdinand

What was the Treaty of Vaucelles and how was Mary involved?

- FEB 1556
- established peace between France and Spain
- Mary acted as a mediator between France and Spain

July 1556

- Alliance between the French and Papacy (Anti-Spanish Pope) (Rome, Head of Catholic Church) reopened Habsburg-Valois war
- this created a dilema for Mary as she had to choose between her 2 loves: Philip and Catholicism

1557

JAN:
-England sent troops to the Netherlands (under the control of Spain) to help protect trade interests as England was reliant on Spanish cloth trade
MARCH:
- Philip returned to England to press for support in the war
APRIL:
- landing of Thomas Stafford at Scarborough
JUNE:
- England declared war on France
AUGUST:
- Victory for PII over HII at St Quentin
- England sent 7000 soldiers to help the 70,000 Spanish + Imperial army

1558

JAN: CAPTURE OF CALAIS by the French
- last English claim to French soil was lost
- personal loss for Mary
- increased Mary's unpopularity with the English people

1559

APRIL:
- Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis - peace between England and France and France and Spain
- Philip did not try to recapture Calais for England

Why did Mary use a policy of persecution to install Catholicism

- initially used a combinaton of persuading and informing techniques to gather the 'lost sheep' back towards Catholicism
- Pole encouraged bishops to make regular visitations to their dioceses to check on finances and dicipline amongst the clergy
- a newly edited Cathollic New Testament and a Book of Homilies were published but didn't have much time to be implemented
- Pole improved clerical education - seminaries established in cathedrals
- 19,000 copies of the 1552 Prayer Book (Protestant) in circulation
- little success in preventing the Protestant underground preaching - Latimer and Ridley managed to write pamphlets in prison which managed to circulate around
- lack of consistency hampered efforts to control literature as most Protestant writings were published abroad and they outweighed the Marian one significantly

Return to Catholicism

- Cardinal Reginald Pole arrived in England in November 1554
- NOV 1554: Parliament passed the second Statute of Repeal - ended royal supremacy restoring Papal authority once again and removed the religious reforms that Parliament had passed between 1529-1547 but those who had purchased church land after 1536 were protected

Beginning of heresy laws and burning's

- parliament restored the old heresy laws enabling burning resulting in leading Protestants being tried for heresy being found guilty and executed
- 1st burning at the stake took place on FEB 4th 1555
- by March 1556, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer had all been burned at the stake
- 284 Protestants were executed during Mary's reign

Gardiner's death

- death in November 1555 of Stephen Gardner, a devout Catholic that led to a repressive campaign being started against Protestants in England.
- Gardner despite being a devout Catholic urged caution and restraint when it came to dealing with Protestants
- Gardiner had supported the execution of the 1st few Protestants (to frighten off others) but he did not believe in a wholescale campaign against them

Pole's influence over Mary: Acceleration in burnings

- Gardiner's death led to Pole becoming far more influential on Mary's decision making
- DEC 1555: Pole was made Archbishop of Canterbury
- Pole persuaded Mary that it was their sacred duty to rid England and Wales of heretics
- Historians claim that the number of Protestants executed between 1555 - 1558 was greater than in any other European country state

Success regarding Mary's finance

- the Exchequer successfully pursued Crown debtors but not everyone paid up, especially those in political favour such as Pembroke or Lord Williams
- a new book of rates was introduced in 1558. As a result, customs revenues rose from $29,315 in 1556-7 to $82,797 in 1558-9 but it was to late for Mary to benefit
- the cost of garrisoning Calais was removed
- Mary had begun her reign with debts of $185,000, by her death this had only increased to $300,000 which was thought of as a 'considerable achievement'

Failures with regards to Mary's finance

- the debt at the end of her reign / $300,000 would have been considerably better if she had not been involved in war with Frane for the last eighteen months of her reign

Society and economic problems of Mary's reign

- social and economic problems occured during her reign which she had no control over
- in 1555 and 1556 - worst harvests of the century's causing rises in the price of gran and widespread famine, 50% of the rural and urban poor lived at or below the substance level
- 1556-58 typhus epidemics followed by an outbreak of influenza which killed one in 10 people, death rate was twice as high as normal
- between 1556-1561 -\> the population fell by 5%
- by 1559 agricultural worker's wages had droppped to 59% of what it had been 50 years earlier as a result of inflation

Poor relief

- response from Marian government to the dreadful problems of 1556-68
- particular emphasis was placed on the enforcement of laws against grain hoarders
- difficult to assess the effect of these measures

To what extent would Mary's economy / financial policy have been considered a failure if she had lived longer?

- she would have recieved significant beneft from the New Book of Rates
- actions would have been followed through with regards to plans to reissue the coinage - but don't know how significant that would have been
- war with France in the last 18 months of her reign
- impact of the changes Mary made would have not been big enough to overpower the social and economic problems during her reign which she did not have control over

Was Protestantism entrenched in English society in 1553?

- in many areas local poeple began restoring Catholic practices even before Mary's government ordered religious changes
- therefore Protestantism was far from entrenched

Evidence to support Mary proceeding cautiously to religious change at the beginning of her reign?

- some prominent Protestant clergy such as 7 bishops were deprived of their livings
- foreign Protestants were ordered to leave the country

Why did Mary have to approach the religious situation with caution?

- strong Protestant minority in London
- reformed Protestant church of England had been established by statute of law
- many members of the political elites who support Mary depended on had acquired church land and had no desire to return it

Religious change enforced in 1st Parliament: Oct 1553

- Edwardian religious legilsation repealed but legal status of the Church of England was upheld
- church restored to its state of 1547

How was opposition to the return of Catholicism reduced from MPs and local landowners?

- Pope Julius agreed not to try to claim back Church land that had been sold

What religious change was enforced in 3rd parliament: Nov 1554 - Jan 1555

- heresy laws restored in 1554 -\> punishable by death to deny papal supremacy
- Act of Supremacy 1555 -\> made the Pope the leader of the Church again

What religious reforms made Mary unpopular?

- persecuted Protestants including Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer
- 280 Protestants burnt at the stake
- this is what turned opposition from only a small number passionate Protestants at the beginnning of her reign to her being widely unpopular by the end

Long term social impacts of economic change

- population growth
- limited increase in productivity (in agriculture)
- caused inflation

Medium term social impacts of economic change

- debasement of the coinage from Somerset worsened inflation

Short term social impacts of economic change

- harvest failures in 1555 and 1556 caused severe food shortages and strain on real wages of the poor
- impact of influenza in 1557 and 1558: death rate doubled
- high taxation to pay for war against France

What was the Poor Law act of 1555?

- ordered licensed beggars to wear badges
- intended to encourage fellow parishioners into donating more alms for poor relief
- any benefits were not realised until Elizabeth's reign

Area of economic success under Mary's reign

- reorganisation of the administration and finance of the navy
- six new ships built
- laid the foundations for the powerful navy of Elizabeth's reign

What did the opposition from Wyatt's rebellion show?

- demonstrated the extent of popular hostility to the Spanish marriage
- showed the Protestant religious opinions could not be ignored

Intellectual developments: humanist ideas under Mary's reign

- reintroduction of Catholicism weakened the influence of humanism
- Pope Paul IV regarded the Catholic humanist Erasmus as a heretic and banned Catholics from reading his books
- Protestants who were forced into exile divided in their thinking: some were happy to use the 1552 prayer book and to operate within existing structures while others such as John Knox wanted a more radical direction