The Reign of Mary I: How successful was Mary I's counter Reformation?

Tuesday, 24 March 2009

How successful was Mary I's counter Reformation?

What were the problems facing a counter-reformation?
- There were major financial costs to restore Catholicism.
- A huge possibility of a Protestant upsurge.
- Bible was reprinted in LATIN - So the bishops had to be re-educated.
- Monastries had been destroyed and the current lands were sold.

A return to the papal authoritywould mean an end to royal supremacy, which was strongly supported by the ruling and landed elites.

Even the most ardent of the leading conservatives had been firm in their alliegance to the Crown and the Tudor state.

Mary failed to appreciate the political implications of restoring Roman Catholicism in England.

It is agreed that the Major causes of Marys widespread unpopularity by the end of her reign, apart from the religious persecution, were the return to Papal Authority and the Spanish Marriage.

What were Mary I's aims?
- To restore Catholicism
- To marry
- To convince the Privy Council that she had a right to be Queen
- Have children for the succession
- Choose Privy Council

Why did she wish to restore Catholicism?
- Mother was Catholic - Catherine of Aragon
- Was a devout Catholic - thought it was her duty to save the souls of her people
- Was made illegitimate due to Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn
- 1543 Act of Succession - She would succeed Edward
- Edward and Northumberlands Protestant plot - the devise.
- Reverse the shift towards Protestantism.

What obstacles might Mary face?
- She was a Female Monarch
- Protestantism
- Landowners who benefited from monastries closure
- Parliament
- Higher order, e.g. some nobility - fear of loosing power
- Anti-Spanish feeling - against Spanish influence
- Finance
- Social & Economic issues
- Foreign Policy failures
- Princess Elizabeth
- Return church to 1529 or 1547?
- Pope would have to forgive England
- Catholics want full restoration of Catholicism
- Yet too quickly could lead to unrest.

Swing from Protestantism to Catholicism
- 1553 - Full Protestantism in Edwards reign
- Removal of Edwardian Protestantism
- Restoration of Catholic doctrine

- Catholicism enforced among the clergy
- Restoration of papal supremacy
- Persection of Protestant Opponents
- Reformed Catholicism

Persecution
- Protestant clergy deprived of their living things
- Arrest of Archbishop Cranmer
- Imprisonment of leading Protestants e.g. Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, Rogers.
- Mass exodus of Protestants
- Royal Injunctions - suppress heresy and deprive married priests of their livings
- Burnings on the stake - around 300 in total

Burnings
- People who refused to accept the Catholic view of Eucharist or to conform to restored Catholic Rites
- Heresy laws restored
- Trials and executions followed of those who would not accept Catholic belief and practice.
- 280 people burned in 46 months
   - 5 were bishops
   - 51 were women
   - Burnings mainly in the South East
   - Nearly half were in London
   - 16th Century - 1000's of people slaughtered in the name of some version of the 'true faith.'

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Claim to the Throne

When Edward died of Tuberculosis in 1553 at the young age of 15, he made sure that the crown would not pass to Mary as he feared she would restore Catholicism and undo his reformation. Edward excluded his own sister from the line of sucession, but was told by his advisors that he would also have to remove Elizabeth (even though she too was Protestant). Influenced by John Dudley, Edward excluded both of his sisters from the succession in his will. Instead of Mary rising to the throne, Edward chose Lady Jane Grey (Dudleys daughter-in-law) as his successor. However, the support for Jane quickly fell, and she was removed as Queen nine days later. Mary then rode into London with popular support and legally assumed the crown. Her first act was to imprision Jane and Dudley in the Tower of London.

Return to Catholicism

With Catherine of Aragon as her Catholic mother, Mary had always rejected the break with Rome her father had introduced for his marriage to Anne Boleyn. As Queen, Mary was indeed concerned about heresy and the English Church. One of her acts was to have England reconcile with Rome and Reginald Cardinal Pole, who she later greatly relied on for advice. In the Statute of Repeal Act (1553), Mary abolished Edward's religious laws and church doctrine was restored to the form it had taken in the 1547 Six articles. Mary had also began to persuade Parliament to repeal the Protestant religious laws passed by Henry VIII. This meant that tens of thousands of acres of monastery lands which had been confiscated were now to be returned. This action was later approved by the Papacy in 1554, along with the Revival of the Heresy Acts.

Spanish Marriage and Pregnancy

Once she had become Queen, Mary turned her attention to marriage and producing an heir so that Protestant Elizabeth would not succeed to the throne. Her cousin, Charles V, suggested she marry his only son, Philip II of Spain. They were married on 25th July 1554, only two days after their first meeting. Many people opposed to the mariage as they believed she would be influenced by a foreign husband.
Mary also suffered from two 'phantom pregnancies', which later led to Philip heading off to Flanders to command his armies against France, and this left Mary heartbroken and she soon fell into a depression.

The Reign of Mary I

Tuesday, 24 March 2009

How successful was Mary I's counter Reformation?

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Mary I

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