Mary Tudor was the daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Her mother’s divorce, her own declared illegitimacy, and years of humiliation bound her the more closely to her mother’s faith. When her Protestant half-brother Edward VI died in July 1553, she defeated the attempt to crown Lady Jane Grey and became queen, the first woman to rule England in her own right.

Mary set out to undo the Reformation. The mass was restored, married clergy were removed, and in July 1554 she married Philip of Spain, the son of Charles V. That November Cardinal Reginald Pole reconciled the realm to Rome, and Parliament revived the old laws for the burning of heretics. The first martyr, John Rogers, died at Smithfield on February 4, 1555.¹ Bishop J. C. Ryle summed up what followed:

It is a broad fact that during the four last years of Queen Mary’s reign no less than 288 persons were burnt at the stake for their adhesion to the Protestant faith.… Indeed, the faggots never ceased to blaze whilst Mary was alive, and five martyrs were burnt in Canterbury only a week before her death.¹ J. C. RyleLight from Old Times

Among them were Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Bishops Hooper, Ridley, Latimer, and Ferrar, and dozens of women and some children. Mary died childless on November 17, 1558. Her sister Elizabeth succeeded her, and the burning ceased. The memory of the fires, preserved in Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, shaped English Protestantism for centuries.

Ryle’s figure of 288 comes from Foxe. Modern historians give totals in the range of 280 to 290.

Catholic Opponents