Bloody Mary by Bloody Mary. Tudor Terror 1553-1558 (2018)

Author:Bloody Mary. Tudor Terror, 1553-1558 (2018)
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: HISTORY / Military / General
ISBN: 9781526728661
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2018-09-19T00:00:00+00:00

The knife edge of Mary’s campaign against Protestants was the swathe of bishops who ruled over their sees with rods of iron. Given leave by the queen to hunt down heretics, they took to their task with a will; almost overnight they imposed what can only be termed martial law for religious offences and by the end of Mary’s first year as monarch they were more feared than the sheriffs or magistrates who had control of civil law.

Heretics had always been a problem but, apart from the wholesale expulsion of Jews in 1290, there had never been a systematic persecution in England. Things were different now as arrests and confinements for Protestant beliefs doubled. Not everyone reached the execution stage. Many of those apprehended died of natural causes: ‘Thomas Dolbe, who at the beginning of the reign, was apprehended for speaking against the idolatry of the Mass, and died in prison.’2

Natural deaths or not, the burnings were coming. Had Mary, three months into her supposed pregnancy, accepted—perhaps subconsciously—that the outcome of her claim to be with child would be negative? Maybe, just maybe, the subsequent burnings were little more than the furious lashing out of the repressed adolescent who has been frustrated in her desires and wishes. Or had she already decided, after events like Wyatt’s rebellion, that enough was enough and that those Protestants who remained in England needed to be taught a lesson? It is supposition and trying to get inside the mind of Mary Tudor remains a process fraught with danger.

Either way, neither Mary nor Cardinal Pole had expected to burn so many. And they had certainly not intended that the executions would go on for so long. The earliest burnings were meant to shock, to bring recalcitrant Protestants to their senses, which is why, to begin with, the victims were men who were reasonably well known in their communities. And, of course, in those local communities were where they perished. These early martyrs were men of substance. People knew of them, respected them, and would be brought up short by the manner of their deaths. There was nothing personal in the process—except for Thomas Cranmer but he would come just a little later.

The facts are that the burnings began on 4 February 1555. Execution by burning at the stake was the ultimate punishment but it was intended to be used only if the accused refused to recant, one of the reasons that every execution was accompanied by a sermon from a notable clergyman. Even up to the point where the fires were lit and smoke began to billow across the crowd, recantations would have been accepted. By that stage, however, the ‘heretic’ had usually made his peace with God and was ready to die.

John Rogers, the first victim of Mary’s persecution, went to the stake in 1555.

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