MARY I, 1553-1558
SOCIAL IMPACT OF RELIGIOUS AND ECONOMIC CHANGES:
• Parliament first met to make changes in religious legislation = October 1553
• First Act of Repeal passed by obedient majority (all legislation since 1547) = October 1553
• Cardinal Pole returned from exile = November 1554
• Mary I relinquished title as Supreme Head of the English Church = December 1553
• Second Act of Repeal passed by parliament (all legislation since 1539) = January 1555
• Cardinal Pole called London Synod and drew up 12 Decrees = 1555
• Proclamation forbidding printing of seditious rumours = July 1553
• Proclamation against “lewd treatises” concerning doctrine = August 1553
• 19,000 copies of the radically Protestant 1552 prayer book still in circulation by 1552
• Revival of the heresy laws which had operated during Henry VIII’s reign = 1555
• Policy of persecution (and execution) began = February 1555
• 280 people burned to death in 46 months, 5 bishops
• Latimer and Ridley burned for heresy = October 1555
• Archbishop Cranmer burned = 1556
• Foxe’s ‘Book of Martyrs’ published as anti-Marian Protestant propaganda under Elizabeth I = 1563, 5 editions published in its
first century
• Administrative disruptions and delays as a result of the burnings = July 1557
• Wyatt’s rebellion = 1554 (planned 4 rebellions to begin March 1554), had 3,000
• Cardinal Pole made Archbishop of Canterbury = 1555
• Mass exodus of roughly 800 Protestants to Germany and Switzerland by January 1554
• Bad harvests caused by heavy rain = 1555-57
• Typhus epidemics = 1556-58
• Outbreak of influenza = 1558, population may have dropped by as much as 5%
• Black Death = 1348-49, pre-Black death population had been substantially bigger than the 1550s
• New Book of Rates introduced to improve Crown income from customs duties = May 1558
• Mary I left with 3 serviceable warships after Northumberland decommissioned them
• Programme or rebuilding and refitting let to fleet level returning to 1547 level = 1558
• Militia Act = 1558
• Arms Act = 1558
• £40,000 raised per annum after rents on crown lands re-evaluated and raised
• 1559, Purchasing power of an agricultural worker’s wages dropped to 59% of what it had been 50 years earlier
• Population had risen from 2.3 million in the 1520s to 3 million in the 1550s
• Attempts to reduce begging by making beggars register and be given permission to beg. If they begged without a license, they
were to be whipped and returned to their parish of origin and fined = 1552
• Compulsory census and registration to reduce unauthorised begging, attempts made to persuade more people to make
contributions to poor = 1552-1563
MARY I AND HER MINISTERS:
• Mary I discussed possibility of marriage to Philip of Spain with Renard, imperial ambassador = 1553
• Mary I’s marriage to Philip of Spain = July 1554
• Parliament prevented Philip II’s coronation as King = 1555
• Philip became King of Spain = 1556
• Mary I’s two apparently false pregnancies = 1554, 1557
• Election of fiercely anti-Spanish Pope Paul IV led to renewed war between France and Spain, Mary I supported Spain = 1555
• Loss of Calais = 1558
• Disastrous campaign supported by Paget to the north of France = 1557
• Mary I finally named Elizabeth I as her successor (“my sister”), 11 days before her death = 6 November 1558
SOCIAL IMPACT OF RELIGIOUS AND ECONOMIC CHANGES:
• Parliament first met to make changes in religious legislation = October 1553
• First Act of Repeal passed by obedient majority (all legislation since 1547) = October 1553
• Cardinal Pole returned from exile = November 1554
• Mary I relinquished title as Supreme Head of the English Church = December 1553
• Second Act of Repeal passed by parliament (all legislation since 1539) = January 1555
• Cardinal Pole called London Synod and drew up 12 Decrees = 1555
• Proclamation forbidding printing of seditious rumours = July 1553
• Proclamation against “lewd treatises” concerning doctrine = August 1553
• 19,000 copies of the radically Protestant 1552 prayer book still in circulation by 1552
• Revival of the heresy laws which had operated during Henry VIII’s reign = 1555
• Policy of persecution (and execution) began = February 1555
• 280 people burned to death in 46 months, 5 bishops
• Latimer and Ridley burned for heresy = October 1555
• Archbishop Cranmer burned = 1556
• Foxe’s ‘Book of Martyrs’ published as anti-Marian Protestant propaganda under Elizabeth I = 1563, 5 editions published in its
first century
• Administrative disruptions and delays as a result of the burnings = July 1557
• Wyatt’s rebellion = 1554 (planned 4 rebellions to begin March 1554), had 3,000
• Cardinal Pole made Archbishop of Canterbury = 1555
• Mass exodus of roughly 800 Protestants to Germany and Switzerland by January 1554
• Bad harvests caused by heavy rain = 1555-57
• Typhus epidemics = 1556-58
• Outbreak of influenza = 1558, population may have dropped by as much as 5%
• Black Death = 1348-49, pre-Black death population had been substantially bigger than the 1550s
• New Book of Rates introduced to improve Crown income from customs duties = May 1558
• Mary I left with 3 serviceable warships after Northumberland decommissioned them
• Programme or rebuilding and refitting let to fleet level returning to 1547 level = 1558
• Militia Act = 1558
• Arms Act = 1558
• £40,000 raised per annum after rents on crown lands re-evaluated and raised
• 1559, Purchasing power of an agricultural worker’s wages dropped to 59% of what it had been 50 years earlier
• Population had risen from 2.3 million in the 1520s to 3 million in the 1550s
• Attempts to reduce begging by making beggars register and be given permission to beg. If they begged without a license, they
were to be whipped and returned to their parish of origin and fined = 1552
• Compulsory census and registration to reduce unauthorised begging, attempts made to persuade more people to make
contributions to poor = 1552-1563
MARY I AND HER MINISTERS:
• Mary I discussed possibility of marriage to Philip of Spain with Renard, imperial ambassador = 1553
• Mary I’s marriage to Philip of Spain = July 1554
• Parliament prevented Philip II’s coronation as King = 1555
• Philip became King of Spain = 1556
• Mary I’s two apparently false pregnancies = 1554, 1557
• Election of fiercely anti-Spanish Pope Paul IV led to renewed war between France and Spain, Mary I supported Spain = 1555
• Loss of Calais = 1558
• Disastrous campaign supported by Paget to the north of France = 1557
• Mary I finally named Elizabeth I as her successor (“my sister”), 11 days before her death = 6 November 1558
