How Far At the Death of Mary I, In 1558, Was England a Roman Catholic country.

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        MARÍA-PAULINA SOCARRÁS-GARZÓN         12 URSULA

HOW FAR AT THE DEATH OF MARY I, IN 1558, WAS ENGLAND A ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRY?

Queen Mary I of England reigned as queen of England for a short five years. Most historians consider her reign to be unfruitful in that she never was able to see her dream of returning England to the Roman Catholic Church fulfilled. She was also never able to bear any children to continue her dream as the monarch of England. In addition to the failure of her domestic policies, her foreign policies met with failure as well.

After Edward VI’s death and the overthrow of Lady Jane Grey, “the nine day queen”, Mary immediately went to work bringing the Roman Catholic faith back to England. She initially did this by repealing the religious proclamations of Edward VI, and replacing them with old English laws enforcing heresy against the Church. In carrying out the last action, Mary earned her nickname, "Bloody Mary," because during her reign, more than 300 persons were burned at the stake for heresy. Among them were prominent Protestant clergymen such as Thomas Cranmer.

In her drive to find an heir to the English throne, Mary married Prince Philip II, of Spain. This made her subjects even more apprehensive about her, because Spain was looked upon as an arch enemy of England, chiefly because of religious differences. At the age of 37, it was difficult for Mary to conceive a child, and she never did. However, twice during her reign she had believed that she did, and even showed the symptoms of pregnancy, but both times no child was born. It is believed now that she had a "hysterical pregnancy." In short, she had convinced herself that she was pregnant so much that her body responded as if she were. It has also been supposed that she might have had an ovarian cyst that not only prevented her from conceiving a child, but could have contributed to her death in 1558.

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Although Edward had wished that Jane Grey be made the Queen of England, the people were not ready to accept her as queen. So, Northumberland had to declare Mary as the Queen of England. The people looked towards her as the daughter of Henry VIII, who had brought peace in England. Mary was a staunch Catholic. She renewed the faith and once again introduced mass. In her parliament, she refuted the acts of Edward VI as immature. She tried to swerve England towards Catholicism.

The Tudors generally had a flair for understanding people, but unfortunately Mary lacked this quality. ...

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