Mary I Flashcards
Foreign policy
Jan 1554 – Marriage treaty between Mary and Philip II, Wyatt’s rebellion against the Spanish marriage.
July 1554 – Marriage between Mary and Philip II.
May – Election of the fiercely anti-Spanish Pope Paul IV.
Sept 1555 – Philip left England.
Oct 1555-Jan 1556 – Abdication of Charles V, splitting of the empire between Phillip II and Ferdinand.
July 1556 – Alliance between France and Papacy, reopened Habsburg-Valois war.
Jan 1557 – England sent troops to the Netherlands.
May 1557 – Philip II returns to England.
April 1557 – Landing of French troops at Scarborough, led by Thomas Stafford, Grandson of the Duke of Buckingham who had been executed in 1521.
June 1557 – England declares war on France.
July 1557 – Raids on the Scottish border, dealt with effectively.
Aug 1557 – Victory for Philip II at the siege of St Quentin, assisted by 5,000 English troops, Spain too financially exhausted to follow this up.
Jan 1558 – French capture Calais, 27,000 French troops against 2,000 English.
17th Nov 1558 – Death of Mary.
April 1559 – Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis.
impact of loss of Calais
-Monarchs had claimed Calais since 1347.
-Elizabeth’s propaganda blamed the loss on the Spanish marriage and Catholic policies.
-Last English territory on the French mainland.
-Little could be gained by maintaining it.
-Calais Pale used as a springboard for Henry VIII’s attacks in the 1520’s and 1540’s.
-Had become a strategic irrelevance, further invasion unlikely.
-Seen as a result of the failed Anglo-Habsburg alliance.
-Mary’s dependence on Spanish were seen as betraying England’s interests.
-Philip abandoned England with the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis in April 1549, made easier by the death of Mary 17th November 1558.
Wyatt’s rebellion 1554
-Caused by marriage treaty between England and Spain, xenophobia for Spanish, decline in cloth industry pushed poorer people to express grief, attracted some gentry who lost office in Mary’s reign.
-rebellion planned in Nov 1553 - wanted simultaneous risings in Devon, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, and Kent - only ended up happening in Kent due to the plans being discovered.
-Thomas Wyatt in Kent was only one to raise a proper army, 4,000,
-Indecisiveness of Wyatt caused delay - Mary gave a speech at Guild Hall on 1st Feb rallying support.
- rebels reach Southward but are stopped at London Bridge.
- rebels retreat upstream to Kingston upon Thames. Stopped at Ludgate the next day and Wyatt surrenders.
-Lady Jane Grey executed as a result of her father supporting the rebellion, Elizabeth imprisoned in Tower of London for implication in the rebellion.
Economic changes
-1555-56 – Heavy rain caused the worst harvests of the century, caused unprecedented rises in the prices of grain and widespread famine.
-1556-58 – Typhus epidemic followed by an outbreak of influenza/’sweating sickness’, killed 1/10 of all people who contracted it. Population may have dropped as much as 5% 1556-1561, worst death toll since the Black Death.
-1559 – Agricultural wages had dropped to 59% of what they had been 50 years earlier, due to inflation.
-1554 – Recommendations of the financial commission established under Northumberland were implemented, such as the Court of Exchequer taking over both the Court of First Fruits and Tenths and the Court of Augmentations (both est. 1530’s – change in government.)
-1556-58 – Drew up plans to reissue the currency, implemented under Elizabeth.
-May 1558 – New Book of Rates was introduced, helped to dramatically raise customs revenue.
-1558 – Militia Act and Arms Act – Laid down a system of Commissioners of Muster to organise the recruitment of local militias in wartime and established better procedures for supplying weapons to the Royal Army.
key religious figures
Stephen Gardiner - Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor. Imprisoned during Edward’s reign in July 1547.
Simon Renard - imperial ambassador from Charles V
Reginald Pole - cousin of Mary’s. became Papal Legate with task to restore papal authority in England.
Philip II - son of Charles v, husband of Mary.
Charles V - Mary cousin - maintained regular correspondence with him.
Julius III - Pope when Mary ascended to the throne. Demanded all monastic lands returned to the church before England could reconcile with Rome.
Paul IV - Pope from 1555, fiercely anti-Habsburg, brought England into conflict with Papacy.
Mary’s personal beliefs
- inevitable restoration of Catholicism.
-Likened to Mary, mother of God. Restoration of Catholicism seen as divine purpose.
-Mary interpreted her initial popularity as an endorsement of her Catholic beliefs, rather than a reaction to the attempted Devyse by Northumberland and Lady Jane Grey.
persuasion and persecution
-Policy of censorship throughout Mary’s reign.
-28th July 1553 – Forbade the printing of seditious rumours.
-Number of Catholic sermons sponsored at St. Paul’s Cross in London.
-Many pro-government writers published works in defence of the regime.
-Dec 1554 – Heresy laws restored.
-284 Protestant martyrs burned.
-5 were Bishops.
-51 were women.
-2nd Aug 1557 – Alice Downs, a 60-year-old widow burned outside Colchester with 5 others.
factors hindering restoration of Catholicism
-5 year reign.
-Pole did not give ecclesiastical policy his full attention.
-Pole’s scheme to overhaul Church finances required two huge surveys, took 18 months.
-Bishops not active, 6 sees were left vacant for most of the reign.
-Pope Julius III died in March 1555.
-New Pope, Pope Paul IV, was anti-Habsburg and in dispute with Philip.
-Propaganda opportunities not taken, April 1554 – debates between leading Catholics and Protestants, or the recantation of Sir John Cheke.
-Edwardian Bishops were still in their sees until April 1554. 1557 – Pope Paul IV refused to confirm Mary’s appointments of Bishops.
-Pope rejected help of the Jesuits in 1555.
