Marian Government Policies
The following is a list of government policies & officials.
It also includes religious legislation.


When did Parliament meet during Mary's reign?
5 October 1553 to 5 December 1553
2 April 1554 to 5 May 1554
12 November 1554 to 16 January 1555
21 October 1555 to 9 December 1555
20 January 1558 to 17 November 1558

Who were the Speakers of the House of Commons?
Sir John Pollard, M.P. for Oxfordshire - elected 5 October 1553
Sir Robert Brooke, M.P. for the City of London - elected 2 April 1554
Sir Clement Higham, M.P. for West Looe - elected 12 November 1554
Sir John Pollard, M.P. for Chippenham - elected 21 October 1555
Sir William Cordell, M.P. for Suffolk - elected 20 January 1558

Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal
Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester  1553-1555
Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York  1556-1558

Keepers of the Privy Seal
John Russell, 1st Lord Russell, created 1st earl of Bedford, 1550)  1542-1555
William Paget  1555-1559

Principal Secretaries
Sir John Cheke  1553
Sir John Bourne  1553-1558

Chief Justices of the King's Bench
Thomas Bromley  1553
William Portman  1555
Edward Saunders  1557

Chief Justices of Common Pleas
Richard Morgan  1553
Robert Brooke  1554
Anthony Browne  1558

Lord Treasurers
William Paulet, 1st earl of Wiltshire (1550) and 1st marquis of Winchester (1551)
held office of Lord Treasurer from 1550 to 1572

Chief Barons of the Court of Exchequer
David Brook  1553
Clement Heigham  1558

Masters of the Rolls - Court of Chancery
Sir Nicholas Hare  1553
Sir William Cordell  1557


 


Religious Developments  1553-1558 1553
January - Sir Richard Cotton ordered to seize Church plate and vestments.
12 June - the Forty-Two Articles issued (includes the statement that Justification before God is by faith alone; also, good works play no part in salvation & there is no purgatory.)
19 July - Mary Tudor proclaimed queen of England.
Immediate & rapid religious changes ensue.
September - Bishops Bale, Coverdale, Ponet, Scory & Barlow are deprived of their offices & eventually flee overseas.
Bishops Gardiner and Bonner are released from prison and reinstated to former offices.
Mary orders that Archbishop Cranmer be arrested.  His fellow Protestant leaders - Latimer, Hooper & Ridley (and a score of others) are also arrested.
October - Parliament in session.  It refuses to repeal the Act of Supremacy, despite Mary's insistence.  They do pass an Actof Repeal which essentially voids the Edwardian reformation - and reinstates Mass, clerical celibacy & ritual worship.
December - Mary responds to Parliament's refusal to repeal the Act of Supremacy & rejects the title of Supreme Head of the English Church.
 

1554
January - prominent English Protestants flee to Germany and Switzerland, trying to avoid Marian prosecution of married/non-celibate clergy.
March - Mary issues Royal Injunction - orders bishops to remove married clergy from office; suppress heresy; only ordain clergy who have been ordained under the English Ordinal; restore Holy Days and attendant ceremonies.
Gardiner begins a methodical purge of married clergy.  This practice eventually claims almost a quarter of parish clergy.
April - Parliament meets again - and once more clash with Mary.  They eventually agree to pass heresy laws - if there is no restoration of monastic lands.  Mary reluctantly agrees to the condition.
November - Cardinal Reginald Pole (whose Plantagenet mother, Margaret, was brutally murdered by Henry VIII) returns to England and the sentence of excommunication is lifted from England.
Also, Parliament meets again and passes a 2nd Act of Repeal which voids all religious legislation since 1529.  In other words, the Henrician Reformation never occurred!
 

1555
January - Mary begins the new year by appointing a commission to re-establish various religious houses.
4 February - The first Protestant martyr is publicly burned - John Rogers, translator of the Bible, is convicted under the new heresy laws.
16 October - Bishops Ridley and Latimer are burnt for heresy outside Balliol College, Oxford.
12 November - Stephen Gardiner, Mary's Catholic adviser, dies.
13 November - Archbishop Cranmer is officially deprived of the See of Canterbury.
December - Cardinal Reginald Pole is given Cranmer's former position - named Archbishop of Canterbury.
 

1556
The public burning of Protestant martyrs continues unabated.
21 March - Thomas Cranmer recants all retractions and is burnt for heresy outside Balliol College, Oxford - where Ridley and Latimer were also killed.
22 March - Pole is officially consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Cardinal Pole becomes enmeshed in arguments with Pope Paul IV and is deprived of his position as Papal Legate.
 

1557
Many small religious houses are re-established.
June - Pole is recalled to Rome to answer charges of heresy, referencing his arguments with the pope.  Mary refuses to let him go.  The pope appoints Friar William Peto as Papal Legate in Pole's place.  Mary refuses to recognize the appointment.
 

1558
10 November - five prominent Protestants burnt for hersey at Canterbury.  In total, about 300 Protestants were killed during Mary's reign.
The prominent Protestant exile Thomas Bentham returns to London and leads Protestant meetings.
17 November - Mary and Pole both die.

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