Marian Persecutions
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Marian Persecutions refers to the persecutions of Protestants and dissenters under the Queen Mary I of England. This issue is of some controversy as numerically, she does not appear to have killed any more for religious dissent than other Tudors. However, such executions occurred over a period of only 5 years - a significantly shorter time period than most Tudor monarchs.
Several issues made her persecutions more memorable for England.
First, she came after a Protestant king. Hence those who deemed the Reformation as progress saw any persecutions of it by a Catholic to be a step backward. The right of monarchs to persecute religions was rarely if ever disputed at this time, but for Protestants to face persecution after feeling they had won England seemed like an indignity. As virtually all English monarchs after her would be Protestant this added to the image of her persecutions as strange.
Second, she used burning more than would be used by most English kings. This horrified Protestants as Catholic persecutions of early "heretics" used burning as the method of execution. Therefore many in the Protestant camp came to see burning, rather than killing religious dissenters itself, to be the barbaric act. Therefore when Protestants gained power they generally favored hanging, flogging, shooting, or even eye-gouging as the preferred method of executing religious dissenters. Likewise Catholic kings before her tended to use beheading, being drawn and quartered, and hanging as execution methods. The image of burning as the greatest emblem of religious persecution would continue in the English speaking world long after it stopped being popularly related to Catholic actions. Hence Calvinist killing of suspected witches is often referred to as "witch-burning" despite the fact most Calvinists rejected burning anyone as being a "Papist" practice.
Third, the percentage of her victims to be elderly men or women of any age seemed unusually high. Whether this is actually true is unclear, but the perception was there and seems to have had some statistical support. Either way this perception angered many as it seemed to be attacking more vulnerable elements of society.
Fourth, her husband was Spanish. This angered many people of varying religious views. Related to this most people at this time assumed that a woman was ultimately submissive to her husband. Therefore Queen Mary I of England was potentially seen as making England submissive to Spain by bringing the Spanish Inquisition to England's shores as a kind of wedding present. This offended the English sense of independence.
Lastly, elements of her personality and life history rendered some of her actions to seem more extreme than they may have been in reality. In the past kings often repressed dissent because it threatened their power while their actual practice of any religion might be at best inconsistent. Mary appeared sincere in her devotion to the Catholic Faith as she understood it. Further she often kept that devotion when it was not in her best interests. Related to that unlike most of the Tudors she suffered from few to no accusations of sexual promiscuity. Queen Mary on certain occasions expressed a personal bitterness about the Reformation rather than an abstract political hostility. For Mary Tudor's life it seemed the Reformation humiliated her mother, called her a bastard child, and later forced her to plead with her teenage brother to be allowed to practice her faith. This made it a much more personal event than normal for a Catholic monarch. Perhaps more personal than it even was to most Popes. Added to that her mother's origins, the events of her life, and her marriage did cause her to gravitate toward Spain.
Outside of the controversy what seems clear is that under her 300 people were killed for their faith. This persecution created bitterness for both sides for generations to come. It also tarnished her image perhaps forever. Before she came to power she had widespread sympathy even among some Protestants. Many in England saw her as a tragic princess unfairly demeaned by her father King Henry VIII. Her image after the persecutions turned into that of an almost legendary tyrannical being called Bloody Mary.
