All the progress of reform that Edward had meticulously spearheaded and championed came to a halt when he died, on the 6th of July 1553, aged 15. He is believed to have died of tuberculosis. Shortly before his death, Edward circumvented his father’s Act of Succession which named his sister Mary as next in line to the throne. Edward wrote his own plan for the succession which he named My Device for the Succession. In it, he named his cousin, Lady Jane Grey as his heir. Jane was already third in line to the throne behind Edward’s sister. He simply bumped her up to first place. 

Jane and Edward were kindred spirits in that they shared the same strong Protestant views. Leaving the throne to Jane gave Edward a sense of security. Unfortunately, the people knew very little about Jane Grey. They also wanted a proper Tudor heir on the throne. Jane was a Tudor. Her grandmother, Mary, was Henry VIII’s sister. But the people wanted one of Henry’s own surviving children to inherit the throne, not an upstart cousin. 

Lady Jane was proclaimed Queen of England, shortly after Edward’s death. She processed to the Tower of London where she took refuge awaiting her coronation. Her father-in-law and Edward’s chief councillor at the time of his death, the Duke of Northumberland worked tirelessly to validate her claim to the throne. While Edward had demanded that his Privy Council sign his Device for the Succession, he had died before it could be ratified by an act of Parliament. 

This produced some confusion for while the king’s will was valid, the king’s father’s will held more legal weight having been passed by parliamentary act. Added to this Edward’s sister Mary refused to go quietly. She had been waiting for the throne all her life. Had her father listened to her mother, she would have had the throne long before Edward was even born. She raised her standard at Framlingham Castle and proceeded to amass troops to march on London and claim her throne. 

Ultimately Mary was successful. Jane was designated Jana non-regina (Jane, Not the Queen), by the very men who placed her on the throne. Jane’s reign lasted a total of thirteen days from the death of Edward to her deposition. She was sent to the tower by Mary who processed into London and took the throne as Mary I. 

In September Mary began to arrest known and notable Protestants. Among these were Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester and Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. Mary held particular grudges against threse three men. She despised Cranmer for he had annulled her parents’ marriage. Ridley had preached against her at St. Paul’s Cross in London and openly supported Jane Grey. Latimer was a staunch Protestant widely respected by the people. 

After his arrest, Latimer was brought to London and rode past Smithfield in a small cart. Smithfield was the site where heretics were burned and Latimer is said to have commented “Smithfield has long groaned for me”. He like other Protestants understood that their days, under the rule of Mary Tudor, were numbered. 

In October  Mary was crowned in Westminster Abbey and began her campaign to undo the Reformation and return England to the Papacy. She passed The First Act of Repeal which reversed all the religious legislation Edward VI had passed through parliament. It was a deliberate attempt to undo the Reformation but Mary underestimated the challenges which would accompany reversing 20 years of history stemming from her father’s reign. 

While she could repeal Edward’s laws she couldn’t reinstate the disassembled monastic estates. The populace had already been exposed to Scripture which led them to refuse indulgences and view the worship of saints with spekticism. If Mary wanted England to return to Catholicism she needed an heir. She chose Philip II Of Spain as a husband for obvious reasons. Her mother was Spanish and Philip was a relative of her. Philip was also the self-proclaimed defender of the Roman faith. Together they could and would return England to the Papacy.

But the English people weren’t as enamored with Philip. They trembled at the reports of the Spanish Inquisition. They didn’t care for a foreign king. Many Protestants fled to Geneva during this time. Those who stayed and refused to lie low were eventually burned.