On the 16th of November, Queen Mary died. She had long been ailing with an unknown disease which may well have been stomach cancer. In the brief time that she had ruled England, she had killed nearly 300 Protestants, the worst holocaust of its kind in England. She had also been the cause of exile for many. Her reign was primarily known for its treatment of Protestants and Protestantism in general but beyond that she was unpopular because of her marriage to Philip II of Spain and because in the final year of her reign, she lost Calais to the French, ending centuries of English occupation in France. 

Her sister Elizabeth, who had quietly bided her time, survived incarceration in the tower for suspected treason and had avoided execution for heresy, was crowned queen of England. Her reign was longer than either of her siblings before her and served to return England to Protestantism and finally establish it as a protestant nation. 

Despite Elizabeth’s reign being regarded as one of the golden periods of English history, it was fraught with religio-political turmoil. The root of the trouble was the Papacy’s refusal to acknowledge her as the legitimate heir and sovereign of the English throne. As a mark of Papal displeasure, the Pope issued a Papal Bull of Excommunication against the queen. The bull essentially relieved Catholics of the duty of loyalty they owed to the queen. The move placed Elizabeth and her Parliament in a difficult position for they were keenly aware of how political revolution could rear its head under the guise of religious rhetoric. 

Given the renewed breach with Rome and the Papacy’s reluctance to surrender the English church, it became a matter of national security for the queen to ensure her subjects were loyal to her and not the Pope. Once more the lines between civil and religious liberty were blurred. The queen demanded that every one of her subjects convert to Protestantism overnight. As a sign of their commitment to the new church and by extension their new sovereign, Elizabeth’s commanded her subjects to attend Protestant services weekly. The command was made in the queen’s name but was orchestrated by her advisors the chief of whom was William Cecil. 

This gave rise to a movement of recusancy among devout Catholics who were unwilling to violate their conscience by pretending to be Catholic. Elizabeth, though aware of the recusant community turned a blind eye to it. She would only go so far as to make her wishes known, she refused to “make windows into men’s souls” as she famously put it. She was forced to rethink her ideals when a series of assassination plots, orchestrated by Catholic subjects came to light. Then the crackdowns began.