Mary I dates

Following the death of Edward, Northumberlands devyse went through, proclaiming Lady Jane Gret as Queen of England. However, Northumberland had exposed himself as a desperate power grabber, and both the ordinary people and the government changed their support to be for the legitamate successor, Mary. Council members declared Mary queen in July of 1553, and Northumberland reluctantly followed in August. Mary was declared Queen. 

Mary knew she had to have trusted advisors that would accept her religious reform. She appointed both Catholics like Bishop Stephen Gardiner, those who had been excluded in Edwards reign, but also made sure to have experienced councillors who had served with Edward, like Paget. However, Marys council was ineffective as it was too big to govern effectively, and Mary was never at ease with her council, lacking confidence in them. This led to her becoming more reliant on her Spanish ambassador Simon Renard and her husband Philip. This angered her councillors and made her subjects fear the Spanish influence on England

Immediately after being proclaimed queen, Mary made moves to repeal Edwardian religious laws. In October, she called her first parliament, and passed the first Statue of Repeal. The religious order of service was restored to what it was in 1547 and all clergy who had married could be deprived of their livings. Finally, the legal status of the church was upheld. 

There was a marriage between Mary and Philip of Spain in January, cementing positive Spanish relations. This improved the problem of the succession, as it lessoned the chance of the Protestant Elizabeth getting the throne. The marriage treaty was agreed that gave Philip the title of king but refused him any political power within England, meaning that he coule not hold office or have a claim to the throne if Mary died first. Later in 1554, Parliament rejected a bill to include Philip in the treason act, and refused him a 1555 coronation

January of 1554 saw Wyatts Rebellion, the only rebellion in Marys reign. There was a plan for rebellions across the North but only Kent saw significant uprisings, of about 3000 men. They were led by Thomas Wyatt. It was caused by xenophobia towards the Spanish influence and marriage, leading to anger within the gentry as they viewed their loss of office as insulting. There was also frustration over the decline in the cloth trade industry and its effects of the poor. There was an implicit objective of getting rid of Mary, made confusing by the inclusion of Lady Jane Greys father. It resulted in showing that protestants could not be ignored and there was a resentment against foreign marriage. It gave Mary an excuse to execute Jane Grey, however reluctantly. Elizabeth was imprisoned but with no evidenc agaisnt her had to be released

More religious reform followed in 1554,  where the Cardinal Pole was made Archbishop of Canterbury. The November 1554 parliament restored Catholic Heresy laws, and Henrican Act of Attainder was repealed. 

In 1555, there was a second Statue of Repeal, which repealed anti papal legislation from Henrys reforms of the 1530s. The burning of heretics also began in February, and overall there were 289 protestants burned at the stake, including Cramner, Hooper and Ridley. Most of the burned were actually ordinary people however, showing that protestantism was important even to those who did not benefit from it financially. The effect back fired on Mary, as there was widespread sympathy for the publically killed victims, and Mary failed to extinguish heresy, destroying instead the remainer of her reputation. In May, the anti Spanish Pope Paul IV was elected, which would cause problems between Marys relgious interests and her foreign interests. 

In 1556, the effects of the population growth began to be felt. There was significant harvest failures in 1555-1556. This caused a strain of food supplies and prices rose as wages couldnt afford basic necessities. 

In 1557, England was dragged into a war with Spain against France and the Papacy. This was a problem for Mary as it caused a conflict between her foreign and personal interests through Philip, and her religious interests, due to the attack on the Catholic Pope. Eventually, she sided with Philip and declared war on France in 1557. This followed the attack on Scarborough. Marys previous reform of the navy did her well, as she had spent time reorganising the administration and finance of the Navy. She had built 6 new ships and had ensured repairs had happened, allocating £14,000 to the navy. These reforms not only benefitted this war, but also benefitted when it came to the 1588 Spanish Armada. 

There was also a sweating sickness in 1557-1558, which led to the largest death toll since the Black Death. This caused problems as there was not enough workers and food was already short. It merely added to the growing economic crisis the successor would need to fix

The war with the French reached a peak with the loss of Calais in January. This was a humiliating loss for Mary, as the land had been English since 1347. However, the real loss was only on morale, as it had been expensive to maintain, with little modern use. Elizabeth would see this and not bother regaining the territory. 

Economic reform concluded with the 1558 book of rates. Much of Marys early reform would only benefit Elizabeth, like the combination of the Court of the Exchequer made from the Court of First Fruits and Tenths and the Court of Augmentation. She had also remitted the last of Edwards subsidy, gaining popularity at a finacial cost. The Book of Rates itself increased customs revenue. 

Finally, in November of 1558, after a long illness, Mary died. She had no heir and so the succession was signed over to Elizabeth