Mary, Elizabeth and the Reformation
The Tudors and the Stuarts1485 to 1714
At the same time that Henry VIII broke England away from Rome, the same movement was reshaping the whole of Europe. The movement against the authority of the Pope in Henry VIII's time became known as the Reformation, a turn against the ideas and practices of the Roman Catholic Church that split the continent between old faith and new.
Henry's own family carried that split forward after he was gone. Mary was the daughter of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII, and once she came to the throne and persecuted Protestants, she became known as Bloody Mary, a name that has stuck to her ever since. Her half-sister Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, born to the wife Henry married once he had broken with Rome to divorce Catherine of Aragon, and it fell to her, in time, to settle which faith the country would follow.
What to remember
 Mary | Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII Mary was the only child of Catherine of Aragon to survive infancy, which is why she inherited after Edward VI rather than a son. |
|---|---|
| Elizabeth I | Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn Naming both parents ties the woman who opens the current course back to the marriage that caused the Break with Rome. |
| Mary | Bloody Mary The nickname is shorthand for her persecution of Protestants and is one of the most recognisable labels in the chapter. |
|---|---|
| The movement against the authority of the Pope in Henry VIII's time | the Reformation Across Europe, against the ideas and practices of the Roman Catholic Church; Protestants came out of it. |
Everything in The Tudors and the Stuartsor the whole course, from the beginning