2D - Mary’s accession, aims and opposition: the Royal Supremacy and problems with her first Parliament
Mary won the crown in 1553, but winning obedience to her religious programme was a different problem. Learn how her Catholic beliefs, Parliament, the Spanish marriage and the legacy of earlier reform shaped what restoration could achieve.
Accession and Catholic aims
Mary's proclamation as queen in July 1553 followed the collapse of the attempt to give Edward VI's crown to Lady Jane Grey. Her success demonstrated the strength of her hereditary claim and hostility to Northumberland's intervention in the succession. It did not demonstrate that everyone who supported her wanted papal authority restored. A Protestant could defend Mary's legal right to succeed while disliking her religion; a conservative could welcome the Mass while wanting to retain land purchased from dissolved monasteries.
Mary's Catholic commitment was long established. She had continued to hear Mass during Edward's reign despite pressure to conform. Henry VIII's repudiation of Catherine of Aragon had also linked the break with Rome to Mary's own loss of legitimacy. Her religious and dynastic objectives therefore reinforced one another: restoring her parents' marriage, restoring the Catholic Church, and producing a Catholic successor would vindicate her family and protect the faith beyond her lifetime.
Restoration nevertheless involved several separate changes. The Latin Mass and Catholic teaching concerned worship and doctrine. Recognition of the pope concerned jurisdiction: who possessed authority over the English Church. Rebuilding institutions and educating clergy concerned the Church's capacity to maintain Catholic life. These changes could proceed at different speeds. Mary could restore worship before agreement on Rome, and a statute could restore jurisdiction before parishes had replaced their books or church furniture.
Papal authority
Recognition of the pope's jurisdiction over the Church, including matters such as ecclesiastical government and appeals. This is distinct from accepting a particular Catholic doctrine or attending Mass.
This distinction explains the apparent contradiction at the beginning of the reign. Mary rejected the claim that a monarch should be head of the Church, yet she initially inherited and operated the powers of the royal supremacy. She needed existing governmental machinery to remove Edwardian reformers and restore conservative bishops, including Stephen Gardiner and Edmund Bonner. Abandoning every instrument of control immediately would have made religious restoration harder to organise.
The first Parliament and supremacy
Mary's first Parliament, meeting in autumn 1553, allowed a substantial reversal of Edwardian religion without completing reconciliation with Rome. It declared the marriage of Henry VIII and Catherine valid, repairing Mary's legal legitimacy. Its repeal of Edward VI's religious legislation removed the statutory foundations of the Protestant Prayer Books and opened the way to the return of the Mass and the religious position at Henry VIII's death.
The position in 1547 had itself been a Church independent of Rome, despite much traditional doctrine. Returning to that position therefore fell short of Mary's final aim. The crown could change public worship relatively quickly, whereas recognition of the pope revived questions about foreign jurisdiction and the validity of the vast transfers of ecclesiastical property since the 1530s.
Parliamentary caution did not make the first Parliament simply Protestant or anti-Mary. MPs had interests that crossed religious divisions. A Catholic landowner might fear that accepting the pope would expose a former abbey estate to a claim for restitution. Conservative attachment to national independence could also coexist with Catholic faith. Opposition to one measure thus needs to be identified by its object: Edwardian doctrine, royal authority, foreign marriage or threatened property.
The Commons' concern about Mary's proposed foreign marriage exposed another limit. MPs urged her to choose an English husband, but Mary regarded the choice as belonging to the monarch. The resulting dispute was about the exercise of royal authority as well as religion. Neither a loyal Parliament nor a strong queen could remove the need to negotiate over practical implementation.
The first Parliament restored much Catholic worship and Mary's legitimacy, but the Henrician break with Rome still required a separate settlement.
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