All England knew the new queen was a staunch Catholic. She had not hidden the religion "which" (she said) "God and the world knoweth she hath ever professed from her infancy." All England welcomed her as the daughter of Henry VIII. She had opposed the religious changes produced by her brother's ministers, and was determined to restore the old religion.

The new queen soon got Parliament to undo all the acts of Edward's reign concerning the Church. The Latin Mass was restored, and five Catholic bishops were at once brought back.

Now Mary had set her heart on marrying Philip King of Spain; but to this there was much opposition in Parliament and the country. Spain at this time was the strongest of the Catholic countries in Europe, and weak England would simply become a province of Spain.

Risings and plots took place all over the country—in the Midlands, on the Welsh border, in Kent, and in the West. Sir Thomas Wyatt headed a rebellion in Kent to save the country from "Spanish fleets and Spanish slavery," and to make Elizabeth queen. But Mary threw herself on the protection of the citizens of London. "Good subjects," she said to them, "pluck up your hearts and stand by your sovereign like true men. Fear not these rebels, for I assure you, I fear them not at all!"

The daughter of Henry VIII triumphed, and the Spanish marriage was celebrated in July, 1554. Wyatt's rising failed, for his men would not be traitors and fight against their queen. Some hundred of the rebels suffered death. Poor young Lady Jane Grey and her husband were beheaded, and in ten days her father and Wyatt suffered the same fate. The Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, was arrested, and it was only by the special wish of Philip that her life was saved.

Soon after the marriage, Cardinal Pole came to restore the nation to the communion of the Church of Rome. Parliament knelt to him at Westminster, a Parliament that Mary had taken care, like her father, to fill with men of a "wise, grave, and Catholic sort." All Henry VIII's laws against Rome were now repealed.

The heresy laws of Henry IV and Henry V became again the laws of the land; and these laws sanctioned the fearful punishment of heretics by burning at the stake.

Neither Catholics nor Protestants had learned to tolerate the views of men who differed from them in religious matters. It was commonly believed that those who thought wrongly about religion—heretics, as they were called—were enemies of society, and should therefore be put to death. Mary in particular was very bitter against heretics, and insisted on carrying out executions even when the bishops and others who had to try those accused of heresy advised her to exercise clemency.

Between two and three hundred Protestants, convicted of heresy, suffered death by burning in the last years of her reign (1555—1558). Among these were Cranmer, who had been Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, and others like Ridley and Latimer, famous as preachers and bishops. Cranmer, having joined in the first rebellion against Mary, could have been executed for high treason. Latimer and Bishop Hooper of Gloucester had refused to take part in such conspiracies, but their loyalty in that respect did not save them from the queen's severity. The continual burnings had not the desired effect of rooting out heresy; on the other hand, the sympathy which they evoked for the Protestants who thus suffered made it easier for Elizabeth, when she came to the throne, to reverse the religious policy of her sister.

Mary's marriage with Philip involved her in a Continental war which proved very disastrous for England. The English lost Calais in 1558 and Mary died shortly after.

As the second daughter of Henry VIII, Elizabeth stood next to the throne. She had a very unhappy time under her sister, Queen Mary. She had been arrested, brought to London, and taken in a barge to the Tower. She trembled at the thought of being detained in the Tower, for she knew too well the fate of others sent there by the stern queen.

Later on, Elizabeth was taken from the Tower by water to Richmond and carried in the queen's own litter by easy stages to Woodstock, where she was shut up and guarded by soldiers night and day, so that there was no chance of escape. She was allowed no books, no pens, no ink, no paper, and as the months went by, she envied even the milking maids, whose songs reached her from the distance, crying that their lot was indeed happier than hers.

One day she was taken to Hampton Court and summoned to her sister's bedroom. She had not seen the queen for two years. She at once threw herself on her knees before her, and declared that she had never plotted against her. "I humbly beseech your Majesty to have a good opinion of me to be your true subject, not only from the beginning hitherto, but for ever." The queen was much touched by this, and Elizabeth was set free. Once more she appeared at Court, and was honoured by the queen. Philip too treated her with all respect, not from any feelings of affection, but because he realised that she would probably be Queen of England after Mary's death. It was to his interest, therefore, to be friendly and respectful in his manner towards her. She was now allowed to go back to her books and her studies, for she had a real love of learning, spoke French well, and read Greek and Latin books with her tutors. And, like all accomplished young ladies of that time, she was skilled in needlework, and derived pleasure from playing on the lute and the virginal.

Mary's life was drawing to a close. During the summer of 1558 she was very ill, and when autumn came it was clear she was dying. In the grey twilight of a November morning Mary passed away. Messengers hastily rode to carry the news to Elizabeth, who, falling on her knees, cried aloud in Latin: "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."