First Things’ own Ryan Sayre Patrico has an article on Mary Tudor at National Review Online:
‘Don’t burn hundreds of your subjects at the stake.” If a modern-day image consultant could offer advice to some of the past’s most notorious rulers, that nugget of wisdom would stand at the top of the list. “As soon as modernity rolls around,” the consultant would explain, “everyone will wonder what in the world you were thinking.”
No one would have benefited more from this advice than Mary Tudor. During her short reign as queen of England, from 1553 to 1558, 284 men and women were burned for their religious beliefs. She has been known as “Bloody Mary” ever since.
But bloody isn’t the only adjective that tradition has bestowed upon the queen who tried to reaffirm her country’s Catholicism after her father, Henry VIII, broke with Rome.
October 26th, 2009 | 9:53 am
Having just read Fires of Faith, I can attest that Dr. Duffy does, in fact, repeatedly decry the burnings, as he should. He also notes, as should we, that the other Tudors made about as many Catholic martyrs, and moreover, at least some of those burned completely agreed with the death sentence for heretics. They didn’t think they were heretics, of course.
October 27th, 2009 | 2:06 am
While the other Tudors did burn heretics at the stake, Mary outdid them all with 284 people burned in 4 years. Henry VIII was the worst of the lot after Mary, with 81 during a 48-year reign; his father, Henry VII came in second with 24 in a 24-year reign. Elizabeth and Edward both kept it to less than 10. All told, the other Tudors combined represent less than half the amount Mary had burned. She came by her appellation honestly.
November 3rd, 2009 | 1:49 pm
My recollection is that Mary and Elizabeth are about equal in the execution for religion tally. Elizabeth burned fewer people because Catholics were generally executed for treason by hanging, drawing (usually while you were still alive) and quartering. Elizabeth’s executions were over her 45 year reign, however, whereas Mary’s took place over five years. I’ve always wondered whether Mary’s tally of executions was proof that at the time the English people hated Protestants. After all, in a time before police you generally had to be turned in by your neighbors to be arrested for heresy. Perhaps the fires were popular and this only changed as more English grew up as Protestants.
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