Mary Tudor (14 page)

25. Obverse side of the Great Seal.

26. Passport for Richard Shelley to go into Spain, signed by both Philip and Mary. Shelley’s mission was to have been to announce the safe arrival of Queen Mary’s son, so the passport remained unused.

27. The charter of Philip and Mary confirming the foundation of Trinity College, Oxford, by Sir Thomas Pope, dated 28 March 1555. The ornate capital shows both sovereigns enthroned.

28. The title page of John Foxe’s
Ecclesiastical History
, better known as the
Acts and Monuments of the English Martyrs.
This was a revised and expanded version of the work originally published by John Day in 1563.

29. The burning of Thomas Tompkyns, from the 1570 edition of the
Acts and Monuments
. The same woodcut was used for a number of victims.

30. The burning of John Hooper at Gloucester on 9 February 1555. Hooper, who was former Bishop of Gloucester, was burned on a slow fire. He was one of the first victims to suffer.

31. ‘The cruel burning of George Marsh’. Marsh was supposed to have been soaked in tar to make him burn more fiercely. From the 1570
A & M
.

32. The burning of Ridley and Latimer at Oxford on 16 October 1555. The sermon was preached by Richard Smith, who had been driven from his Regius Chair in Edward’s time for his Catholic beliefs.

33. The burning of John Rogers on 4 February 1555. Rogers was the first Protestant to be burned, and the example of his courage inspired many to follow him. From the 1570 edition of the
A & M
.

34. The burning of Margery Polley. A number of Foxe’s martyrs were women, and he emphasises how the Holy Spirit helped them to overcome their natural ‘imbecility’.

35. The burning of Rowland Taylor. Taylor was taken down to Hadley to suffer where he had ministered, with the intention of making an example of him. The evidence suggests that this did not work.

36. The burning of Margaret Thurston and Agnes Bongeor at Colchester. Essex was a strong centre of Protestantism in Mary’s reign, and a number of men and women deliberately provoked the authorities to act against them.