Queen Mart restored relations with Rome, and let the nobility and gentry keep their loot, and the priests to keep their wives. Worst mistake was the extent of the persecution of the Protestants. During the reign of the boy-king, the Protestants has made themselves very unpopular, and then blundered into the attempt to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne. The government should have been content to execute the big shots. But they chose to make examples of a lot of ordinary people, making martyrs of them. This rescued the Protestant Party from the wide discredit into which it had fallen. IAC, when Elizabeth ascended the throne, the majority of the population was still Catholic, but the Protestant party had made comeback, and by banking on the popularity of the Tudors, was able to re-establish control. The only real mistake that Mary made, however, was dying before she was forty.
“The only real mistake that Mary made, however, was dying before she was forty.”
She was 42 when she died. Burning Protestants at the stake for heresy probably wouldn’t be classified as a great idea, especially Cranmer, if you won’t call it a “real” mistake.
But the biggest boo-boo was marrying Philip II of Spain, thereby earning her the deserved mistrust of her countrymen.
There is a reason why she’s known as “Bloody Mary”, you probably should have mentioned that, too.
Why do you refer to Protestants as “the Protestant Party”?