What were some of Mary Tudor I's accomplishments?

Question

What were some of Mary Tudor I's accomplishments?

Answer 1

Mary I of England, or bloody Mary, reinged after the death of her infamous father, Henry VIII.  I would think that probably she succeeded in turing England into a "true" protestant country since her father, Henry VIII, had broken from the catholic church only over matters concering church authority (he called himself "pope" in his country).  On matters of faith and belief, the church remained unchanged, and some people even called it the English Catholic Church.  However, after Mary came to the throne, she tried to restore the country to roman catholism, and put many of the clergy to death when they refused to convert.  Thus, it is well believed today that Mary served as a catalyst to convert the English church into a "true" protestant church since after her 'bloody' reign, many previously apathetic English catholics were determined to abandon their catholic faith and welcome protestant reforms, such as sola scripture and the priest hood of all believers etc etc.  

Therefore, I think the most important of Mary's "accomplishments" was to create an enviorment that caused the English church (also known as the anglican church) to welcome protestant reforms.  This was also important to the survival of the protestant faith, since if her sister Elizabeth was not protestant and had not resisted Philip of Spain, there is a good chance that the Spanish and the Catholic Church would have crushed the protestant movements.

Answer 2

I am not aware of any positive accomplishments. Queen Mary I of England managed to lead her country into a constant state of dissention resulting in over 300 burning deaths of Protestants in 5 1/2 years. Beyond that, her only goals as a queen were to be married and bear a catholic heir to the throne. She was very much at the whim and requests of her husband, Philip II of Spain, and her advisors.

Answer 3

Mary Tudor often gets an unfairly bad reputation.  She did execute a number of Protestants, but Elizabeth was hardly innocent in terms of persecuting Catholics.  I think Mary was actually less hypocritical about the whole business, since she readily admitted she was getting rid of heretics, whereas Elizabeth tried to pretend she was executing priests as traitors and not just for being priests.

Marrying Philip II was a mistake and that probably made Mary more unpopular than anything else.  The English didn't like the idea of a foreign husband for a queen.  One of the main problems with Mary's reign was that she was England's first official queen regnant.  Many people doubtless thought that a woman wasn't truly capable of ruling the country.  Also problematically, Mary was in her late 30s when she married and so wasn't in prime child-bearing condition.  That made things more dangerous for her.

Mary and her chief advisor, Reginald Cardinal Pole, did a great deal to promote the need for preaching and greater literacy in England.  They did not simply take England straight back into the practice of medieval Catholicism, but were influenced by some Counter-Reformation practices.  Pole encouraged the publication and distribution of Catholic books and insisted that all priests should preach and teach on the Biblical passages read during Mass.  For those priests unable (due to lack of education) to compose full sermons, he had books of sermons distributed.

Mary's legacy has probably been most tainted by John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, which paints her reign as a time of great persecution for Protestants and great darkness for England in general.  However, modern historians may take a more balanced view.  The Marian Restoration of Catholicism probably had a large number of supporters.  People had saved many Catholic items (such as Mass vestments and relics) during the Henrician and Edwardian reforms and many seemed perfectly happy to return to the old ways.  Mary also succeeded in gaining the support of her bishops.  Elizabeth had a very hard time finding a bishop willing to crown her when she took the throne.  However, she was no doubt greatly aided by the flu epidemic, which killed off a number of Marian bishops, and by the death of Cardinal Pole (who died shortly after Mary did).  (Pole also had a claim to the English throne and as a Catholic claimant, would have posed a serious challenge to Elizabeth's rule)