REIGNED: and began her reign by sweeping away the religious innovations of her father. Mass was restored without opposition and the authority of the pope reestablished, but Parliament refused to restore the church lands seized under Henry VIII. Mary, however, restored the property that the Crown still possessed. Even more disastrous was her marriage to Philip II, king of Spain. The engagement was greeted in England by a formidable rebellion under the leadership of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1521-54) to depose Mary and put her half sister, Elizabeth, later Elizabeth I, on the throne.
Philip was an uncompromising Roman Catholic and unpopular in England. At his order, Mary joined in a war against France, with the result that Calais, the last remnant of the English conquests won during the Hundred Years' War with France, was lost in 1558.
The ferocity with which Mary's personal character has been assailed by certain writers must be ascribed to religious zeal. She was called Bloody Mary because of a large number of religious persecutions that took place during her reign; almost 300 people were condemned to death as a result of trials for heresy. Mary was succeeded by Elizabeth I.