The passage of time has not looked favourably upon Mary’s reign, considered as a particularly dark time in the history of the country by a great many Protestant historians. Remembered as one of the most reviled monarchs in the history of England for burning hundreds of Protestants at the stake, her actions no doubt served to cement her reputation as a despotic tyrant. However, was she really any more tyrannical than her predecessors? Many historians argue that Mary was in fact no less of a monster than the many who came before her, and that her reputation owes largely to the fact that, as a Catholic monarch in the 16th century, she was simply on the wrong side of history.
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