The infamous moniker ‘Bloody Mary’ was coined by her Protestant opponents, who Mary spent a great majority of her reign suppressing and executing in what became known as the Marian persecutions. Shockingly, almost three-hundred religious dissenters were burnt at the stake for heresy under her supervision. She attempted desperately to reverse the religious shift that had taken place under her father, Henry VIII, and tried to put the country back under the dominion of the Catholic church. However, most of her attempts to do so were thwarted by the British parliament, and she was ultimately unsuccessful as her successor, Elizabeth, would double down on their father’s protestant policies.
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