Bloody Mary's Martyrs

True to the title, Mr. Ridley's account is a listing and play by play of the many men and women who were subjected to the ritual "burning at the stake" for alleged "heretical" behaviour. Ridley seems to delight in the particulars of each event. Some were roasted singularly, and others were grouped together... The author does paint a grisly picture... especially when the wind changes.... As I read the accounts, I could not help but wonder what about the psychological makeup of Mary. I would have been equally interested in Ridley's assessment, based on historical evidence, of her state of mind. I wonder if there have been other accounts that deal with her pathological state of mind rather than the historical tail of her rein...

Between February 1555 and November 1558, 227 men and 56 women were brutally killed for their faith, during the reign of "Bloody" Queen Mary. In this book, Jasper Ridley tells their story, exposing all of the inhumanity that enfolded in those 45 dark months. The final chapter discusses the early years Elizabeth I's reign, and significance of Foxe's Book of Martyrs.This book makes for some hair-raising bedtime reading! It goes into excruciating detail of the victim's sufferings, giving a fairly in-depth understanding of what happened. Unfortunately, the author doesn't spend any space offering any analysis. For example, the Queen's false pregnancy was mentioned, but the author does not examine her mental stability, as I wish he would have. Also, I could have wished for an analysis of what the effects of this persecution were on English society. So, let me say that this is a good, but not a great book on Mary's persecutions. I therefore give it a somewhat qualified recommendation.

It would be hard put to find a more pathetic, neurotic English Monarch than Mary Tudor (aka "Bloody Mary") with the exception of maybe her merciless, egotistical (yet forever fascinating)father Henry VIII. Mary Tudor was a Queen who actually thought she was doing God's work by roasting the flesh of Protestant "heretics." What makes this book so good besides the writing is that it tells how hypocritical some of the persecutors were i.e. people who rejected Papal Supremcay under Henry VIII all of a sudden condemning people to the stake for holding the same positions on Papal Supremacy that their persecutors once held. 283 men and women were sent to the stake from Feb. 1555 until a week before Mary I's death in Nov. 1558. Although some were famous Churchmen (the most prominent being Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in Oxford - who was subjected to psychological torture that would have made any Stalinist proud), most were simple artisans and laborers who heroically refused to recant their disbelief in the Real Presence in the Host and also refused to accept that the Pope was the Head of the Church in England. The stories about these poor martyrs are very horrific indeed. One is of a blind girl who was a rope maker who was sent to the stake, others were mere teenagers who had been taught nothing but Protestant doctrines since their childhood during the reaign of Edward VI (1547-53). The villains in this holocaust are: Mary Tudor, Bishop Bonner, Cardinal Reginald Pole, Archdeacon Nicholas Harpsfield and assorted clerics and persecuting Bishops and political chameleons such as the infamous Richard Rich and Edmund Tyrrel. Ridley has written several books on Tudor England and its monarchs. In this book and in his other books he does not disguise his dislike for Sir Thomas More calling him "a particularly sadomasochistic pervert who enjoyed being flogged by his own daughter." Far from being an anti-Catholic bigot though he does mention that the Protestants udner Edward VI and Elizabeth I did burn a handful of Anabaptists and that some of those martyred under Queen Mary did approve of burning Anabaptists. Nevertheless there is a lesson in the book that we can learn from in the present time- that is to avoid religious fanaticism under any circumstances. The book is short (only 230 pages) and well researched. A minor error is where Ridley refers to "Richard Bilney" when the martyrs real name was Thomas Bilney. However I do recommend this book highly as well as his 3 Tudor Biographies which are : Statesman and Saint (a dual biography of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and Sir Thomas More), Henry VII, and Elizabeth I.