Queen Mary, following a moderate start to her reign, opts for a hard line against Protestants, whom she regards as heretics and a threat to her authority.

She begins permitting the burning of Anglicans for heresy.

English Protestant reformer John Rogers, the editor of Matthew's Bible and former lecturer at Saint Paul’s cathedral, had been imprisoned after Mary’s accession to the English throne and sentenced to death.

When Rogers is burned to death at Smithfield on February 4, 1555, he becomes the first Protestant to be martyred under the Tudor queen, who, in the ensuing persecution, will come to be known as "Bloody Mary."

She urges her sister Elizabeth to change to the Roman Catholic faith, but the princess, instead of converting, maintains a skillful show of allegiance to suit her own conscience and ambitions.