"Famous have been the reigns of our queens," said Winston Churchill last week. Britain's two golden agesthe Elizabethan and the Victorianbore the names of queens. Five queens have reigned before Elizabeth II.
Mary I (1553-1558) tried to restore Catholicism in England, but the fires of her persecutions only hardened Protestantism, increasing its popularity and making its triumph inevitable. She had a personal reason for being anti-Protestant: when her father, lusty Henry VIII, defied Rome and nullified his marriage to her mother, Catherine of Aragon, for a time Mary had to renounce her royal...
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