Religion

Religion is a dominant theme of the book. At this time Europe was a part of the Holy Roman Empire and under the control of the Pope. People who did not conform to the beliefs of the Church of Rome were persecuted and killed during the Inquisition. During the reign of Edward, England embraced Protestantism. Mary Tudor was Catholic and tried to restore Catholicism to England. This resulted in persecution for many of her subjects who were considered heretics giving Mary the nickname of Bloody Mary. Elizabeth, who was a Protestant, came to the throne after Mary's death. She would not return to Catholicism and repudiated the Church of Rome. She wanted England to be a Protestant country but she did not want any of her subjects to suffer persecution. Elizabeth wanted them to have as much religious freedom as possible. Thus her first major task was religious...