In February of this year Jane Grey was beheaded on Tower Green by order of Queen Mary. The formal charge was treason because Jane had become a lightning rod for Protestant nobles who wanted to depose Mary. However, Jane believed that she was both a political prisoner and a martyr. 

In an attempt to prompt a recantation, the queen sent her chaplain John Feckenham to Jane the day before she died. However, despite the spiritual manipulation, Jane refused to recant. On the scaffold, she shared a few words of exhortation with those who had come to watch her die. She was determined to use her death as a vehicle to share her faith which she did. 

In November, Cardinal Reginald Pople arrived in England. He had been appointed as Papal Legate to England and was given the Archbishopric of Canterbury by Queen Mary who was not only his cousin but also his ardent supporter. During the reign of King Henry VIII, Cardinal Pole was the most hated man in England and also the most hunted. The king wanted him extradited to England but he evaded the long reach of the king and survived his wrath. His return to England in triumph was symbolic of the triumph of the Papacy over the encroach of Protestantism in England. He was met by King Philip when he disembarked his barge at the landing stage in Westminster, greeted like a hero returning home with the spoils of war. 

Under the direction of the queen and Cardinal Pole England was formally reconciled to the Papacy by the English parliament on the 30th of November. Two days prior to the Day of Reconciliation, as it was called, Cardinal Pole addressed the Parliament for two consecutive days. During his speeches, he laid out the duty of the English people by calling them to repent of their wickedness in usurping the authority of the Holy See and calling for a parliamentary vote that would seal the union between England and Rome. 

Of the 440 members that made up both houses of Parliament, only two dared to vote against the Cardinal’s proposals. The queen sat before the assembly flanked by the cardinal on her right and her husband the King of Spain on her left. The arrangement was deliberate demonstrating that the representative of the Papacy took precedence over the Sovereign in both spiritual and secular affairs. 

Mary welcomed the changes with relief. She was deeply devout and the separation from Rome had greatly distressed her.