The Elizabethan Religious Settlement is the name given to the religious and political arrangements made for England during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603). The settlement, implemented from 1559 to 1563, marked the end of the English Reformation. It permanently shaped the Church of England's doctrine and liturgy, laying the foundation for the unique identity of Anglicanism.
From right to left: Elizabeth I, Edward VI, Henry VIII, Mary I and her husband Philip II of Spain; an allegorical painting meant to show Queen Elizabeth I combined the best virtues of her predecessors, Henry, Edward and Mary
Queen Elizabeth I opening Parliament
Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), Edward VI's Archbishop of Canterbury and editor and co-author of both the 1549 and 1552 Books of Common Prayer.
Mary I of England
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Mary I, also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain and the Habsburg dominions as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, King Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.
Portrait by Antonis Mor, 1554
Catherine of Aragon, 1520, Mary's mother
Mary in 1522, at the time of her engagement to Emperor Charles V. She is aged 6 and wears a rectangular brooch inscribed "The Emperour".
Mary in 1544