The Crown in Crisis: Reversals, Bloodshed, and the Birth of a Protestant Nation (1547?1558)
Kindle Edition
by Charlie Armstrong Adams (Author)
The mid-Tudor years were a crucible of faith, fear, and fire. In this gripping second volume of the Crown and the Cross series, the story of England unfolds through violent religious swings, failed rebellions, foreign entanglements, and the persecution of conscience. From the radical Protestant reforms of young King Edward VI, to the brutal Catholic reaction under Mary I, The Crown in Crisis charts a nation caught between rival visions of God, crown, and truth.
When Edward ascended the throne as a boy, the kingdom was seized by reformers eager to purge the remnants of Rome and define a new Protestant order. But his early death plunged the realm into uncertainty?and the tragic rise of Lady Jane Grey gave way to the iron reign of Mary Tudor. Determined to undo her father's break with Rome, Mary resurrected heresy laws, burned hundreds at the stake, and wed England to the Spanish empire. What began as a pious crusade soon collapsed into paranoia, betrayal, and growing public unease.
Amidst this turmoil, Elizabeth?daughter of Anne Boleyn?waited and watched in silence. Surviving arrest, interrogation, and years of surveillance, she became the quiet hope of a people weary of fire and blood. Her rise to the throne in 1558 marked not just a political transition, but the dawn of a new religious identity: England as a Protestant nation, forged through suffering and survival.
Drawing on rich historical detail, theological debate, and the human drama at the heart of Tudor politics, this volume offers a sweeping narrative of how England came to reject Rome, not by choice alone?but by fire, fear, and providence.
Volume II of the series: The Crown and the Cross
