"Mary was proclaimed Queen of England on 20 July 1553, and as an essential part of what she saw as her God-given mission to restore Catholicism and papal supremacy in England, she set about the burning at the stake of Protestant heretics with a ruthlessness that earned her the name Bloody Mary.". "In her short reign - she died in 1558 - almost 300 Protestants were burnt. They chose to suffer an agonizing death rather than recant and embrace the Catholic faith. Some of the martyrs suffered more than others. If the faggots were wet or the wind changed direction the agony was prolonged. Sometimes the victims had a small bag of gunpowder attached to the waist or neck which hastened their end. Occasionally, there was a moving incident which was interpreted as divine intervention - a dove descended over the flames at the moment of death of John Rogers, and many in the watching crowd thought that it was the Holy Ghost come down to take away his spirit." "In his new book, Jasper Ridley captures the fierce brutality of Tudor times and grips the reader with his narrative of England's reign of terror."--BOOK JACKET.