Cardinal Reginald Pole and the Path to Anglo-Papal Mediation at the Peace Conference of Marcq, 1553–55

Abstract

From the 1530s onwards, England occupied a key position in the conflict between the papacy and the European Reformation movements, as it also did in the struggle for European supremacy waged for decades between Charles V and France. From the summer of 1553, both sets of interests and conflicts intersected in a new and direct manner. After the death of her Protestant brother, Edward VI, the accession of Mary Tudor to the English throne meant that European politics-in which England was the decisive factor in the struggle between Valois and Habsburg-were inextricably linked to the religious situation, in which the long-term success or failure of the Catholic restoration in England was the pivot of the struggle between Rome and the Reformation. Consequently, analysis of the efforts, from 1553, to achieve a papal and English mediation in the European struggle for hegemony is of great interest for both the political and religious development of Europe at that time.