The Marian Persecutions, also known as the Marian Exile or the Marian Restoration (among Catholics), were a series of persecutions of English Protestants that took place from 1553 to 1558 during the reign of the Catholic Queen Mary I, as part of her efforts to roll back Protestant reforms in England and restore Catholicism.
With Mary's repeal of all religious legislation passed under her predecessor King Edward VI, Protestants were faced a difficult choice: exile, re-conversion back to Catholicism, or punishment and possible execution for heresy. Thousands of people went into exile and hundreds of dissenters were burned at the stake, earning the Queen the sobriquet "Bloody Mary."
The total number of people executed for their faith during the persecutions is thought to be at least 287, including 56 women, and at least 30 others died in prison before the persecutions came to an end in 1558 with Mary's death.