ABSTRACT
Before the reign of Henry VIII, little attempt was made by the secular authorities to control the drama, and in the 1520s a remarkably dynamic theatrical culture flourished. In 1536 Henry pushed the justices in York to imprison those staging Catholic plays, presumably referring to the mystery cycle. His Chancellor, Thomas Cromwell, a man known to enjoy good food and to employ his own jester, supported the radical preacher-cum-dramatist John Bale who was happy to compose and present vitriolic anti-Catholic plays. The politics of religion swung the other way and Protestant performers were in danger as she made energetic attempts to reverse the anti-Catholic trend. In the year following the injunction to the Lord President of the North, however, Queen Mary died, and her half-sister Elizabeth, a staunch Protestant, ascended the throne. Her first instincts were to fetter the theatre still more closely.
