Sir Thomas Wyatt was a member of a wealthy and well connected gentry family from Kent. He succeeded to the family estates on the death of his father in 1542. Unfortunately for Wyatt, his career suffered a setback in 1547 when Surrey fell into disfavor with Henry VIII and was executed. As a committed protestant Wyatt favored the Edwardian regime, which he defended in 1549 when riots broke out in Kent. He was trusted by Somerset's successor Northumberland, who appointed him to represent the English government in negotiations with the French in 1550. Wyatt served the Edwardian regime loyally but declared his support for Mary when Jane Grey was proclaimed queen. Wyatt's initial support for Mary soon evaporated when he heard of the Spanish marriage. As an MP he became involved in the opposition to the proposed marriage in parliament but his hopes of persuading the queen to reject the marriage failed.By the end of January 1554 anti-Spanish feelings led to a rebellion.The rebellion was ultimately a failure and therefore the threat it posed must have been highly significant in the moment but passed quickly. Mary's character, her determination and her courage were important factors that helped to keep royal authority intact.
Mary was known throughout her reign for her strong religious beliefs. Mary was a devoted catholic with strong views on how the country would be best suited to her religious influences. Her religious conviction and strong personality combined were in many ways responsible for both the start of the rebellion and the ability to prevent Wyatt and his troops from seizing the throne. This is supported by Historian Richard Rex who's view of Mary is of a strong and forthright character with no room for compromise, he says that " no one ever doubted her courage, though some preferred to put a less favourable interpretation on it." Mary's determinism enabled her overthrow Wyatt and the rebellion. An over caustious Wyatt failed to press home his advantages and although he led his motley troops with some dash his delay in marching on London gave Mary the time she needed to see to the capital's defence. in refusing to flee her capital Mary's courage impressed those whom she called on to support her regime and by the time Wyatt arrived at the gates of the city the revolt was doomed to fail.Wyatt surrendered and the revolt was crushed. Fewer than a hundred executions took place amongst the commons. As for the rebel elite apart from Wyatt and Suffork, only Lady Jane and her husband were excecuted. From this we can infer that Mary was close to being deposed but took full control of the situation enabling her to come out of the rebellion still in full control.
Another contributing factor contributing to the rebellion was Queen Mary's unpopular choice of husband. At age 37, Mary turned her attention to finding a husband and producing an heir, thus preventing the Protestant Elizabeth from succeeding to the throne. Edward Courtenay and Reginald Pole were both mentioned as prospective suitors, but her cousin Charles V suggested she marry his only son, Prince Philip of Spain. Lord Chancellor Gardiner and the House of Commons unsuccessfully petitioned her to consider marrying an Englishman, fearing that England would be relegated to a dependency of the Habsburgs. The marriage was unpopular with the English; Gardiner and his allies opposed it on the basis of patriotism, while Protestants were motivated by a fear of Catholicism. MaryS decision to marry Prince Phillip was the first turning point leading to her decrease in popularity. Many people during this time including parliament were worried that with the new Habsburg alliance formed through the marriage it would come at a cost. People didn’t like the idea of a foreigner becoming King which would consequently give him authority over Queen Mary. As well as this money was a issue at this time and with Phillip known for his frequent wars England were in trouble of having to pay out costs of his wars. Although treaty was signed to agree that England would have no involvement with Spanish wars this was later ignore and England were involved in a war with France led by the Habsburghs. This was a massive incentive for the rebellion to start as many people who initially didn't have anything to revolt over now had a reason to join forces with Wyatt. This suggests that’s Mary's strong personality could have caused a problem for her as she failed to take the advice of Paliament whose views also represented the publics thus creating a larger number of people preparing to revolt against her.
When discussing the Wyatt's rebellion it is vital to consider the severity of the rebellion itself; Mary had gained herself a large number of people who disagreed with decisions that were made whilst she was Queen for example the restoration of catholisim. However the very fact that Mary was a female monarch proved to be a significant reasoning behind peoples dislike for the new monarch thus leading to more men joining the rebellion. The rebellion came close to overthrowing the monarchy. According to historian Paul Thomas " Mary's new regime was pushing its luck, not so much with the catholic restoration, as with the spanish marriage and the provocation of those members of the court elite who either felt excluded or feared imminent exclusion." frustrated and increasingly desperate, men like Wyatt felt compelled to act in a way that had only two possible outcomes-failure would result in his own death while success would almost inevitably lead to the death of the monarch. Wyatt's chances of overthrowing the monarchy came close, as he and 4,000 other men had way there way to london, coming in at close proximately to the queen, Wyatt then made foolish mistake allowing the Queen to get away and the rebellion to be stopped. This suggests that the rebellion could have posed a major threat to mary; and was in fact very close in doing so. Mary had managed to avoid this through luck that Wyatt and his men had unwillingly given Mary time to get away and rally troops to stop the rebellion before it did cause her anymore harm. From this I can infer that the rebellion had the potential to cause serious threat to the monarchy but due to foolishness on Wyatts behalf this was prevented and had almost no effect on the Queen.
In conclusion I can infer that although Thomas Wyatt led a strong rebellion which had great potential to overthrow the monarchy. The final out come was disappointing in the fact that not much was done to carry out its initial plans due to mistakes made by Wyatt at the last minute. It must be remembered that if it wasn’t for these mistakes then Wyatt and the other 4,000 men were likely to have overthrown the Queen. In the final analysis the threat to the monarchy was minimal as no damage was caused to Mary's positioning on the thrown, in fact this rebellion seemed to have pushed Mary in her demand for power and respect leading to numerous executions giving her the nickname Bloody Mary.