Perhaps no year in English history would prove to be as pivotal to the country’s self-identity as 1558, for it was in this year that England lost its last remaining continental possession (Calais) as well as its last monarch (Mary) who openly sought the return of England to the Church of Rome. In many respects, England can trace its sea-going empire of later centuries and its Protestantism to the events of 1558, although, of course, it would take many years for either outcome to be realized.
January 7, 1558, is the day all of this would begin, as the Duke of Guise launched an attack on the undermanned fortifications surrounding Calais. Using a network of well-placed and effective spies, the Duke learned of the defense’s ill condition and planned an attack that would overwhelm the English who were, perhaps, still recovering from too much New Year’s revelry. The loss would later be confirmed in a formal cession of the town to France, or as Scottish historian J. B. Black would write in his 1936 book The Reign of Elizabeth, “the time had come when England must cut herself adrift from territorial commitments on the Continent, and launch out on her true destiny as an island kingdom.” In his 1952 volume of Tudor history, J. D. Mackie, another Scotsman, would put the loss of Calais and the death of Mary this way:
Although to the politicians of western Europe the English state presented a picture of impotence, the English people were active and strong. Below the soil the roots of nationality were quick, and ready to shoot forth the stems which were to bear a great harvest.
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