Protestants were executed under heresy laws during persecutions against Protestant religious reformers for their religious denomination during the reigns of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and Mary I of England (1553–1558). Radical Protestants were also executed during the reigns of Edward VI (1547–1553), Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and James I (1603–1625). The excesses of this period were recorded in Foxe's Book of Martyrs.
Protestants in England and Wales were executed under legislation that punished anyone judged guilty of heresy against Catholicism. Although the standard penalty for those convicted of treason in England at the time was execution by being hanged, drawn and quartered, this legislation adopted the punishment of burning the condemned. At least 300 people were recognised as burned over the five years of Mary I's reign by contemporary sources.
Catholics were also executed (under charge of treason) during the reign of Elizabeth I. See List of Catholic martyrs of the English Reformation.
Note: Mary I died on 17 November 1558.
John Penry (1563 - 1593), the Welsh Puritan author (who was allied with the London Separatist followers of Henry Barrow), was arrested on 22 March 1592/3. Indicted under the Act of Uniformity (1 Eliz. cap. 2), he was executed by hanging at S. Thomas a Watering on 29 May 1593. The first signature on John Penry's death warrant was that of Elizabeth I's Archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift.
The English Reformation had put a stop to Catholic ecclesiastical governance in England, asserted royal supremacy over the English Church and dissolved some church institutions, such as monasteries and chantries.