Her foreign policy, in the first place, was both un-English and unsuccessful.

[Sidenote: Marriage of Mary and Philip, July 25, 1554] Almost at once Charles V proposed his son Philip as Mary's husband, and, after about a year of negotiation, the marriage took place.

The tremendous unpopularity of this step was due not so much to hostility to Spain, though Spain was beginning to be regarded as the national foe rather than France, but to the fear of a foreign domination.

England had never before been ruled by a queen, if we except the disastrous reign of Mathilda, and it was natural to suppose that Mary's husband should have the prerogative as well as the title of king.

In vain Philip tried to disabuse the English of the idea that he was asserting any independent claims; in some way the people felt that they were being annexed to Spain, and they hated it.
The religious aim of the marriage, to aid in the restoration of Catholicism, was also disliked.