The command of the sea was lost and, as a consequence of this and of the military genius of the Duke of Guise, Calais, held for over two centuries, was conquered by the French.

[Sidenote: 1558] With the subsequent loss of Guines the last English outpost on the continent was reft from her.
[Sidenote: Religious policy] Notwithstanding Mary's saying that "Calais" would be found in her heart when she died, by far her deepest interest was the restoration of Catholicism.

To assist her in this task she had Cardinal Reginald Pole, in whose veins flowed the royal blood of England and whom the pope appointed as legate to the kingdom.

Though Mary's own impulse was to act strongly, she sensibly adopted the emperor's advice to go slowly and, as far as possible, in legal forms.

Within a month of her succession she issued a proclamation stating her intention to remain Catholic and her hope that her subjects would embrace the same religion, but at the same time disclaiming the intention of forcing them and forbidding strife and the use of {320} "those new-found devilish terms of papist or heretic or such like." Elections to the first Parliament were free; it passed two noteworthy Acts of Repeal, [Sidenote: Repeal of Reforming acts] the first restoring the _status quo_ at the death of Henry VIII, the second restoring the _status quo_ of 1529 on the eve of the Reformation Parliament.