Sir, John Linton's idea of converting the Martyrs' Memorial into a memorial for all martyrs (Letters, April 21) may or may not be a good one.
However, I take issue with him over his statement that Elizabeth I was "just as bad as her sister, Mary."
Mary, in her short five-year reign, burnt around 300 "heretics". Elizabeth executed roughly the same number in her 45-year reign, mostly after the Pope's "fatwa" encouraging his adherents to plot to assassinate her.
These executions were for political reasons, for high treason, not heresy. Elizabeth did not, as she said, wish "to make windows into men's souls".
Valerie Barnish, Oxford
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