Forty Martyrs of England and Wales

The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales comprise a group of Catholic men and women who were executed for treason and related offences in the Kingdom of England between 1535 and 1679. Many were sentenced to death at show trials, or with no trial at all. This religious repression existed in part because faithful Roman Catholics were encouraged to rebel against the English Crown by papal bulls such as Pope Pius V's Regnans in Excelsis in 1570. They are considered by the Catholic Church to be Christian martyrs.