Were the children of Henry VIII Catholic or Protestant and why?

The Church of England formed, following the break with Rome, by Henry VIII for mainly patriotic and political reasons did not consider itself Protestant in the way that Martin Luther preached Protestantism. It described itself as reformed Catholic, but not of course Roman Catholic. Under Edward VI, only a boy, the reformation progressed slightly. When Mary I followed him, she reversed all the changes and annulled the Act of Supremacy, and thereby recognised the Pope once again as the head of the English church. She had 300 people burned as heretics for resisting the "counter-reformation" . Whe Elizabeth I succeeded Mary she reintroduced the Act of Supremacy in a milder form than previously and reformation gathered pace again. But it was after Elizabeth that the church became truly Protestant under the influence of the Protestant Puritans, Methodists and the like. Many of the latter had fled to sanctuary in the American colonies. The reason Mary was resistant to the reforming forces at large in Europe was because her mother was very Roman Catholic and a member of the staunchly Roman Catholic Spanish royal family. It was in Spain that the counter-reformation was strongest. Mary had been effectively locked up with her mother when Henry threw her over in favour of Anne Boleyn and supported her to the end. Edward and Elizabeth were happy to go along with what the people wanted which was a reformed church free of the influence of foreign popes.