The issue of trying to establish the opinions of peasants and commoners is difficult as the vast majority were illiterate and therefore could not record their opinions and experiences themselves. However, the "game of thrones" was very much the politics of the day and just like politics today, some would have likely been apathetic to politics and to the matters of succession and the issue of who sat on the throne, while others would have felt strongly towards the issue. This would have certainly been the case during the 16th century and onwards due to the relgious implication of the the succession after the Protestant reformation. As the Pilgramge of Grace of 1536 as well as the 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion show, large swathes of the population of England felt strongly about the relgion of country and it would therefore not be a stretch to assume they would care about the religion of their monarch whose relgion would dictate relgious policy.

The attempt to have Lady Jane Grey usurp the English throne is a very good example of this. 15 year old Edward VI and his regent, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, feared Edward's Catholic sister, Mary Tudor, would undo their efforts to reform the Church of England by returning England to Catholicism. To avoid this, Edward and his ministers came up with the 'devise for the succession' which named Jane Grey and her male heirs as Edward's heir, excluding Edward's two sisters. Elizabeth, Edward's second but protestant sister was excluded because their was no legal way of excluding only Mary on the bases of religion, so both were excluded on bases of their illegitimacy - both Mary and Elizabth mother's marriages to Henry VIII had been declared null and void - Catherine of Aragon's due to her being Henry's sister-in-law - Anne Boleyn's due to her being found guilty of using witchcraft to seduce the King. This meant that both princesses were bastards and, in usual circumstances, barred from the succession. However, Henry VIII, ever focused on the matter of the his succession, had passed the Act of Succession 1543 which acknowledged the illegitimacy of Mary and Elizabeth but named them as Edward's heirs, in respective order, should he die childless. However, the attempt to change the succession was widely seen as unlawful.

The following is an extract from an essay I wrote in during my third year at uni. I've inserted my references where applicable...

"Northumberand had failed to capture Mary, allowing her to flee to Norfolk where she delcared herself Queen. Mary soon 'watched a flood tide of support rise in her favour among the commons and provincial gentry of East Anglia and the Thames Valley' (Source: Marshall, Reformation England, p.88). This was one of the most Protestant areas of the realm and still rose in her support (Source: Jones, The Mid-Tudor Crisis, p. 920). In the face of massive popular support for Mary, the Privy Council switched allegiance and proclaimed Mary queen (source: Brigden, New Worlds, Lost Worlds, p.197-198).... 'It was Mary's birthright, far more than her religion, which unmistakeably settled the issue [of the succession] in her favour... even Protestants recognized the strength of her title to the throne' (source: Williams 'Wales and the reign of Queen Mary I'). Northumberland was also despised by much of the peasantry and gentry which would have worked in Mary's favour, and to the detriment of Jane's (source: Loades, The Mid-Tudor Crisis, p.14; and Brigden, New Worlds, p.198). Mary technically came to power on the back of a popular revolt, making it the only succesful rebellion of the Tudor period (Source: Jones, The Mid-Tudor Crisis)."

I then go on about Wales and its support for Mary using this quote by Welsh Historian Glanmor Williams - 'the new queen was recieved by the Welsh with unmistakable enthuisiasm; but as the rightful heir to [Henry VIII] than as a Catholic claiment to the throne.' The Tudor dysnasty's origin in Wales may have played a part in the heavy Welsh support for Mary, as well as her position of Princess of Wales during the reign of her father. Wales at the time was also one of the more relgiously conservative areas of the country where Edward's protestant efforts had made little headway with the population and upon Mary's succesion, much of Wales returned to the Catholic Mass immediatley as opposed to waiting for government to officially order the change, showing relgion may have just as likley played an important role.

Edit: Fixed some formatting.