Topic 2: Catholics – The nature and extent of the Catholic threat

The two main religious laws that were passed at the start of Elizabeth’s reign were:

The Act of Uniformity – All worship should be the same (uniform).

The Act of Supremacy – Elizabeth became the head of the church in England.

Religious Settlement after 1580

There were many Catholics that at this point decided to accept these changes to England. However, there were still

some left that did not. Catholic resistance to Elizabeth and her laws built up from 1580. People were split into these

four groups:

Conformers

Decided to drop the Catholic faith and became Protestants

Large proportion of Catholics

Church Papists

Attended Protestant services but kept some Catholic beliefs

Majority of Catholics

Recusants

Loyal to the Pope but arranged their own Catholic services

Several thousand

Plotters

Refused to attend Protestant services and fiercely loyal to the Catholic faith

Never more than two hundred

After 1580, Elizabeth introduced many new laws that were far stricter to handle with the Catholic threat. Here are some of the laws and punishments:

Financial

Fines of £20 per month for not attending Protestant services

£66 fine for attending a Catholic service

Physical

Imprisonment if you did not pay your fines within three months

Death penalty for sheltering a Catholic priest

If you persuaded someone to turn Catholic you could be executed for treason

Social

Banned from holding large gatherings

Catholics had to stay within five miles of their home at all times

Links abroad, plots and spy network

There were two type of Catholic priests:

Seminary priest – trained to support Catholics in England by hearing their confessions and leading services.

Jesuit priest – trained to persuade people to become Catholic or to deepen their faith.

Famous examples:

Jesuit priests – Robert Persons (sometimes known as Parsons) and Edmund Campion.

Edmund Campion mini fact file:

After months of travelling in disguise throughout England, Campion was hiding between gentry houses. After a tip

off, a spy catcher turned up at the house. It took two days to find Campion hiding in a wall.

He was sent to London to be tortured on the rack; this slowly stretched his arms and legs out of joint. He went to

trial and was found guilty of treason and was then sent to be executed.

Catholic Plots

The Throckmorton Plot 1583

What happened?

Robert Persons had recruited a young Catholic, Francis Throckmorton to plot against Elizabeth. They had got the support of a powerful Frenchman who had planned to invade England and put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne.

Outcome

The plot was discovered and Throckmorton was executed.There was no evidence Mary was involved.

The Babington Plot 1586

What happened?

Anthony Babington had been persuaded by an English Catholic to kill Elizabeth. Secret letters were hid in beer barrels and communicated with Mary QoS. A spy had been reading the letters and the codes were broken.

Outcome

Babington was arrested and confirmed Mary QoS was involved. Babington was executed.

Mary Queen of Scots

Mary had been queen in Scotland but had fled to England following the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of her husband. Elizabeth could have helped her keep her throne in Scotland, however she kept her prisoner because she did not want to start a war with Scotland. However, this caused problems for Elizabeth:

1. Mary was directly related to the first Tudor king, Henry VII. Mary was technically the next in line to the throne if Elizabeth had no children.

2. Catholics saw her as a figurehead Catholics caused trouble as soon as she arrived.

3. The Pope saw Mary as a ready-made replacement for Elizabeth and so this strengthened Catholic resistance to Elizabeth.

Execution

Following the Babington Plot, Mary was put on trial in Fotheringhay Castle. Mary argued that it was true that God had made her queen and so Elizabeth had no right to try her. Mary was found guilty and was sentenced to death.

However Elizabeth did not sign her death warrant for several weeks, she was hesitant about sending another queen to her death. Eventually she signed it and Mary was executed on 8th of February 1587.

The Spanish Armada 1588

Causes

Simply, England was Protestant but Spain was Catholic

Elizabeth also refused to marry Phillip II king of Spain

English sailors had attacked and destroyed Spanish ports in the New World

Elizabeth sent money and soldiers to help Dutch Protestants when Spain ruled the Netherlands

The Event

Francis Drake led a surprise attack on the Spanish in Cadiz. He damaged many of the Spanish ships.

Spain sent an army of 20,000 troops led by the Dyke of Parma.

The Duke of Medina Sidonia was in charge of the armada. 130 ships from Spain were sent to England to launch the invasion.

Excellent skills from the English and the weather meant that the armada had failed.1,000 Spanish men died and 44 ships were wrecked.

Consequences

Armadas and battles continued for years afterwards. The defeat of the Spanish Armada did not end the war with Spain. It continued until 1604, a year after Elizabeth’s death.

By 1603, there was only a very small number of Catholics in England. Almost all of them had given up their faith and were attending Protestant services. There was a small hard-core group who wanted to overthrow the new Protestant king, these are known as the Gunpowder plotters.