Catholics in Elizabeth's reign - OCR B - History GCSE

How many (approx) roman catholics did Elizabeth order the execution of during her reign?

At least 200

What was the act of uniformity?

• 1559

• Said that all worship should be the same (uniform)

• Each week, everyone had to attend a church service that followed the book of common prayer in English

• Those who did not attend had to pay a fine

What was the act of Supremacy?

• 1559

• Said that Elizabeth was supreme governor of the CofE

• Any roman catholic who insisted that the pope was the head of God’s church was, in effect, a traitor for daring to challenge the Queen’s supremacy over all her nation’s affairs

Conformers

• Large proportion of English Catholics in south + east

• Chose to drop their catholic faith and conform to protestantism

Church Papists

• Mostly English Catholic in the North and West

• Attended Protestant Church Services

  • Kept catholic belief with some loyalty to the pope

Plotters

• Very few English catholics, probably about 200 or so

• Usually refused to attend protestant church services

• Fiercely loyal to catholic beliefs and the pope

Recusants

• Several thousand English Catholics, especially in the North and West

• Usually wealthy

• Refused to attend protestant church services

• Kept catholic belief with some loyalty to the pope

• Arranged their own services of mass

• Could afford to pay the fines

Why had many English Catholics completely dropped their old faith by the 1570s?

• Most priests accepted changes

• Weekly protestant sermons altered beliefs

• Few could afford the fines for not attending

• All marriages and baptisms had to follow the protestant prayer book

What happened concerning Catholics from 1580 onwards?

• Resistance rose

• Thomas Tresham, a well known church papist, was made sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1573, but sometime in 1580 he became a recusant

• Despite the fine, numbers of recusants began to rise

• While Thomas Tresham remained loyal to Liz, other Catholics plotted against her

What was the Act of Persuasions?

• 1581

• To end Catholic recusancy

• Raised fine to £20 per month

• Added extra fine of £200 each year for persistent recusants

• Fine of £66 for attending a mass

• Allowed imprisonment for those who did not pay within 3 months

• Anyone who persuaded a protestant to become catholic was guilty of treason and should be put to death

Why was Tresham arrested in 1581?

For hiding priests inside his home

What was the Act against Priests?

• 1585

• Death penalty for hiding/aiding a catholic priest

• Government saw the priests as the heart of the catholic resistance

• Any priest ordained under the authority of the pope was guilty of treason just for setting foot in England

What law was passed in 1587 concerning recusancy?

• Allowed government to take 2/3 of land owned by any recusant who had fallen behind on fines

  • Even the wealthiest, like Tresham, were driven into debt

What happened to Margaret Clitherow?

• She was a butcher’s wife from York, and was accused of sheltering priests, and was encouraged to enter a plea by ‘pressing’ resulting in her death.

What happened in 1588?

• Philip II sent the armada to invade England and return the Catholic Faith

• The government arrested all influential catholics to prevent an uprising

• 11 catholic laymen were executed for aiding/hiding priests or encouraging conversion

What was the act restraining recusants?

• 1593

• Banned catholics over the age of 16 to stay within 5 miles of home

• Banned them from holding large gatherings

What were the 2 types of priest?

• Seminary

• Jesuit

Seminary priests

• Young english catholics who trained at seminaries (colleges) abroad

• By 1603, 438 priests had been sent to England

• Trained to support catholics in England

  • Lead services of mass

  • Heard confessions

• Told not to try convert protestants

Jesuit priests

• Specifically trained to convert people

• Directly loyal to the pope

Who started arriving from June 1580?

Secret priests, many of which hid in priest holes who came to help catholics

What did Walsingham do to act against the priests?

Built up a network of spies and informers to learn about their plans and movements

Edmund Campion

• Captured July 1581 by George Eliot - One of walsingham’s spies

• August 1580 - a pamphlet he wrote was printed and distributed

• Believed that he was a loyal Englishman who simply believed that Liz was wrong about religion

• Tortured on the rack and revealed the names of those who helped him

• He was on trial in November 1581

  • Found guilty for treason, executed 1 Dec 1581

Why had the priests failed by 1603?

• Some say it was because they did not concentrate their efforts in the North and West where recusancy was strongest

• Focused work on the gentry, neglecting lower class catholics who became protestant

• Priests like Campion were too saintly to have a realistic chance of overcoming the weight of Elizabeth’s government’s power

Why was Elizabeth wary of Mary Queen of Scots?

• Had a legitimate claim to the throne

• Has male heirs

• Younger, more ‘beautiful’ than Elizabeth

• Catholic

Why was Elizabeth wary of King Philip of Spain?

• Catholic

• Spain is more powerful than England

• Was married to Queen Mary (Elizabeth’s sister)

• A man

Mary Queen of Scots

• Elizabeth’s cousin + Queen of Scotland

• Had to flee Scotland in 1568, after powerful Protestant lords rose up against her and her roman-catholic rule

What did Pope Gregory XIII announce in 1580?

It would not be a sin for a Catholic to murder Elizabeth, which led to the development of more plots

The Throckmorton Plot

• 1583

• Spies were told of the fact that Robert Persons had recruited a young English Catholic Francis Throckmorton into a plot against Elizabeth

• Arrested + tortured

• Confessed to working with the Duke of Guise, planning to invade and put Mary on the throne with support from the Pope and from Spain

• They were executed, but Mary was safe

The Babington Plot

• July 1586

• Anthony Babington met a Jesuit Priest called John Ballard

• He was persuaded to join a plot to kill Elizabeth

• Communicated with coded messages to Maru

• Walsingham’s spy knew about the messages, and in early august, Babington and Ballard were arrested

• Under torture, they admitted that Mary agreed to the plan

• Mary was executed on the 12 Oct 1586 after she was found guilty of being apart of the Babington plot

Why were England and Spain becoming enemies at this time?

• At the start of her reign, Elizabeth had refused to marry Philip

• Throughout the 1570s, English sailors such as Drake and Hawkins acted like pirates, attacking spanish ports and ships in the New World

• Spain ruled the Netherlands, and Philip was angry when Elizabeth sent money to aid protestant dutch rebels there in the 1570s

What was the Anglo-Spanish war?

• 1584

  • Catholic subject of Philip kills leader of dutch protestant rebels Prince William of Orange

  • After being urged for years, Elizabeth sends an army to aid them, starting the war in 1585

• It was an army of 7000, lead by the Earl of Leicester

  • Despite poor leadership, they stopped the Spanish advances

What happened with the Spanish Armada?

• Philip decided to launch a crusade to invade England

• It was supposed to sail to the Netherlands to collect 20 000 and then head to England

• A surprise attack by Francis Drake at the Spanish port of Cadiz in 1587

  • This delayed sailing

  • Damaged ships

• They were ready to sail by July 1588

• However, they did not succeed in landing in England at any time, mostly by bad weather rather than by British skill

What were houses like for the gentry?

• Medium sized country houses

• About 20 rooms

  • Sometimes 50+

  • Designed to reflect wealth + status

What were houses like for the middling sort?

• Lighter, less draughty

• 2 Floors

• Glass windows, chimneys

• Had a hall, parlour, chamber, service rooms

What were houses like for labourers?

• Small

• Poorly built

• No upper rooms or chimneys

• Smoke escaped through thatch

• No glass

• Often only 2 rooms

What was food like for the Gentry?

• Rich and varied diet

• Houses were often surrounded by orchards and farms

What was food like for the middling sort?

• Served their own food

• Servants often join at the table

• Fruit and veg from orchards

What was food like for labourers?

• Bread, mostly rye or barley since wheat was expensive

• Pottage - thick soup from garden veg

• Many starved when harvest failed

Where did the Gentry’s wealth come from?

Came from land ownership

How much of England did the gentry own?

Though they were only about 2% of the population, they owned over ½ of England

Who made up the middling sort?

Independent craftsmen, tradesmen, yeomen and husbandmen

How did the labourers seek work?

Going farm to farm

How much of the population were labourers?

About ½ of the population

The settled poor

• Made up 30% of the urban population

• Many were children below age 16

  • Chances of surviving to adulthood were slim

• Another large group was women abandoned by their husband

• By far the largest group were the elderly, particularly widows

  • Made money by spinning yarn, washing clothes or begging

  • Sometimes risked taking jobs as carers for the sick or dying during times of plague

The Vagrant Poor

• Wandered from place to place looking for work

• Usually unmarried men/women travelling alone or in 2s or 3s

• If lucky, might find seasonal work

• On winter mornings, the bodies of vagrants were found in barns and under hedges, dying of cold and hunger

How is ‘merry england’ depicted?

• Pastoral

• Harmonious

• Working and living together

How did Elizabeth appreciate popular culture?

• Christmas was enjoyed in court with music + dancing

• Fond of many games and midsummer celebrations

• Big fan of dancing, seen in her fondness for Robert Dudley, a dancer

What was an example of the fact that privy councillors were in favour of traditional festivities?

• 1589

• Supported people in Oxfordshire who wanted to keep the tradition of maypoles after a puritan order was issued banning them as well as church ales, may games and morris dancers in the villages around Banbury

What was the opinion of most bishops on calendar customs?

Most did not attack them

Puritans

• Wanted everyone to obey the bible, live pure, holy lives

• Attacked popular culture when they preached sermons and wrote pamphlets

• Extreme protestants

What did Edward Fleetwood do in 1587?

• A puritan

• In Lancashire

• Persuaded local gentry to ban music, dancing and drinking on sundays

What did Puritans want?

• To protect the sabbath

  • Sundays were for rest and prayer

  • Wanted to stop merry-making on sundays

• Stop Catholic practices - they objected to popular culture because they were associated with catholics

• Stop Pagan practices - felt they were inappropriate in Christian communities

• Prevent disorder - there were unruly crowds at popular festivities

• Prevent unwanted pregnancies - dancing and drunkeness could lead to boombayah (knowt is censoring me haha) outside marriage

How was magic used as part of popular culture?

Used in daily life, such as:

• To find out the gender of an unborn child

• Cure an illness

• Recover stolen goods

Cunning folk

• Also known as wise women

• Thought to have special magical power which they inherited

• Used for magical remedies