Elizabeth’s war with England’s Catholics

In Elizabethan England, Catholics were branded public enemies, their Masses banned and their priests executed. Jessie Childs reveals what life was like for recusants and ‘church papists’ in a hostile Protestant state

In 1828, builders removing a lintel over a doorway at Rushton Hall in Northamptonshire were surprised to see an old, beautifully bound book come down with the rubble. They decided to investigate, and knocked through a thick partition wall, exposing a recess about 5 feet (1.5 metres) long and 15 inches (40cm) wide. Inside, wrapped in a large sheet, was an enormous bundle of papers and books that had once belonged to Sir Thomas Tresham, a Catholic gentleman who lived during the reign of Elizabeth I. Other discoveries were made in other counties: a secret room chanced upon by a boy exploring a derelict wing of Harvington Hall, near Kidderminster, in 1894; a small wax disc bearing the imprint of a cross and a lamb (an Agnus Dei), found in a…

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The Story of the Elizabethans (Digital) - 1 Issue, The Story of the Elizabethans 2020

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