God’s traitors : terror and faith in Elizabethan England

473 Pages·2014·6.1 MB·English

by  Jessie Childs

God’s Traitors
Also by Jessie Childs
Henry VIII’s Last Victim:
The Life and Times of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
God’s Traitors
Terror and Faith in Elizabethan
England
Jessie Childs
3
3
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© Jessie Childs 2014
First published in Great Britain in 2014 by The Bodley Head
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Childs, Jessie, 1976–
God’s traitors : terror and faith in Elizabethan England / Jessie Childs.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–939235–3 (acid-free paper) 1. Great Britain—History—Elizabeth,
1558–1603. 2. Anti-Catholicism—England—History—16th century. 3. Persecution—England—
History—16th century. 4. Catholics—England—History—16th century. 5. England—
Church history—16th century. 6. Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603—Relations with
Catholics. 7. Vaux, William, Baron, 1535–1595. 8. Vaux family. I. Title.
DA355.C47 2014
942.05’5—dc23
2014001644
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To my mother and sister

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the
sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well
as if a manor of thy friends, or of thine own were; Any man’s
death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And
therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for
thee.
John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624)
17 Meditation, sig. T4

Contents
Timeline xi
Author’s Note xv
Map xvi
Family Tree xix
Principal Characters xxi
Introduction 1
Prelude: The Calm before Campion 7
part one
William and Henry
1 The Enterprise is Begun 43
2 To be a Perfect Catholic 62
3 Lying Lips 75
4 Worldly Woes 89
5 Refuse of the World 99
6 Flibbertigibbets 112
7 Atheistical Anthony Babington’s Complotment 125
8 Lambs to the Slaughter 133
part two
Eleanor and Anne
9 The Widow and the Virgin 145
10 Fright and Rumour 158
11 Mrs Brooksby’s Household 166
12 Virgo Becomes Virago 192
13 Hurly Burly 197
14 Hot Holy Ladies 211