This is a study of the political, religious, social and mentalworlds of the Catholic aristocracy from 1550 to 1640. MichaelQuestier examines the familial and patronage networks of theEnglish Catholic community and their relationship to the laterTudors and Stuarts. He shows how the local history of theReformation can be used to rewrite mainstream accounts of nationalpolitics and religious conflict in this period. The book takes inthe various crises of mid- and late Elizabeth politics, theaccession of James VI, the Gunpowder Plot, religious toleration andthe start of the Thirty Years War and finally the rise ofLaudianism, leading up to the civil war. It challenges recenthistorical notions of Catholicism as fundamentally sectarian anddemonstrates the extent to which sections of the Catholic communityhad come to an understanding with both the local and national Stateby the later 1620s and 1630s.
