WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
Religion, plots and the Catholic threat
Religion was the central political issue of the sixteenth century — and for Elizabeth, it was also a matter of personal survival. The Catholic Church refused to recognise her as legitimate Queen of England. Catholic powers (Spain, France) had the military capability to invade. English Catholics who remained loyal to Rome were, in the regime's eyes, potential traitors — and the plots to overthrow Elizabeth and place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne gave those fears a concrete basis. This page covers the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, the Catholic threat, and the series of plots that defined the middle decades of Elizabeth's reign.
The Elizabethan Religious Settlement, 1559
When Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, England had been whipsawed between religious extremes: Henry VIII's break with Rome, Edward VI's Protestant reforms, Mary I's Catholic restoration. Elizabeth needed a settlement that would hold.
The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity (1559) established what historians call the Elizabethan Settlement:
- Elizabeth was declared Supreme Governor of the Church of England (not "Supreme Head" as Henry had been — a deliberate modification to reduce Protestant objections to female headship of the Church)
- All clergy were required to take an oath acknowledging royal supremacy
- The Book of Common Prayer was reintroduced, with a carefully ambiguous wording for the Eucharist that Protestants and moderate Catholics could both accept
- Catholic practices (Latin Mass, transubstantiation, clerical celibacy) were abandoned
The Settlement was deliberately broad — Elizabeth famously said she did not want to "make windows into men's souls." Catholics who kept their faith privately and attended Church of England services publicly (known as recusants when they refused) were initially tolerated, though fined.
This tolerant approach could not be sustained indefinitely as the Catholic threat intensified.
The Papal Bull of 1570
In 1570, Pope Pius V issued the Papal Bull Regnans in Excelsis: he excommunicated Elizabeth and released English Catholics from their obligation to obey her. Catholics were now instructed that loyalty to Elizabeth was incompatible with loyalty to Rome.
This transformed the situation. Before 1570, an English Catholic could argue that religious dissent and political loyalty were separable. After 1570, the Pope had made them incompatible. For the English government, every Catholic was now a potential traitor — not because most were, but because the Pope had given them theological permission to be.
The government's response was to tighten penalties: recusancy fines were raised; later, sheltering a Catholic priest became treason.
Key term
Seminary priests and Jesuit missionaries
After the Papal Bull, English Catholic exiles on the Continent began training priests specifically to minister to English Catholics in secret and work to return England to Rome. **Seminary priests** were trained at the English College in Douai (from 1568). **Jesuits** — members of the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius Loyola — began entering England from 1580. The most famous Jesuit missionary was **Edmund Campion**, who disguised himself as a jewel merchant, moved secretly between Catholic households, said Mass in hidden rooms, and distributed devotional literature. He was captured in 1581, tortured, and executed. For the government, these priests were agents of a foreign power; for Catholics, they were martyrs.
The three main plots
The most dangerous Catholic plots all centred on the same aim: replacing Elizabeth with Mary Queen of Scots, who had been in English custody since 1568.
The Ridolfi Plot, 1571: Roberto Ridolfi, an Italian banker based in London, coordinated a plan to assassinate Elizabeth, land a Spanish army under the Duke of Alba in England, release Mary from captivity, and marry her to the Duke of Norfolk. The plot was uncovered by Cecil's intelligence network. Norfolk was executed. Ridolfi escaped to Rome.
The Throckmorton Plot, 1583: Francis Throckmorton coordinated a plan involving a French Catholic invasion force, Spanish support, and English Catholic rebels who would release Mary and overthrow Elizabeth. Throckmorton was caught, tortured, confessed, and was executed. The Spanish ambassador was expelled.
The Babington Plot, 1586: Anthony Babington led a group of young Catholic gentry who planned to assassinate Elizabeth. Crucially, they corresponded with Mary Queen of Scots — and those letters were intercepted by Elizabeth's spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham, who had inserted a double agent into the conspiracy. The letters explicitly showed Mary approving the plan to kill Elizabeth. This gave the regime the evidence needed to try and execute Mary — which Elizabeth had resisted for nineteen years.
Key figure
Sir Francis Walsingham (c1532–1590)
Walsingham served as Elizabeth's principal secretary and effectively created England's first organised intelligence service. A committed Protestant who had fled to the Continent during Mary I's Catholic restoration, he saw the Catholic threat in existential terms and was less squeamish than Elizabeth about using torture and deception. His network of agents and informers penetrated Catholic circles across Europe. He almost certainly allowed the Babington Plot to develop further than strictly necessary, specifically to generate evidence against Mary Queen of Scots. He died in 1590, reportedly in poverty despite his years of service — his intelligence work was expensive and not well-rewarded.
The Northern Rebellion, 1569
Not all Catholic resistance took the form of assassination plots. In 1569, the two most powerful Catholic nobles in northern England — the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland — led an armed rebellion.
Their aims were both religious (to restore Catholicism) and dynastic (to replace Elizabeth with Mary Queen of Scots). They marched south under the banner of the Five Wounds of Christ, said Mass in Durham Cathedral, and burned Protestant prayer books.
The rebellion collapsed when royal forces advanced north; the two earls fled to Scotland. Around 750 rebels were executed — Elizabeth chose severity as a deterrent.
The Northern Rebellion was the most serious domestic military threat Elizabeth faced. It showed that northern England, geographically remote and culturally conservative, remained significantly Catholic in sympathy.
Why this matters for the exam
How serious was the Catholic threat to Elizabeth?
AQA often asks you to assess how serious the Catholic threat was. Arguments for serious: the Northern Rebellion had military force behind it; the Papal Bull gave theological permission for rebellion; three significant plots aimed at her assassination; Mary Queen of Scots gave plotters a credible alternative monarch. Arguments for less serious: most English Catholics were loyal — the plots were small conspiracies, not mass uprisings; Walsingham's intelligence was effective; the plots were infiltrated before they could succeed. A strong answer notes that the threat was real but containable, and that Elizabeth's regime was skilled at discovering and suppressing conspiracies.
Revision checklist
Before moving on, make sure you can answer:
- What was the Elizabethan Religious Settlement? What did the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity establish?
- What was the Papal Bull of 1570? What were its consequences?
- What were seminary priests and Jesuit missionaries? Why did the government consider them dangerous?
- Describe the Ridolfi Plot. What happened to the conspirators?
- What was the Throckmorton Plot? What was its outcome?
- What was the Babington Plot? How was it uncovered?
- Who was Walsingham? What was his role?
- How serious was the Catholic threat to Elizabeth? What is the evidence on both sides?
What's New snippet
Article slug: gcse-history-elizabethan-england-religion-plots-catholic-threat
Title: Seminary priests, papal bulls, and Walsingham's spies — the Catholic threat to Elizabeth
Pope Pius V's papal bull of 1570 declared Elizabeth a heretic and released English Catholics from their allegiance to her — in effect, making every devout Catholic a potential traitor. The seminary priests and Jesuit missionaries who followed were risking their lives; so were the families who sheltered them. Francis Walsingham built England's first intelligence network specifically to find them.