Challenges to E's Settlement

• Elizabeth's religious settlement:

  • priests were allowed to marry
  • services were all in English and followed the Protestant Book Of Common Prayer
  • she declared herself governor rather than head of the church
  • Catholics could worship their own way in private
  • a moderate Protestant, Matthew Parker, was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
• The Northern Rebellion, 1569

  • The Duke of Norfolk was not allowed to marry E's catholic cousin, Mary QoS
  • Two northern nobles led a rebellion against E (Westmoreland and Northumberland)
  • Took control of Durham Cathedral and held an illegal catholic mass
  • Marched south with 4600 men, but rebels disbanded when the Earl of Sussex raised an army against them
  • Northumberland executed, Westmoreland escaped to France, Norfolk imprisoned
• The papal bull, 1570

  • 27 April
  • Pope Pius V stated that E was not the true queen, called English citizens to disobey her laws, and excommunicated her from the Church
  • The aim was to force English Catholics to choose between their religion and their queen, thus inciting a rebellion
• The Ridolfi Plot, 1571

  • Led by an Italian named Ridolfi, involved Duke of Norfolk and a second northern rebellion
  • An uprising would coincide with an invasion of foreign Catholics from the Netherlands and the murder of Queen Elizabeth
  • Her Catholic cousin MQoS, would marry Norfolk and be placed on the throne
  • Plot discovered before it could be carried out