God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England

First edition, first impression. xx, 444pp, plus two sections of plate illustrations. In black cloth-covered boards with gilt titles on spine. Black endpapers. 8vo. . Utilitarian label with gift inscription on front free endpaper. Some toning to text block edges, affecting page margins mildly else neat, clean and tight throughout. In its original, illustrated dust jacket, very gently rubbed on edges, not price clipped. An exploration of the Catholic predicament in Elizabethan England told through the eyes of the Vauxes of Harrowden Hall. Elizabeth I had criminalised Catholicism in England: for refusing to attend Protestant services her subjects faced crippling fines and imprisonment and for giving refuge to outlawed priests they risk death. Ordered by the Pope to resist the Queen and by the Queen to renounce the Pope, they faced an agonising conflict of loyalty. A superb, award-winning history.