Religious objects and Political Loyalties: The 7th earl of Northumberland and Catholic resistance to Elizabethan rule

This paper will reexamine debates about Catholic loyalty and resistance through a study of objects associated with Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland (executed for his role in the 1569 Northern Rebellion). It explores how objects associated with the earl shaped his posthumous reputation, amongst a hostile Protestant regime and amongst those Catholics who recognised him as a martyr. It will also consider the earl’s potentially divisive legacy for English Catholics as they attempted to negotiate their relationship with the English Protestant state, and the uneasiness some felt about his example of armed resistance. 

Katy Gibbons is Principal Lecturer in History at the University of Portsmouth.