God’s Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England

God’s Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England

God’s Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England

By Jessie Childs (2015)
Buy this book
Buy this book

A woman awakes in a prison cell.

She has been on the run but the authorities have tracked her down and taken her to the Tower of London - where she is interrogated about the Gunpowder Plot.

The woman is Anne Vaux - one of the ardent, brave and exasperating members of the aristocratic Vauxes of Harrowden Hall.

Through the eyes of this remarkable family, award-winning author Jessie Childs explores the Catholic predicament in Elizabethan England - an age in which their faith was criminalised and almost two hundred Catholics were executed.

From dawn raids to daring escapes, stately homes to torture chambers, God's Traitors exposes the tensions masked by the cult of Gloriana - and is a timely reminder of the terrible consequences when religion and politics collide.

Fact of the Day

Between April 1669 and the end of 1684, Charles II touched a total of 28,983 people (about 1,800 p.a.) for the King's Evil.

Quote of the Day

"If you do not wish to dwell with evil-doers, do not live in London. "
~ Richard of Devizes (12th century)

On This Day

1284 The future Edward II was born at Caernarfon Castle, Wales. He was the only son from Edward I's first marriage to Eleanor of Castile to outlive his father.
1719 The much-loved Daniel Defoe story Robinson Crusoe was published.
1792 French highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person to be executed by the guillotine.
1915 Ninety thousand Australian, New Zealand, British and French forces began landing on the Turkish Gallipoli Peninsula. They hoped to secure the northern bank of the Dardanelles, but were forced to withdraw after eight months of intense fighting.
1916 British authorities declared martial law in Dublin for a month, in response to the Easter Rising.
1984 David A. Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy (of the political Kennedy family), died of a drug overdose in Palm Beach, aged 28.
1990 The US shuttle Discovery released the Hubble Telescope into orbit. It remains one of the largest, most versatile and best known space telescopes.