God's Traitors: Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England

Following the lives of the recusant Vaux family from 1570s through to the Gunpowder Plot and a little beyond, author Jessie Childs has given this reader an in depth look at how aristocratic families dealt with their deep Catholic faith during Elizabethan and Stuart times.

In February 1570, Pope Pius V declared Elizabeth excommunicated in what can only be described as a turning point in the history of Europe and beyond. Protestant backlash was almost immediate and with that such families as the Vaux's trod a very fine line to stay out of the firing line of the recriminations that followed. Many aristocratic English Catholics were willing to compromise their faith but those that did not paid for it with a loss of privileges, be that pecuniary or with their lives. The Vaux family eventually lost its hereditary rights to a seat in the House of Lords.

This is a very well researched history; it has copious endnotes and an excellent bibliography, one that anyone looking for further reading on the subject could not ignore. Childs writes at a good pace, one that is fairly easy to read, though I thought a few of the passages quoted from other sources may have been cut back a little, a minor quibble though.

I would probably only recommend this to anyone that has had deeper reading into the religious issues of the time as this is no beginner's book by any stretch. For example, a deeper knowledge of the Gunpowder Plot is a must in my opinion.