An English Catholic family in the reign of Elizabeth I.
The Blounts of the West Midlands were, by the sixteenth century, a large and prominent family with seats in Shropshire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire and Staffordshire. While some members of the family achieved a level of court presence, most were primarily country gentry, leading their local society and serving as justices of the peace or members of parliament. Following the Elizabethan religious settlement of 1559 they remained one of the West Midlands most prominent Catholic families, employing a number of strategies as a way of maintaining their faith.
This lecture will look in detail at the ways in which the Blounts were able to continue to worship during the second half of the sixteenth century. Some, such as Sir George Blount of Kinlet (d.1581) were able to retain local office in spite of their recusancy, while other members of the family were fined or imprisoned. Sir Christopher Blount (d.1601), as the stepfather of the Earl of Essex attained some level of national prominence and, after a brief period as a Protestant, was reconverted to the Catholic faith in Ireland. He participated in his stepson’s rebellion in a bid to achieve religious tolerance.
As a prominent and numerous gentry family, the ways in which the Blounts were able to maintain their faiths provide a fascinating case study of the lived experience of Catholics in the late sixteenth century.
Dr Elizabeth Norton is a specializes in the queens of England and the Tudor period. Her PhD thesis looked at the Blounts in the long sixteenth century, with a particular focus on their faith in the Reformation period and before. She has written widely, including the critically acclaimed ‘The Lives of Tudor Women’ (Head of Zeus, 2016) and ‘The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor’ (Head of Zeus, 2015). She is currently writing the first full length academic study of Jane Seymour. www.elizabethno...
16 окт 2024
