In The Excommunication of Elizabeth I, Aislinn Muller examines the excommunication and deposition of Queen Elizabeth I of England by the Roman Catholic Church, and its political afterlife during her reign. Muller shows that Elizabethâs excommunication was a crucial turning point for both Catholics and Protestants, one that irrevocably changed attitudes towards the queen, widened political participation and resistance, and posed a destabilising threat to her regime. The Excommunication of Elizabeth I demonstrates how this event exacerbated religious tensions in Englandâs foreign and domestic politics, and how Elizabethâs conflict with the papacy shaped the development of anti-Catholicism in post-Reformation England.
Aislinn Muller obtained her Ph.D. in History at the University of Cambridge (2017). Her work on religious politics in post-Reformation England has appeared in publications such as British Catholic History and Studies in Church History. This is her first book.
âThe Excommunication of Elizabeth I presents an arresting narrative of queried legitimacy, reactive politics, and subversion that informs of the wider tumults of the revolutionary age and stands as an object lesson in maintaining cordial relations.â
Patrick J. Murray, in: Renaissance and Reformation, Vol. 44, No. 2 (2021), pp. 261â263.
AAcknowledgements List of Figures Abbreviations Note on the Text
âIntroduction
â1âQueen Elizabethâs Excommunication in Post-Reformation Politics
â2âElizabethâs Excommunication in Surviving Records
1âThe Excommunication of Elizabeth I in International Politics
â1âMaking the Case for Elizabeth's Illegitimacy, 1558â1569
â2âInterpreting and Executing Regnans in Excelsis
2 Transmitting the Excommunication of Elizabeth I
â1âDistribution and Reception in the 1570s
â2âCatholic Missions and the Circulation of Regnans in Excelsis, ca. 1580â1603
â3âDebating the Excommunicationâs Legitimacy
3 Spreading the Word? Regnans in Excelsis in Protestant Discourse
â1âHumour, History, and Anxiety in Printed Responses to Regnans in Excelsis
â2âProtestant Translations of Regnans in Excelsis
4 The Excommunication in Foreign and Domestic Policy
â1âThreats from Spain and Scotland, ca. 1570â1579
â2âRegnans in Excelsis and the Coming of War, ca. 1580â1588
â3âWars with Spain, France, and Ireland, ca. 1589â1603
5 Political Engagement, Subversion, and Resistance in England and Ireland
â1âSedition as Resistance: Perceptions of Elizabeth after 1570
â2âAlternatives to Violence: Prohibited Objects, Recusancy, and Public Disobedience
â3âRegnans in Excelsis and Resistance in Ireland
Conclusion
Bibliography Index
Anyone interested in Elizabethan politics and anyone interested in post-Reformation English Catholicism and anti-Catholicism.