This book reveals the untold story of the courageous women who sheltered Catholic priests in England during the Elizabethan era, risking their lives to shield the priests from their persecutors. Focusing on the Vaux sisters and others, the book highlights their daring acts of defiance against the Crown’s agents.

This well-researched book contains stories of the network of women who protected Catholic priests, and the priests they protected, during the Elizabethan and Stuart eras. It’s told in a textbook rather than a storytelling style. I would have liked more about the social context surrounding these events, but it’s a good reference book for anyone looking for information about this rather narrow topic.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Recusancy (from Latin: recusare, lit. 'to refuse') was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation.The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repealed in the Interregnum (1649–1660), remained on the statute books until 1888.They imposed punishments such as fines, property confiscation and imprisonment on recusants.

Early recusants included Protestant dissenters, whose confessions derived from the Calvinistic Reformers or Radical Reformers. With the growth of these latter groups after the Restoration of Charles II, they were distinguished from Catholic recusants by the terms "nonconformist" or "dissenter". The recusant period reaped an extensive harvest of saints and martyrs.

Among the recusants were some high-profile Catholic aristocrats such as the Howards, Vauxs and,the Plantagenet-descended Beauforts.This patronage ensured that an organic and rooted English base continued to inform the country's Catholicism.They became connected by marriage to Catholic families across the kingdom, including the Arundells, Blundells,Cliffords, Erringtons, Gillows, Haydocks, Petres, Ropers, Shireburns, Smythes, Stourtons, Throckmortons, Vaughans and Vavasours.

In 1581,Catholics in England were frequently put to death, and most executions were Catholic priests. After priests the second most feared rebel group were female recusants.There was strict surveillance within the city,monitoring movements and keeping track of church attendance.Catholic females were considered to be manipulators and religious converts as well as the largest group to miss Church services.Their punishments were often stricter than men.Records show that Catholic women harboured the most priests through providing safe houses.

Recusant women provided the necessary social glue to keep different recusant families close together and for support through relatives and servants.

The women who helped keep the Catholic faith alive were Anne Vaux and her sister Eleanor Brooksby, Eliza Roper, Anne Line, Anne Howard, Margaret Clitherow, Margaret Ward etc.

The XVI century was an age of brutal religious repression on all side. These women were involved and one died in a horrible way. They were brave to fight for what they believe.
An interesting read.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

An interesting look at the women who fought for their faith in an age of increasing religious division and an age where conformity to the religious will of the state was expected.

I received a free copy of The Women Who Saved Catholic England, by Martyn R. Beardsley, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Anne Vaux her sister Eleanor, were part of The Catholic Resistance, and helped Catholic priests, when priests were persecuted for being Catholic. This was a horrific time in our history, though people are still being killed and discriminated against for their religion. The woman in the book are true heros of their time, including 11 year old Frances, and Margaret of York. I really enjoyed this book.

At the end of this book there is a really great summary of how England changed its stance towards Catholics and the Catholic religion in general during the later Stuart monarchs- and why. It gives the reader a good feel for how times and people changed and helps set the scene for after the book. I really wish the author had taken a few pages and done something similar to set the stage at the beginning of the book, so that the reader had a better understanding of a few things. For example, everyone pretty much knows that after Henry VIII England went back and forth between Protestant and Catholic under his children. What did that mean for the everyday people? This book is about saving Catholic priests, but it is hazy on a lot of the details of the lives of the priests (and secret Catholics) in between raids. Although if you want some specifics about time they spent getting tortured and some horrible deaths, there are quite detailed accounts here.

The book follows a number of specific women like the Vaux sisters who sheltered priests and seem to have supported a Catholic community. Authorities often seem to have known this kind of thing was happening and raids were more politically motivated than anything else. Beardsley describes those who had to hide in the ingeniously created "priest's holes", often for days on end, to escape search parties and at the end gives a very helpful list of the main houses mentioned in the book and whether they still stand and can be visited by the public today. I'm definitely hoping to see a few of these one day!

Overall, this is a book more for those who already know a certain amount about Catholics under Elizabeth I and James I. Not a book I'd recommend for those just starting to read about the subject, it assumes a certain amount of knowledge already by the reader. I was often left wishing I knew more about the subject so that I could have gotten more out of this book than I did.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review