Gregory, EM; (2017) Catholics and sequestration during the English Revolution, 1642-60. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis explores how Parliament’s policy towards English Catholics changed during the English Revolution by examining their experiences of the sequestration and compounding system. Before 1642, sequestration and compounding had been used as a penalty against recusants to raise revenue for Charles I’s Personal Rule for nonchurch attendance. Parliament intended the new sequestration process to be a temporary solution as a consequence of the war, and originally targeted both religious and political enemies. By 1650, sequestration was used by Parliament as a method to punish political enemies, and throughout the Interregnum, Parliament continued to adapt the legislation as a consequence of the current political environment. Petitioners needed to equip themselves with information on how to compound for their estates. Catholic petitioners had to establish how they were to encounter the new legislation, and most crucially, provide substantial evidence to successfully compound for their estates. It is shown that Catholics were able to access guidance on how to manoeuvre themselves through the sequestration and compounding process through official and popular printed material, which influenced the tactics they used in their compounding petitions. Catholics actively sought to have their sequestration discharged by providing evidence of their loyalty to Parliament and to their country. Crucially, Catholic petitioners were able to utilise their networks with influential Protestants who had wider political connections. Through these networks, it is revealed that moderate politicians were conciliatory towards Catholics of social privilege, and, that Catholics were integrated with Protestants throughout this period. This thesis, therefore, establishes that English Catholics were not the primary focus of sequestration during the English Revolution, and, in fact, were able to integrate and play a part of local and national society.

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