Overview

Catholicism and Elizabethan Seafaring is the first study to focus on Elizabethan Catholic seafarers who participated in the Anglo-Spanish conflicts. It demonstrates that Catholic identities persisted among English sailors operating between England and Spain, challenging longstanding assumptions that early modern English Catholics were predominantly land-bound and conservative, in contrast to their supposedly more progressive Protestant counterparts. The study traces shifts in religious culture aboard English ships in the 16th century and highlights the significance of English Catholic identities in both England and Spain. It examines how these mariners behaved and adapted in both countries, and how their religious and national identities, as well as their loyalties, interplayed, changed, and evolved, particularly under the conditions of Anglo-Spanish confrontation and the broader era of confessionalisation. The focus also includes the motivations that led Catholics to serve at sea on Protestant or Catholic ships, their religious practices, interactions with wider society– including radical Protestants–and the challenges they faced in both contexts. Through meticulous archival research, the monograph uncovers the Catholic identity aboard Elizabethan ships, often concealed by its carriers, and reconstructs the previously forgotten biographies of Englishmen serving on Habsburg vessels. It brings together cases drawn from both Spanish and British archives.

Full Product Details

Author:   Andrii Pastushenko
Publisher:   Liverpool University Press
Imprint:   The British Academy
ISBN:  

9781805966005

ISBN 10:   1805966006
Pages:   194
Publication Date:   29 May 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Contents List: List of Tables Abbreviations Acknowledgements Foreword by Introduction Historiography, Primary Sources and Mythology Anglo-Spanish Relations in the Second Half of the 16th Century Maritime Religiosity The Structure of this Book Technical Commentary Part I Catholic Seamen in the British World 1 The Fading Catholicism Aboard Decline of Catholic Culture: The State and Mariners Seamen in the Religiously Challenging Environment ‘Strangers’ in English Crews Protestant Seamen’s Intolerance and Tolerance 2 Catholics on English ships The Traits and Scope of the Catholic Identity on English ships Seamen in the Clandestine Catholic Networks Catholics in Protestant Maritime Enterprises before the Spanish war Catholics in English Naval and Privateering Actions during the Spanish war Part II Catholic Seamen in the Iberian World 3 English Exiles in the Spanish Fleets English Mariners in Spanish Service Naval Wages English Catholic Officers English Exiles in the Invincible Armada Religion and British Priests Challenges in Spain 4 Individual Paths Thomas Stucley (Stukeley) John Bonner John Lambert Edward Cripps Robert Elliot Richard Burley 5 Conclusion Bibliography Index

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Author Information

Andrii Pastushenko is an early modern historian specialising in the international dimensions of maritime history, with a particular focus on the Anglo-Spanish conflict, religious Reformation at sea, and English Catholic exiles in Spanish naval service. He has over 12 years of university teaching experience and is currently an Associate Member of the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford, a Reference Professor in Global Economy at the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio (Italy), and an Associate Professor at Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics (Ukraine).

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