Refugees, religion and diplomacy in early modern Europe

This project investigates the agency of Catholic exiles and refugees in Anglo-Roman diplomacy in the strained century-and-a-half following Henry VIII's break with Rome. It bridges the literatures on early modern diplomacy and Catholic recusants, drawing on the extraordinary resource of the 163 volumes of uncatalogued transcripts from Roman libraries in PRO 31/9 and 31/10, which include extensive correspondence from papal officials, documentation from the English Colleges in Rome and Douai, and many letters from exiles. Exploring the roles of individuals, institutions and mediators in diplomacy, the project assesses their activities at key turning points in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.