Elizabethan exiles
Catholic composers faced difficult decisions about faith and loyalty under the rule of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I, says Elinor Cooper, finding themselves in either spiritual or even physical exile
Elinor Cooper on the miseries endured by Catholic composers plying their trade under a Protestant queen
T‘‘ Dowland was passed over for a royal lutenist position, and he attributed his neglect to Elizabeth I ’’
o this day, the Elizabethan golden age holds a powerful place in England’s national identity. Queen Elizabeth I’s long and successful reign, from 1558 to 1603, provided greater political stability, economic growth and national confidence than any of her predecessors. her court was a dazzling spectacle full of dance and music from which she led English resistance – against all odds – to the constant threat from Spain. Writers like William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, the composers Tallis and Byrd, explorers including Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh and courtiers such as spymaster Francis Walsingham make up the essence of what it was to be an Elizabethan: creative, courageous and cunning.
Yet the Virgin Queen’s legendary rule was not without its problems. Thousands of her subjects still lived in fear of persecution, for one reason alone: they were Catholics. Composers of this faith, whose livelihood stemmed from writing for the all-important church and Chapel Royal, had to tread a careful line between conformity and treason. how they could reconcile personal beliefs and public loyalty? Was it possible to separate their art from their religion? Musicians faced difficult choices.
Of course, England had previously had a long history as a Catholic nation. Henry VIII’S Reformation in the 1530s began a religious struggle which raged for years. his son, the pious boy-king Edward VI, was intent on drastically reforming the Church of England into a true Protestant organisation. The upheaval of his short reign was nothing compared to that of his Catholic sister, Mary I. Nicknamed ‘Bloody Mary’, in her five years she condemned hundreds of Protestants to burn for heresy in one of the most intense persecutions seen in Europe.
Elizabeth’s reign was, in contrast, begun with an aim for greater acceptance. ‘I have no desire to make windows into men’s souls,’ she declared. Yet with growing threats of Catholic rebellion and Spanish invasion, and her excommunication by the Pope in 1570, Elizabeth’s tolerance of Catholics in her kingdom withered. New laws again changed religious practice. Music,