Stuart Dynastic Policy and Religious Politics 1621-1625

这个提议的版本是以前几乎不为人知的，如果有的话，很少使用的信件，由一群居住在伦敦，布鲁塞尔，巴黎和罗马的英国天主教牧师在1620年代上半叶写的，对詹姆士王朝晚期的政治，特别是对1621年至1625年斯图亚特政权所追求的王朝条约，有了新的认识。这些通讯员（英国天主教社区中地位很高、有影响力的神职人员，在他们自己的国家和罗马教廷都有强大的赞助人）之间传递的消息让我们看到了各种压力团体是如何向斯图亚特政府提供建议和服务的。在詹姆士一世天主教的情况下，奖励是为了表现出极度的忠诚，并在罗马谈判中提供外交援助，以获得教皇对拟议婚姻的必要豁免，这是国王对詹姆斯的天主教臣民的相当大的宽容。这加剧了詹姆斯统治末期的政治不稳定，因为国王先是与奥地利王室，然后是波旁王室就查尔斯王子的王朝婚姻进行谈判。面对主要议员，1621年虔诚的国会议员，以及大量公众舆论的不可调和的反对，詹姆斯试图强行通过他的政策议程，并试图战胜反对斯图亚特王朝继承人与天主教徒联姻的尖锐声音。为此，他采取的策略之一是建立一个影子天主教外交机构，代表国王在欧洲的法庭上进行谈判，尤其是在罗马。这一时期的历史学家都知道，1620年代早期的王朝求婚引发了一系列政治争议：斯图亚特王朝的腐败；斯图亚特王朝显然未能对泛欧洲的“新教事业”提供帮助（特别是在詹姆斯的女婿，选帝王普法尔廷在三十年战争开始时被驱逐出波西米亚和他自己的莱茵兰普法尔廷之后），以及在詹姆斯的领土内部分执行宗教统一。英国天主教神职人员的某些成员（包括这些通讯的作者）意识到英国政治发生了巨大变化，他们抓住机会介入，并与王室的外交努力联系在一起，以确保威尔士亲王的婚姻条约。在他们的通信中，他们描述了自己对这一时期的政治看法，以及他们为展示对国王的忠诚所做的努力；他们向我们描述了17世纪早期政治文化的关键方面（即使他们自己的关注点受到严重影响）。近年来，这一时期的史学争议极大；尤其是自封为“修正主义者”的历史学家认为，国王和批评者（尤其是议会中的批评者）在宪法和宗教问题上的冲突被夸大了。这只会有帮助。因此，这些通讯要有一个完整的注释版，对当代人（包括天主教徒和其他人）非常感兴趣的问题进行评论——伊丽莎白时代宗教解决方案的某些方面可能发生逆转；罗马可能会利用条约谈判来干涉詹姆斯的领土（尤其是在英格兰设立天主教主教）；法院与日益敌对的议会之间的关系；英国军事干预三十年战争的前景；以及当国王准备挑战许多（一些）新教英国人认为不可妥协的假设时，各省现有的（新教）社会和政治秩序将维持到什么程度的问题。

This proposed edition of previously almost unknown and seldom, if ever, used correspondence, written by a group of English Catholic clergymen, resident in London, Brussels, Paris and Rome during the first half of the 1620s, casts a fresh light on the politics of the late Jacobean period, and in particular on the dynastic treaties pursued by the Stuart regime in 1621-1625. The news which passed between these correspondents (highly placed and influential clerical members of the English Catholic community, with powerful patrons in their own country and in the curia at Rome) allows us to see how various pressure groups offered their advice and services to the Stuart State. In the case of Jacobean Catholicism, the reward sought for extravagant displays of loyalty and offers of diplomatic assistance in the negotiations at Rome for the necessary papal dispensation for the proposed marriages was a quite substantial measure of tolerance to be granted by the crown to James's Catholic subjects. This served to aggravate the political instability of the end of James's reign, as the crown negotiated first with the House of Austria and then the House of Bourbon for a dynastic marriage for Prince Charles. Faced with the irreconcilable opposition of leading councilors, godly members of the 1621 parliament, and substantial sections of public opinion, James tried to force through his policy agenda and to outmaneuver the strident contrary voices which balked at a Catholic marriage for the Stuart heir. One tactic which he employed in order to do this was the creation of, in effect, a shadow Catholic diplomatic service to negotiate on the crown's behalf in the courts of Europe, and in particular at Rome. As every historian of the period has been aware, the dynastic marriage proposals of the early 1620s brought into sharp focus a number of contentious political issues: the alleged corruption of the Stuart court; the Stuarts' apparent failure to render assistance to the pan-European 'Protestant cause' (particularly after James's son-in-law, the elector palatine was ejected from Bohemia and his own Rhineland palatinate as the Thirty Years war began; and the partial enforcement of religious uniformity within James's realms. Sensing a sea change in English politics, certain members of the English Catholic clergy (including the writers of these newsletters) seized the opportunity to intervene in and associate themselves with the crown's diplomatic efforts to secure a marriage treaty for the Prince of Wales. In their correspondence they describe both their own political take on the period, and their efforts to demonstrate loyalty to the crown; and they give us an account (even if heavily inflected with their own concerns) of crucial aspects of early seventeenth-century political culture.Historiographical this period has been extremely controversial in recent years; in particular as self-styled 'revisionist' historians have argued that conflict between the crown and its critics (particularly in parliament) over constitutional and religious issues has been overstated. It can only be helpful. therefore, to have a fully annotated edition of these newsletters, commenting, as they do, on issues of intense interest to contemporaries (both to Catholics and others)- the possibility of reversal of aspects of the Elizabethan settlement of religion; the likelihood that Rome would use the treaty negotiations to interfere in James's dominions (notably by setting up Catholic bishops in England); the relationship between the Court and an increasingly hostile parliament; the prospect of English military intervention in the Thirty Years War; and the issue of how far the established (Protestant) social and political order in the provinces would be maintained when it appeared that the crown was prepared to challenge many of assumptions which (some) Protestant Englishmen assumed were non-negotiable.