Hibbard begins by setting court Catholicism in the context of English court alignments on domestic and foreign policy. She then describes public reaction to royal policy and court Catholicism and the use parliamentary leaders made of anti-Catholicism from 1640 to 1642. In this first study to focus on both the perceptions and the reality of popish plotting,"" Hibbard concludes that behind the exaggerated claims lay genuine anxieties that historians should begin to take seriously.""

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