After the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, Protestants worried that King Charles II might favour religious freedom for Roman Catholics, and many suspected that the king was unduly influenced by his Catholic mistresses. Nell Gwyn, actress and royal mistress, stood apart by virtue of her Protestant loyalty. In 1681, Gwyn, her carriage surrounded by an angry anti-Catholic mob, famously declared 'I am the protestant whore.' Her self-branding invites an investigation into the alignment between sex and politics during this period, and in this study, Alison Conway relates courtesan narrative to cultural and religious anxieties. In new readings of canonical works by Aphra Behn, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, and Samuel Richardson, Conway argues that authors engaged the same questions about identity, nation, authority, literature, and politics as those pursued by Restoration polemicists. Her study reveals the recurring connection between sexual impropriety and religious heterodoxy in Restoration thought, and Nell Gwyn, writ large as the nation's Protestant Whore, is shown to be a significant figure of sexual, political, and religious controversy.

After the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, Protestants worried that King Charles II might favour religious freedom for Roman Catholics, and many suspected that the king was unduly influenced by his Catholic mistresses. Nell Gwyn, actress and royal mistress, stood apart by virtue of her Protestant loyalty. In 1681, Gwyn, her carriage surrounded by an angry anti-Catholic mob, famously declared 'I am the protestant whore.' Her self-branding invites an investigation into the alignment between sex and politics during this period, and in this study, Alison Conway relates courtesan narrative to cultural and religious anxieties. In new readings of canonical works by Aphra Behn, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, and Samuel Richardson, Conway argues that authors engaged the same questions about identity, nation, authority, literature, and politics as those pursued by Restoration polemicists. Her study reveals the recurring connection between sexual impropriety and religious heterodoxy in Restoration thought, and Nell Gwyn, writ large as the nation's Protestant Whore, is shown to be a significant figure of sexual, political, and religious controversy.

A sweeping argument that from the mid-seventeenth century until the mid-twentieth, the English-language novel encoded ideas equating race with liberty.

On 13 June 1525, Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, a former nun, in a private ceremony officiated by city preacher Johann Bugenhagen. Whilst Luther was not the first former monk or Reformer to marry, his marriage immediately became one of the iconic episodes of the Protestant Reformation. From that point on, the marital status of clergy would be a pivotal dividing line between the Catholic and Protestant churches. Tackling the early stages of this divide, this book provides a fresh assessment of clerical marriage in the first half of the sixteenth century. It investigates the way that clerical marriage was received, and viewed in the dioceses of Mainz and Magdeburg under Archbishop Albrecht von Hohenzollern from 1513 to 1545. By concentrating on a cross-section of rural and urban settings from three key regions within this territory, Saxony, Franconia, and Swabia, the study is able to present a broad comparison of reactions to this contentious issue.

Tales about treacherous Jesuits and scheming popes are an important and pervasive part of European culture. They belong to a set of ideas, images, and practices that, when grouped under the label anti-Catholicism, represent a phenomenon that can be traced back to the Reformation. Anti-Catholic movements and sentiments crossed boundaries between European countries, contributing to the early modern consolidation of national identities. In the nineteenth century, secularist movements adopted and transformed confessional criticism in a new internationalist dimension that was articulated across the whole Western world. A variety of liberal, conservative, secular, Protestant, and other forces gave shape to this counter-image, taking on the function of a pattern from which one’s own ideals and beliefs could be chiselled out. The contributions to this volume show how different national contexts affected the proliferation of anti-Catholic messages over the course of four centuries of European history, and demonstrate that anti-Catholicism constituted a powerful European cross-cultural phenomenon.

Analyses English sexual culture between the Civil Wars and the death of Charles II.

Full of humour and bawdy wit, this new comedy transports us into the wanton world of the English Restoration. A new comedy by Steve Trafford with songs by Henry Purcell. King Charles 2nd lies ill, Nell Gwyn, his royal whore, once the brightest star of the Restoration theatre, rages against her fate. What will become of her if Charles is summoned to his Maker? What perils will befall the English nation? Mistress Gwyn and Margery, her maid, lead us a merry dance, filled with their laughter, their tears, and Nell’s enchanting songs of the Baroque: A rollicking romp which ends with a sting in its tail. Eleanor ‘Nell’ Gwyn (2 February 1650 – 14 November 1687) was a long-time mistress of King Charles II of England and Scotland. Called ‘pretty, witty Nell’ by Samuel Pepys, she has been regarded as a living embodiment of the spirit of Restoration England and has come to be considered a folk heroine, with a story echoing the rags-to-royalty tale of Cinderella. She was the most famous Restoration actress and possessed a prodigious comic talent. Gwyn had two sons by King Charles: Charles Beauclerk (1670–1726); and James Beauclerk (1671–1680). The surname of her sons is pronounced 'Bo-Clare'. Charles was created Earl of Burford and later Duke of St. Albans.