BattlefieldsNorthern Recusancy — Robert Persons Mission to Yorkshire 1580-1581
Tudor

Northern Recusancy — Robert Persons Mission to Yorkshire 1580-1581

1580–1581
Yorkshire, England
Also known as: Persons Jesuit mission Yorkshire 1580 · Yorkshire Jesuit network 1580
Era
Tudor
Battle Type
Skirmish
Location
Yorkshire, England
Status
Unregistered
The Combatants

Who Fought

Defeated
Jesuit mission
Forces
Jesuit mission with gentry support
VS
Victor
Crown (eventually)
Forces
Elizabethan intelligence network
Outcome
Robert Persons and Edmund Campion divided England mission; Persons operated in Yorkshire and the north visiting gentry; government intelligence tracked but failed to capture Persons
The Battle

History & Significance

The Jesuit mission of 1580-1581 was the most dangerous moment of Elizabethan Catholic resistance. Persons in Yorkshire and Campion elsewhere revitalised the Catholic community. Persons eluded capture and eventually escaped abroad; Campion was caught and executed. The Yorkshire phase of the mission established the Jesuit network that would support the Gunpowder Plot generation and the northern Catholic resistance of the seventeenth century.

Questions & Answers

Frequently Asked Questions

Aubrey Research

Explore the landscape around Yorkshire

Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.

Research a location near Yorkshire