The Popes and Britain: A History of Rule, Rupture and Reconciliation

When the British thought of themselves as a Protestant nation their natural enemy was the pope and they adapted their view of history accordingly. In contrast, Rome's perspective was always considerably wider and its view of Britain was almost invariably positive, especially in comparison to medieval emperors, who made and unmade popes, and post-medieval Frenchmen, who treated popes with contempt. As the twenty-first-century papacy looks ever more firmly beyond Europe, this new history examines political, diplomatic and cultural relations between the popes and Britain from their vague origins, through papal overlordship of England, the Reformation and the process of repairing that breach.

About the Author

Dr Stella Fletcher has taught for the Continuing Education departments of the universities of Bath, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. She is currently Associate Fellow of the University of Warwick's Centre for the Study of the Renaissance. Her publications include the Longman Companion to Renaissance Europe and a history of the archbishops of Canterbury, The Mitre and the Crown (with Dominic Aidan Bellenger).