Such was life for the Throckmortons and in today’s scene Bess received an unwelcome invitation from her cousin Francis. Francis, who we’ve met on previous blogs, was of course from the Catholic side of the family and at the centre of a conspiracy against the Queen (as Walsingham was well aware) so any connection to Bess could be potentially fatal. Being a catholic was not in itself a death-sentence, indeed there were many well-known ‘church-papists’ who followed the old faith but accepted the real-politik of the new age and swore allegiance to the Queen. But is this really what Francis Throckmorton wants?

Justin