Why were Catholics so unpopular in England in 1605?

Answer 1

In 1605 the Reformation was still in full fury, pitting the power of the Catholic Church - which had dominated Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire nearly a thousand years before - against the Protestants, whom the Church regarded as heretics and rebels. The Church was determined not to give up its power lightly, and in Catholic Spain and France, Protestants were burnt alive and tortured by the zealots of the Inquisition.

The Protestant cause was strongest in Northern Europe, especially in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the Scandinavian countries, and England. England's King Henry the VIII had defied the Pope and broken away from the Church of Rome, and Queen Elizabeth's reign was a constant struggle between her desire to keep England Protestant, and the determination of the Pope and King Philip of Spain (aka "His Most Catholic Majesty") to reign England back into Papal control. During her time, England was the major supporter of the Dutch protestant revolution against King Philip's control, and her defeat of the Spanish Armada was a major blow - some may say even the death knell - to the dominance of Spain's power.

The English were proud to be Protestant and independent of the hated "Papists" , and had fought hard to achieve that independence. When King James (whose mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was Catholic) married a Catholic French princess, the English were anxious that a child of theirs would negate all the progress they had made once that child became King. In fact, The English people were prepared to depose such a king, rather than see that happen. It was a tense situation, and any Catholic was likely to be seen as a traitor to England and an agent of the Pope.