In 1963, the Jesuit scholar, Albert Loomie, published The Spanish Elizabethans: English Catholic Exiles at the Court of Philip II. Loomie's work was pioneering, drawing extensively on Spanish archival material to reveal the interwoven nature of the activities of English Catholic exiles and the political objectives of the Spanish kings Philip II and Philip III. However, there has been little scholarship conducted to build on Loomie's findings. Although in the past twenty years there has been an uptake in the number of studies investigating early modern English Catholic exile, these studies have predominantly focused on the exile experience in France, Italy, and the Low Countries. Freddy Domínguez's Radicals in Exile: English Catholic Books during the Reign of Philip II seeks to address this scholarly neglect. Through an analysis of the “Spanish Elizabethans”—whom he defines as those “who played a role in Spanish political culture, believed that Spain and England would have an entwined future, and became an abettor and promoter of the Habsburg regime” (8)—Domínguez uncovers the central role certain English Catholic exiles had in early modern Spanish politics, and, in doing so, makes a significant contribution to scholarly understandings of English Catholicism, Spanish politics, and late-sixteenth century international relations.

Radicals in Exile is organized into three parts. Part one, “History in Action,” is a close reading of three early editions of Nicholas Sander's De origine ac progressu schismatis Anglicani produced between 1585 and 1588. De origine was the first Catholic history of the English Reformation, recounting Protestant atrocities committed against Catholics who had stood up to their oppressors. The first edition promoted war against England, calling upon mainland Europe's Catholic powers to act in support of English Catholicism. However, as English Catholic and Spanish interests became entwined in the lead up to the Spanish Armada of 1588, the book underwent “forms of ‘Hispaniolization’” (21), and the target audience for the work shifted. The second edition, published in 1586, was intended for one particular reader: Philip II. Produced in the context of an imminent conflict between Spain and England, the edition urged Philip to act swiftly and decisively against England. The third version was a Spanish “translation/adaptation by the Spanish Jesuit Pedro de Ribadeneyra: the Historia ecclesiastica del scisma [del reyno] de Inglaterra (The ecclesiastical history of the English schism)” (21), which was published in the build up to the Armada. Ribadeneyra's translation maintained the original arguments of Sander's text but also featured expanded sections on Mary Tudor and Elizabeth. Ribandeneyra's version ensured that a Spanish Elizabethan understanding of England's recent past “became deeply rooted in the Spanish world” (92).

In the aftermath of the Armada of 1588, there was a degree of mutual distrust between English Catholics and Spain. Spaniards grumbled about how English Catholics were ungrateful and unreliable; the Spanish Elizabethans, meanwhile, feared that Philip would turn his back on England and, instead, focus his efforts on securing the French throne for his daughter. Thus, the Spanish Elizabethans “worked to secure the entwinement of Spanish concerns and English Catholic desires” (115). In Spain, they sought to promote the cause of English Catholicism through the promotion of the English martyrs. Through these martyrologies, the Spanish Elizabethans “emphasized that English Catholics did support the Spanish” and were indeed good Catholics (103). At the same time, the argument was put forward that the Spanish owed it to England's Catholics to continue to sacrifice gold and silver to advance the English Catholic cause. In a broader European context, the Spanish Elizabethans “played a crucial role in Philip II's self-promotion” (117), and looked to defend Spanish policies from criticism. The Elizabethan proclamation, “Establishing Commissions against Seminary Priests and Jesuits,” for example, which accused the Catholic clergy in England of acting as Philip II's agents tasked with fomenting discord and treason against the queen, was met by a series of English Catholic publications, published in multiple languages, defending Philip and placing blame on the Elizabethan regime. These texts, Domínguez argues, were “appeals to a [Spanish] public that might be amenable to a critique of the [Elizabethan] regime” (136). In part two, “The King's Men,” exploring post-Armada English Catholic texts, Domínguez shows how the Spanish Elizabethans became both features of politics within the Iberian peninsula and defenders of Spanish policy when addressing the rest of Europe.

The final part, “(Habsburg) England and Spain Reformed,” examines two texts produced by Robert Persons intended to facilitate a second Armada: A Conference About the Next Succession to the Crowne of Ingland (c. 1594) and Memorial for the Reformation of England (in manuscript during Persons's life but published posthumously in 1690). Domínguez reveals how these texts “sought to disrupt political life (as it did in England) or to nudge allies (in Madrid and Rome) in certain directions” (178), and shows how the Spanish Elizabethans adapted to the wider political situation and adjusted their arguments to different audiences. The Conference, for example, was preceded by a Spanish manuscript version, the Raçonamiento y paracer de los letrados ingleses sobre el caso de la sucesion del Reyno de Inglaterra (The reasoning and opinion of the English lawyers about the succession of England). This text, Domínguez argues—with its formal introduction and title page, and survival in several copies—was intended for “public” consumption in Spanish courtly circles. It outlined the “compatibility of several Habsburg claims to European hegemony, conjoining English matters to those realms of dynasticism so vital to the Habsburgs at the time: France and Portugal” (157).

Recently, scholarship on English Catholicism has started to take greater account of its broadly European and international dimensions, and Domínguez makes an important contribution to this line of scholarship. Radicals in Exile presents a convincing case for the central role of English Catholics in late sixteenth-century Spanish and wider European politics. It casts new light on English Catholics’ links with Spain, and future scholarship will no doubt expand on these links, looking at connections beyond the printed word.