Michael Questier, following John Bossy, has argued that English Catholicism in the 1580s was exceptional in its purism and evangelism. This, he says, gave way by the late 1580s to serious internal divisions and conflict over the nature and structure of the Catholic Church in England. This observation is in part borne out by English Catholic interactions with France. The intensive engagement between exiles and their Parisian hosts in the 1580s came to a peak with the League takeover of the city in 1588. However, English and French Catholics did not cease to be of interest to each other, even if the terms of their interaction shifted. This chapter aims to explore the longer-term influences of the exile group of the 1580s in the subsequent relations between Catholics on each side of the Channel. There were many ways in which English Catholics, and indeed their Protestant countrymen, continued to be influenced by the Catholic continent: as the situation for English Catholics at home evolved, so too did their relationship with France. In tracing these developments, this chapter seeks firstly to explore the fortunes of exiles from the late 1580s, the developing tensions in English Catholicism and the role of France in these developments. The allegiance and political stance of exiles in the 1590s was more complicated than some commentators have implied, and this was paralleled by the complex range of positions adopted by Catholics remaining in England. Secondly, the chapter seeks to place this Anglo-continental interaction in a wider chronological context by exploring two key developments associated with the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries – the foundation of English monastic houses in Europe and the emergence of the Grand Tour. It will suggest that whilst the exile period of the 1580s may have been exceptional, the impact of the exiles can also be discerned in longer-term developments.

The Parisian exiles during the League and beyond

French politics and religion in the 1580s were in a state of flux. The major platform of the Catholic League – the defence of France's Catholic future – potentially appealed to a broad audience. However, support for the radicals was not immediately forthcoming and ideological barriers took some time to polarise. The shifting political and religious terrain encouraged the residence of a large and diverse group of exiles and continued to influence the group after its arrival.