The royal collections in England for the Calvinist refugees from the two Palatinates undoubtedly proved the most significant both in terms of scale, duration and sums collected. Together with the collections conducted in Scotland and Ireland, which generated considerably less, they were the only national collections organised for the exiles.

The collections in England struck a chord with English Puritans in particular, as a cause close to their hearts. On its own, the experience of the Marian exile in the mid sixteenth century, which had seen most leading English Protestants seek refuge on the continent, would have guaranteed that this cause would have found resonance among English Protestants, not least because these exiles had returned home on Elizabeth’s accession to play a prominent role in the English Church, giving it a distinctly Reformed flavour in accordance with what they had encountered, not only in Geneva and Zurich, but also in southern Germany.