This chapter considers some confessional aspects of equestrian sports in the early Stuart north of England. In particular, I want to explore why Protestant authorities occasionally interpreted Catholic participation in a thriving horse-racing culture as dangerous to the State. Although evidence remains fragmented, a variety of records suggest that northern Catholic gentlemen were avid hunters and horse runners in spite of the financial restraints which many of them suffered due to recusancy. In many ways, the extant records are not surprising. Yorkshire, and the north more generally, was a major centre for horse breeding and racing in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, even after King Charles II's establishment of Newmarket as a preeminent racing hub of national importance.

But understanding the social impact of Catholic equestrianism as well as the motives of members of the Catholic elite for their costly investments into racing, remains an important and so far neglected element in the history of horse racing. In a culturalist perspective, equestrian sports are not simply ephemeral recreations, but important symbolic practices which transformed the hunting field or the racecourse into sites of public politics. For Catholic gentry, whose access to more conventional means of political participation, such as officeholding, was severely restricted, horse racing offered an especially convenient alternative. However, instead of attempting to comprehensively recover Catholic attitudes and views on equestrian sports—a challenging task which would demand a separate inquiry—this chapter will lay the groundwork for a more comprehensive reading of Catholic equestrianism in the future. Focusing on the records mainly produced by Protestant officials and dating from around the time of the Gunpowder Plot, I analyse Protestant anxieties about Catholic ownership and matching of horses. I discuss the kinds of racing Catholic gentry commonly engaged in and the reasons why public display of recusant horsemanship could have been perceived by the authorities as an act verging on sedition. In the course of my discussion, early Stuart equestrian sports emerge as politically contentious symbolic practices crucial for Catholic self-definition and participation in a wider Protestant society.

Catholics on Dunsmore Heath

On Monday morning, November 4, 1605, Sir Everard Digby (ca. 1578–1606), accompanied by seven servants, left Gayhurst and rode northwest towards Dunchurch, near Rugby, to attend a hunting match on Dunsmore Heath.