POPISH PLOT KITSCH
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The Popish Plot of 1678 was a fabrication of Titus Oates, an Anglican clergyman who had previously been imprisoned for perjury and dismissed from the Royal Navy for misconduct. Under the influence of an anti-Catholic fanatic named Israel Tonge, he feigned conversion to the true faith, and studied at two Catholic seminaries in France to gather information; he was expelled from both schools.
After returning to England, he devised the conspiracy theory of Jesuitical agents and Irish ruffians plotting to assassinate King Charles II to enthrone his Catholic brother the Duke of York. The Royal Privy Council questioned him and found him dishonest, but he publicized his plot through a sworn deposition to a Westminster Justice of the Peace. When the Justice was found murdered by unknown parties, an anti-Catholic frenzy ensued that resulted in 35 executions of imagined conspirators.
Oates was eventually discredited, and the panic abated. In 1684, the Duke of York won a libel suit against Oates; after the Duke's ascension to the throne as King James II, Oates was pilloried, flogged, and imprisoned for perjury. He was released upon the usurpation of the throne by William of Orange.
During the popular panic, a remarkable amount of anti-Catholic propaganda was produced explaining the conspiracy, such as the above broadsheet.
This popular set of playing cards was printed in 1679. See larger images of individual cards here, here, and here.
Those disinclined to gamble could decorate their homes with Popish Plot ceramic tiles:
