Content Warning: This section features discussions of ableism, religious intolerance, and bigotry.

Anti-Catholic discrimination had been common in Britain since the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century and King Henry VIII’s establishment of the Protestant Church of England. For over two centuries before the Gordon Riots of 1780, several laws required Catholics to pay far more taxes than Protestants and restricted Catholics from holding office, obtaining land through certain means, and worshiping openly and freely. After the Catholic King James II was deposed in the Glorious Revolution, the 1689 Bill of Rights declared “that no future monarch could be a Catholic or be married to a Catholic. This provision was reaffirmed in the 1701 Act of Settlement and remains in force to this day” (“Catholics and Nonconformists.” UK Parliament).

In 1778, the British Parliament passed the Catholic Relief Act, which allowed Catholics who had sworn an oath of allegiance to the king to join the army and purchase land (“Emancipation.” UK Parliament). The restoration of these few minor rights to Catholics caused several Protestants, namely those of the Protestant Association led by its president Lord George Gordon, to believe that this would lead Catholics to take power and overthrow Protestant supremacy.