Pavane (novel)

Pavane

First edition
Author	Keith Roberts
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Science Fiction, Alternate History
Publisher	Rupert Hart-Davis
Publication date	1968
Media type	book
Pages	285
OCLC	6754025

Pavane is an alternative history science fiction fix-up novel by British writer Keith Roberts, first published by Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd in 1968. Most of the original stories were published in Science Fantasy. An additional story, "The White Boat", was added in later editions.

Comprising a cycle of linked stories set in Dorset, England, it depicts a 1968 in which the Roman Catholic Church still has supremacy; in its timeline, Protestantism was destroyed during wars that resulted from the aftermath of the assassination of Queen Elizabeth in 1588.

Without Protestant England, Spain prevented the Protestant Netherlands from attaining independence, while the German mercantile city states that financed the Reformation were also suppressed. As a consequence, while Spanish power eventually wanes, the Roman Catholic Church has no rivals and the Pope becomes the effective secular, as well as spiritual, ruler over Europe. The Church thus also controls the restive "New World" (which approximates the United States in our timeline), as well as "Australasia", where James Cook planted the cobalt flag of the Vatican, instead of the Union Flag, in the 18th century.