Abstract
This article examines the policies that state and urban authorities within the Habsburg Netherlands adopted towards emigration during the Dutch Revolt. The Spanish Crown’s repression after the Iconoclastic Fury in 1566–7 intensified the exodus during the first decade of the Revolt, as local or exceptional courts often sanctioned these retreats through judicial banishment and confiscation of property. Beginning in 1579–81, however, there was a change in policy towards refugees, as local authorities in Habsburg territories abandoned their initial attempts at repression in favour of reconciliation and reintegration. While the new governor-general and city magistrates in reconciled cities encouraged Protestants to leave, they also welcomed those seeking to permanently return, albeit if they both pledged loyalty to the Spanish Crown and reconciled with the Catholic Church. This policy, as shown in pardon letters, petitions, and inquiries concerning returnees, met with some success.
Résumé
Cet article montre les stratégies changeantes dans le traitement des fugitifs et des “revenants” par les pouvoirs centraux et municipaux des Pays-Bas espagnols pendant la Révolte. Il analyse les politiques que les autorités centrales et municipales des Pays-Bas espagnols ont adoptées vis-à-vis des migrations de départ et de retour pendant la Révolte. La répression immédiate menée par le roi d’Espagne après la furie iconoclaste de 1566 suscite une décennie d’exode massif, que les cours de justice sanctionnent alors du bannissement par contumace assorti de la confiscation des biens. Un tournant dans le traitement de ces réfugiés par les autorités des villes de départ s’opère à partir de 1579–1581, quand la répression cède le pas à une politique de réconciliation et de réintégration. Si le représentant du roi d’Espagne et les pouvoirs urbains des villes réconciliées encouragent cette fois le départ des protestants obstinés, ils accueillent volontiers ceux qui cherchent un retour définitif, à condition de jurer fidélité à la monarchie hispanique et d’accomplir les pénitences de réconciliation catholique. Les modalités et la délicate réussite de cette politique de retour se mesurent dans les lettres de pardon, les requêtes et les enquêtes judiciaires concernant ceux qui retournent.
Acknowledgements
This joint effort originated in Red Columnaria’s annual conference in Archena in 2014, and their conference paper appeared as Yves Junot and Violet Soen, “Huir y volver durante la guerra de Flandes, 1566–1609,” in Refugiados, Exiliados y Retornados, ed. José Javier Ruiz Ibáñez and Bernard Vincent (Madrid: FCE, Red Columnaria, 2018), 29–53. We would like to thank the editors for their permission to rework and update this chapter by focusing more concretely on the central and urban policies towards emigrants and returnees during the Dutch Revolt. This happened in the context of the 2017 Emden conference that Violet Soen co-organized with various members of the Reformation Research Consortium, and that also served as a point-of-origin for the other articles in this thematic issue. We offer our gratitude to Janet and Anthony Dawson (Seville) for their invaluable help in translating and editing the first draft of this article. We would like to thank our colleagues in the Early Modern History Department at KU Leuven and the anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Early Modern Christianity for their indispensable suggestions. Dr. Ryan McGuinness has reviewed the English in this final manuscript. All remaining errors are of course our own.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
