Transregional History by Violet Soen
978-3-525-56470-7
This volume invites scholars of the Catholic and Protestant Reformations to incorporate recent ad... more This volume invites scholars of the Catholic and Protestant Reformations to incorporate recent advances in transnational and transregional history into their own field of research, as it seeks to unravel how cross-border movements shaped reformations in early modern Europe. Covering a geographical space that ranges from Scandinavia to Spain and from England to Hungary, the chapters in this volume apply a transregional perspective to a vast array of topics, such as the history of theological discussion, knowledge transfer, pastoral care, visual allegory, ecclesiastical organization, confessional relations, religious exile, and university politics.
The volume starts by showing in a first part how transfer and exchange beyond territorial circumscriptions or proto-national identifications shaped many sixteenth-century reformations. The second part of this volume is devoted to the acceleration of cultural transfer that resulted from the newly-invented printing press, by translation as well as transmission of texts and images. The third and final part of this volume examines the importance of mobility and migration in causing transregional reformations. Focusing on the process of ‘crossing borders’ in peripheries and borderlands, all chapters contribute to the de-centering of religious reform in early modern Europe. Rather than princes and urban governments steering religion, the early modern reformations emerge as events shaped by authors and translators, publishers and booksellers, students and professors, exiles and refugees, and clergy and (female) members of religious orders crossing borders in Europe, a continent composed of fractured states and regions.
First of the Transregional Trilogy by www.transregionalhistory.eu . Will be continued by a volume on Transregional Territories and one one Transregional Nobilities: B. De Ridder, V. Soen, W. Thomas & S. Verreyken (eds.), Transregional Territories: Crossing Borders in the Early Modern Low Countries and Beyond, Brepols, Turnhout (Habsburg Worlds, forthcoming 2019) and V. Soen, Y. Junot (eds.), Noblesses transrégionales: Les Croÿ et les frontières pendant les guerres de religion en France, Lorraine et aux Pays-Bas, Brepols, Turnhout (forthcoming 2020).
This edited volume examines how transregional elites were pivotal actors during the Wars of Relig... more This edited volume examines how transregional elites were pivotal actors during the Wars of Religion. It centers around the figure of Antoine de Croÿ, the Prince of Porcien, serving Condé and the Calvinist cause, but stemming from a transregional house with landed patrimony on the French-Habsburg border with the Low Countries. Hence, the volume brings an entangled history of the French and Dutch Wars of Religion
The early modern world was one of movement, contact, and exchange. Yet, this does not mean that i... more The early modern world was one of movement, contact, and exchange. Yet, this does not mean that it was borderless. On the contrary, connection existed only when people moved along and across the separations between polities, religions, and mentalities. So in order to understand early modern connections, one also needs to analyse the boundaries that accompanied them.
In Transregional Territories, the early modern Low Countries are chosen as a ‘laboratory’ for studying border formation and border management through the lens of transregional history. Eight different cases highlight the impact of boundaries on the actions and strategies of individuals and governments. Crossing borders in early modern times was not merely an act of negating a territorial division, but rather a moment of intimate interaction with the separation itself. As such, this volume illustrates how borders forced historical actors to adapt their behaviour, and how historians can use a transregional vantage point to better understand these changes.
The cases are presented by leading border specialists and scholars of the early modern Low Countries and Habsburg Worlds: Fernando Chavarría Múgica, Victor Enthoven, Raingard Esser, Yves Junot, Marie Kervyn, Christel Annemieke Romein, and Patricia Subirade.
Bram De Ridder, Violet Soen, Werner Thomas, and Sophie Verreyken are all members of the Early Modern History Research Group of the KU Leuven. Together, they have published extensively on transregional history and the history of the early modern Low Countries, grouped under the label of transregionalhistory.eu.
Reformation/Religious History by Violet Soen
by Violet Soen, Wim François, Antoine Mazurek, Els Agten, Paolo Sachet, Camilla Russell, Tomáš Parma, Morgane Belin, Querciolo Mazzonis, Tom Hamilton, Fabrizio D'Avenia, Sarah Elizabeth Penry, Ellénita de Mol, Sanja Cvetnic, Simon DITCHFIELD, Marianne C.E. Gillion, Soetkin Vanhauwaert, and Hélène Vu Thanh Refo500 Academic Series 35,1-3
Exactly 450 years after the solemn closure of the Council of Trent on 4 December 1563, scholars f... more Exactly 450 years after the solemn closure of the Council of Trent on 4 December 1563, scholars from diverse regional, disciplinary and confessional backgrounds convened in Leuven to reflect upon the impact of the Council, in Europe and beyond. Their conclusions are to be found in these three impressive volumes. Bridging together different generations of scholarship, the authors reassess in the first volume Tridentine views on the Bible, theology and liturgy, as well as their reception by Protestants, deconstructing myths surviving in scholarship and society alike. They also deal with the mechanisms 'Rome' developed to hold a grip on the Council's implementation. The second volume analyzes the changes in local ecclesiastical life, initiated by bishops, orders and congregations, and the political strife and confessionalisation accompanying this reform process. The third and final volume examines the afterlife of Trent in arts and music, as well as in the global impact of Trent through missions.
In recent years, historiography has come to rethink and reformulate the traditional account of a ... more In recent years, historiography has come to rethink and reformulate the traditional account of a Counter-Reformation in the early modern Habsburg Netherlands that was said to be State-backed. As such, the resilience and persistence of Catholicism has long been attributed
to the strategies and patronage of the Habsburg dynasty. The religious convictions of Emperor Charles V (1515-1555), King Philip II (1555-1598) and the Archdukes Albert and Isabella (1598-1621) were too easily thought to account for the actual development of Catholicism during the tumultuous events sparked by the Reformation in the first half of the
sixteenth century and the Revolt in its second half. At this moment when most of the ‘grand narratives’ of the Reformation and the Revolt are being rewritten, the contributions in this volume equally bear witness to the multi-faceted process of the repressive policies towards
the Reformation and the revival of Catholicism, revealing the many actors and motives behind these complex processes.
Hence, this volume takes a refreshing perspective on the themes of Church and Reform in the area of the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt delta from the late fifteenth century onwards, dealing both with repression of heterodoxy as well as with the impulses for reform. The first part interrogates the dynamics of repression and censorship in matters of religion. Six chapters in this first part underline that this censorship was executed by a multitude of officials, both inside and outside of Church and State administrations. Throughout the ancien régime, this resulted in an institutionally and regionally fragmented policy, opening margins of manoeuver for those concerned in the Low Countries. A second part focuses on more internal impulses for Catholic Reform, especially those created by the Council of Trent (1545-1563). As such, this volume helps to contextualise the Counter-Reformation and the Catholic Reform of the seventeenth century by providing a long-term perspective, identifying new actors and motives behind the Catholic revival.
Journal of Early Modern History, 2017
This article argues that the method of transregional history offers a valuable new tool for study... more This article argues that the method of transregional history offers a valuable new tool for studying early modern territorial borders. Where existing research strands do not always suffice to accommodate the complexity of such boundaries, this new concept can serve as an alternative. Firstly, transregional history points out that early modern boundaries were not the outcome of actions that were pursued at one spatial level, be it local, regional, national, transnational, or global, but existed at multiple negotiated levels at once. Secondly, the method prompts historians: a) to not predefine “the” singular border of the region under scrutiny, but to follow historical actors as they shifted from one course of action to another in dealing with these multiple borders; and b) to question what transcended the boundaries of a region instead of highlighting how they separated one “unique” area from the next. In doing so, transregional history helps to reformulate questions about territorial boundaries, to make novel heuristic choices in research where and when borders matter, and, hence, to improve our understanding of transboundary historical change.
‘Exile encounters and cross-border mobility in early modern borderlands. The ecclesiastical provi... more ‘Exile encounters and cross-border mobility in early modern borderlands. The ecclesiastical province of Cambrai as a transregional node (1559-1600)’, Belgeo. Revue Belge de Géographie – Belgian Journal of Geography 2/2015, online 15 July 2015.
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2015
The long acknowledged Mediterranean character of the early modern Inquisition(s) has recently bee... more The long acknowledged Mediterranean character of the early modern Inquisition(s) has recently been positioned within a global context. This article aims to integrate the Habsburg Low Countries into this newly emerging picture. Firstly, it argues that the Inquisition there should be understood as an office rather than as a tribunal: only individual inquisitors were called upon as specialised judges for offending clerics, or for judicial procedures de fide conducted by laymen. Secondly, this article emphasises that the inquisitorial office underwent continual redefinition in the four decades of its existence. Hence, the situation in the Low Countries offers a contrast to the religious persecution in France and England, where secular courts more clearly monopolised jurisdiction over heresy, and to the institutionally organised tribunals on the Iberian and Italian peninsulas.
Queeste: tijdschrift voor middeleeuwse letterkunde in de Nederlanden, 2015
The ecclesiastical province of Cambrai, roughly covering the French speaking southern
regions of ... more The ecclesiastical province of Cambrai, roughly covering the French speaking southern
regions of the Habsburg Netherlands, attracted in the second half of the
sixteenth century a significant number of Catholic exiles, both from more northern
regions in the Netherlands and from the British Isles. Transregional mobility and migration
affected the then swiftly emerging Catholic printing business in this border
region, located in the university city of Douai and the major cities of Mons and Arras,
and temporarily Lille. At first sight, the printing presses produced a predictable
output of Latin and vernacular (i.c. French) items. In fact, the political troubles – including
a temporal expulsion of English Catholics – clearly slowed down the printing
of English works. Still, towards the end of the sixteenth century, an impressive
number of French translations of Mediterranean religious literature were printed in
Douai and Arras. This ‘hidden’ multilingualism was the precursor of the clearly multilingual
press that developed in the seventeenth century. This contribution analyses
the conditions under which the ‘hidden’ multilingualism occurred in Cambrai. The
transregional networks of printers and publishers as well as of church people and city
officials reflected the position of Cambrai as an intermediary zone between print capitals
such as Antwerp or Paris in the context of religious migration following religious
and political upheaval.
Elites/Nobility by Violet Soen
Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2000
Publications du Centre Européen d'Etudes Bourguignonnes, 2012
V. Soen, ‘La Causa Croÿ et les limites du mythe bourguignon: la frontière, le lignage et la mémoi... more V. Soen, ‘La Causa Croÿ et les limites du mythe bourguignon: la frontière, le lignage et la mémoire (1465-1475)’ in: J.-M. Cauchies and P. Peporte (eds.), Mémoires conflictuelles et mythes concurrents dans les pays bourguignons (ca. 1380-1580) (Publications du Centre d’études bourguignonnes XIVe-XVIe s. 52), Neuchâtel, 2012, 81-97.
with Hans Cools, ‘L’aristocratie transrégionale et les frontières: les processus d’identification... more with Hans Cools, ‘L’aristocratie transrégionale et les frontières: les processus d’identification politique dans les maisons de Luxembourg-Saint-Pol et de Croÿ (1470-1530), in: V. Soen, Y. Junot and F. Mariage (eds.), L'identité au pluriel. Jeux et enjeux des appartenances autour des anciens Pays-Bas, XIVe-XVIIIe siècles. Identity and Identities. Belonging at Stake in the Low Countries 14th-18th Centuries (Revue du Nord, Hors série, collection Histoire 30), Villeneuve d’Ascq, Université Charles-de-Gaulle-Lille 3, 2014, 209-228
V. Favarò, M. Merluzzi and G. Sabatini (eds.), Fronteras. Procesos y prácticas de integración y c... more V. Favarò, M. Merluzzi and G. Sabatini (eds.), Fronteras. Procesos y prácticas de integración y conflictos entre Europa y América (siglos XVI-XX), Madrid, Fondo de Cultura Económica/Red Columnaria, 2017, 427-436
Dutch Crossing, 2011
Scholarship on the Dutch Revolt has always devoted much attention to the fortune of Prince Willia... more Scholarship on the Dutch Revolt has always devoted much attention to the fortune of Prince William of Orange, which led to a historiographical neglect of noblemen who during the conflict remained loyal to their lord, Philip II. These loyal noblemen have often been regarded as Catholic collaborators with the Spanish and as egoistic parvenus longing for royal patronage. Through a juxtaposition of Charles Count of Berlaymont (1510–1578) and Philip of Sainte-Aldegonde, Baron of Noircarmes (?–1574), this contribution reassesses the link made between patronage and political opinion during the Revolt. Both noblemen obtained similar favours with different patronage strategies, which led to a lifelong rivalry between them. Nevertheless, during the Dutch Revolt they both engaged in loyal opposition, even agreeing to jointly raise complaints against the regime of the Duke of Alba at the Spanish Court. So recipients of Habsburg patronage in the Netherlands became foremost empowered bargainers, able to air their criticisms, rather than to transform into mere marionettes of the King.
Recently, historiography on early modern France has established the crucial role of noblewomen – ... more Recently, historiography on early modern France has established the crucial role of noblewomen – and particularly of noble widows – in propagating the Calvinist Faith during the sixteenth-century Wars of Religion. This article unravels this very same phenomenon for the Habsburg Low Countries, concentrating on the eve and the aftermath of the Iconoclastic Fury in the year 1566. After the death of their husbands , the related noblewomen Petronella van Praet-Moerkerken, Catharina van Bronck-horst-Batenburg and Catharina van Boetzelaer became influential and instrumental in spreading Calvinism in their dominions, even when the Habsburg government took specific measures to prohibit their support for the 'new religion' and tried to interfere in the seigniorial administration. The Iconoclastic Fury certainly enabled these three noble-women to perform activities which were not normally ascribed to their gender, such as offering shelter for coreligionists and organizing religious resistance and even icono-clasm. Compared with their spouses and male siblings defending their confession in leagues and battles, however, their action radius as women seems to have been confined chiefly to the limits of their lordships.
Dutch Revolt by Violet Soen
In most textbooks, the punitive and military mission of the third Duke of Alba to the Netherlands... more In most textbooks, the punitive and military mission of the third Duke of Alba to the Netherlands straightforwardly embodies the Spanish Habsburg response to the Beeldenstorm of the previous year. This representation obscures, however, the measures taken in the heat of the moment by Governor General Margaret of Parma on 25 August 1566, while it also downplays the many policy discussions to find and frame the ‘right remedy’ for iconoclasm. This article argues that military and juridical repression formed but one part of a broader pacification strategy that also included mediation, reconciliation and reform. The tactic employed by the Spanish Habsburg authorities combined the punishment of prominent leaders with a recognition that most of the participants in the ‘troubles’ could neither be apprehended nor punished properly, so that a pardon would eventually be necessary. Just such a pardon was issued in 1570. Even if King and Governor General regarded iconoclasm as outright sacrilege and as divine lese-majesty committed by heretics, the central authorities framed their response primarily as a legitimate action against worldly lese-majesty and rebellion, in the short term to silence the religious violence of the iconoclasts, and in the longer term to maintain the initiative in safeguarding peace, including in matters religious.
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Transregional History by Violet Soen
The volume starts by showing in a first part how transfer and exchange beyond territorial circumscriptions or proto-national identifications shaped many sixteenth-century reformations. The second part of this volume is devoted to the acceleration of cultural transfer that resulted from the newly-invented printing press, by translation as well as transmission of texts and images. The third and final part of this volume examines the importance of mobility and migration in causing transregional reformations. Focusing on the process of ‘crossing borders’ in peripheries and borderlands, all chapters contribute to the de-centering of religious reform in early modern Europe. Rather than princes and urban governments steering religion, the early modern reformations emerge as events shaped by authors and translators, publishers and booksellers, students and professors, exiles and refugees, and clergy and (female) members of religious orders crossing borders in Europe, a continent composed of fractured states and regions.
First of the Transregional Trilogy by www.transregionalhistory.eu . Will be continued by a volume on Transregional Territories and one one Transregional Nobilities: B. De Ridder, V. Soen, W. Thomas & S. Verreyken (eds.), Transregional Territories: Crossing Borders in the Early Modern Low Countries and Beyond, Brepols, Turnhout (Habsburg Worlds, forthcoming 2019) and V. Soen, Y. Junot (eds.), Noblesses transrégionales: Les Croÿ et les frontières pendant les guerres de religion en France, Lorraine et aux Pays-Bas, Brepols, Turnhout (forthcoming 2020).
In Transregional Territories, the early modern Low Countries are chosen as a ‘laboratory’ for studying border formation and border management through the lens of transregional history. Eight different cases highlight the impact of boundaries on the actions and strategies of individuals and governments. Crossing borders in early modern times was not merely an act of negating a territorial division, but rather a moment of intimate interaction with the separation itself. As such, this volume illustrates how borders forced historical actors to adapt their behaviour, and how historians can use a transregional vantage point to better understand these changes.
The cases are presented by leading border specialists and scholars of the early modern Low Countries and Habsburg Worlds: Fernando Chavarría Múgica, Victor Enthoven, Raingard Esser, Yves Junot, Marie Kervyn, Christel Annemieke Romein, and Patricia Subirade.
Bram De Ridder, Violet Soen, Werner Thomas, and Sophie Verreyken are all members of the Early Modern History Research Group of the KU Leuven. Together, they have published extensively on transregional history and the history of the early modern Low Countries, grouped under the label of transregionalhistory.eu.
Reformation/Religious History by Violet Soen
to the strategies and patronage of the Habsburg dynasty. The religious convictions of Emperor Charles V (1515-1555), King Philip II (1555-1598) and the Archdukes Albert and Isabella (1598-1621) were too easily thought to account for the actual development of Catholicism during the tumultuous events sparked by the Reformation in the first half of the
sixteenth century and the Revolt in its second half. At this moment when most of the ‘grand narratives’ of the Reformation and the Revolt are being rewritten, the contributions in this volume equally bear witness to the multi-faceted process of the repressive policies towards
the Reformation and the revival of Catholicism, revealing the many actors and motives behind these complex processes.
Hence, this volume takes a refreshing perspective on the themes of Church and Reform in the area of the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt delta from the late fifteenth century onwards, dealing both with repression of heterodoxy as well as with the impulses for reform. The first part interrogates the dynamics of repression and censorship in matters of religion. Six chapters in this first part underline that this censorship was executed by a multitude of officials, both inside and outside of Church and State administrations. Throughout the ancien régime, this resulted in an institutionally and regionally fragmented policy, opening margins of manoeuver for those concerned in the Low Countries. A second part focuses on more internal impulses for Catholic Reform, especially those created by the Council of Trent (1545-1563). As such, this volume helps to contextualise the Counter-Reformation and the Catholic Reform of the seventeenth century by providing a long-term perspective, identifying new actors and motives behind the Catholic revival.
regions of the Habsburg Netherlands, attracted in the second half of the
sixteenth century a significant number of Catholic exiles, both from more northern
regions in the Netherlands and from the British Isles. Transregional mobility and migration
affected the then swiftly emerging Catholic printing business in this border
region, located in the university city of Douai and the major cities of Mons and Arras,
and temporarily Lille. At first sight, the printing presses produced a predictable
output of Latin and vernacular (i.c. French) items. In fact, the political troubles – including
a temporal expulsion of English Catholics – clearly slowed down the printing
of English works. Still, towards the end of the sixteenth century, an impressive
number of French translations of Mediterranean religious literature were printed in
Douai and Arras. This ‘hidden’ multilingualism was the precursor of the clearly multilingual
press that developed in the seventeenth century. This contribution analyses
the conditions under which the ‘hidden’ multilingualism occurred in Cambrai. The
transregional networks of printers and publishers as well as of church people and city
officials reflected the position of Cambrai as an intermediary zone between print capitals
such as Antwerp or Paris in the context of religious migration following religious
and political upheaval.
Elites/Nobility by Violet Soen
Dutch Revolt by Violet Soen
The volume starts by showing in a first part how transfer and exchange beyond territorial circumscriptions or proto-national identifications shaped many sixteenth-century reformations. The second part of this volume is devoted to the acceleration of cultural transfer that resulted from the newly-invented printing press, by translation as well as transmission of texts and images. The third and final part of this volume examines the importance of mobility and migration in causing transregional reformations. Focusing on the process of ‘crossing borders’ in peripheries and borderlands, all chapters contribute to the de-centering of religious reform in early modern Europe. Rather than princes and urban governments steering religion, the early modern reformations emerge as events shaped by authors and translators, publishers and booksellers, students and professors, exiles and refugees, and clergy and (female) members of religious orders crossing borders in Europe, a continent composed of fractured states and regions.
First of the Transregional Trilogy by www.transregionalhistory.eu . Will be continued by a volume on Transregional Territories and one one Transregional Nobilities: B. De Ridder, V. Soen, W. Thomas & S. Verreyken (eds.), Transregional Territories: Crossing Borders in the Early Modern Low Countries and Beyond, Brepols, Turnhout (Habsburg Worlds, forthcoming 2019) and V. Soen, Y. Junot (eds.), Noblesses transrégionales: Les Croÿ et les frontières pendant les guerres de religion en France, Lorraine et aux Pays-Bas, Brepols, Turnhout (forthcoming 2020).
In Transregional Territories, the early modern Low Countries are chosen as a ‘laboratory’ for studying border formation and border management through the lens of transregional history. Eight different cases highlight the impact of boundaries on the actions and strategies of individuals and governments. Crossing borders in early modern times was not merely an act of negating a territorial division, but rather a moment of intimate interaction with the separation itself. As such, this volume illustrates how borders forced historical actors to adapt their behaviour, and how historians can use a transregional vantage point to better understand these changes.
The cases are presented by leading border specialists and scholars of the early modern Low Countries and Habsburg Worlds: Fernando Chavarría Múgica, Victor Enthoven, Raingard Esser, Yves Junot, Marie Kervyn, Christel Annemieke Romein, and Patricia Subirade.
Bram De Ridder, Violet Soen, Werner Thomas, and Sophie Verreyken are all members of the Early Modern History Research Group of the KU Leuven. Together, they have published extensively on transregional history and the history of the early modern Low Countries, grouped under the label of transregionalhistory.eu.
to the strategies and patronage of the Habsburg dynasty. The religious convictions of Emperor Charles V (1515-1555), King Philip II (1555-1598) and the Archdukes Albert and Isabella (1598-1621) were too easily thought to account for the actual development of Catholicism during the tumultuous events sparked by the Reformation in the first half of the
sixteenth century and the Revolt in its second half. At this moment when most of the ‘grand narratives’ of the Reformation and the Revolt are being rewritten, the contributions in this volume equally bear witness to the multi-faceted process of the repressive policies towards
the Reformation and the revival of Catholicism, revealing the many actors and motives behind these complex processes.
Hence, this volume takes a refreshing perspective on the themes of Church and Reform in the area of the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt delta from the late fifteenth century onwards, dealing both with repression of heterodoxy as well as with the impulses for reform. The first part interrogates the dynamics of repression and censorship in matters of religion. Six chapters in this first part underline that this censorship was executed by a multitude of officials, both inside and outside of Church and State administrations. Throughout the ancien régime, this resulted in an institutionally and regionally fragmented policy, opening margins of manoeuver for those concerned in the Low Countries. A second part focuses on more internal impulses for Catholic Reform, especially those created by the Council of Trent (1545-1563). As such, this volume helps to contextualise the Counter-Reformation and the Catholic Reform of the seventeenth century by providing a long-term perspective, identifying new actors and motives behind the Catholic revival.
regions of the Habsburg Netherlands, attracted in the second half of the
sixteenth century a significant number of Catholic exiles, both from more northern
regions in the Netherlands and from the British Isles. Transregional mobility and migration
affected the then swiftly emerging Catholic printing business in this border
region, located in the university city of Douai and the major cities of Mons and Arras,
and temporarily Lille. At first sight, the printing presses produced a predictable
output of Latin and vernacular (i.c. French) items. In fact, the political troubles – including
a temporal expulsion of English Catholics – clearly slowed down the printing
of English works. Still, towards the end of the sixteenth century, an impressive
number of French translations of Mediterranean religious literature were printed in
Douai and Arras. This ‘hidden’ multilingualism was the precursor of the clearly multilingual
press that developed in the seventeenth century. This contribution analyses
the conditions under which the ‘hidden’ multilingualism occurred in Cambrai. The
transregional networks of printers and publishers as well as of church people and city
officials reflected the position of Cambrai as an intermediary zone between print capitals
such as Antwerp or Paris in the context of religious migration following religious
and political upheaval.
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 1579-1581, 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.
Abstrait
Les stratégies changeantes dans le traitement des fugitifs et des “revenants” par les pouvoirs centraux et municipaux des Pays-Bas espagnols pendant la Révolte
Cet article 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 devoirs 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.
Keywords:
Dutch Revolt – – Spanish Netherlands – Wars of Religion - Habsburg Dynasty – Philip II –Duke of Alba – Luis de Requesens y Zúñiga – Don John of Austria – Alexander Farnese – Exile – Returnees – Pardon – Memory – Oblivion
For Neo-Latinists, the virtue of clemency is reasonably well-known, but for medievalists it is less known. So one might wonder why clemency only came to the foreground in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries? Was this caused by the reappraisal of Seneca's De Clementia? This contribution argues that there was more at stake. Fascination for Seneca’s De Clementia could only increase because this classical text seemed to give a humanist answer to a changing society, in which a military revolution, the Reformation and ensuing civil wars shook its foundations. In this context, clemency was not only a matter of political theory, but also of political and legal practice. Hence, the edition of Seneca's De Clementia by leading thinkers such as Erasmus, Calvin and Lipsius should also be understood within a dialectic between political theory and politics.
Cette contribution a démontré que le mouvement des Malcontents aux Pays-Bas était lié davantage à la confrontation de différentes factions au sein de la haute noblesse qu’à un mécontentement général de la noblesse à l’intérieur des États-Généraux. Dans ce contexte, les Lalaing ou, plus généralement, les Malcontents, se sont manifestés en tant que catholiques, même s’ils acceptaient la « tolérance limitée » prescrite par la Pacification de Gand. On a l’impression qu’ils n’avaient pas d’autre choix que d’accepter cette tolérance, au moins en Hollande et en Zélande, pour restaurer l’ordre dans le pays et pour exiger le départ des soldats espagnols. On peut même dire que, pour ce qui concerne leurs gouvernements et leurs troupes, les Malcontents s’engagèrent directement en faveur du catholicisme et de la Contre-Réforme, engagement qu’ils n’hésitaient pas à montrer par des signes, des symboles et des promesses clairs. Il faut donc conclure que la dénomination de « Malcontents » est transfrontalière dans l’espace diplomatique et socioculturel établi entre la France et les Pays-Bas, c’est-à-dire qu’elle est probablement entrée aux Pays-Bas par l’intervention du duc d’Anjou, chef des nobles Malcontents en France, en 1576. Mais, du point de vue religieux, les Malcontents français et néerlandais ont poursuivi de buts opposés, tendant, dans un cas, à l’irénisme et, dans l’autre, à l’orthodoxie catholique.