Anti-Spanish Sentiment in English Literary and Political Writing 1553
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Anti-Spanish sentiment in English literary and political writing 1553-1603 Mark G Sanchez Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The University of Leeds The School of English June, 2004 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. 1 Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my PhD research supervisor, Dr. Michael G. Brennan,for his unstinting supportand scholarlyguidance from 2000 to 2004. I would also like to thank the Schoolof English, and in particular ProfessorDavid Fairer, for having offered me the chanceto study at Leedsduring the last eight years. Finally, I would like to expressmy thanks to Dr. Bernard Linares, the Gibraltarian Minister for Education and Training, and to the librarians and staff of the Brotherton University Library, Leeds. 11 Abstract This thesis examines anti-Spanish sentiment within Marian and Elizabethan literary and political writing. Although its primary aim is to reinvigorate the reader's perceptions about a topic that has traditionally been subject to considerable scholarly neglect, four `core' objectives can still be identified (a) to demonstrate how `anti-Spanishness' began as a deliberate, highly systematic attempt to tackle a number of unresolved issues within the minds of English Protestants through the dissemination of a key set of exegetical and eschatological myths (b) to show how these same myths were subsequently reinforced, both in the Marian and Elizabethan periods, by the extreme binary ideology that lay at the heart of early reformist thought itself (c) to redefine the ideological development of English textual hispanophobia within the early modem period and reveal how the triggers which catalysed it into birth, although dormant for a few years after Mary's death, never quite faded during its subsequent politico-literary mutations during Elizabeth's reign and (d) to propose and at the same time demonstrate that, even though English hispanophobia reached an unprecedented climax during Elizabeth's time in power both in terms of popular hatred for the Spaniard and number of anti-Spanish texts published, Elizabethan anti-Hispanism can still be viewed as one and the same thing as its Marian precursor -a purposeful and highly planned attempt to reinforce English religious and national identity in the face of a threatening, yet reluctantly respected Spain. III Contents Acknowledgments (p. i) Abstract (p. ii) Contents (pp. iii-v) Conventions and Abbreviations (pp. vi-vii) Introduction (pp. 1-25) 1. Subjectoverview and objectives(p. 1) 2. Exegesisand Protestantnational identity: the importanceof binary difference in the formation of hispanophobicattitudes (p. 8) 3. ChapterSummary (p. 19) Chapter One: `The Godly scourge: the political and theological necessity of reinventing the Marian Spaniard' (pp. 26-70) 1. John Knox's dilemma: the return of Catholicism to England and the Protestantneed for a biblically-inspired reorderingof history (p. 26) 2. The exegetical remoulding of the Spaniard: an exercise in Protestant self-legitimisation? (p. 29) 3. Latimer's and Knox's Edwardianwarnings: the Spanishpresence in England and the useof historical prophecyas a tool of Protestantself-definition (p. 40) 4. The Godly scourgevalidated: the role of social and sexual demonisationwithin the Marian anti-Spanishtradition (p. 47) 5. The Marian Spaniardand the politics of sensationalism:the deliberateuse of antithesis as a form of propagandisticdiscourse (p. 65) Chapter Two: `A movement reawakened by foreign propaganda?: the decline and subsequentre-emergence of English hispanophobia' (pp. 71-113) 1. A mid-century Tudor interlude: early Elizabethanperceptions of the Marian regime and the decline of anti-Spanishfeeling in England(p. 71) iv 2. A `discourse' in translation: the Dutch rebellion and the resurgence of anti-Spanish sentiment in English polemical literature (p. 84) 3. The sacking of Antwerp: eschatological paradigms and the emergence of an exclusively `English' Dutch text (p. 100) Chapter Three: `The Godly crusade: Spanish moral culpability and the case for military intervention in the Low Countries' (pp. 114-156) 1. Politics, propaganda and the idea of a `Godly' war: the role of `Progressive' ideology in pre-war England (p. 114) 2. The Apologie of William of Orange and The Spanish Colonie: the engagement of foreign testimonies as evidence of Spanish moral culpability (p. 124) 3. A Declaration of the Causes Mooving the Queene of England to give aide to the Defence of the People afflicted and oppressed in the lowe Countries and the myth of `Godly' English interventionism: religio-political propaganda and military self-justification in the early years of the Anglo-Spanish war (p. 142) Chapter Four: `The Armada as a paradigm of vindicated Protestantism' (pp. 157- 220) 1. Strategies for the containment of pre-Armada hysteria: an examination of hispanophobicpropaganda in the countdownto Philip's `Gran Empresa' (p. 157) 1. i) Millenarianism rebuttedby exegesis:the domesticside of pre-Armadapropaganda (p. 157) 1. ii) William Allen vs. the English government:an Elizabethanpropaganda war? (p. 168) 2. Writing the Armada: myth, monumentalismand the transformation of event into national epic (p. 177) 3. Allegories of power: Godly providentialism and the use of the 'Veritas Filia Temporis' legendin the post-Armadayears (p. 196) Chapter Five: `Beyond the Armada: texts, residual ideologies and English ambivalence towards Spain in the final years of Elizabeth's reign' (pp. 221-278) 1. The Spanish`miles gloriosus': a post-Armadarefashioning of the discourseof Spanish sexualand military predatoriness?(p. 221) V 1. i) The origins of the `milesgloriosus' (p. 221) 1. ii) Braggartism on the Elizabethan Stage (p. 230) 2. Tracking down the enemy within: Jesuits, Appellants and `Hispaniolated' Englishmen in the final years of Elizabeth's reign (p. 241) 2. i) The background to the Appellant controversy (p. 241) 2. ii) The role of Spainwithin the Secularsvs. Jesuitsdebate (p. 249) 3. A model to be emulated or an antagonist to be hated?: the appropriation and usage of Spanish imperialistic practices in the closing years of Elizabeth's reign (p. 261) Conclusion (pp. 279-286) Bibliography (pp. 287-318) VI Conventions In each chapter, first citations of any particular sourceare given in full and thereafter works are referredto by title. I havetried to accesstexts either in their original published form or in modem scholarly editions - although, in a few instances,this has proved impractical and I have had no option but to turn to nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuryreprints. Common abbreviationssuch as y` and yt have been silently modernisedin all cases,while non-substantivevariants in original typographyhave also been standardised.I have retained original spellings in most quotations,changing only `i' to `j' and `u' to `v' for the sakeof orthographicalclarity. As a generalrule, Latin texts have not been included in the study - except in those selectcases where I believe their inclusion provesindispensable to the courseof my arguments. Abbreviations The following abbreviationshave been usedfor texts frequently cited. For particularsof the works concerned,the reader is advisedto consult the bibliography at the end of the study. Arber. Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London, 1554-1640 CSP,Domestic. Calendar of StatePapers, Domestic CSP,Foreign. Calendar of StatePapers, Foreign CSP,Spanish. Calendar of StatePapers, Spanish vii CSP, Venetian. Calendar of State Papers, Venetian DNB. Dictionary of National Biography Ecc. Mem. J. Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials STC. A short-title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland and of English Books printed abroad, 1475-1640 TRP. Tudor Royal Proclamations Wing. A short-title catalogue of books printed in England, Scotland, Wales and British America, 1641-1700 1 Introduction 1. Subject overview and objectives This study seeks to analyse the development of anti-Spanish sentiment in Marian and Elizabethan writing. More particularly, it aims to unravel the complex web of socio-political issues that accompanied the demonisation of Spaniards in early modern English literature. Although recent works by Richard Helgerson, Andrew Hadfield and others have touched tangentially on the enormously important role occupied by Spain " within the English national imagination in the so-called `writing of England, a systematic study, as far as I am aware, has not yet been undertaken of the different ways that English authors used images of Spain to negate Spanish military, colonial and mercantile prestige as much as to reinforce their own religious, political and nationalist values. This scholarly lacuna is hard to explain, taking into account not only that Spain was England's foremost military and ideological enemy throughout most of the second half of the sixteenth century, but also, in the words of Richard Helgerson himself, that "England necessarily defined itself and the character of its overseas expansion in terms of its relation to Spain."2 Why, then, this reluctance to write about England's textual and ideological relationshipto Spain?Could it be that the modern preoccupationwith the non-European `other' has tended to overshadow,