Defaming the Dutch The discourse of Hollandophobia in early modern England (1652-1690) Lars de Bruin S1366793 [email protected] Research Master Thesis History: Europe 1000-1800 Leiden University Supervisor: Dr. R.P. Fagel 18/06/2018 Table of contents To the Reader ......................................................................................................................... iii Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 Hollandophobia ............................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 5 Denoting the Dutch ......................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1. The Amboyna Massacre in early modern print (1623-1690) .............................. 10 The pamphleteering campaign ...................................................................................................... 10 Amboyna as Hollandophobic image ............................................................................................. 14 Pamphlet types .............................................................................................................................. 15 Repetition and familiarity .............................................................................................................. 21 Chapter 2. Deconstructing Dutch closeness: the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-1654) ....... 23 Distancing the Dutch ..................................................................................................................... 24 The Dutchman’s character ............................................................................................................. 27 Ideology and trade as justifications of war .................................................................................... 31 Pamphlets and authority ................................................................................................................ 35 Chapter 3. Depicting the Dutch stereotype: the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667) .... 38 Restoration pamphlets ................................................................................................................... 39 The Hollandophobic stereotype: character and trope .................................................................... 40 Literary origins of Hollandophobia ............................................................................................... 52 Intertextuality ................................................................................................................................ 55 Chapter 4. Debating the Dutch threat: the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-1674) ............... 58 Popularity and pamphlet type ........................................................................................................ 60 Continuation of the Hollandophobic character and tropes ............................................................ 61 Convincing the critics .................................................................................................................... 67 Intertextuality ................................................................................................................................ 73 Chapter 5. Defying Dutch domination: the Glorious Revolution (1688-1690) .................... 77 Pamphlets and political context ..................................................................................................... 78 Waning of the Hollandophobic character and tropes .................................................................... 80 Struggle of allegiance .................................................................................................................... 82 Defining Hollandophobia in 1688 ................................................................................................. 92 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 94 Hollandophobia ............................................................................................................................. 94 Origins ........................................................................................................................................... 96 i Continuity and change ................................................................................................................... 97 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 102 Primary sources ........................................................................................................................... 102 Secondary literature ..................................................................................................................... 110 Appendix ............................................................................................................................ 116 ii To the Reader Before you lies my thesis, serving as the final act in the completion of the Research Master History (Europe 1000-1800), followed at Leiden University. Given that it is customary to write a few words for the interested reader, prior to the dense academic prose that comprises a thesis, I would be remiss to omit it here. The greatest of praise has to go out to my supervisor, Dr. Raymond Fagel, the person closest involved in the creation of this thing. It has been a pleasure to have known him as a lecturer, a (brief) colleague and, finally, a tutor. Similarly, I have to thank Prof. Jeroen Duindam for suffering through, not one, but two of my theses, first during my Bachelor study as a supervisor, and now as a second reader. His hardships are appreciated. I would like to mention the support from my parents, who – even though at times they had no clue what I was writing about, or what I was doing while being holed up in the attic – have never ceased to keep me fed, and for that I am grateful beyond count. Writing a thesis is solitary work, so I also have to thank Nick Ruhe and Clemens Deimann for keeping me sane. I dearly hope I have managed to make a story about the Dutch interesting to read – even for them. iii Introduction ‘There is a certain Bogg-Land in the World, which, by the Lowness of its Situation, may justly claim the Honour of being the Sink of the Universe’1 The playwright and pamphleteer Elkanah Settle wrote this line in 1688, giving a vivid, if not very flattering, description of the United Provinces. Reading the phrase, it is easy to imagine the English readers wondering what sort of vile people would live in such a wretched dwelling. They would have, if they had not already been exposed in the past fifty years to many libellous pamphlets expressing the same sentiment, giving an answer to just that question.2 In England, throughout the seventeenth century and beyond, the Dutch were the victims of hundreds of printed gibes, mockeries and volatile attacks, cursing them for all unholy and sinful things on Earth. The inhabitants of the Low Countries were depicted as drunks, boors, frogs, hogs and butter-boxes. Their character was described as prideful, covetous, perfidious, ungrateful, ungodly and non-European. This discourse of Hollandophobia was especially visible in times of conflict, such as the three Anglo-Dutch wars of the seventeenth century and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. During these periods, politicians commissioned, supported and encouraged the publication of anti-Dutch polemic, which drew from a long tradition of existing assumptions and conventions in English minds. Studying this Hollandophobic discourse provides us with insights into the way national stereotypes were constructed in early modernity, how they functioned and how they were spread through the medium of print. Hollandophobia The first modern historian who used the concept ‘Hollandophobia’ within his research was Simon Schama in 1987.3 The term has not been widely used in the field of national stereotyping, but it has proven to be a comprehensive denominator for the collection of anti- Dutch images expressed in early modern print. Few scholars define the concept explicitly, but it is mostly used alongside similar terms like Anglophobia and Francophobia, meaning it can 1 E. Settle, Insignia Bataviae: or, the Dutch trophies display’d (1688) preface. 2 All dates in this thesis follow the Julian calendar (Old Style) as was customary in England at the time – being ten days behind the Gregorian Calendar used on the continent. 3 S. Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (New York 1987) 261. Nocentelli ascribed the creation of the term to Schama: C. Nocentelli, ‘The Dutch Black Legend’, Modern Language Quarterly 75:3 (2014) 356. I have not been able to find any earlier references. 1 best be described as a single strand of general xenophobia.4 This is how Hollandophobia is employed in this thesis as well: expressions of fear and hatred towards the Dutch, founded on a stereotypical and negative characterization present in popular minds. I do not uphold any notions of uniqueness of the concept. English Hollandophobia shared many similarities with other forms of xenophobic