Exiles from the British Archipelago (1580-1680), in J.J. Ruiz Ibañez and Igor Pérez Tostado (eds.), Los exiliados del rey de España (Madrid, 2015)

Earlier English version of article that was published as ‘Los exilados de las islas británicas (1580-1680)’, in J. J. Ruiz Ibañez and Igor Pérez Tostado (eds.), Los exiliados del rey de España (Madrid, 2015), pp 107-30

Exiles from the British Archipelago (1580-1680)

Introduction

In a recent work on British and Irish migration to continental Europe, the Scottish historian David Worthington noted how

60-80,000 Scots left for European destinations (excluding those who went to England, Wales and Ireland) between 1600-1650, with a further 10,000-20,000 doing the same between 1650 and 1700. Scholars of Irish, meanwhile, tend to agree that Ireland lost around 30,000 people to parts of Europe beyond the archipelago in the first half of that century, besides more than 50,000 between 1650 and 1700.

The same author also underlined how by even taking the most cautious of estimates both Irish and Scottish emigration to continental Europe was of ‘profound significance’ when compared to that of the internal migration within the British Isles and that to other parts of the nascent British Empire.1 Traditionally, English language studies of emigration from the British Isles have concentrated overwhelmingly on those facets related to the British colonial experience. Only since the late 1980s has there been a move away from this Anglocentric context, principally in terms of Scottish and Irish migration to continental Europe.

2

For the most part, this has involved the study of Scottish

emigration to Scandinavia and central Europe, and in the Irish case that to France

1

Worthington, 2010, 1-2. On Scottish migration to Europe see Smout, 1986; Catterall, 2002; Worthington, 2003; Grosjean and Murdoch, 2005; Murdoch, 2006. 2

1

and Spain.3 The case of English or Welsh migration to Europe, although clearly of lesser proportions, still remains in its infancy.4 Emigration from the British Isles to the Iberian Peninsula and to Spanish dominions encompassed many of the elements to be found in Scottish and English migration to other parts of Europe. In the case of the Habsburg monarchy the confessional struggle with the English monarchy played a fundamental role, though not exclusively in defining the nature of this emigration. Partly for this reason as well as due to the subsequent internal history of the kingdoms of the British archipelago, more is known about Irish emigration to Spain and its dominions than that of the Scottish and English variants.

1.

Emigration to Spain

(a)

Causes

Emigration from Ireland to Spain and its dominions in the seventeenth century involved a series of political, economic, social, religious, and at times personal motives. The primary factor that united all these elements was the extension of English rule in the country from mid-sixteenth century that led to the complete conquest of the country by 1603. The widespread socio-economic and political devastation during the last quarter of the same century, the overthrow of the Gaelic Irish social and political order together with intensified religious persecution on the part of the English Anglican conquerors were the primary impetuses behind much of the subsequent search for a place of exile.5 By the first decade of the seventeenth century the country’s political elite were left with the stark choice of either exile or conforming to the new status quo. The English conquest of Ireland remained however incomplete as the subsequent rebellion of 1641

3

For a general overview of Irish emigration to Europe see Cullen, 1994. Note that these figures cited by Worthington for Irish emigration to Europe, which are based on Cullen, are significantly underestimated; O’Connor, 2001; O’Connor and Lyons, 2003; O’Connor and Lyons, 2006. 4 See for example Grummitt, 2002, and the essays in Worthington, 2010. 5 On the late-sixteenth century background to this emigration see Hayes-McCoy, 1976; Ellis, 1987; Morgan, 1993.

2

and the island’s involvement in the War of the Three Kingdoms (1639-51) shows.6 This in turn, gave rise to new waves of emigrants and exiles to Spanish dominions. All these elements constitute ‘push’ factors. At the same time there also existed ‘pull’ factors that impelled emigrants from Ireland to the dominions of the Spanish monarchy. One of the most important of these was the important role played by the Gaelic Irish kingroup structure in the subsequent emigration owing to its role in the socio-political and juridical protection of its constituent members. Kingroup cohesion or the inability to survive without its protection explains much of the emigration especially among the Gaelic Irish who represented the majority of the emigrants.7 Moreover, traditional kinship ties continued to remain important well into the late-seventeenth century as is demonstrated by their importance for the recruitment of soldiers for the Irish regiments in Flanders and Spain. The second element that came into play from the beginning of the seventeenth century was the obligation that was created between Irish lords and Philip III arising out of the failed Spanish intervention in Ireland in 1601-2. From a very early stage thousands of Irish individuals realised that they could claim economic rewards from the Spanish crown based on their past military, political, and religious services in Ireland. This went beyond the immediate services of the Irish lords who had sided with the Spanish until it included most of the Irish nation including those who had fought against the Spanish.8 From this moment on the Spanish crown became an alternative source of patronage and economic livelihood, often opening up possibilities for Irish individuals not available in either England or Ireland.

The emigration of English and Scottish individuals or groups to Spain or its dominions was less complex, significantly less in terms of numbers, and more tied to either Spain’s confessional struggle against Elizabeth I or to more purely economic motives.9 In the case of Scotland, economic factors, the centralising policies of the Scottish Monarchy, and the internal confessional struggle represented the principal ‘push’ factors behind the very substantial Scottish emigration, most of which was directed towards Northern and Central Europe.10 Religious persecution of both Scottish and English Catholic gentry 6

On the 1641 Rebellion see Ohlmeyer, 1995; Ó Siochrú, 2001. O’Scea, 2004, 19. 8 On this obligation see O’Scea, 2003. 9 The best overview of English emigration to Spain remains Pérez Tostado, 2004, 105-94. Research into Scottish emigration to Spain or its dominions has been almost non-existent despite the existence of significant archival material. For exceptions to the rule see Worthington, 2003; Redworth, 2002. 10 Perceval-Maxwell, 1973, 19-44. 7

3

explains to a large degree this current of politico-religious emigration to Spain and its dominions.

(b) Characteristics and Numbers

From the early -1580s different segments of the Irish population were attracted to continental Europe by the availability of a Catholic education abroad, commercial links with European ports, and the shortage of manpower in Europe’s armies. It has been estimated that at least 175,000 Irish persons emigrated to Europe before 1700 of which 120,000 at a conservative estimate emigrated at some point to Spain or its dominions. The pattern of emigration can be sub-divided, principally, into military migration, political migration, religious migration, poor Irish migration, and commercial migration. For the most part Irish emigration to Europe followed similar patterns from 1580-1700. The principal differences were the degrees of intensity that corresponded to politicomilitary events in Ireland and the Anglicisation of the island on the one hand, and the politico-economic opportunities available in continental Europe on the other.

It is

estimated that by 1660 nine-tenths of the ‘dynastic leadership of traditional Ireland’ was living in Spain or in the Spanish Netherlands, that is between fifty to one hundred families of the Gaelic aristocracy.11 A second overall feature of this European wide emigration was that it represented a cross section of Irish society. Hence, significant numbers of women and children also emigrated often with or without their respective partners. In the north-west of Spain in 1605 women, the elderly and children represented between 35-50% of the immigrant Irish community.12 Irish emigration to Spain or its dominions only became apparent from the early 1580s. Before this decade there is virtually no evidence of the employment of Irish immigrants in Spanish royal service, be they economic migrants or otherwise. Effectively, the suppression of Irish rebellions that took on religious overtones, and the involvement of Spain as an Atlantic power from 1580 represented the earliest stimuli to Irish emigration to the Habsburg Empire. 11

Stradling, 1994, 125. O’Scea, 2003, 61; on the female component of Irish communities see Henry, 1992, 74-89; Walsh, 1961-62, 98-106, 133-45. 12

4

The most prominent of these early immigrants were the politico-military exiles, made up predominantly of nobles and their agents, principally high-ranking ecclesiastics who had gone into exile as a result of the failure of the Desmond rebellions from the late1570s.13 Most of these exiles went on to serve in the Spanish navy, with Spanish forces in Brittany in the 1590s or in William Stanley’s Irish regiment in Flanders from the late1580s. At the same time, the last quarter of the sixteenth century also witnessed the first arrivals of Irish students and ecclesiastics at Spanish universities as well as the foundation from the 1590s of the first of a series of Irish colleges in Spanish dominions.14 Both of these two emigrant streams furthermore depended on the commercial trade between Irish and Spanish ports in order to arrive in Spain as well as a means of maintaining contact with their place of origin. Prior to 1580, members of individual merchant families settled in Spanish ports either along the Atlantic Seaboard or in the Basque Country. In many cases these early communities formed the basis of subsequent Irish commercial communities.15 A large part of the impetus for this settlement came from the Anglo-Spanish war, 1585-1604, whereby most of the trade to the Iberian Peninsula from England, Ireland, and Scotland went through the hands of Irish and Scottish merchants.16 Even though the end of the war put a stop to this monopoly, further restrictions on Irish trade and merchants during the first half of the seventeenth century, together with the granting of trading privileges to Irish merchants by the Spanish authorities led to more and more Irish merchant families permanently residing in Spanish ports.17 In comparison to this earlier immigration, the emigration that occurred during the opening years of the seventeenth century in the aftermath of the failure of Spanish intervention in Ireland was far more extensive, more all-encompassing, and created greater problems for the Spanish royal authorities that had to deal with it. At the core of this emigration, which numbered some 10,000 individuals, was the exile of those Irish lords, their followers and families who had sided with the Spanish in the south west of Ireland in 1601-02.18 In many ways this initial exodus set the pattern for future Irish emigration to Spanish dominions, which was characterised by service in the Habsburg armed forces especially though not exclusively in Flanders. At the same time 13 14 15 16 17 18

On these exiles see García Hernán, 2000. On the Irish college system see O’Connell, 2001. Pérez Tostado, 2004, 26; on Irish-Spanish trade see Schüller, 1999, 75-106. Gómez-Centurión Jiménez,1988, 190. MacErlean, 1919, 307. On this immigration to Spain see Recio Morales, 2002; O’Scea, 2004.

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commercial, ecclesiastical, and poor migration continued to proceed in parallel to it. During the subsequent decades events in Ireland such as the Flight of the Earls in 1607 or the end of Confederate Ireland in 1649 only increased the levels of this emigration or the intensity of political exile in Spanish dominions. In as much as is known to date, Irish military migration to Flanders is estimated minimally at over 21,000 soldiers up to 1641 with a further 22,000 serving in the Iberian Peninsula between 1641 and 1655.19 True numbers will however have been much higher owing to the current lack of research on Irish military service in the Spanish navy, in the war against Portugal from 1640, or on those who served in other parts of Spanish dominions.

In contrast to Irish emigration, English and Scottish immigration began earlier, was significantly less numerous, and was more limited in scope. Outside of the commercial and military sphere, English immigration to Spain was restricted to Catholic students, nobles, and ecclesiastics who chose to move to Spain or Spanish Flanders out of reasons of conscience.20 Most of these nobles as well as their Scottish counterparts served in the Spanish navy or in Flanders from the mid-1560s. In parallel to this trend, a number of English ecclesiastics such as Robert Parsons or Francis Englfield gained important advisory positions to the Spanish crown, which enabled them to lay the foundations of the English college system in Spanish dominions, and to influence the planning of the Spanish invasion of England in 1588.21 A similar role was carried out by the Scottish coronel, William Semple in regards to Scotland and Scottish Gaeldom.22 Despite the failure of the Invincible Armada, the Spanish crown continued to support the maintenance of an English tercio in Flanders up to 1672, and a Scottish one as well from 1582. For the most part, the English military presence in Flanders never exceeded 500600 troops except in 1659 when some 4,500 defeated English royalists were recruited.23 Both the English and Scottish regiments were invariably confined to service in Flanders except for the Scottish-Irish regiment of the earl of Crawford which served on the Portuguese front in the late-1640s.24 19

Henry, 1993, 42; Stradling, 1994, 163-4. On this migration see Loomie, 1963. 21 Pérez Tostado, 2004, 113-25. 22 On Semple see Redworth, 2002. 23 Pérez Tostado, 157-58; Sanchez Marin, 1999, 21. 24 AGS, GA, leg. 1691, title of governor for the earl of Crawford, 11 Jan. 1648. I am grateful to Igor Pérez Tostado of the Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville for this reference. 20

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Without doubt the most important strand of English migration to Spanish dominions was that related to international commerce. Even though it has been little researched, significant numbers of English merchants settled in Spanish ports as well as in the interior of Spain from the 1470s.25 By the mid-sixteenth century English merchants were the principal carriers of Spanish goods. This intensified after the end of the AngloSpanish war in 1604.26 Throughout the sixteenth century hundreds of English merchants, both Catholics and Protestants either resided temporarily or permanently in the principal Spanish ports such as Seville, Lisbon, Bayona and Bilbao. The numbers of English merchants who ended up in the secret cells of the Inquisition is testimony to their importance as well as to the fears of their role in introducing heretical ideas into Spain. At the other end of the same spectrum were the groups of English and Scottish Protestants who emigrated to Spain in order to be converted to Catholicism.27 In addition, a number of English captains also served as corsairs for the Spanish crown from the 1630s on.28 Given the almost total lack of any statistical research on English and Scottish immigration to Spanish dominions, it is not possible to come to any reliable estimates. Aside from their national regiments that served in Spain and Flanders, we know that the English colleges in Spain educated some 1,700 students between 1600 and 1650.29 At a conservative estimate, English immigration may very well have run into the thousands during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

(c)

Institutional Structures, Ideologies and Factional Fissures

On arrival in Spain, all Irish, English, and Scottish exiles had in theory some forms of institutional support from the networks of Catholic colleges, hostels, guilds or confraternities, which aided them in their integration with the host society. At the same time each group developed to varying degrees of success an ideology to justify their protection on the part of the Spanish monarchy. Their relative success or failure in

25

As an example of the importance of this migration for one region of Spain (the Basque Country) see the online database, ‘Badator’- >; Connell-Smith, 1954; for a study of one of these merchant families see Martínez Ruiz, 2008. 26 Pérez Tostado, 2004, 137. 27 Thomas, 2001, 501, 521. 28 Pérez Tostado, 2006b, 686. 29 I am grateful to Adam Marks of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland for this information. On the English colleges in Spain see Burrieza, 2002; on the Scots college see Taylor, 1971.

7

regards to the latter was furthermore marked by factional struggles that the immigrants brought with them from their own homelands or by ideological contradictions that developed in exile. Out of the three groups English immigrants had access to the greatest level of institutional support. The English college system started early (Douai - 1568, Valladolid – 1589, Seville – 1592, Madrid - 1613, Lisbon – 1622) and remained the principal sociocultural and religious focus for those seeking an English Catholic education in Spanish dominions or for those English Catholic nobles already in exile. Within the international commercial communities in Spanish ports, English merchants developed a network of guilds, confraternities, chapels, and consuls that acted as economic and socio-cultural links for their commercial activities.30 Whether as a consequence of this institutional support of a national character or for other reasons, English exiles never developed a coherent political ideology that could be presented to the Spanish crown as the Irish did. Nor did they desire to do so. English Catholic exiles sought the protection of the Spanish king on the basis of their martyrdom for the Catholic faith. They had no desire to upset the political and socio-economic status quo in England. They sought toleration to practice their Catholicism not a military invasion of England. Only the question of political loyalty to a heretical sovereign divided the English Catholic community. As such this represented a much narrower ideological base than in the case of Gaelic Irish exiles who were able to underline their services to the Catholic and the Spanish cause, and who actively sought the overthrow of the established order in Ireland.31

In contrast to the English case, Irish political exiles developed a coherent ideology of political and military service to the Spanish crown and to the Catholic cause that developed and evolved both during the course of the period under review and beyond. Although initially only applicable to those Irish who had served the king of Spain in Ireland in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries, this ideology was eventually widened to include wide segments of the Irish population. At the basis of this ideology was the idea of recíproca correspondencia or ‘mutual support and responsibility’ whereby the Spanish monarchy took the nacion irlandesa under its protection and provided them with employment in its armed forces, education in the its network of Irish 30 31

Pérez Tostado, 2004, 193. Pérez Tostado, 2006b, 694-96.

8

colleges, and the integration of the Irish elites into Hispanic society in exchange for their fidelity to the Spanish crown and to its world political and religious outlook.32 This relationship of fidelity-patronage was furthermore built upon the pseudo-historical Milesian legend whereby the original native Gaelic population of Ireland were descendants of pre-Roman Spanish colonisers of the island.33 Even though it is doubtful if the use of this legend in any Irish appeals to the Spanish crown increased their success rate, it was widely taken as fact by Spanish and Irish contemporaries. Moreover, the use of the legend did help strengthen the role of the Irish as one of ‘preferred nation’ status, and although difficult to measure it certainly aided the integration of the noble elites. The success of this ideology was based initially on the role of the Spanish monarchy as an alternative source of patronage for Irish immigrants, which was thereafter cemented by long-term service in the Spanish armed forces during the first half of the seventeenth century. However, this relationship broke down during the 1640s and early 1650’s under pressure from the competing patronage of the French crown, the failure of Confederate Ireland, and the treatment meted out to Irish recruits to the Iberian Peninsula in the 1650s.34 Only from the -late1660s was there a return to the positive perception of Irish immigrants and exiles on the part of the Spanish monarchy. By that stage most Irish political exiles looked to Paris rather than to Madrid for inspiration.35 In like manner to the English, the Spanish crown encouraged the foundation of a network of Irish colleges or seminaries in its dominions (Lisbon-1590, Salamanca-1592, Douai-1594, Antwerp-1600, Santiago de Compostela-1605, Seville-1612, Louvain-1624, Madrid-1629, Alcalá de Henares-1649). A number of other secular colleges also existed such as that of Valladolid between 1610 and 1631 but they often did not last long.36 All of the colleges in the Iberian Peninsula except that of Madrid fell under the control of the Jesuit Order. In addition there existed a number of Irish convents under the control of the Irish Dominicans (Louvain-1626, Lisbon-1639) or that of the Irish Franciscans (Louvain1607). Besides these colleges there is little evidence for the existence of Irish confraternities, guilds, or associations during the seventeenth century. It is known that there existed an Irish hostel at the court between 1629 and 1652 that formed part of the 32 33 34 35 36

Recio Morales, 2006, 243-48. On this legend see Santoyo, 1979. Pérez Tostado, 2008; Ó’Scea, 2010, 118-22. Pérez Tostado, 2006a, 311. O’Connell, 2001, 52.

9

original Irish college.37 In addition, an Irish confraternity devoted to St. Patrick in Cadiz was founded in 1666.38 These however represent notable exceptions. For the most part it appears that the institutional foci of Irish exiles and immigrants remained the Irish regiments and the Irish college network. In the light of the inter-Irish factional struggles that plagued the latter, however, the principal focus of social charity most likely remained that related to Irish kinship and familial structures. This contrasts with the case of English immigrants who had access to an important network of colleges, guilds, and associations. One of the most important characteristics of Irish immigration and exile to Spanish dominions was the extent to which they transferred their inter-ethnic struggles from Ireland to Spain.39 Thus, the Irish defeat at the hands of the English at the end of the Nine Years War in 1603, and again after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649 opened up these latent divisions. These events, furthermore, had consequences for the political allegiances of the Irish in continental Europe as the Gaelic Irish and those Hiberno English who had lost lands and property in Ireland for the most part aligned themselves with the Spanish crown. On the other hand the Old English of the Pale and the towns, many of whom still continued to have vested interests in Ireland, followed the French star especially from the 1630s. In this regard the political priorities of the Old English were very similar to those of English Catholic exiles concerning the question of divided loyalties to a heretical sovereign. More than anywhere else these inter-ethnic Irish rivalries came to dominate the Irish colleges and the Irish religious convents in Europe throughout the period. From the beginning of the seventeenth century bitter rivalry was evident in the disputes over the control of the Irish colleges in Spain between the Old English and 37

AHN, CS, leg. 13.206 (1652), no. 78, memorial of Goffredo Daniel, rector del hospital de los irlandeses, 27 Nov. 1652; García Hernán, 2006, 291. 38 I am grateful to Thomas O’Connor of NUI Maynooth for the reference to the Irish confraternity in Cadiz. 39 At the beginning of the seventeenth century there existed three ethnic groups in Ireland:- the native Gaelic Irish (or Old Irish) who represented the majority of the population, the Hiberno English who were the descendants of the great noble houses of Anglo Norman origin who arrived in Ireland in the twelfth century, and the Old English (of the Pale and the towns), also of Anglo-Norman origin who inhabited those limited areas of English royal jurisdiction around Dublin called the Pale or the port towns. Some authors have argued that there existed only two groups – the Gaelic Irish and the Old English. Certainly, up to the 1640s this threefold division remains valid. The principal differences between the two groups of Anglo Norman origin were that the family structure and marriage patterns of the Hiberno English were frequently more akin to those of the Gaelic Irish than to those of the Old English of the Pale and towns. At the same time the great magnates of the Hiberno English were fundamentally a rural nobility as opposed to the Old English urban and gentry oligarchy who dominated the Pale and the port towns.

10

the Gaelic Irish. What was at stake was the control over the nominations to Irish ecclesiastical dignities, and thereby over the fashioners of the Irish Catholic ‘mind’ as the majority of Irish priests received their education in the Irish colleges in Spanish dominions, at least up until the 1620s. The struggles over the control of the Irish colleges of Salamanca (1605-8) and Santiago de Compostela (1611-17) were particularly bitter. In the case of Santiago the attitude of the Old English Jesuits can be best described as a deeply rooted desire to demonstrate their loyalty to the English crown by exhibiting a militant hostility towards the Gaelic Irish, even at the cost of self-inflicted wounds to the same Irish colleges. Both this struggle in Santiago and that involving the English colleges in Valladolid and Madrid (1611-13) eventually became part of the wider factional struggle at the Spanish court at the time of the Queen Margarita’s opposition to the role of the royal favourite, the duke of Lerma.40 Although the Old English managed to maintain their control of the Irish colleges, it was at a heavy price. Certainly, at least until the late-1620s and maybe even well beyond the Irish Jesuits could find no support for their cause among members of the Irish community at the court. Moreover, their militant hostility to the Gaelic Irish contributed to the heightened climate of inter-Irish political rivalry that led to the assassination of the principal Irish political leader at the Spanish court, Domnall Cam O’Sullivan Beare in 1618.41 The result of this struggle was to open a significant breach between the Gaelic Irish and the Hiberno English on the one hand, and the Old English of the Pale and towns on the other, which had consequences for the re-formulation of Irish identity. The ‘breve relacion de Irlanda’of Philip O’Sullivan Beare (1618) represents the logical consequence of this division in its definition of an Irishness that included the Gaelic Irish and the Hiberno English but watered down and questioned the real ‘ Irishness’ of the Old English.42 One of the most significant consequences of the struggle regarding the Irish colleges during the first two decades was the termination of any economic support for the Jesuit-run Irish colleges by the Gaelic Irish. This certainly occurred in regards to Santiago and Salamanca but did not occur with the Irish college in Madrid, which had never come under Jesuit control.43 This also explains in part why the Irish college in Madrid remained a focal point for all Irish immigrants including those of Gaelic Irish 40 41 42 43

O’Scea, 2007, 222-47. Ibid, 247-66. RAH, Salazar, tomo N-11, fos. 163r-166v. O’Scea, 2007, 239.

11

origin during the second half of the seventeenth century.44 On the other hand, given the refusal of Irish Jesuit run colleges to admit no more than a handful of non-Old English students even as late as the 1670s, it remains unlikely that these colleges became focal points for all Irish immigrant and exile groups.45 Finally, although the Irish colleges functioned as re-formulators of Irish identity and to some extent as integrators of the Irish into Spanish society, the lack of research into the effect of inter-Irish political rivalries on these colleges and their seminarians leaves many questions unanswered concerning the role of these colleges in their host societies and within the Irish exile communities.46

(d)

Patronage, integration, and assimilation

On arrival in Spain most exiles from the British Isles were forced to rely on the preexisting network of expatriate institutions, clientship or kinship ties with established immigrants in order to gain social advancement, be it in the armed forces or in the college networks. Access to royal patronage became of fundamental importance for these exiles and immigrants. In theory, the English, the urban Scots, and the Old English of the Pale should have been more used to a patronage system similar to the Spanish model, based on the king as the fons honorum of all awards and privileges. The Gaelic Irish and the Highland Scots on the other hand, owing to the different nature of their societies should have had more problems in adapting to the Spanish system of patronage. Initially, the Gaelic Irish on arrival in Spain sought to use the Irish model in which the lord acted as an intermediary for his relations and followers. This almost inevitably failed. Instead, Irish leaders and their followers were forced to align themselves to the existing system of court favourites and factions, which over time undermined the traditional cohesion of the Irish patronage networks by placing emphasis on the individual’s services to the Spanish crown instead of his or her 44 45 46

Recio Morales, 2006, 250. Morrissey, 1975, 60. Recio Morales, 2001, 48-52.

12

services to the kingroup or the local lord in hierarchical order. This led to the dissolution of the traditional Irish networks of patronage, the distortion of Irish concepts of honour and nobility, and to the reformulation of new networks based on the channels of access to the sovereign. In general terms, favours for political allies played a bigger role in patronage networks in Gaelic Ireland than was the case in early modern Spain, which played more emphasis the importance of individual service to the monarchy.47

Although Irish lords lost their traditional function as direct

intermediaries, they managed to maintain their influence within the Irish communities through their role as writers of testimonials for Irish petitioners testifying to their services to the Catholic cause and to the Spanish crown. This newfound role gave enormous power and influence to Irish lords and ecclesiastics at the court well out of proportion to their traditional status in Ireland.48 Nevertheless, despite their rapid adaptation to this new role, it took a long time for Irish nobles, exiles and immigrants to comprehend fully the functioning of the system of royal councils and court patronage. During the opening decade of the seventeenth century Irish petitioners were almost totally dependant on a handful of Spanish nobles for access to royal patronage. Even during the second decade when the Irish became actively involved in the faction struggle at court against the duke of Lerma, Irish patronage was limited to access to the Councils of State and of War only. The evidence from these councils during this decade shows that Irish access to royal patronage fluctuated according to the alignment of the Gaelic Irish group with the anti-Lerma faction and that of the Old English group with the fortunes of the duke of Lerma. In overall terms, a select group of Gaelic Irish families who had sided with the Spanish in Ireland in 1601-02 came to dominate Irish access to these two councils at the expense of those serving in Flanders or those who had done greater political service for the Spanish monarchy. It was only during the reign of Philip IV that many of the latter group managed to gain access to substantial awards and privileges. In addition, for most of the first two decades of the seventeenth century Irish exiles had virtually none or little access to the important privileges and awards that were granted by the Cámara de Castilla.49

47 48 49

O’Scea, 2007, 169. O’Scea, 2002, 379-80. O’Scea, 2007, 221.

13

In the absence of any studies on English or Scottish access to patronage at the Spanish court, it is not possible to draw any firm conclusions in regards to these groups. It certainly does appear that a number of English individuals such as Robert Parsons or Francis Englfield were able to attain important positions influence at the Spanish court in the late-sixteenth century in regards to petitions from English, Irish and Scottish exiles.50 On the other hand, it was not until the first decade of the seventeenth century that a number of Irish individuals such as Florence Conry or Domnall Cam O’Sullivan Beare were able to acquire equivalent positions of influence.51 One of the most accessible and manageable ways of studying the relative success of foreign exile groups in early modern Spain is through an analysis of naturalisation petitions. Letters of naturalisation were only ever granted, at least in regards to the kingdom of Castile to important members of foreign communities owing to opposition from within Castilian society. Between 1598 and 1665 about 800 petitions for naturalisation were received by the Cámara de Castilla.52 Fundamentally, letters of naturalisation were only granted to those foreigners who the Castilian crown regarded as possessing ‘preferred nation’ status due to their respective economic or political importance for the monarchy. The granting of substantial numbers of these naturalisations was also closely linked to the role that foreign communities played in the patronage networks at court especially under the favouriteships of the duke of Lerma and the conde-duque de Olivares.53 By far and away the greatest proportion of naturalisations were granted to the French (11%), the Genoese (16%), the Flemish (10%), the Portuguese (8%), and those from the kingdom of Aragon (7%). In regards to those who were not subjects of the Spanish monarchy, the Irish managed to gain access to naturalisations well out of proportion to their relative economic and political standing especially in the second decade of the seventeenth century (5%). On the other hand, despite the far greater economic importance of the English commercial communities, English petitions only represented less than 1.5%, and those of the Scottish were almost insignificant.54 This brief overview appears to indicate that in regards to naturalisations the existence of a 50

García Hernán, 2000, 146-47 On Florence Conry see Hazard, 2009. 52 Based on the author’s on-going research from sources in AGS. Final figures will most likely increase by as much as 30%. 53 O’Scea, 2007, 180-82. 54 These figures are based on 267 naturalisations recorded in the libros de relacion de la Cámara between 1601 and 1636. These sources underestimate true numbers by 25-30%. 51

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coherent political discourse and better access to court patronage greatly benefited Irish exiles, thus, enabling them to pull above their weight. At the same time the administration’s doubts concerning the religious sincerity of the English commercial communities probably worked to the disadvantage of the same communities.55

Looking at the experience of Irish exiles from the perspective of their integration and assimilation to the norms and structures of the Spanish monarchy, it is possible to identify three chronological phases – 1601-1609, 1610-24, and 1625-80. The first phase was characterised by an open-handed policy towards the Irish on the part of the Spanish crown through the granting of pensions and other awards arising out of its intervention in Ireland in 1601-02.

At the same time the socio-cultural behaviour of the Irish

communities was defined by high levels of endogamy, limited interaction with the institutions and legal systems of Spanish society, and a not fully orthodox Catholicism.56 For some Spanish observers the presence of thousands of Irish immigrants at the Spanish court during these years was interpreted in terms of the arrival of a new plague of gypsies.57 The second phase (1610-24) marked a period of transition, transformation and profound crisis for the Irish exile communities, and maybe also for the English communities. This period witnessed the interaction of a series of political events and circumstances that affected the behaviour of the Irish exile communities. Among the most important of these were Spain’s Truce with Holland in 1608, the abandonment by the duke of Lerma of the Irish political cause (c. 1608-09), the expulsion of the Moriscos (1609-14), the Plantation of Ulster (1610-12) by the English crown, the negotiations for the Spanish Match (1616-24), Irish involvement with the anti-Lerma camp in the power struggle at the Spanish court, the intensification of the inter-Irish political struggle at the court in order to gain access to royal patronage during a period of economic cutbacks, the return of Irish immigration to the court (1610-14), and the breakdown of Gaelic Irish kinship structures under altered socio-economic circumstances.

55 56 57

Connell-Smith, 1954, 100-26. O’Scea, 2007, 332. Recio Morales, 2006, 242.

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The most important of these was that relating to the expulsion of the Moriscos. Putting it in as brief terms as possible, as the expulsion of the Moriscos from the kingdom of Castile between 1610 and 1614 became bogged down due to the opposition both from within Castilian society as well as within the royal administration, the duke of Lerma and other neo-conservative councillors sought to harden the criteria for those longer-settled Moriscos who would not have to suffer expulsion. However, one of the consequences of narrowing the criteria was to place many foreign minorities such as the Irish among the list of unacceptable deviant groups for Castilian Old Christians. In many ways, the years of the expulsion of the Moriscos marked the maximum point of Old Christian ‘phobia’ towards the Castilian ‘other’ as represented by the Conversos, the Moriscos, the gypsies or other deviant / foreign minorities. There furthermore exists ample evidence to show that the duke of Lerma promoted a campaign of heightened xenophobia and intimidation towards the Irish as well as towards other foreign groups in order to deflect criticism from his handling of the expulsion of the Moriscos. During these years the Irish were labelled as part of Spain’s deviant problem along with the Moriscos and the gypsies. The subsequent altered behaviour of the Irish communities across a range of socio-cultural and religious aspects, which corresponded almost point by point to the criticisms of the Moriscos by the propagandists of the expulsion, is testimony to the effect of this campaign. These changes encompassed issues of family structure, religious practices, literacy, naming practices, and involvement with the bureaucratic and legal systems.58 Similarly, other foreign Catholic minorities also suffered from this heightened xenophobia including the French, the Flemish, the Portuguese, non-Spanish Jews, and not surprisingly the English as well. The controversies regarding the Irish college in Santiago (1611-13) and the English colleges in Valladolid and Madrid (1611-13) should also be interpreted against this background. Although the latter controversy was versed in terms of English Jesuit versus Spanish Jesuit control of the English college system, at the heart of the matter was the need to deflect criticisms away from the duke of Lerma handling of the expulsion. Significantly, the English Jesuit superior of these colleges, Joseph Creswell, who was expelled from Spain for his troubles, had been closely associated with the Queen’s opposition to the duke of Lerma in 1611,

58

O’Scea, 2007, 167-69.

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and had been the only foreign cleric to put into writing his opposition to the expulsion of the Moriscos.59 The altered behaviour of the Irish was however not only due to the xenophobia promoted by the duke of Lerma. The socio-cultural and anthropological similarities between Morisco and Gaelic Irish societies played an important role in enabling the royal favourite to promote an identification of the Irish with the Moriscos. For this reason as well as owing to the dependence of Irish exiles on the Spanish crown for economic survival, the effects of Lerma’s policies had much more profound consequences for the Irish communities than for other foreign groups. For the Irish communities, the second decade represented a watershed in terms of their relationship to the Spanish crown. From this point on, it was no longer possible for Irish exile communities to remain on the margins of Spanish society resisting integration via their isolation in a ‘transplanted’ and re-constructed Irish society in exile. Effectively, Irish exiles were left with the choice of remaining as a marginalised foreign minority or of choosing the path of greater integration for political and economic survival. This implied becoming a service nobility to the Spanish crown along the lines promoted by the conde duque de Olivares, and the jettisoning of traditional kinship and clientship ties that lay at the basis of the Gaelic Irish system. The changes in Gaelic Irish family and kinship structure, which were spread over the entire period under review, are in many ways representative of the evolving relationship between Irish exiles and the Spanish monarchy and its institutions. Over the course of eighty years the Gaelic Irish family in exile underwent profound change due to the inability of the kingroup to protect its members in altered economic circumstances. At the same time key elements of its structure such as the kin’s legal functions, patrilocality, and collateral inheritance became redundant in a society with diametrically opposed inheritance practices, an urban environment, and the assimilation of the kin’s legal protection by a centralising monarchy. Furthermore, both royal institutions and Castilian law especially in terms of inheritance had a profound moulding effect on these structures. The metamorphosis that took place involved the abandonment of the wider agnatic kingroup in favour of the nuclearbased cognatic family unit along Castilian lines, and the transformation of the role of

59

O’Scea, 2007, 168, 232-34.

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women from the margins to the centre of the family. The greatly altered role for women was principally due to the inability of the kingroup to protect its maintain female members, which moreover had the indirect effect of increasing Irish female rates of literacy via their involvement with royal bureaucracy. Moreover, these profound changes in family structure had consequences for Gaelic concepts of honour and networks of patronage, both within and beyond the immediate family. Significantly, the quality of Irish awards improved in inverse proportion to the decline of the traditional Gaelic kinship structure. This was due partly to the domesticating effect of the court on Irish nobility, but also because as the Gaelic kinship structure changed to a more cognatic model, Irish petitioners were able to gain better access to patronage via both the maternal and the paternal lines of descent rather than via the latter line only as was the case in Gaelic Ireland. .This qualitative improvement in patronage can be seen in the awarding of naturalisations, the recognition of Irish noble titles, and the admission of Irish nobles into Spanish military orders from the 1620s onwards.60 The period from the mid-1620s through to the crisis of the 1650s was marked by the greater incorporation of Irish nobles into Spanish society, their greater integration into Spanish society, and the re-moulding and re-defining of an Irish identity that represented in part a reaction to Spanish and European criticisms of Irish society and its cultural norms. At a politico-military level the traditional relationship between Irish exiles and the Spanish crown began to break down during the 1640s owing to political events in the British Isles and the competing patronage of the French crown.61 In parallel, many Irish individuals had long become aware of the distorting effect of the Spanish system of pensions on the traditional Irish noble hierarchy, or of the discrimination that Irish individuals had to overcome when seeking social advancement.62 Certainly, up to the 1640s only those who had sided with the Spanish in Ireland in 1601-02 or their descendants could hope to attain the highest levels of awards and privileges in the kingdom of Castile, and these only represented a handful of individuals. Moreover, even long after the crisis of the 1650s

60 61 62

O’Scea, 2007, 126-50. Pérez Tostado, 2008. O’Scea, 2010, 116.

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had been overcome, high ranking Irish military figures still found that were limits to their social advancement outside of the Irish regiments.63

Compared to the example of the Irish, the study of English communities and their integration into Spanish society is almost non-existent. The little that is known of English commercial communities indicates that although many English merchants married into local Spanish trading communities, and established prosperous businesses, their integration was tempered by the actions and suspicions of the Spanish Inquisition of English socio-cultural and religious behaviour from the 1530s. Nevertheless, the severity of the actions of the Inquisition against English merchants were always dictated by the extent to which the Spanish monarchy needed to maintain good relations with the English monarchy.64 For most of the Elizabethan period, the Inquisition had a free reign to persecute suspected English heretics in Spanish ports. Even the English colleges, which should in theory have been free from suspicions of heresy, were subject to the suffocating oversight of the Spanish Jesuit provincials. The controversies concerning the colleges of Madrid and Valladolid (1611-13) demonstrated the low levels of toleration displayed by Spanish Jesuits as they blackened the foreign origins of English students in the same way as contemporary English

commentators derogated the native Irish

for their

barbarousness and lack of civility.65 In this case the end result was the enforced enculturation of the mores of the dominant society on these colleges.66 Although the period of these controversies witnessed a heightened level of xenophobia towards both the English and the Irish, the treatment meted out to the superior of the English colleges in Spain, Joseph Creswell, was worse than that accorded to the superiors of the Irish college system. This occurred notwithstanding the fact that Creswell was more hispanophile and hispanicized than the Irish rector of Salamanca, Thomas White or the head of the Irish mission, James Archer.67 In addition, owing to the more 63

AGS, E., leg. 4124, consulta of memorial of Arthur Ó Brien, 16 April 1680. Connell-Smith, 1954, 98, 104. 65 AGS, E., leg. 2758, f. 41, Joseph Crewell to Claudio Aquaviva, 9 Sept. 1612; AGS, E., leg. 2758, f. 46, Joseph Creswell to Philip III, 1613, Respuesta a las razones escritas en la margen y apologia en defensa de los padres y alumnos ingleses. 66 Burrieza Sánchez, 2002, 56. 67 The head of the Irish mission, James Archer even after many years living in Spain sought to be accompanied by a Spanish priest, ‘friendly to the Irish nation’ who would help him in his dealings with the Spanish administration, nobility and prelates owing to his difficulties with both the language and customs of Spain. Morrissey, 1975, 35. 64

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coherent political ideology that was developed by the Irish, the far more extensive nature of Irish emigration to Spain that allowed the Irish to maintain better networks of patronage, their economic dependence on the Spanish crown that encouraged greater conformist attitudes, the lower levels of suspicion by the Spanish of Irish Catholicism, English immigrants and institutions were less well regarded and subject to worse treatment than their Irish Catholic counterparts.

The experience of immigrants from the British Isles who sought out the territories of the Spanish Monarchy as a place or refuge or exile shows both similarities and differences. Within the framework of the published research, we can say that the Irish were by far and away the most successful owing to their development of a coherent politico-cultural and religious ideology. At the same time owing to the growing military needs of the Spanish monarchy as well as due to its role as defender of the Catholic faith, thousands of Irish found a second homeland. Nevertheless, this came at a cost. As equally as many remained on the margins of Spanish society as those who found a niche. The Irish communities on Spanish soil after passing through a period of profound crisis in the second decade became closely integrated into Spanish society but only insofar as Castilian society was willing to accept foreign minorities. In the process these communities underwent the profound moulding effects of royal institutions and the Castilian legal system.

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Abbreviations

AGS

Archivo General de Simancas

E

Estado

GA

Guerra Antigua

AHN CS

RAH

Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid Consejos Suprimidos

Real Academia de la Historia

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