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SPANISH PRIMARY DOCUMENTS ON REVOLT IN FLANDERS
[MANUSCRIPT]. PHILIP II, King of Spain, Don JUAN de Austria and Alessandro FARNESE. [Instructions and letters, mostly to Alonso de Sotomayor, Captain of Phillip II's light cavalry in Flanders].
Madrid, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Luxembourg, "Uniz"(?), Beaumont, Namur, Turnhout, Maastricht, 17 December 1577-18 August 1579. Folio (31 x 22 cm). Manuscript in Spanish concerning the anti-Spanish revolt in Flanders, comprising 13 closely related documents in brown ink on paper, 6 signed by Don Juan de Austria (5 also with either his large or his small seal) and 4 prepared for King Phillip (2 with his annotations). Limp sheepskin parchment (ca. 1680?).
| Orders and Information | € 18000 |
A collection of closely related primary documents in Spanish, dating from 1577 to 1579, concerning Spanish efforts to quell the revolt against Spain after William the Silent, Prince of Orange, succeeded in uniting the Low Countries with the Pacification of Ghent on 8 November 1576, helping the revolt in Holland and Zeeland spread into Flanders in the first decade of the Eighty Years' War. Most of the documents are letters with instructions from King Phillip II's two successive Governors-General in the Low Countries, addressed to Alonso de Sotomayor (1545-1610), Captain of Spain's light cavalry in the Low Countries, where he served from 1567 to 1581. Phillip's illegitimate half-brother Don Juan de Austria (1547-1578) was Governor from 1576 to his death on 1 October 1578, followed by his nephew Alessandro Farnese (1545-1592), Prince and future Duke of Parma.
The first three letters give instructions for a meeting with Philip's ally Henri de Lorraine (1550-1588), Duke of Guise, and are followed by an unsigned report on the resultant talks, dated 22 April 1578 (the paper stock of the report appears to match that of Don Juan's letters of 22 and 24 April). These are followed by letters giving instructions for further talks to be held with Henri and his brother Charles de Lorraine (1554-1611), Duke of Mayenne, and their cousin Charles de Lorraine (1543-1608), Duke of Lorraine. Don Juan's letters are written from Luxembourg, "Uniz" (? not identified), Beaumont and Namur. These are followed by two unsigned letters. The first is from Farnese in Turnhout (en route to Maastricht), concerning his return to Madrid from Nantes and his reports for the court. The second is apparently from Sotomayor in Maastricht to Farnese but includes information (dated from Toledo, 7 June 1579) concerning Antonio Perez (1539-1611), Secretary to Philip II, whom Philip had had arrested for treason on 29 July 1579 after first allowing him to arrange the murder of Don Juan's Secretary, Juan de Escobedo. These nine documents have a single series of leaf numbers (skipping the leaves with only incidental text). After them comes a sort of appendix with drafts of four documents prepared for King Philip (two with his annotations, but none signed), dated from Madrid and from the Royal residence (San Lorenzo) outside Madrid. Two dated 20 November 1578 give instructions for the talks with the Dukes of Guise and Mayenne and a letter to them. Two dated 7 July 1579 give instructions to Octavio Ferdinand Gonzaga of Milan (Captain-General of the light cavalry, apparently killed in battle later that year) concerning the truces in Flanders, and instructions to Farnese concerning Sotomayer's tasks.
Since the leaf numbers begin at 5, there must have once been another document (or less likely two short ones) before the earliest in the present set. The numbering and chronology also show that what is now the first document was formerly bound after the present eighth document (for simplicity we describe them in the original order).
One leaf has a 10 cm tear across the text and a few show minor damage along the old folds or the edges, but the documents remain in good condition. Five bore Don Juan's seal, impressed on a slip of paper over sealing wax. His large seal survives wholly intact on one and his small seal, detached, with another. For the other three, only traces of the wax remain. An important collection of primary documents on the Spanish reaction to the early stages of the revolt in Flanders.
