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RIP Patrice Braut

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Today is the 11th anniversary of 9/11. This blog's focus is the "Flemish Contribution to the Discovery and Settlement of America". The implicit message being of course that that contribution is ongoing. Flemings of the late 20th and early 21st century who leave Flanders and put their shoulder to the effort are a critical part of what makes this country great. 




Patrice Braut was one of these Flemings. Patrice was 31 years old when he was killed in the 9/11 attacks. He worked on the 97th floor of the North Tower for a firm called Marsh & Maclennan.  A native of Anderlecht, Patrice left behind friends, a fiance, and a reputation for dogged tenaciousness. He deserves to be remembered.


Copyright 2012 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. No reproduction without my express, written consent.

The Flemish Origins of America's Thanksgiving

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The "Deliverance" of Leiden by the Flemish-led Sea Beggars, October 3, 1574. 

Thanksgiving is arguably the most American of holidays. Those of us with a secular bent look at it as not only a chance to feast on turkey and the fixings, but to reconnect with family. Those of us with a Christian bent fall to our knees in thanks to God for all that we have been blessed with. Regardless of emphasis, it is one holiday that transcends nearly every division in American society.[i]

Although it needs no retelling, the story goes that after a bountiful harvest in the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims, in early October, invited 90 of the Wampanoag Indians nearby to join them for a three day feast of Thanksgiving to God. We are taught that the holiday was spontaneous, an outpouring in a sense of the religious fervor the Pilgrims
[ii] felt and a mark of the goodwill between Native Americans and the Europeans. [iii]

Whether religious or not, all Americans are taught from childhood that the holiday is a direct legacy of the Pilgrims’ survival of their first year in America. Since approximately 35 million of the 311 million Americans have an ancestor who was at this event
[iv], it stands to reason that this remains the prevailing view of the origins of our holiday.

Over the past several years, historians have deduced that the Pilgrims adopted not only the language but also the habits and cultural influences picked up from their 11 year stay at Leiden, in the Netherlands. Leiden (or, as the Anglo-Saxon community spelled it, Leyden) was where in fact half of their church (and their beloved pastor, John Robinson) remained after 1620. The Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving feast, in fact, had remarkable echoes and similarities to the celebration instituted in Leiden after the repulse of a Spanish siege in the year 1574.
[v]

One of today’s premier historians of the Pilgrims at Leiden is convinced that the connection between Leiden and the Pilgrims' First thanksgiving is direct:
“Inspired by Leiden's 3 October thanksgiving for the lifting of the siege of the city in 1574, the Pilgrims' festivity included prayers, feasting, military exercises, and games. In the nineteenth century the 1621 event served in the promotion of the American national holiday and became known as ‘the first thanksgiving’.”[vi]
As regular readers may suspect, the Flemings[vii] contributed to this event and the holiday we now celebrate as Thanksgiving.





A romantic depiction of the mayor of Leiden offering his arms as food to the starving inhabitants of Leiden during the siege by the Spanish in the Fall of 1574




Leiden: A Flemish City 
To uncover the origins of Thanksgiving it is important that we understand the events in Leiden itself. The city of Leiden was a modest place until the mid-16th century. However, its importance to us – in our never-ending search for understanding of the Flemish contribution to the discovery and settlement of America – is central. To begin with, the bulk of the Pilgrims settling at Massachusetts in 1620 and a group of the settlers for Nieuw Nederland – the stretch of territory from Delaware to Manhattan to Albany – in 1624 had all lived in Leiden. Some of them even became citizens of the city (a difficult task). After in many cases more than a decade of living in Leiden they were thoroughly familiar with Leiden itself. The transplanting of Leiden’s customs to the New World, then, was a natural outcome. 

As the fighting worsened between the Sea Beggars and the Spanish, the influx of Flemings into Leiden in the early 1570s became so large that by 1575 the locals were a minority of the population. Within 10 years (1586) refugees from the Southern Netherlands (including Flemings and Walloons) made up more than 85% of the population.
[viii] Thus a population that had been 10,000 in 1574 and no more than 12,000 in 1581 had doubled to 20,000 by 1600.[ix] By 1622, the year after the first Thanksgiving, the city had nearly doubled again, to 44,745 souls, of which 30,000 (67%) were not native.[x] Overwhelmingly, Leiden was a cosmopolitan place where Flemings constituted the largest ethnic bloc. As such, they literally and figuratively surrounded the Pilgrims in Leiden.






A modern picture of Leiden, with many buildings unchanged since the Siege of 1574.





Not all of these Flemish immigrants arrived directly from the South. Many that might superficially be labeled as English immigrants to Leiden, were in fact Anglo-Flemings. They  and their children had lived in England but retained strong ties with Flanders. For example, in 1596 a group of Flemings were warmly received at Leiden, having moved en masse from Norwich where they had attended the "Dutch" Church at St. Andrews.[xi] This church, incidentally, was the same church that John Browne, founder of the Separatists (as the Pilgrims’ branch of Christianity was then known) and his close friend John Robinson, pastor and head of the church the Pilgrims lived in and worshiped when they were in Norwich.[xii] St. Andrews in Norwich is also where the core group of the congregation came from in 1604 that became the nucleus of the Separatist Pilgrims by 1608 (when they left England for Holland).[xiii]


The Flemings in Leiden not only arrived on their own impetus but were actively enticed by the City Fathers.
[xiv] The Leiden municipality actively offered incentives for textile workers – especially those with knowledge of the New Draperies, an advanced method of creating woolen textiles that required specialized knowledge and were the hot products in Europe due to their lightness and durability.[xv] The influx of Flemings solidly turned Leiden, as one Flemish historian puts it, into a “Textile City”.[xvi] 

Peter Paul Rubens - here on the far left - painted himself, his brother (next to him) Jan Wowerius (far right) and the famous Justus Lipsius, Flemish "Rector Magnificus" of Leiden in the 1615 painting "The Four Philosophers". 


However, by the time the Pilgrims arrived in Leiden in 1609, Leiden had firmly acquired another status: that as the sole university town of the Dutch Republic. Since the whole of the Netherlands (what we would consider Benelux and northern bits of France) only had two universities (Leuven and Douai) before the addition of Leiden in 1575 this was quite an honor. More importantly, this was the first university open to all faiths.[xvii] Since an infrastructure for higher learning simply did not exist in the North, virtually all university teaching staff were non-native. And the overwhelming majority of these were in fact Flemings – including the head of the university, Justus Lipsius, a Catholic.[xviii]


But all of these developments – and the link of Flemings with the Pilgrims – was in the future. The story of how Leiden came to be the birthplace of our Thanksgiving as well as a university town that the Pilgrims chose to settle in is directly tied up with the origins of Thanksgiving. 


A romanticized painting of the Sea Beggars in action in the North Sea 

The Sea Beggars Recall that by 1570 the Duke of Alva’s hardened veterans had subdued much of the Netherlands and compelled obedience to a Catholic regime under the rule of Spain. The Revolt by the Dutch speakers appeared all but over. Yet the quartering upon the local population of the oppressive Spanish, Italian and Walloon troops cost money that Spain did not always supply. The Duke of Alva sought to resolve this and imposed a tax to pay for these troops – called a “tenth penny” – in violation of the enshrined privileges of the Low Countries[xix]. Only the States General – the parliament for the Netherlands north and south – could vote for taxes. The Dutch-speaking cities – both Catholic and Protestant – naturally rose up against this taxation without representation.


An overhead map of the Deliverance of Leiden October 3, 1574. The importance that this action played in the success of the Dutch Revolt and its historiography cannot be overstated. Likewise, its role as the genesis of the Pilgrims concept of Thanksgiving brought to America. 



Earlier, the Dutch-speakers' land-based military attempts to defeat the Spaniards with armies raised in France and Germany had failed miserably. These motley assortments were crushed. The Prince of Orange, around whom the resistance had coalesced, was forced to retreat back to the safety of his German possessions. The one real sanctuary for the Dutch-speaking freedom fighters was in England, amongst the Flemish émigré communitiers in the coastal towns of southeastern England. It is from here that money was raised by the émigré Flemish Protestant church congregations.
[xx] Funded by the industriousness of Flemish textile workers – weavers, fullers, dyers, and others – they not only supported their families and built their churches, but armed their sons and sent them into the fight.[xxi] Often, this meant literally, in boats launched directly from the coast of England, to raid and disrupt the Spanish occupiers in Flanders, Brabant and Holland.[xxii] 







Willem Van Der Marck, Lord of Lummen (aka "Lumey") and another Flemish commander of the Sea Beggars, as depicted in a contemporary print, after the victory of Den Brielle. 


The hit and run raids launched from England’s shores by the Flemish refugees did not go unchallenged by the Spanish government. Phillip II’s ambassador to England made it clear that continued permission, let alone active official encouragement, by Queen Elizabeth and her councilors of the actions of the Flemish militant émigrés, would be considered an act of war. Unwilling to risk a direct confrontation, Elizabeth expelled the armed mariners from England’s shores in March, 1572.

Led by Flemish admirals, the Watergeuzen (Sea Beggars) sailed forth. At the top of the list of commanders was Dolhain, Adriaen van Bergues (originally from Sint-Winnoksbergen, now known as Bergues, near Dunkirk). He had created the Sea Beggars in 1570. More famous perhaps was Willem van der Marck – better known as “Lumey”, a reference to the fact that he was Lord of Lummen, a town in the province of Limburg – and Loedewijk van Boisot of Brussels. But all three, as well as numerous captains below them and the rank and file – were from the region that today we call Flanders.
[xxiii] 




A colorful print of the time showing the Sea Beggars capturing Den Brielle.



In a bold move that many considered an important psychological turning point in the Dutch Revolt, under the command of van der Marck, the Sea Beggars captured the coastal town of Den Brielle, on April 1, 1572. The unexpected success at Den Brielle inspired the people of Vlissingen (known as Flushing in English) to rise up. At least a fifth of Flushing were Flemings, a steadily percentage that increased steadily over subsequent years[xxiv] . These Dutch-speakers expelled the Walloon garrison and declared for the Prince of Orange on April 6th. Hastily reinforced by a detachment from the victors of Den Brielle, the Flemings of Flushing gave the “Dutch Revolt” a firm foothold in the Netherlands. In a short time and one by one, other cities – including Leiden[xxv]– also expelled their Spanish, Italian and Walloon garrisons and declared themselves loyal to Prince William of Orange.






Following a convention of the States General in July (1572)[xxvi], Prince William of Orange, represented by his spymaster and ambassador, the Brusselaar, Philip Marnix, Lord of St.-Aldegonde, was invested with the position of Stadtholder. The Dutch Revolt now had, thanks in large part to the leadership of the Flemish, a victory, distinct territory, and a sovereign ruler. By 1574, they also had a national anthem – the oldest in the world. – also due to the Fleming Marnix.[xxvii] It is no accident that all of these factors came together in that same year, 1574, to give us the first true Thanksgiving, in the “Dutch” city of Leiden. 


A contemporary print showing the stages of the Spanish Siege of Leiden, May - October, 1574. 





The Siege of Leiden
Prompted by victories at Haarlem and elsewhere, the fearsome Spanish tercios marched onward. By May 1574 they had surrounded the south Hollands town of Leiden. The trench fighting, cannon bombardments, and sorties by both sides, presaged more modern siege warfare. By October, the population, decimated by a third through disease and fighting, was ready to capitulate. A defeat would have been a disaster. It would have weakened the resolve of all the Dutch-speaking people for independence, and perhaps caused foreign assistance to dry up, as it had in 1572 when Queen Elizabeth expelled the Sea Beggars. 





Loedewijk van Boisot, the Flemish Admiral of the Sea Beggars who broke the Spanish Siege of Leiden in 1574 and inspired an official celebration of thanksgiving by the townsfolk of Leiden.




The Sea Beggars themselves, under the command of their Brussels-born Admiral, Loedewijk van Boisot, assembled a riverine flotilla for the relief of the city. Against heavy resistance they made steady progress against the Spaniards. However, the Sea Beggars found it difficult to breach the outer ring of Spanish defenses. Even worse, while fighting towards Leiden, Admiral Boisot received word that the city was ready to capitulate to the Spaniards 
[xxviii] The people were starving and any determined assault by the Spanish would likely overwhelm the city's defenders. Such was the precariousness of the situation that if Leiden fell, the Revolt itself might falter.[xxix]


Fortunately, the Dutch had a spy in the Spanish camp. She was none other than the young wife of the Spanish commander. Magdalena Moons, the daughter of an Antwerpenaar, had married the Spanish general, Francisco Valdez.
[xxx] Secretly contacted by the Sea Beggars, she agreed to convince her husband to delay his final assault on Leiden by one day. Mustering every art of seductive persuasion, Magdalena was successful. General Valdez postponed the preparations for a storming of the city’s walls for 24 hours.[xxxi] 


Magdalena Moons and her husband the Spanish commander at Leiden, shortly after their marriage in Antwerp. It was thanks to this daughter of Antwerp that the Spanish delayed a final assault, permitting the Flemish-led Sea Beggars to surprise the Spanish and break the Siege of Leiden. 


The Sea Beggars under their Flemish Admiral took advantage of this temporary respite to renew their attack. The suddenness and fury of their assault took the Spaniards and Walloons by surprise. The Spanish troops and their Walloon auxiliaries fled in such haste that boiling black pots of stew – called hutsepot – were still simmering when the Sea Beggars overran the Spanish camp. The reception of the Sea Beggars in Leiden was ecstatic, even though the defenders were terribly gaunt, many near death. The city authorities viewed their survival as a sign of Divine favor and declared a day of Thanksgiving. The date, October 3rd, became enshrined in Leiden history and culture as a day of feasting and of giving thanks to God for their miraculous deliverance.[xxxii] 


The people of Leiden celebrating their deliverance by the Flemish-led Sea Beggars, October 3, 1574. 



Leiden University Needless to say, the clamor to hear the tale resulted in a book, a ‘bestseller’ of its time
[xxxiii], about the heroic defense of Leiden – printed, of course, by a Fleming (from Antwerp).[xxxiv] Much of the focus of the book – by Jan Dousa – was on the heroic efforts of his military poet-friend (and later Secretary of the town), Jan Van Hout. A detail included in the retelling at each commemoration of the Siege of Leiden.

As a reward for the city’s stout defense, in December, 1574, Prince William of Orange granted the city a choice of either relief from taxation or the privilege of establishing a university. After consultation, the city magistrates, chose the establishment of a university. The University of Leiden was established February 8, 1575. 


The University of Leiden, just a short distance away from where the English Separatists (who became the American Pilgrims) lived in Leiden and where the pastor of the Separatists' church, John Robinson, studied theology under the Fleming Johannes Polyander. 



Leiden became the first university in the Northern Netherlands – and the first Protestant university dedicated to a humanist education. Leuven, north of Brussels, and Douai, further south, emphasized an officially Catholic Low Countries education. Leiden University was to both influence and be influenced by the city. Leiden University attracted Catholics and Protestants from all around Europe.[xxxv] With the city, the university became a symbol of Leiden’s successful resistance to political and religious intolerance. For, despite its strong association with Protestantism (and especially Calvinism), the university was (as the best today are as well) agnostic to the beliefs of its teaching staff.




Prince William of Orange ("The Silent") in a 1555 painting. Heavily surrounded by numerous Flemish advisors, it was for Orange and freedom that the Dutch-speakers fought. 

For starters, the primate of the university was Justus Lipsius, a Catholic Fleming
[xxxvi] who was appointed a professor of history. Nor was Lipsius alone. The university staff were overwhelmingly Flemings. A partial list of Flemish instructors at Leiden includes Franciscus Raphelengius (son-in-law of the printer Christoffel Plantin of Antwerp), Lambertus Barlaeus, Daniel Heinsius, Bonaventura Vulcanius, Antonius Walaeus, A. Damman, Arnoldus Geulincx, Antonius Thysius, Johan Bollius, Jeremias Bastingius, Petrus Bertius, Dominicus Baudius, Joost van Meenen, Franciscus Gomarus, and Johannes II Polyander van Kerckhoven.[xxxvii] Since at its largest during those first forty years, the student body never even reached 300 students at any one time, the impact and involvement of the faculty with students was close and personal.[xxxviii] 

The University of Leiden library about the same time (1614) as John Robinson, pastor of the Separatists, was a student there. This became the largest library in Protestant Europe, and Leiden its most important university. But at the time the Pilgrims were in Leiden, annual enrollment was less than 300 students. 



These happy circumstances continued until 1618-1620. During those years purges swept through the Dutch Republic and Leiden. Legions of professors lost their positions,
[xxxix] the Separatists lost their printing press and financial patron[xl], and even the supreme political leader of the Dutch Republic, Johannes Oldenbarnevelt (who had served in the Sea Beggars during the relief of Leiden), lost his life.[xli]These sweeping purges convinced many that it was time to move on. The congregation of slightly more than 100 mainly English Separatists, under the leadership of Pastor John Robinson, was among those that left Leiden in partial response to the anti-Arminian purges. The Pilgrims left the city of their 11 year sojourn with few possessions. But they moved onto the New World with strengthened faith, deepened Dutch, and strong traditions forged in Leiden. 


The Arminian riots of 1618 in Leiden. Sparked by the disputes between the Fleming Gromarus and the Dutchman Arminius, these disturbances were one of the factors that compelled the Pilgrims to leave for America in 1620.


The Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving On March 1, 1586, exactly 14 years to the day after Queen Elizabeth expelled the Flemish-led Sea Beggars from England, Queen Elizabeth’s favorite courtier and her designate as Governor General over the Netherlands in their struggle against Spain, arrived in Leiden. The chief delegate for the Dutch government was Adolf van Meetkercke. A native of Brugge
[xlii], Van Meetkercke had served as the former President of the Council of Flanders.[xliii] As Queen Elizabeth's representatives approached, Van Meetkercke met the Earl of Leicester with a sweeping bow that was so low in drew the scorn of his compatriots.[xliv] Such was (and is) the importance of the deliverance of Leiden, that the Earl and his entourage were conducted to a pageant play that commemorated the Siege of Leiden in 1574.

Among the Earl of Leicester’s entourage was the English diplomat William Davison as Ambassador to the States General of the Netherlands. Assisting Davison as assistant was a young William Brewster. This same William Brewster later became (first) spiritual and surrogate father to William Bradford (Governor of the Pilgrims at Plymouth and author of the most comprehensive account of the Pilgrim’s journey) and then the author, chief propagandist and publisher of the Pilgrim’s Press at Leiden as well as an Elder of the Separatists’ Church at Leiden. 



Jan Van Hout, a hero of the Siege of Leiden (whose story was printed by the Fleming Verschout) and the Town Secretary who granted permission to the Pilgrims to settle in Leiden, shortly before his death in 1609. It was likely the early connection between him and Pilgrim Elder William Brewster at the 1586 pageant celebrating the lifting of the Siege of Leiden that led the Pilgrims to relocate to Leiden. 


One of the heroes of the siege, Jan Van Hout, was an author, a poet, a classicist and a close friend of the head of the university[xlv], Justus Lipsius.[xlvi]  Van Hout also acted as Town Secretary. He held that position up until his death in 1609. One of Van Hout's final acts was to grant official permission to John Robinson and his church of 100 Separatists).[xlvii]

While it is possible that Van Hout may not have remembered Brewster – whom he first met on March 1, 1586 – it seems unlikely that the Pilgrims would have officially requested permission 
(which was unnecessary) to settle in Leiden unless they hoped that by doing so to gain some advantage for their congregation. Since Brewster was not just a member of Robinson’s congregation, but also an Elder of the Church and a close confidant of William Bradford (the Governor of the colony when it reached the New World) it seems unlikely to me that this was accidental. Certainly it must have been a factor in their considerations during the year (1608) they observed an increasingly disruptive environment among their co-religionists in Amsterdam.[xlviii]

During their eleven year stay in Leiden, the Pilgrims lived directly across the street from the center of October 3rd Thanksgiving celebrations: Pieterskerk (St. Peter’s Church).
[xlix] Every October 3rd municipal authorities passed out free herring and white bread (to commemorate the first rations received from the Sea Beggars that day on 1574). Since twenty-one Pilgrim families lived surrounding the garden outside the church, ample members of the congregation over the eleven years had a chance to observe the celebrations and absorb their meaning.[l] The Pilgrim’s Separatist congregation met twice on Sunday and once on Thursday evenings – always at Robinson’s home across from Pieterskerk.[li] 
Willem Pieterskerk, where the annual Thanksgiving for the Deliverance of Leiden was celebrated every October 3rd and directly around which 21 families of the Separatist church lived. John Robinson's home where the Pilgrims worshipped 3x/week - was also immediately outside Pieterskerk. From the Pieterskerk to Leiden University was a short walk. 


If they had not imbibed an understanding of the Leiden Thanksgiving celebrations from daily, close proximity to Pieterskerk, nor from initial and historical personal contact with one of the central characters of the city’s defense, Jan Van Hout, the Pilgrims certainly would have learned of it through their involvement with Leiden University. The University was only a short walk (less than 5 minutes away) from Pieterskerk. Moreover, Pastor John Robinson was a student (and protégé of the Flemish Professor Johannes Polyander) at the university. William Brewster too, while not officially a teacher at the University, taught University students English as a side job.[lii]

The Flemish influence on the Pilgrims during their stay in Leiden was pervasive. Not only were the majority of the population around the Pilgrims at Leiden Flemings, but the central formative cultural experience that melded a common consciousness for the city and university was defined by Flemish emigres. The holiday of Thanksgiving here in America, while today quite different from the celebration the Pilgrim Fathers witnessed in Leiden during their stay, is unquestionably tied into that event. The Flemish influence, then, on the Pilgrim’s celebration of the first Thanksgiving in America, was direct and immediate, and a legacy that we who share a Flemish heritage, can point to with pride as one of our contributions to the settlement of America.
 


Norman Rockwell's depiction of an American Thanksgiving dinner, while vastly different than the custom brought over from Leiden by the Pilgrims in 1620, looks like this today for many American families. 

Endnotes [i] Thanksgiving does not of course resonate well in Native American circles. In fact, the holiday itself – infused as it is by our 19th century predecessors with romantic Victorian notions that imply a Divine blessing to the subsequent European occupation of the continent – is a painful reminder to the remnants of the Wampanoag, Pequot, and other tribes of the loss of political and cultural independence. See Nathanial Philbrick, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, (New York: Penguin, 2006), pp. 354-356. Incidentally, recent articles suggest that vegetarians are not enthusiastic. See Scott Bolohan, Page Four Columnist, “Thanksgiving? I’ll Take a Pass”, Chicago Tribune’s Redeye, Wednesday, November 25, 2009.[ii] Please see Jeremy Dupertius Bangs, ‘Pilgrim Fathers (act. 1620)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition, Oxford University Press, May 2007 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/theme/93695, accessed
document.write(printCitationDate());
5 April 2009] at 
http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/themes/93/93695.html for an excellent definition of exactly who the Pilgrim Fathers were. However, Dupertius’ numbers for the Flemings are dramatically understated. See Dr. J. Briels, Zuid-Nederlanders in de Republiek 1572-1630: Een Demografische en Cultuurhistorische Studie, (Sint-Niklaas: Danthe, 1985). [iii]Intentionally I use the term “European” instead of “English”. The colonists may have been predominantly English, but not exclusively so. There was at least one Fleming and one Walloon in the mix. A fact I hope to further elaborate upon in a later post. [iv] The 35 million number is found in Nathanial Philbrick, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, (New York: Penguin, 2006), p. 355. The 311 million is an estimate (see John Grimond, “Counting Heads” in The Economist: The World in 2010 , November, 2009, p. 46), [v] Jeremy Dupertius Bangs in “Thanksgiving Day – A Dutch Contribution to American Culture?” in New England AncestorsHoliday 2000. Wade Cox, ed., “The Dutch Connection of the Pilgrim Fathers”, in Christian Churches of God, #264, 1998, p.4 (http://www.logon.org and http://www.ccg.org makes a connection between the first Thanksgiving and the Dutch Dankdag voor Gewas which I think is erroneous. But his connection between the Pilgrim Fathers and Annabaptism imported by Flemings is dead-on, although underdeveloped (details on why will be in a future blog posting). The official website for the Dutch festival can be found here: http://www.3october.nl/ [vi] Jeremy Dupertius Bangs, ‘Pilgrim Fathers (act. 1620)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, May 2007 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/theme/93695, accessed
document.write(printCitationDate());
5 April 2009] at 
http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/themes/93/93695.html 
[vii] Technically, I should state that it is the contribution of Flemings, Brabanders, and Limburgers. But since this is a modern audience my definition is all those Dutch speakers in modern day Belgium and northern France. [viii] Dr. J. Briels, Zuid-Nederlanders in de Republiek 1572-1630: Een Demografische en Cultuurhistorische Studie, (Sint-Niklaas: Danthe, 1985), pp. 125-134. An unlabelled table on p.134 has the percentages I refer to. [ix] Per Paul Paul Hoftijzer, quoting a contemporary writing in 1588: “voor eenighe jaeren geheel dedepopuleert synde ...tegenwoordich voor de meesten part ... bewoont by vremdelingen, uyt Brabant, Vlaenderen ende andere quartieren verdreven” (having been depopulated for some years … is currently inhabited for the most part … by foreigners driven from Brabant, Flanders,and other regions).” Paul Hoftijzer, “Leiden Miracle”, p.82 online herehttp://www.brill.nl/downloads/Brillin2007-EN-LeidenMiracle.pdf 
[x] Dr. J. Briels, Zuid-Nederlanders in de Republiek 1572-1630: Een Demografische en Cultuurhistorische Studie, (Sint-Niklaas: Danthe, 1985), “Table XXI: Immigratie in de Noordelijke Nederlanden-Samenvatting”, p. 214. Several other cities, such as Haarlem and Middelburg, also had more than 50% non natives in 1622. This has prompted Gusaaf Asaert, in De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), p.156, to call Haarlem (for example) “een half-Vlaamse stad”. [xi] "Ondertussen hield ook de inwijking vanuit Engeland aan: nog in 1596 werden Vlamingen uit Norwich door de stad 'lief-flick, minnelick ende in der vruntschappe...ontfangen...ende met het borgerschap vereert.'" Quote from a Leiden magistrate found in Dr. J. Briels, Zuid-Nederlanders in de Republiek 1572-1630: Een Demografische en Cultuurhistorische Studie, (Sint-Niklaas: Danthe, 1985) p.127. My thanks to Ms. Siska Moens of Brussel, Mr. Luc Van Braekel (www.lvb.net ), and Mr. Frans Vandenbosch (author of more than 30 books) for assisting me with the translation of this archaic excerpt. [xii]See Stephen S. Slaughter, “The Dutch Church at Norwich”, Congregational Historical Society, April 21, 1933, pp. 31-48, 81-96. Especially see pp. 31-32 for the connection between the “Dutch” [clearly Flemish] Church, the influx of Annabaptist theological concepts, and the direct connection between those thoughts brought over by the Flemish on Robert Browne and John Robinson. For a fascinating suggestion of an admittedly tentative link between the same Dutch Church at Norwich and Thomas Helwys, founder of the Baptist movement, see Ernest A. Kent, “Notes on the Blackfriars’ Hasll or Dutch Church, Norwich”, Norfolk Archaeology, 22 (1924–6), pp. 86–108. See especially p. 89 showing the burial tablet for Nicolai Helwys. [xiii] Timothy George, John Robinson and the English Separatist Tradition, (Macon GA: Mercer University Press, 1982), p.79 [xiv] Dr. J. Briels, De Zuidnederlandse Immigratie, 1572-1630, (Haarlem: Fibula van Dishoeck, 1978), p. 38. [xv] My preference for anyone looking to understand the textile industry in Flanders and its connection to the wider world during this period is to begin with the University of Toronto’s John Munro. Munro’s impressive output nicely weaves [sorry] the whole together. See for example, his “Wool and Wool-Based Textiles in the West European Economy, c.800 - 1500:
Innovations and Traditions in Textile Products, Technology, and Industrial Organisation.” 24 November 2000, WORKING PAPER no. 5 UT-ECIPA-MUNRO-00-05. On-line version:http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/ecipa/wpa.html . Although riven through with a Belgicist viewpoint which minimizes the Flemish contribution, the standard work on the “New Draperies” probably still is Pirenne, Henri : "Une crise industrielle au XVIème siècle. La draperie urbaine et la "nouvelle draperie" en Flandre" in Bulletin de l'Académie
Royale de Belgique, Classe des Lettres, n°5, 1905.
http://digistore.bib.ulb.ac.be/2006/a12959_000_f.pdf [xvi] Gustaaf Asaert, De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), p.146 [xvii] Gustaaf Asaert,De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), pp.148-149. [xviii] Gustaaf Asaert, De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), pp.188-192 [xix] Much could be and has been written about the privileges of both the towns and the guilds of the Low Countries in general and specifically of Flanders. Those privileges were granted to keep the guilds happy. The guilds came together in response to control quality and pricing by artisans in each locality. Nearly all these guilds rose with the expansion of the textile industry in Flanders from the 1100s on. Seehttp://www.corvalliscommunitypages.com/Europe/dutch_belgium/flanders.htm for translations of the agreements between the guilds and the local rulers. [xx] Queen Elizabeth’s policy toward both the refugees on her soil and their support of the Dutch Revolt was inconsistent – but at times strongly encouraged. See Andrew Pettegree, Foreign Protestant Communities in Sixteenth-Century London, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), p.268. [xxi] For a good review of the Flemish émigrés in England and their contribution to the war effort at this critical juncture – and the only coherent discussion I have seen – see D.J.B. Trim, “Protestant Refugees in Elizabethan England and Confessional Conflict in France and the Netherlands, 1562-c.1610”, pp.69-73, in Randolph Vigne and Charles Littleton, eds., From Strangers to Citizens: The Integration of Immigrant Communities in Britain, Ireland and Colonial America, 1570-1750, (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2001), pp.68-79. Unfortunately, this four-page bit by Professor Trim is merely a sketch. A full book could be written on this subject. I have not been able to find any monograph on this subject but would love to see one. [xxii] The return of Flemish Protestants to Flanders in 1566 was just such a raid. [xxiii] Gustaaf Asaert, De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), pp.211-214. Note that nearly the entire upper cadre of watergeuzen leaders at this time were from Flanders and Brabant. Ghislain de Fiennes, Lord of Lumbres, had originally organized the Sea Beggars in 1570. The liaison between Prince William of Orange and the Sea Beggars was Louis de Boischot’s brother Charles (also born in Brussel). Even the captains of the various ships – such as Antoon Utenhove from Ieper and Antoon van de Rijne from Oudenaarde. [xxiv] Dr. J. Briels,Zuid-Nederlanders in de Republiek 1572-1630: Een Demografische en Cultuurhistorische Studie, (Sint-Niklaas: Danthe, 1985), p. 192. [xxv] See the translation of real documents related to this and other aspects of the Dutch Revolt here:http://dutchrevolt.leidenuniv.nl/English/default.htm [xxvi] See the translation of the address for this first convocation here: http://dutchrevolt.leidenuniv.nl/English/default.htm [xxvii] Phillips Marnix is credited with authoring Het Wilhelmus, the Dutch national anthem, which was first written down in 1574. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelmus . [xxviii] See a translation here: http://dutchrevolt.leidenuniv.nl/English/default.htm Note that contrary to many popular histories, the mayor of the town (Pieter van der Werff) appears to have been ready to surrender.[xxix] “The siege of Leiden, if not quite the longest – that of Middleburg was longer – was the costliest, hardest fought, and most decisive, as well as the most epic of the great sieges of the Revolt…had Leiden fallen, The Hague and Delft would have been untenable and the Revolt as a whole might well have collapsed.” Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall: 1477-1806, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 181. Like many Dutch-centric historians, Israel completely ignores the contribution of Flemings to the Republic and the Revolt. [xxx] Recent technical advances in lithography made it possible to confirm that Moons was not the lover but the wife of Francisco Valdez. See http://www.art-innovation.nl/nieuws.php?id=30 . [xxxi] Admittedly, most of my information here is culled fromhttp://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalena_Moons 
[xxxii] See the Dutch language site here: http://www.3october.nl/default.asp?id=792 [xxxiii] See Paul Hoftijzer, “Leiden Miracle”, p.84 online here http://www.brill.nl/downloads/Brillin2007-EN-LeidenMiracle.pdf [xxxiv] The name of the Antwerpenaar printer was Andrew Verschout. See Paul Hoftijzer, “Leiden Miracle”, p.84 online here http://www.brill.nl/downloads/Brillin2007-EN-LeidenMiracle.pdf [xxxv] Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall: 1477-1806, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998),p.572. Here as throughout his book, like many other Dutch-centric historians, Israel completely ignores the contribution of Flemings to the Republic and the Revolt. [xxxvi] Technically Lipsius was a Brabander, born in Overijse,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overijse where the central market place is now named after him:http://www.overijse.be/index.asp . The university was officially established February 8, 1575.[xxxvii] This list was culled from Gustaaf Asaert, De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), pp.188-189. [xxxviii] Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall: 1477-1806, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p.572. [xxxix] Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall: 1477-1806, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp.577-578. [xl] See Rendel Harris and Stephen K. Jones, The Pilgrim Press:A bibliographical & historical memorial of the books printed at Leyden by the Pilgrim Fathers, (Cambridge: Feffer & Sons, 1922) found online here:http://www.archive.org/stream/pilgrimpressbibl00harriala#page/28/mode/2up [xli] Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall: 1477-1806, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 485-491. Israel’s account is rich with analysis but poor on dates and chronology. For reference on dates, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_van_Oldenbarnevelt [xlii]Adolf van Meetkercke, a classical scholar, was a native of Brugge, according to a title on his book. See Adolphi Mekerchi Brugensis De veteri et recta pronuntiatione linguae Graecae commentarius http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0001/bsb00012953/images/index.html?id=00012953&fip=75.57.119.190&no=3&seite=2 Van Meetkercke was also a good friend of the Antwerpenaar cartographer Abraham Ortelius, as evidenced by the poem he penned on the title page of Ortelius’ Atlas (ironically, dedicated to Phillip II in 1570). Seehttp://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gnrlort.html . As such, this implies contact with Emanuel Van Meteren (Ortelius’ close friend and cousin based in London) and Petrus Plancius. Adolf’s son Edward later became a professor of Hebrew at Oxford. See Ole Peter Grell,Calvinist Exiles in Tudor and Stuart England, (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996), p. 237. All four of Van Meetkercke’s sons joined and officered in the English army in the Netherlands in the 1580s-1590s.Baldwin, Adolf’s second son, was knighted by Sir Francis Drake at Cadiz in 1596 for his heroism against the Spaniards. See D.J.B. Trim, “Protestant Refugees in Elizabethan England and Confessional Conflict in France and the Netherlands, 1562-c.1610”, pp.72-73, in Randolph Vigne and Charles Littleton, eds., From Strangers to Citizens: The Integration of Immigrant Communities in Britain, Ireland and Colonial America, 1570-1750, (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2001), pp.68-79. The Van Meetkerckes were not only co-religionists but friends of Emanuel Van Meteren, historian and the Antwerp-born “Dutch” Consul in London.[xliii] See A.G.H. Bachrach, Sir Constantine Huygens and Britain: 1596-1687 – A Pattern of Cultural Exchange, (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 1962), pp. 150-151. Van Meetkercke was an early supporter of William of Orange and ended up becoming a very close friend of the Earl of Leicester but when he was disgraced, fled to London. Like many Flemish immigrants to England, one of his sons served with conspicuous bravery in the English navy well and was knighted. [xliv] The author of this critique was Frans van Dusseldorp, a Dutch Catholic with strongly pro-Spanish sentiments who eventually was ordained a priest. Although he died in obscurity, his “Annales” offer a different perspective of Dutch history during this time. For my reference to the original statement seeJ.A. Van Dorsten, Poets Patrons and Professors: Sir Philip Sidney Daniel Rogers and the Leiden Humanists, (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 1962), p.115. For a discussion of the Annales in Dutch, please see Robert Fruin’s Verspreide Geschriften, Volume 7, p.237. The out-of-print book is accessible online here:http://books.google.com/books?id=keJMAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA267&lpg=PA267&dq=dusseldorpius&source=bl&ots=CT-dYMrIqU&sig=yWqCwlGN2eNvD7XXVF-AeSbbuqU&hl=en&ei=lF8RS87qC4biMfb7zYIM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=dusseldorpius&f=false . An excellent book review that includes a description of Dusseldorpius (as he was more generally known) in English by George Edmundson in the English Historical Review (1895: pp. 579-582) is accessible here:http://books.google.com/books?id=BpPRAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA7-PA580&lpg=RA7-PA580&dq=%22Frans+van+Dusseldorp%22,+%22leicester%22&source=bl&ots=duNO93aMB_&sig=kLzUlirDstDWQOmtqjRHFlHktKo&hl=en&ei=-F8RS46dApS6MMql8DM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAsQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Frans%20van%20Dusseldorp%22%2C%20%22leicester%22&f=false . [xlv]The correct term was actually “rector magnificus”. See Paul Hoftijzer, “Leiden Miracle”, p.89 online here http://www.brill.nl/downloads/Brillin2007-EN-LeidenMiracle.pdf [xlvi] “In the 1580s Lipsius was the intellectual glory of Leiden and all Holland.” Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall: 1477-1806, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p.575. [xlvii] John Robinson’s request to move his church congregation of 100 from Amsterdam to Leiden is dated February 12, 1609. See a copy of the text herehttp://www.revjohnrobinson.com/pieterskerk2.htm [xlviii] John Robinson appears to have tired of the scandals, the sniping, and the dogmatic lack of charity in the Separatist Amsterdam Church. See Frederick James Powicke, Henry Barrow, Separatist, 1550-1593 and The Exiled Church of Amsterdam, 1593-1622, (London: James Clarke & Co., 1900), pp.278-279. [xlix] B. N. Leverland and J. D. Bangs, The Pilgrims in Leiden, 1609-1620, (Leiden: Leiden Pilgrim Documents Center of the Municipal Archives, no date). No page numbers in this brief text. [l] B. N. Leverland and J. D. Bangs, The Pilgrims in Leiden, 1609-1620, (Leiden: Leiden Pilgrim Documents Center of the Municipal Archives, no date). No page numbers in this brief text. [li]B. N. Leverland and J. D. Bangs, The Pilgrims in Leiden, 1609-1620, (Leiden: Leiden Pilgrim Documents Center of the Municipal Archives, no date). No page numbers in this brief text. Please also note that not only was Professor Polyander close to John Robinson he also apparently knew William Brewster well, since he has provided the preface for Proverbia on January 11, 1617 - one of the twenty books Brewster printed on the Pilgrim's Press at Leiden. See Rendell Harris and The Pilgrims' Press, (Cambridge: Heffner & Sons, 1922), p.48. Polyander (born in Gent) was also the professor - and "the chief preacher of the city' who reputedly asked John Robinson to publicly debate against the Arminian Episcopus in 1618. See William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647, (New York: McGraw Hill: 1981), Francis Murphy, ed., pp.21-22. [lii] B. N. Leverland and J. D. Bangs, The Pilgrims in Leiden, 1609-1620, (Leiden: Leiden Pilgrim Documents Center of the Municipal Archives, no date). No page numbers in this brief text. 


Copyright 2009 and 2012 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. No reproduction in any form allowed without my express, written permission.

The Flemish Claim to Sinterklaas

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The Flemish Claim to Sinterklaas in America



On December 6th children in Flanders receive gifts. These gifts ostensibly come from Sinterklaas with the aid of his Moor assistant, "Swarte Piet". This tradition had strong Catholic origins, which of course made it anathema to 17th century convicted Calvinists. Thankfully, a few key members of the Dutch Reformed Church in Nieuw Nederland who had roots in officially Catholic Flanders were unwilling to give up their cultural traditions.

One of these influential individuals was Annetje Loockermans (whose story I have told earlier here). Annetje was the sister of Govert Loockermans (the richest man in North America when he died in 1671) and together with several of her other brothers, represented the Brabantian town of Turnhout well in 17th century America.


Annetje married Olaf van Courtlandt (of Scandinavian roots but born in the northern Netherlands) and her children led the Netherlandic colony culturally, politically and economically. Two in particular are often-cited by historians.  Annetje's son Stephanus was the first native-born mayor of New York City. Her daughter Maria at the age of 17 married Jeremias van Rensselaer (son of Kiliaen, the founder of Rensselaerswyck and the subject of recent books). To this union of Jeremias and Maria a long line of prominent Americans can trace their roots. 

Later, when Maria's husband died, the young widow raised her children and kept the patroonship profitable. She also kept the traditions alive she had picked up from her Turnhouter mother Annetje. One of these traditions became the forerunner of the Sinterklaas ("Santa Claus") traditions we celebrate today.

Baker’s account from Wouter de backer



The earliest evidence of any practice related to Sinterklaas is found in the New York State archives. A surviving receipt from Wouter de Backer (Walter the Baker) to Maria van Rensselaer in 1675, (please see the embedded picture), says (8 lines from the bottom)  that in addition to cookies ("koeken"), Mrs. Van Rensselaer purchased 2 guilders and 10 stivers worth of Sinterklaas "goet" ["goodies"]. This is the earliest reference to anything connected to Sinterklaas that survives today in the archives of the European colonists in North America (please see an excerpt above and the actual scanned image here).

Later descendants of Annetje Loockermans were to carry the Sinterklaas theme even further. The family tradition of Sinterklaas came to morph into a cultural tradition that became widespread by the end of the 18th century. An individual who married into one of Annetje Loockermans' descendants captured that tradition in rhyme. The result gave us here in America the poem we know as "Twas the Night Before Christmas" . And it is from this juncture that the date we celebrate Christmas migrated from the evening of December 5th/6th to December 25th. 

Cultural influences being what they are, Christmas is now celebrated even in non-Christian countries like India and Japan (albeit as a cultural, not a religious, holiday). In fact, the spirit of gift-giving and the recognition of this holiday is one of the amazing global cultural expressions of our time.

So as you hum the latest Christmas jingle, bake your Christmas 'goodies', or scramble for those last minute gifts, take a moment to reflect, if you will, on the debt owed to a few hardy Flemish women in 17th century Nieuw Nederland who transmitted their cultural traditions to the world from Turnhout.



Copyright 2012 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without my express, written permission.

The Flemish Origins of Baltimore

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Tonight was the 47th Superbowl (American football championship) game here in the U.S. The competing teams were the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens. While I supported San Francisco, I really should have supported Baltimore. For with Baltimore we have the strongest claim to a Flemish origin.

The city of Baltimore is named after the Founder and Proprietor of the Colony of Maryland, Baron, Lord Baltimore. Lord Baltimore began life with a simpler name: George Calvert.  Although born in Yorkshire, Calvert was keenly aware of his Flemish roots. In 1622, when King James I made Calvert a Baron, the official announcement read:

"we have seen an exact collection [of documents] made by Mr. Richard Verstegan an Antiquarie [=historian] in Antwerp sent over this last March 1622 by which it appears that the said Sir George is descended of a noble and ancient family of that surname in the Earldom of Flanders where they have lived long in great honor, and have had great possessions, their principal and ancient seat being in Wervik in the said province."[source: John W. Jordan, Colonial and Revolutionary Familes of Pennsylvania, Vol.2, p.1107 - spelling modified to conform to modern usage].


Given his Flemish roots, it is no surprise that Lord Baltimore's family flag was yellow and black (please see above). In fact, historians now believe that this was the first flag to be carried aloft by soldiers under the command of George Washington. More importantly, today's City of Baltimore flag is almost identical (please see below).



So, when you think of the City of Baltimore in the future - whether because of the Superbowl or some other timely reference - remember also the modest town of Wervik in West Flanders from which his family hailed. Yet another instance of an unacknowledged contribution of the Flemish diaspora to the discovery and settlement of America.


Copyright 2013 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without my explicit written consent. 

The Flemish Contribution to the U.S. Declaration of Independence

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July is a month pregnant with historical significance for Flanders and the United States:  July 4th (1776) is the U.S. Independence Day and July 11th (1302) is the Flemish Feast Day. Less directly on July 26th (1581) the Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (the “Act of Abjuration”) was promulgated. It is this last reference most to which the United States owes a debt of its independence to Flanders.[i]

To state the obvious, we commemorate July 4th as the date of the United States’ independence from Great Britain because it is the date of the proclamation of the United States’ Declaration of Independence.[ii]This is a document that has been called, “arguably the most masterful state paper in Western civilization.[iii]This document owes a debt to Flanders. With typical modesty, the Flemish seem reluctant to claim credit. Permit me, therefore, to do the honors.

History books often depict the U.S.’ Declaration of Independence as one man's – Thomas Jefferson's – brilliant creation.[iv]While Thomas Jefferson did, in fact, pen the actual document, the U.S. Declaration of Independence, he himself never claimed primary authorship.[v] Benjamin Franklin and a number of other delegates to the Continental Congress offered significant revisions and edits.[vi]According to the Library of Congress’ official website on the Declaration of independence, the U.S. Declaration of Independence was first drafted in June by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson’s ‘rough draught’ then underwent “a total of forty-seven (47!) alterations” by June 28th. Between July 2nd(when Congress voted on Independence) and July 4th (when the final copy went to the printer) Congress continued to alter the document. In the end, after eliminating a quarter of Jefferson’s original text[vii], Congress made “thirty-nine (39) additional revisions”.[viii]


The Declaration of Independence then, was neither the work of one man nor an extemporaneous outburst of sentiment. Rather, it was a carefully crafted work intended to draw on precedents. These precedents ranged from contemporary British philosophers to treaties and declarations from the 1200s to the 1700s.[ix]Jefferson himself famously stated that the U.S, Declaration of Independence  incorporated no “new principles or new arguments”.[x]But, "Unlike our own age, which prizes originality, the 18th century gave its greatest accolades to those able to master the art of imitation."[xi] 

Although some analysis has been given over to the sources Jefferson, et.al. used to draft the Declaration, mostly it is attributed (especially by American scholars) to British authors (such as Locke) or to British documents (such as the indictment of Charles I in 1649[xii]). Certainly Jefferson’s library contained these works. But Locke and his like were not Jefferson’s only inspiration: the library at Monticello (Jefferson’s home) also contained a sizable number of works on Dutch and Flemish history.[xiii] We know that Jefferson read these books with comprehension because of his references to several of them in his correspondence. Curiously, when discussing the 80 Years’ War in his correspondence, Thomas Jefferson referred to it as the “Flemish Revolt”.[xiv]

Professor Stephen Lucas of the University of Wisconsin at Madison has determined that the primary source of the words, phrases and ideas embodied in the U.S. Declaration of Independence are derived overwhelmingly from one specific document written in Dutch almost 200 years earlier: De Plakkaat van Verlatingh, issued in 1581.[xv] 



"Of all the models available to Jefferson and the Continental Congress, none provided as precise a template for the Declaration as did the Plakkaat," says Lucas, an expert on historical rhetoric. "When you look at the two documents side by side, you cannot avoid noticing that the American Declaration more closely resembles its Dutch predecessor than any other possible model."[xvi]

A Dutch professor, J.P.A. Coopmans, has shown that although separated by time, place, and cultural influences, the format is remarkably the same and that while the differences are important, there are unmistakable similarities.[xvii]Both professors have demonstrated this linkage through careful analysis of the phrases and arguments used in each document.

The Plakkaat had its origins in the so-called “Dutch Revolt”. The Revolt had first broken out on August 10, 1567 in the Flemish town of Steenvoorde. Local Flemish Protestants and some of the less-savory elements of this village, proceeded to sack and pillage the local Catholic church and monastery. This “iconoclasm” (“beeldenstorm” in Dutch) swept east and north until within weeks nearly every church in the Dutch speaking part of the Low Countries had been vandalized.


The ruling sovereign was Philip II: a Spanish son of the Flemish born Emperor Charles V.[xviii]Unlike his father, Philip knew neither the Dutch language nor the customs of his wealthiest dominion. Nor did he have any respect for the contractual nature of the relationship between monarch and subjects in Flanders.[xix]When thwarted in his demands for absolute obedience, Philip responded with brute force. The resulting juggernaut of the most powerful army in Europe tossed tens thousands of Flemish refugees to temporary havens in France, England, Germany and the northern Netherlands. The subsequent 80 years’ war (1568-1648) impoverished wealthy Flanders and left her cities smoldering and her fields fallow.

The Plakkaat was issued in 1581 by an assembly called the States General.[xx]Representing the 17 Provinces of the Low Countries – roughly equivalent to modern day Benelux – it was in fact a rejection of the rule of the Spanish King, Philip II. Listing first the grievances and then the resolution, the Plakkaat Van Verlatinghe gave the Continental Congress a form which to follow.[xxi]


The connection with the Plakkaat van Verlatinghe is not the strained tie of some abstract scholars. Informed contemporaries of America’s  Founding Fathers were also struck by the similarities. The Dutch Stadtholder, William V, Prince of Orange, wrote to a confidant on August 20, 1776 (after reading a copy of the Declaration of Independence) that he was “indignant” and considered it a “parody of the document that our forefathers issued against King Philip the Second” in 1581.[xxii]

What sparked his indignation was a familiar ring of the terms and text. William the V had noticed that:

-        - Both the Plakkaat and the Declaration begin by presenting a lengthy catalog of grievances of their sovereign’s perfidy.
-        - Both the Plakkaat and the Declaration mention repeated attempts made by the aggrieved to seek redress through official and unofficial channels.
-        - Both the Plakkaat and the Declaration conclude that having been repeatedly rebuffed by tyrannical rulers, they have no other option but to officially sever the ties that bind them

In short, Thomas Jefferson borrowed heavily and freely from the Plakkaat. A logical next question might be, "who authored the Plakkaat?" While it goes down in history as a "Dutch" document central to the "Dutch" Revolt and their Eighty Years' War for Independence (1568-1648), there was heavy Flemish involvement. In fact at least two - and possibly three - of the authors of the Plakkaat were Flemish.



“The committee of four who advised on the drafting was composed of four members – Andries Hessels[xxiii], greffier (secretary) of the States of Brabant; Jacques Tayaert, pensionary of the city of Ghent; Jacob Valcke, pensionary of the city of Ter Goes (now Goes); and Pieter van Dieven (also known as Petrus Divaeus), pensionary of the city of Mechelen – was charged with drafting what was to become the Act of Abjuration. The Act prohibited the use of the name and seal of Philip in all legal matters, and of his name or arms in minting coins. It gave authority to the Councils of the provinces to henceforth issue the commissions of magistrates. The Act relieved all magistrates of their previous oaths of allegiance to Philip, and prescribed a new oath of allegiance to the States [=”assembly”] of the province in which they served, according to a form prescribed by the States-General. The actual draft seems to have been written by the audiencier of the States-General, Jan van Asseliers.”[xxiv]

“The Act was remarkable for of its extensive Preamble, which took the form of an ideological justification, phrased as an indictment (a detailed list of grievances) of King Philip. This form, which is strikingly similar to that of the American Declaration of Independence, has often given rise to speculations that Thomas Jefferson, when he was writing the latter, was at least inspired by the Act of Abjuration.[xxv]

“By deposing a ruler for having violated the Social Contract with his subjects, they were the first to apply the theoretical ideas that two hundred years later would ultimately form the basis for the American Declaration of Independence.”[xxvi]

These authors too, although heavily Flemish, borrowed from the past. Like Jefferson himself, these authors looked for historical precedent to justify what in effect was revolutionary. Two Belgian constitutional scholars have pinpointed the earliest precedent.

 “The idea of the rule of law was already present in Flemish cities in the twelfth century….When count William Clitocame to power in Flanders in 1127, he guaranteed the inhabitants of his cities a right judgement of the cities’ aldermen against every man and against himself [the count]. The prince is already [at this time then] subject to the laws. The 1127 city charters were not mere words. On 16 February 1128, Ivan, Lord of Aalst, acted as the spokesman of the city of Ghent before the count. Ivan rebuked the court [sic] for not respecting the privileges he had given the burghers of Ghent and other cities. To settle the matter, he proposed [that] a special court should convene, in which the Peers of Flanders and representatives of the clergy and the people would sit to judge over the count. If this court should find the count unworthy of the countship, he would have to give it up. The count did not agree to this and Ivan and Ghent rose in revolt."

“William was killed in the civil war that ensued and a new count came to power. The background of the conflict was the opinion of Ghent and other cities that there was a contractual relationship between the count and the citizens. They recognized him as their lord and he, in turn, recognized their privileges. If the count no longer respected his part of the deal by acting against the rights of citizens, they had a right to break their contract and to fight him. This contractual conception of the relationship between ruler and subjects returns in the city charters granted by William’s successor. Thereafter the counts managed to suppress it, but it reappeared at regular times in Flemish history. In 1191 the first article of a charter for the city of Ghent stated that the citizens were only subject to the count as long as he wanted to treat them justly and reasonably…”[xxvii]

This social contract bound not only Gent to the Count of Flanders but other Flemish cities with similar explicit conditions. It was this sense of a ‘broken social contract’ that led the Flemish weavers and butchers to gather on the ‘groeneveld’ outside the walls of the city of Kortrijk on July 11, 1302.[xxviii]Likewise, “The 1581 Act of Abjuration is reminiscent of Ivan of Aalst. By his failure to respect the rights of his subjects, Philip II of Spain had lost his right to rule the Netherlands.”[xxix]

In short, Thomas Jefferson borrowed from the strongly Flemish authors of the Plakkaat. They in turn borrowed from Flemish history and the rights of the medieval Flemish city states. Specifically, they looked to the Flemish city states – especially Gent – and the associated traditions of the rights of its citizens in their interaction with the Count of Flanders.  The connection then from Thomas Jefferson, and other contributors to the declaration of Independence to the authors of the Plakkaat, and back all the way to 12th century Gent is a direct one. It is yet another example of the Flemish contribution to the Discovery and Development of America.



Endnotes



[i]Parenthetically on July 10th William of Orange was assassinated (1584); of course, July 21st  (1830) is the Belgian National Holiday. Forone of the best overviews on this subject please see the superb survey by Dr. Paul Belien, “How Flanders Helped Shape Freedom in America”, July 10, 2005 online posting in The Brussels Journal, Accessed July 4, 2013: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/58
[ii] Congress actually declared independence on July 2nd. Please see the Library of Congress’ official chronology here: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/declara2.html
[iii]Barbara Wolff, June 29, 1988 “Was the Declaration of Independence Inspired by the Dutch”, University of Wisconsin Madison News http://www.news.wisc.edu/3049  Accessed July 4, 2013.
[iv]Joseph J. Ellis is the most extreme. He claims – in American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, (), p. 59 – that Jefferson wrote the draft in a day or two and suffered only a few minor edits from others.
[v]“In Liberty! Thomas Fleming notes that Jefferson did not boast about his authorship of the Declaration of Independence.” Ray Raphael, Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past, (New York: MJF Books, 2004), p. 107.
[vi]These included Roger Sherman of Connecticut and others. See http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/declara3.html
[vii] The deleted sections included such bizarre passages as blaming King George for the slave trade and insulting the British people. See Walter A. McDougall, Freedom Just Around the Corner: A new American History, 1585-1828, (New York: HarperCollins, 2005), First Perennial Edition, p.245.
[viii]See the Library of Congress website and the specific quotes here: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/declara/declara3.html    Accessed July 4, 2013
[ix]“De zo juist genoemde vraagpunten werden beantwoord in wisselwerking met de groei van de politieke gemeenschapsvormen; in het kader dus van de evolutie van de leenstaat naar de standenstaat en van deze naar de moderne rechtsstaat. Sedert ± 1200 verschenen de zogenaamde Herrschaftsvertrage, waarin vorst en 'volk'
schriftelijk onder het veiligstellen van een aantal vrijheidsrechten een zekere deelneming van de standen aan het openbaar bestuur vastlegden. Als sluitstuk van deze verdragsbepalingen fungeerde meestal een regeling van het weerstandsrecht. De Magna Carta van Engeland van 1215, de Gouden Bulle van Hongarije van 1222, de Brabantse akten: het Charter van Kortenberg van 1312 en de Blijde Incomste van 1356 alsmede de vrijheidscharters van de latere Brabantse hertogen, de Stichtse Landbrief van 1375 en het Gentse Groot Privilege van Maria van
Bourgondië van 1477 zijn hiervan specimina.
Parallel hiermede ontwikkelde zich in de casuïstiek een precedentenrecht, doordat men het geleerde en overeengekomene in praktijk bracht. Wat Engeland betreft kennen wij onder andere de afzettingen van Edward II in 1317, van Richard II in 1399, Karel Stuart in 1649 en Jacob II in 1688 (Glorious Revolution). Wat onze landen betreft vond de eerste verlating door de standen plaats in Vlaanderen, toen Willem Clito in 1128 de trouw werd opgezegd. En van Brabant weten wij dat enerzijds Wenceslaus in 1357 de Blijde lncomste opzegde omdat de Brabantse steden hun plichten niet nakwamen, terwijl anderzijds in 1420 de Staten een ruwaard aanstelden totdat hertog Jan IV de privileges van Brabant in ere had hersteld.” J.P.A. Coopmans, “Het Plakkaat van verlatinghe (1581) en de Declaration of Independence (1776),” Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende Geschiednis der Nederlanden 98 (1983), 540-567. Accessed online July 4, 2013 http://www.knhg.nl/bmgn2/C/Coopmans__J._P._A._-_Het_Plakkaat_van_verlatinge_(1581)_en_d.pdf  p.558.
[x]Ray Raphael, Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past, (New York: MJF Books, 2004), p. 107.
[xi]Stephen E. Lucas quoted in Barbara Wolff, June 29, 1988 “Was the Declaration of Independence Inspired by the Dutch”, University of Wisconsin Madison News http://www.news.wisc.edu/3049  Accessed July 4, 2013.
[xii]Which is much shorter and direct and frankly looks nothing like the Declaration of Independence in my mind. The actual text can be found here: http://www.constitution.org/eng/conpur082.htm.
[xiii] The incomplete list of works in Jefferson’s library are:
143. Gazettes de Leyde, 11 v 40 1781-1793. 4, 5.
170. Grotii Annales et historiae de rebus Belgicis fol
 62. Relationi del Cardinal Bentivoglio, Meerbecq, 1632, 12º.
 63. Della guerra di Fiandri dal Bentivoglio 1ma parte Colonia 1635, 12º.
 64. Dell histoira di Fiandri de Bentivoglio 2da parte Colonia 1636, 12º.
 65. Della guerra di Fiandri dal Bentivoglio, 3a parte, Colonia 1640, 12º.-
171. Strada Histoire de la guerre de Flandres, par du Ryer, 2 v. fol. = Histoire de la guerre de Flandres by Famiano Strada,
 66. The same. Lat. 2 v 12º.
 67. Guerras de Flandes de Strada, por de Novar, 7 v 12º.
 68. Histoire de la guerre de Flandre, par Strada, 2 v 12º.
155. Aitzema's history of the United Netherlands, 1650, 1651, p. fol. = History of the United Netherlands by Lieuwe van Aitzema,
131. De Witt's state of Holland, 8º. (= Pieter Le Court, Political Maxims of the State of Holland)  (nog missing in LoC)  originlee in goglebooks http://books.google.com/books?id=L8lbAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Aanwysing+der+heilsame+politike+gronden+en+maximen+van+de+Republike+van+Holland&source=bl&ots=QlgLqSS9PP&sig=rkedZn8lGTBUJ5tRyaD1VVeFgR4&hl=nl&ei=uzJUTKmkPIT78AaLkLWqAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
69. Histoire de la Hollande, 1609-1679, par Neuville, 4 v 12º. = Histoire de la Hollande 1609-1679 by Adrien Baillet
132. History of the United Provinces, 1788, London, Johnson, 8º.-
 70. Revolution des Provinces-Unies de Mandrillon, 12º.-
 71. Vie de De Ruyter, 12º.- = Vie de Michel de Ruiter by Adrien Richer,
 72. Histoire du Prince d'orange de Lamigue, 2 v 12º.-
According to  http://www.loc.gov/rr/european/coll/dutc.html  also in Jeffersons bib:
History of the Treaty of Utrecht,
= ??
 The history of the Treaty of Utrecht : Wherein is contain'd, a particular state of the affairs of the allies at the commencement of that Treaty : And the negotiations at large. With all the acts, memorials, representations, offers, demands, letters, speeches. And the treaties of peace and commerce between Great Britain and France, &c (online at http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4841650)
of = ? Casimir Freschot,
 The compleat history of the treaty of Utrecht, as also that of Gertruydenberg: containing all the acts, memorials, representations, complaints, demands, letters, speeches, treaties and other authentick pieces relating to the negotiations there. To which are added, the treaties of Radstat and Baden, A. Roper, and S. Butler, 1715. My thanks to Professor Matthias Storme of KU Leuven for these references (e-mail correspondence August 3, 2010.
[xv]The Dutch text in a more legible format can be found here: http://nl.wikisource.org/wiki/Plakkaat_van_Verlatinghe  The line-by-line Dutch with an accompanying English translation (for most of the text) can be found here; http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~room4me/docs/abj_dut.htm
[xvi]Barbara Wolff, June 29, 1988 “Was the Declaration of Independence Inspired by the Dutch”, University of Wisconsin Madison News http://www.news.wisc.edu/3049  Accessed July 4, 2013.
[xvii]See J.P.A. Coopmans, “Het Plakkaat van verlatinghe (1581) en de Declaration of Independence (1776),” Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende Geschiednis der Nederlanden 98 (1983), 540-567. Accessed online July 4, 2013 http://www.knhg.nl/bmgn2/C/Coopmans__J._P._A._-_Het_Plakkaat_van_verlatinge_(1581)_en_d.pdf  For one of the (many) counter-arguments to my claim, see David Armitage, The Declaration of Independence: A Global History, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), pp.42-43.
[xviii]Charles is generally considered to have been born in Ghent, today in East Flanders. But recent scholarly activity uncovered proof that Charles was in fact born near Eeklo, on the road to Ghent. See Romano Tondat, Keizer Karel geboren te Eeklo, (Eeklo: Stadsbestuur, 2000). For a counter argument to Tondat’s thesis, see Johan Dembruyne, Corporatieve middengroepen: aspiranties, relaties en transformaties in de 16de-eeuwse Gentse ambachtswereld  (Academia Press, 2002), p.613 n.46
[xix]“The idea of the rule of law was already present in Flemish cities in the twelfth century….When count William Clito came to power in Flanders in 1127, he guaranteed the inhabitants of his cities a right judgment of the cities’ aldermen against every man and against himself [the count]. The prince is already [at this time then] subject to the laws. The 1127 city charters were not mere words. On 16 February 1128, Ivan, Lord of Aalst, acted as the spokesman of the city of Ghent before the count. Ivan rebuked the court [sic] for not respecting the privileges he had given the burghers of Ghent and other cities. To settle the matter, he proposed [that] a special court should convene, in which the Peers of Flanders and representatives of the clergy and the people would sit to judge over the count. If this court should find the count unworthy of the countship, he would have to give it up. The count did not agree to this and Ivan and Ghent rose in revolt.”
“William was killed in the civil war that ensued and a new count came to power. The background of the conflict was the opinion of Ghent and other cities that there was a contractual relationship between the count and the citizens. They recognized him as their lord and he, in turn, recognized their privileges. If the count no longer respected his part of the deal by acting against the rights of citizens, they had a right to break their contract and to fight him. This contractual conception of the relationship between ruler and subjects returns in the city charters granted by William’s successor. Thereafter the counts managed to suppress it, but it reappeared at regular times in Flemish history. In 1191 the first article of a charter for the city of Ghent stated that the citizens were only subject to the count as long as he wanted to treat them justly and reasonably….The 1581 Act of Abjuration is reminiscent of Ivan of Aalst. By his failure to respect the rights of his subjects, Philip II of Spain had lost his right to rule the Netherlands.” See Hubert Bocken & Walter de Bondt, Introduction to Belgian Law, (Kluwer 2000) p.20, IV. “Belgium’s contribution to Law” My thanks to Professor Matthias Storme for this reference.
[xx]An excellent chronology of the events leading up to the Plakkaat van Verlatinghe can be found here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dutchstudies/an/SP_LINKS_UCL_POPUP/SPs_english/revolt_one/pages/chronology.html
[xxi]See for further points along this line of reasoning, see Stephen E. Lucas, “The Act of Abjuration as a Model for the Declaration of Independence,” pp. 171-190 in Paul Brood and Raymond Kubben (eds.), The Act of Abjuration: Inspired and Inspirational, (Nijmegen: Wolf Legal Publishers, 2011); also Stephen E. Lucas, “The Plakkaat van Verlatinghe: A Neglected Model for the American Declaration of Independence,” in Connecting Cultures: The Netherlands in Five centuries of Transatlantic Exchange, Rosemarijn Hofte and Johanna C. Kardux, eds., (Amsterdam: VU Press, 1994), pp. 189-207.
[xxii]The actual quote is “Ik kan niet genoeg betuigen hoezeer ik geindigneert ben geweest bij de lecture van de acte van afzweeringe van de konig van Engelant bij de Heeren Staeten der vereenigde colonien. Het is de parodie van het stuk, dat onze voorzaeten deeden uitgeeven tegens konig Philips de tweede. God geeve dat de geode zaek moeg triumpheeren en dat de colonien tot redden mogen gebragt warden.” The entire correspondence can be found online at Historici.nl under “Archives ou correspondance inédite de la maison d'Orange-Nassau”, Serie 5, deel 1, 1766-1779, p.449. Accessed July 4, 2013 http://www.historici.nl/retroboeken/archives/#source=25&page=500&size=800&accessor=toc1.
[xxvii]See Hubert Bocken & Walter de Bondt, Introduction to Belgian Law, (Kluwer 2000) p.20, IV. “Belgium’s contribution to Law” My thanks to Professor Matthias Storme for this reference.
[xxviii]For a survey of books and movies on the subject of the battle of the Golden Spurs (especially for English speakers) please see my blogpost here: http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2010/07/battle-of-golden-spurs.html
[xxix]See Hubert Bocken & Walter de Bondt, Introduction to Belgian Law, (Kluwer 2000) p.20, IV. “Belgium’s contribution to Law” My thanks to Professor Matthias Storme for this reference.

Copyright 2013 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. Please do not copy any part of this unless you have received my written permission.

The Flemish Inspiration for the American Revolution

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John Quincy Adams about 1783


Excerpts from a letter, dated July 27, 1777 from John Adams (1735-1826), 2nd President of the United States and one of the “Committee of 5” – with Franklin and Jefferson – who drafted the Declaration of Independence. The letter is to his son, John Quincy Adams (1767-1848), who became the 6th President of the United States.


“My dear Son,                                                                            Philadelphia, July 27, 1777

If it should be the Design of Providence that you should live to grow up, you will naturally feel a Curiosity to learn the History of the Causes which have produced the late Revolution of our government. No Study in which you can engage will be more worthy of you…
.I charge you to consider it with an Attention only to Truth. It will also be an entertaining and instructive Amusement, to compare our American Revolution with others that Resemble it…. But above all others, I would recommend to your study, the History of the Flemish Confederacy, by which the seven united Provinces of the Netherlands, emancipated themselves from the Domination of Spain…. 
The most full and compleat History, that I have seen, is one that I am now engaged in Reading. It is intituled “The History of the Wars of Flanders…. You will wonder, my dear son, at my writing to you at your tender Age, such dry Things as these: but if you keep this Letter you will in some future Period, thank your Father for writing it. 

I am my dear son, with the Utmost Affection to your Sister and Brothers as well as to you, your Father,

John Adams[i]



John Adams (1735-1826) 2nd US President


[i]Massachusetts Historical Society Digital Editions.Document No: AFC02d234 (John Adams to John Quincy Adams) July 27, 1777 at Philadelphia. https://www.masshist.org/publications/apde/portia.php?id=AFC02d234  Accessed July 11, 2013 Abridgement by the author

Copyright 2013 by David Baeckelandt. No reproduction in any format permitted without my express, written consent.

Beaver Peltries and Le Bâtard Flamand Part 1 - An Early Flemish American

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A few months ago (September 8th) at Flanders House New York I gave a talk on “The Flemish Contribution to the Discovery and Settlement of America”. The talk offered historical flashes of Flemish involvement from the official birth of Flanders (864 AD) up to and including the English takeover of Nieuw Nederland on September 8th, 1664. One of the ladies in the audience, who claimed (if I remember correctly) a metis ancestry, asked if there were notable examples of interracial offspring of Flemings and other ethnicities in Nieuw Nederland sine Nova Belgica.

Unthinkingly, I mumbled a few obscure examples of unions between the Pernambuco refugees (Jewish and African inhabitants of a Dutch outpost expelled when the Portuguese retook Brazil from the West India Company in 1654) and the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of New Netherlands. However, I failed to cite good cases. For example, well before the arrival of the Pernambuco refugees in the 1650s, there was the union between a Flemish emigrant from Gent, Ferdinand Van Sycklin, and Eva Van Salee, a young lady of North African or Moroccan ancestry (see my “Gentenaars in Nieuw Nederland for a slightly broader bio here:
http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2009/07/gentenaars-of-nieuw-nederland.html ).

Later, reflecting further on the talk, I could have kicked myself. For in fact a far more intriguing story of the offspring of interracial love is recorded for Flemish America. This love child was a fully hyphenated Flemish American – a unique product of two cultures, Flemish and Native American. Curiously, our best source for information about him is from those whom he initially viewed as his enemies: native French speakers in North America. As a resident of 17th century New York, he is a direct link to the Flemish Protestants who settled Nieuw Nederland sine Nova Belgica.

Although modern text books rarely mention his name or story, America’s Pilgrim Fathers knew this man. The English speakers in the colonies sometimes referred to him as John Smith/Jan Smits. The residents of New Netherlands who had daily contact with him mostly called this vigorous Flemish American their version of a Mohawk name: Canaquesee [1]. Many of the French in Canada simply called this Flemish American, "Le Bâtard Flamand": The Flemish Bastard.

To understand his story we will have to get there via a circuitous route. Because to understand this man we must understand the circumstances around his birth, the Europeans there, and their raison d’etre. My post here – in two parts – then, is an attempt to memorialize the life and times of Le Bâtard Flamand/The Flemish Bastard, one of the first, true Flemish Americans.


Beavers and the Fur Trade
“’The beaver is the main foundation and means why or through which this beautiful land was first occupied by people from Europe’, wrote Adriaen van der Donck in 1655.” [2] As New Netherlands historian, Jaap Jacobs, distilled it: “Originally, desire for beaver pelts had drawn the Dutch to New Netherland.” [3] De Laet mentioned that even in 1614 Adriaen Block went “in quest of beaver & fox skins”. [4]

Furs, in fact, were the reason for the exploration by Henry Hudson – Van Meteren, and the other Flemish employers of Henry Hudson (Dirck Van Os, Petrus Plancius, Judocus Hondius, and Emmanuel Van Meteren) [5] had intended for him to seek furs in Siberia on his way to China [6]. In the Middle Atlantic region of what is now the United States, the dominant and most marketable furs were beavers. [7] Perhaps most importantly, the chance to play a role in the illegal beaver fur trade motivated a number of Flemings, notably Cornelis Melyn the Patroon of Staten Island, to emigrate to New Netherland. [8]

Unlike the hunt for the buffalo hides in the 19th century, no part of the beaver went to waste. The Native Americans viewed beaver as a delicacy – so they rarely if ever sold beaver meat to the Dutch. [9] Although New Netherland exports went to Amsterdam, ultimately beaver hides and fur ended up in two primary markets: Muscovy (where the fur was highly prized) and France (as felt for hats). [10] The fame of the French made beaver hats was such that even English sovereigns – such as King Charles II in 1660 – purchased their custom made beaver felt hats from Paris chapeliers (hat makers). [11]

Beavers occupied rivers and streams. Their tail made excellent steaks and in Europe since medieval times beaver testicles had been used for medicinal purposes. [12] But of course their fur and hide – the pelt turned into felt, such as what was used to make the Pilgrims’ broad, black felt hats – was the real prize.

Native Americans also depended heavily upon the beaver. One Chief was quoted as saying: “The beaver does everything well. He makes us kettles, axes, swords, knives, and gives us drink and food without the trouble of cultivating the ground.” [13] Nearly every flowing water between the Rio Grande River and the Arctic Circle was home to beavers in 1600, it was estimated that between 60 million and 400 million of the intelligent, chomping rodents populated North America. [14]

For the Europeans, trapping beaver was more efficient than the pursuit of literally any other fur-bearing game of the region. In part, this was because – at least for the residents of Beverwijck [15] [now Albany] – the Europeans did not actually trap the beaver themselves but rather traded goods they had for the pelts that the Maqua/Mohawk brought in. “Everyone’s life [was] arranged around the seasonal movements of the beaver, the natives, and the trade.” [16]



As a Dutch historian of New Netherlands so aptly described it, “In New Netherland, every colonist was somehow a trader.” [17]

However, as in many events in history, the strongest link between these peoples had much to do with wealth and its acquisition. The form wealth took in the European transactions with the Native Americans was in the exchange of European goods (textiles, knives, liquor and muskets) for furs (beavers, otters, etc.). All of the European colonies were chartered monopolies run with the profit motive foremost. Of course, this included the Dutch West India Company. “In the mid 1630s an ordinary seaman earned only ten guilders a month, a little over the value of one beaver pelt.” [18]

Shipments back to the Fatherland were substantial. “The ship which has returned home this month [November, 1626] brings samples of all sorts of produce growing there, the cargo being 7,246 beaver skins, 675 otter skins, 48 mink, 36 wild cat, and various other sorts; [also] many pieces of oak timber and hickory.” [19]

Officially (until 1630) the beaver fur trade in Nieuw Nederland was a West India Company (WIC) monopoly [20] . But inevitably, individuals sought to undercut this trade through private dealings with individual Indians. And well before – and certainly after – the Europeans (who numbered only 270 souls in 1630 [21] ) engaged in frenzied trading for the lucrative beaver.

In the early years, the New Netherlands traders would journey out in small bands across country and literally drop in on the Maqua/Mohawk villagers. For example, in late 1634, in a manuscript attributed to the Flemish surgeon of Fort Orange, Harmen Mendertsz van den Bogaert, we learn that “the Maquas [Mohawk] wished to trade for their skins, because the Maquas Indians wanted to receive just as much for their skins as the French Indians [Mohicans] did.” [22]


As early as 1609 the French allied themselves with the Hurons against the Iroquois. [23] The practice took time to be accepted back in France but certainly by 1640 the French viewed hostility to the Iroquois as inevitable and a key part of policy for New France. Jerome Lalemant wrote to Cardinal Richelieu on March 28, 1640, of the successes and the hindrances of the Huron mission, and advising that that the authorities of New France intend to “interfere, in behalf of the savage allies of the French, to check the hostile advances of the Iroquois, who are encouraged and incited by the English and Flemish (Dutch) colonists on the coast.” If they do not act vigorously, the French missionaries feared the extinction of the Hurons, and the consequent cessation of the mission work [to convert Native Americans to Catholicism]. [24]
In short, the French saw trade with the Native Americans as key to their survival in North America. That trade required access to Indians willing to sell them beaver pelts. In part for altruistic reasons (everlasting salvation) the French viewed the conversion of the aboriginal peoples – especially the Huron Indians – to be part of this intricate relationship with trade. Only one thing stood in their way of attaining these multiple goals: the Mohawks and their “Dutch” allies. This could only mean war. “The motive for this conflict was clearly economic and was connected to the fur trade.” [25]





Maqua, Mohawks, Iroquois, and Others
A leading historian on New Netherland, Willem Nijhoff, wrote. “The Indians were the principal suppliers of the precious beaver skins, the furs for which the West India Company established trading posts in New Netherland and which were so important in the creation of the enormous hats and other fashion articles that we still admire in so many seventeenth-century pictures.” [26] For the Dutch that meant primarily the Mohawk Indians at Fort Orange (Albany).

The Mohawks, as many may be aware, were not the largest tribe of the Iroquois confederation (although they are now) [27] . But in Colonial times they were certainly the most feared. The Iroquois confederation consisted of five Native American tribes, [28] autonomous in governance but linked by language and cultural affinity.

The Maqua/Mohawks were also among the first Native Americans to come into contact with Henry Hudson in 1609 when he sailed up the Hudson River to land near modern day Albany, New York. The man who first passed along in print the findings of Henry Hudson’s 1609 voyage, the Flemish historian (and Dutch Consul in London, 1583-1612), Emanuel Van Meteren, wrote (in 1610) this about Hudson’s encounter with the Maqua/Mohawk: “In the upper part [of the Hudson River] they [Hudson and his crew] found friendly and polite people, who had an abundance of provisions, skins, and furs, of martens and foxes, and many other commodities, as birds and fruit, even white and red grapes, and they [Hudson and his crew] traded amicably with the [Mohawk] people.” [29]


The Mohawks may have been friendly to Henry Hudson in 1609 in part because of concurrent geopolitical events in North America. For at least 100 years before Henry Hudson sailed up the Great River, Iroquois Indians had bartered animal furs for European goods in chance, coastal meetings. [30]“It was the Mohawk [among the Iroquois] who were to undertake aggressive action to secure trading privileges with Europeans.” [31]

More importantly, the Algonquin-speaking tribes [32] had early on allied themselves with the French. In 1609 the Hurons with their new French allies launched a series of unexpected attacks upon Iroquois villages. [33] Literally, as Hudson was sailing up the river to explore and trade, the French and Hurons were paddling down Lake Champlain and other Canadian waterways [34] to attack and burn Iroquois longhouses. [35]

The Iroquois’ military prowess and diplomatic guile made them a force to be reckoned with during North America’s colonial period (circa 1500-1800). While the Six Nations (an additional tribe joined later) of the Iroquois Confederation now occupy bits of upstate New York, their swathe of regional influence in the 1600s was much greater than it is today. Either directly or through their projected power, the Iroquois dominated a territory that stretched from the Great Lakes in the west to the St. Lawrence River in the north, east to the Atlantic seaboard and south to the Delaware River. Within this region, the Maqua/Mohawk territory primarily included the western bank of the Hudson River nearly from its mouth up to Lake Huron (please see map).



The enemies of this confederation were a medley of Native American tribes surrounding the Iroquois: the Algonquins, Hurons and Mohicans. [36] As Johannes De Laet of Antwerp [37], a Founding member of the West India Company (and the father and grandfather of New Netherland settlers) [38] , described it in 1624, “On the west side of the [Hudson] river, where dwell the Mackwaes [Maquas/Mohawks], the enemies of the Mohicans. Almost all those who live on the west side [of the Hudson River], are enemies of those on the east, and cultivate more intercourse and friendship with our countrymen than the latter.”[39]

Besides the Mohicans, the Mohawk viewed an Iroquois tribe called the Hurons as arch enemies. The Hurons and Algonquin sought out the French as allies. The French referred to the Huron as the “good Iroquois”. [40] The Hurons were “good” because they traded beaver (and other furs) exclusively with the French and submitted to Christian baptism. The Hurons also were competitors for the fur trade trade between the French and the Iroquois. [An absolute must see flick on this subject for those of you who have not yet is "The Black Robe" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Robe_(film)]


Firearms, Firewater and Females
The acquisition of European finished goods were the reason the Mohawks traded. Perched at the edge of a vast wilderness, with smaller numbers and unsettled posts but claiming a broad patch of land, the New Netherlanders looked for an edge and they found it in the weapons trade.

Nicolas Van Wassenaer, writing in February, 1624 noted that for the Maqua/Mohawk, “Their trade consists mostly in peltries [furs], which they measure by the hand or by the finger….In exchange for peltries they receive beads, with which they decorate their persons; knives, adzes, axes, chopping knives, kettles and all sorts of iron work, which they require for house-keeping.”[41]
Of course he neglected to mention the most important and lucrative of the ‘iron work required for house-keeping’: muskets. As the meticulous and uncharitable Reformed Church minister Megapolensis observed (in 1644): “Their weapons in war were formerly a bow and arrow, with a stone axe and mallets; but now they get from our people guns, swords, iron axes and mallets.” [42]

Although the New Netherlanders were the most reliable source of highly coveted muskets, the trade was unregulated and ad hoc. As Father Isaac Jogues, a French Jesuit who rescued by Dutch traders [43] , spent some time in New Netherlands in 1643 wrote: “Trade is free to all; this gives the Indians all things cheap, each of the Hollanders outbidding his neighbor, and being satisfied he can gain some little profit.” [44]

The primary – although not the only way – that Native Americans obtained European goods they desired was through trade. However, there were instances when they traded their labor for payment in kind. In 1625, when the Flemish Director General Verhulst was building a fort on Manhattan and short of laborers, the WIC Directors suggested that he employ local Indians at reduced wages (compared to Europeans) of 2 stuivers per day. At the end of seven days work the Indians could then purchase an ax – at inflated prices with their subpar wages. [45]


The actual trading period occurred from roughly May through November – what the locals of the time called the trading time (handelstijd). Indians would make their way – singly or in groups – to various homes and barter the pelts they carried for sewant (wampum – threaded black, white and sometimes colored shells or beads [46] ) and European goods. Native American women also traded for goods – although I am unaware of any recorded instance of them trading for weapons, they did trade sex for wampum and goods (more on which below).




Hungry Women and Lonely Men
In general, trade relationships between Native Americans and Europeans implied alliances. The Native Americans in general did not trade with those they did not trust. As an Iroquois leader later stated during negotiations at Albany: “Trade and Peace we take to be one thing.” [47]

Trade relationships between the races were cemented through trade, religion, and in some cases – especially between the French and the Hurons – through interracial relationships. The West India Company, on the other hand, did not pursue an official policy of intermarriage with de wilden (the savages) – as the Nieuw Nederlanders often referred to them..

Some of these Indian traders were, of course Maqua/Mohawk women. Johannes De Laet, a Patroon and a Director of the West India Company, (but without first-hand experience) called the Native Americans “extremely well-looking.” [48] De Laet also quoted Adriaen Block (with whom he almost certainly had direct contact) as describing the Native Americans as “strong of limb”. [49]
The keen observer Van Wassenaer, in April, 1625 (just after De Laet’s book was first published) reported: “Chastity appears, on further enquiry, to hold a place among them, they being unwilling to cohabit with ours, through fear of their husbands. But those who are single, evince only too friendly a disposition.” [50]



It is inevitable, given the close proximity of lonely Dutch-speaking men and relatively uninhibited young Native American women that some contact went beyond simple barter for beaver pelts. After all, in a wilderness where distractions were few and as late as 1630, there were not more than 270 Europeans in all of New Netherland – and the overwhelming majority were male – these young Dutch-speaking men were likely to feel the absence of companionship acutely.

On the frontier between isolated European posts and Native American villages there was a process that transcended fluency in spoken language. “A man and woman join themselves together without any particular ceremony other than that the man by previous agreement with the woman gives her some zeewant or cloth, which on their separation, if it happens soon, he often takes again. Both men and women are utterly unchaste and shamelessly promiscuous.” [51]

The aforementioned Van Wassenaer may have been thinking of a certain rendezvous point in particular, when he described the Indian maidens’ “friendly disposition”. “In the early days of the colony [New Netherland] there was certainly some racial mixture, as evidenced by the ‘Whores’ channel’ (Hoeren-kill) given to a locality where ‘the Indians were generous enough to give their young women and daughters to our Netherlanders there.’” [52]


Sometimes, it seems, circumstances conspired to bring New Netherlanders and Native American women together in situations almost certain to result in forced intimacy. On 1634 December 12th, the Flemish surgeon of Fort Orange wrote (10 years after Van Wassenaer): “After we had been marching about eleven leagues, we arrived at one o’clock in the evening half a league from the first castle at a little house. We found only Indian women inside…so we slept there.” [53]

The priggish Dutch minister in New Netherlands, Johannes Megapolensis, writing 10 years later, in 1644, made the following claim about the Native American women. “The women are exceedingly addicted to whoring; they will lie with a man for the value of one, two, or three schillings [i.e., 12 cents, 24 cents or 36 cents], and our Dutchmen run after them very much.” [54]


By the next decade, however, it appears that Netherlandic men and Native women found ways to ‘hook up’, despite daunting obstacles of language, social convention and locale. ”Jacob Van Leeuwen, a trader who visited New Netherland in the 1650s, certainly did not feel any ties with the kin of a ‘certain Indian woman of beautiful figure.’ After they had sexual intercourse in the attic of the court house during church [services on Sunday morning], he gave her a necklace of blue and red beads that she was wearing when they came down the staircase, and which she often wore later.” [55]

It is in the context of these liaisons, amidst the milieu of trade, Christianity, and warfare, that our hero, Le Bâtard Flamande, came into the world.

Part 2 will discuss The Flemish Bastard’s Life and Accomplishments – Stay Tuned!


Endnotes
[1] The Mohawk word "Canaque", or rather "Khanake", means "along the water" The ending "ees(e)" could be the Dutch suffix for someone coming from a place called ‘Canaque’.” Peter Lowensteyn, “The Role of Canaquese in the Iroquois Wars,” downloaded 04/10/2009 19:06:20 http://www.lowensteyn.com/iroquois/canaqueese.html Note that the name of the Mohawk in their own language is Kanien’keha:ka which reportedly means “People of the Flint” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohawk_nation
[2] Jaap Jacobs, New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America, (Boston: Brill, 2005), p. 197. Unfortunately I have not been able to locate the origin of this quote in J. Franklin Jameson’s translation of Van Der Donck’s “Representation of New Netherlands” [from whence the quote is sourced].
[3] Jaap Jacobs, New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America, (Boston: Brill, 2005), p. 20.
[4] John De Laet, Extracts From The New World or A Description of the West Indies, J. Franklin Jameson, ed. & trans., (no date or place of publication), Cornell University facsimile reproduction, 1993. p. 294
[5] Van Meteren, the “Dutch Consul” at London, and Van Os, the head of the VOC, were both natives of Antwerp. Plantius was a native of Dranouter, near Ieper (Ypres) in West Flanders and Hondius was a native of Wakkene near Ghent. They were Dutch in speech and Dutch in allegiance to the fight of Protestants viewing the occupying Spaniards as the enemy, but they were Flemish in origin. See my recent posting that discusses the heavy, overwhelming Flemish involvement here: http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2010/12/flemish-influence-on-henry-hudson.html
[6] Joannes de Laet, Extracts From the New World – Or, A Description of the West Indies, (Translated from the original Dutch by The Editor), Cornell University Reproduction, p.290.
[7] For an interesting modern review of beaver trapping techniques see
http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/beaver-trapping-tips.html [and, for the record, there is no connection whatsoever between “Fleming Outdoors .com and the Flemish American blogspot].
[8] Dr. Jan Kupp and Dr. Simon Hart, “The Early Cornelis Melyn and the Illegal Fur Trade”, in De Halve Maen, Vol. 60, No. 3 (October, 1975), pp. 7-8, 15. The notarial records that Dr. Hart had access to tell a very interesting story. The details behind Cornelis Melyn and the overwhelming involvement of Antwerpenaars in New Netherland is grist for a future post.
[9] Jaap Jacobs, New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America, (Boston: Brill, 2005), p. 20.
[10] Jaap Jacobs, New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America, (Boston: Brill, 2005), pp. 20. The untreated fur sent to Muscovy was called castor sec. The treatment for the furs that became felt was called castor gras. The treatment, incidentally, of castor gras, was somewhat unscientific. After a period of roughly 18 to 24 months, an untreated fur worn close to the body of a Native American became soft and oily as the outer fur was worn away. It was this product that was turned into felt hats in France.
[11] Antonia Fraser, Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration, (New York: Dell Publishing, 1979), p.269.
[12] See the excellent medieval manuscript illustration on this subject:
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/comment/11r.hti . Peter C. Newman, Empire of the Bay: The Company of Adventurers That Seized a Continent, (New York: Penguin, 1998), pp. 44-45, offered this excellent excerpt of a 1685 medical expert: “Castoreum [the orange-brown alkaloid substance found in the beaver’s scent glands] does much good to mad people, and those who are attacked with pleurisy give proof of its effect every day…Castoreum destroys fleas; it is an excellent stomachic; stops hiccough; induces sleep; strengthens the sight, and taken up the nose it causes sneezing and clears the brain…in order to acquire a prodigious memory…it [is] only necessary to wear a hat of the beaver’s skin.” Parenthetically, my wife, who is a food scientist, tells me that beaver testicles in ground form are used today as a flavoring for beverages!
[13] Peter C. Newman, Empire of the Bay: The Company of Adventurers That Seized a Continent, (New York: Penguin, 1998), pp.43-44
[14] Peter C. Newman, Empire of the Bay: The Company of Adventurers That Seized a Continent, (New York: Penguin, 1998), p.45. Newman quotes MIT biologist Robert J. Naiman as stating that in 1670, the time when the Flemish Bastard moved up to Canada, there were approximately 10 million beavers within the boundaries of present day Canada.
[15] Beverwijck was literally an outpost whose population went from approximately 150 (overwhelmingly male) inhabitants in 1642 to 200+ by 1652 and more than 1,000 by 1660. Janny Venema, Beverwijk: A Dutch Village on the American Frontier, 1652-1664, (Albany: SUNY Press, 2003), Appendix I, pp.428-429.
[16] Donna Merwick, The Shame and the Sorrow: Dutch-Amerindian Encounters in New Netherland, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), p.13. NOTE: Although chock full of interesting facts, the source citation should be double checked. Mis-citations occasionally appear in this otherwise fine work. For example: the citation on page 293, footnote 8 states a certain quote (“The VOC urged its personnel and burghers to marry indigenous women ‘after the Roman and Portuguese precedents.’”) as coming from Charles Ralph Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire. Merwick states she found the quote in this book on p. 242 and that she found it in the 1965 Penguin edition. Since the book was published by Alfred Knopf in 1965 and the citation she mentioned is actually on page 216 (and, in my opinion, somewhat taken out of context – she says the VOC advocated inter-racial marriage when in fact Boxer says that one of the officials in the East Indies wrote to his superiors in Holland seeking this in a letter). In short, I would double check all sources Ms. Merwick cites.
[17] Willem Nijhoff, “New Views on the Dutch Period of New York”de Halve Maen: The Magazine of the Dutch Colonial Period, Vol LXXI, Summer 1998, No. 2, p.30 EDIT
[18] Donna Merwick, The Shame and the Sorrow: Dutch-Amerindian Encounters in New Netherland, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), p.115. NOTE: Although chock full of interesting facts, the source citation should be double checked. Mis-citations occasionally appear in this otherwise fine work. For example: the citation on page 293, footnote 8 states a certain quote (“The VOC urged its personnel and burghers to marry indigenous women ‘after the Roman and Portuguese precedents.’”) as coming from Charles Ralph Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire. Merwick states she found the quote in this book on p. 242 and that she found it in the 1965 Penguin edition. Since the book was published by Alfred Knopf in 1965 and the citation she mentioned is actually on page 216 (and, in my opinion, somewhat taken out of context – she says the VOC advocated inter-racial marriage when in fact Boxer says that one of the officials in the East Indies wrote to his superiors in Holland seeking this in a letter). In short, I would double check all sources Ms. Merwick cites.
[19] From the ‘Historisch Verhael,’by Nicolaes Van Wassenaer, 1624-1630 in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elbiron, 2005) [reprint of 1909 edition], p.83. Since beaver skins weighed between 10 and 15 pounds each, this was a fully loaded ship. That said, this was likely a substantial part of the furs sent back for the year, since the trading season ended in November.
[20]“The fur or other trade remains in the [exclusive hands of the] West India Company, others being forbidden to trade there [New Netherlands].” From the ‘Historisch Verhael,’by Nicolaes Van Wassenaer, 1624-1630 in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elbiron, 2005) [reprint of 1909 edition], p.78.Van Wassenaer wrote that in December, 1624, but although official policy, it was a difficult to enforce policy.
[21] Donna Merwick, The Shame and the Sorrow: Dutch-Amerindian Encounters in New Netherland, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), p.64 and pp.185-186. NOTE: Although chock full of interesting facts, the source citation should be double checked. Mis-citations occasionally appear in this otherwise fine work. For example: the citation on page 293, footnote 8 states a certain quote (“The VOC urged its personnel and burghers to marry indigenous women ‘after the Roman and Portuguese precedents.’”) as coming from Charles Ralph Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire. Merwick states she found the quote in this book on p. 242 and that she found it in the 1965 Penguin edition. Since the book was published by Alfred Knopf in 1965 and the citation she mentioned is actually on page 216 (and, in my opinion, somewhat taken out of context – she says the VOC advocated inter-racial marriage when in fact Boxer says that one of the officials in the East Indies wrote to his superiors in Holland seeking this in a letter). In short, I would double check all sources Ms. Merwick cites.
See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_the_United_States
[22]“Narrative of a Journey Into the Mohawk and Oneida Country, 1634-1635” in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elbiron, 2005) [reprint of 1909 edition], p.139.
[23] Thomas B. Costain, The White and the Gold: The French Regime in Canada, An Intimate, living Story of the Making of Canada, (Garden City, NY: The Country Life Press, 1954), 1st Edition, p.66.
[24] Please see Book XXX of the Jesuit Relations– in English here:
www.puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/relations_17.html . Jerome Lalement was the Superior of the mission in New France.
[25] Bruce G. Trigger, The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660, (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1976) First paperback edition, 1987, p. 223.
[26] Willem Nijhoff, “New Views on the Dutch Period of New York”, de Halve Maen: The Magazine of the Dutch Colonial Period, Vol LXXI, Summer 1998, No. 2, p.23
[27] Although they were not the largest Iroquois nation in the 17th century, Wikipedia lists more official members today than for any of the other Iroquois nations.
[28] These tribes are the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca. The Tuscarora joined the Confederation in 1722, thus becoming the Six Nations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_League . However, one historian whose expertise is specifically that of the Native American tribes of this period states that, “it is unclear when, and under what circumstances, the Iroquois confederacy developed.” Bruce G. Trigger, The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660, (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1976) First paperback edition, 1987, p. 224.
[29] The original is in the 31st book of Emanuel Van Meteren’s Belgische ofte Nederlantsche Oorlogen ende Geschiedenissen/Histoire der Neder-landscher ende haerder Naburen Oorlogen ende Geschiednissen, (1st edition at Delft in 1599; our version Utrecht in 1611). The English translation quoted here is from the 1611 edition and found in J. Franklin Jameson, Ed., Narratives of New Netherland, (New York, 1909), Elibron Reprint, 2005, p.7.
[30] It is likely – although not proven by any record – that Flemish See Bruce G. Trigger, SOURCE p.178
[31] Bruce G. Trigger, The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660, (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1976) First paperback edition, 1987, p. 224.
[32] Actually, the Hurons were an Iroquois-speaking tribe but for a variety of reasons largely to do with trade and political alliances had become more allied with the Algonquins and against the Iroquois.
[33] Thomas B. Costain, The White and the Gold: The French Regime in Canada, An Intimate, Living Story of the Making of Canada, (Garden City, NY: The Country Life Press, 1954), 1st Edition, p.66.
[34]“Judging from appearances, this river [the Hudso River] extends to the great river St. Lawrence, or Canada, since our people assure us that the natives come to the fort [Fort Orange/Albany] from that river, and from Quebec.” Joannes de Laet, Extracts From the New World – Or, A Description of the West Indies, (Translated from the original Dutch by The Editor), Cornell University Reproduction, p.299.
[35] Thomas B. Costain, The White and the Gold: The French Regime in Canada, An Intimate, Living Story of the Making of Canada, (Garden City, NY: The Country Life Press, 1954), 1st Edition, p.66 ff.
[36] However, as Peter Lowensteyn has pointed out (“The Role of the Dutch in The Iroquois Wars”
http://www.lowensteyn.com/iroquois/), ethnic and linguistic self-identification were not the sole determinants of which side each tribe aligned with. Still, until the mass-migrations and the added strategic factor of European trade reared its head, blood/clan ties were strong.
[37] Joannes De Laet deserves a biography. The Antwerpenaar was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin and English (at least). He was a protégé of Emmanuel Van Meteren and spent some time with Van Meteren in London. Besides being a prolific correspondent – see, for example, his correspondence with John Morris [cf, J.A.F. Bekkers, Correspondence of John Morris With Johannes De Laet (1634-1649), ('s-Gravenhage: Van Gorcum, 1971)] – De Laet was also a successful scholar-merchant. A recognized authority on the voyages to America, his published work was printed in multiple languages and ran through several revised editions between 1625 and 1640. De Laet was also an ardent Protestant and participated in the Dordrecht Synod. De Laet’s daughter eventually became a settler in New Netherland after De Laet’s death in 1649. As far as I am aware, there is no published biography on De Laet in any language.
[38] It was De Laet’s daughter, curiously named Joanne, who settled in New Netherland from before 1659 to 1676. Married twice, she had several children. One of whom, a slight girl of 13 named Mary, died a horrible death from the plague. Likely heartbroken after this death and the death of her second husband, (whom she married 2/22/1659 in Nieuw Amsterdam), the German Jeronimus Ebbing, she returned to Amsterdam in 1676 to be near her grown children from her previous marriage to Johannes de Hulter. See, Jaap Jacobs, New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America, (Boston: Brill, 2005). Parenthetically, De Laet's son and namesake, Johannes De Laet, Jr., moved to England and was naturalized there in 1656. J.A.F. Bekkers, Correspondence of John Morris With Johannes De Laet (1634-1649), ('s-Gravenhage: Van Gorcum, 1971), p. xiv.
[39] John De Laet, Extracts From The New World or A Description of the West Indies, J. Franklin Jameson, ed. & trans., (no date or place of publication), Cornell University facsimile reproduction, 1993. p. 299
[40] Bruce G. Trigger, The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660, (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1976) First paperback edition, 1987, p. 245. This was how the Huron were described to Champlain, during his early contact with them circa 1600.
[41]“From the ‘Historisch Verhael,’by Nicolaes Van Wassenaer, 1624-1630 in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elbiron, 2005) [reprint of 1909 edition], p.71.
[42] Letter written by Reverend Johannes Megapolensis the Younger, August 26, 1644 in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elbiron, 2005) [reprint of 1909 edition], p.176
[43] Later declared a saint, Fr. Jogues was captured by the Maqua/Mohawks August 2, 1642 and tortured for a year in captivity. Letter written by Reverend Johannes Megapolensis the Younger, August 26, 1644 in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elbiron, 2005) [reprint of 1909 edition], p.175, n1. Megapolensis also wrote that “Though they [Maqua/Mohawks] are so very cruel to their enemies, they are very friendly to us, and we have no dread of them.”
[44] Letter written August 3, 1646 from Trois Rivieres, New France in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elbiron, 2005) [reprint of 1909 edition], p.262
[45] Donna Merwick, The Shame and the Sorrow: Dutch-Amerindian Encounters in New Netherland, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), p.118. NOTE: Although chock full of interesting facts, the source citation should be double checked. Mis-citations occasionally appear in this otherwise fine work. For example: the citation on page 293, footnote 8 states a certain quote (“The VOC urged its personnel and burghers to marry indigenous women ‘after the Roman and Portuguese precedents.’”) as coming from Charles Ralph Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire. Merwick states she found the quote in this book on p. 242 and that she found it in the 1965 Penguin edition. Since the book was published by Alfred Knopf in 1965 and the citation she mentioned is actually on page 216 (and, in my opinion, somewhat taken out of context – she says the VOC advocated inter-racial marriage when in fact Boxer says that one of the officials in the East Indies wrote to his superiors in Holland seeking this in a letter). In short, I would double check all sources Ms. Merwick cites.
[46]“Their money consists of certain little bones, made of shells or cockles, which are found on the sea-beach; a hole is drilkled through the middle of the little bones, and these they string upon thread, or they make of them belts as broad as a hand or broader, and hang them on their necks, or around their bodies. …They value these little bones as highly as many Christians do gold, silver and pearls; but they do not like our money, and esteem it no better than iron.” Letter written by Reverend Johannes Megapolensis the Younger, August 26, 1644 in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elbiron, 2005) [reprint of 1909 edition], p.176.
[47] Peter Wraxell, An Abridgement of the Indian Affairs Contained in Four Folio Volumes, Transacted in the Colony of New York, from the Year 1678 to the Year 1751, ed. Charles Howard McIlwain (1915; New York: Benjamin Blom, 1968), p. 195. Quoted in Timothy J. Shannon, Iroquois Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier, (New York: Viking, 2008), p.22
[48] John De Laet, Extracts From The New World or A Description of the West Indies, J. Franklin Jameson, ed. & trans., (no date or place of publication), Cornell University facsimile reproduction, 1993. p. 292
[49] John De Laet, Extracts From The New World or A Description of the West Indies, J. Franklin Jameson, ed. & trans., (no date or place of publication), Cornell University facsimile reproduction, 1993. p. 294
[50] From the ‘Historisch Verhael,’by Nicolaes Van Wassenaer, 1624-1630 in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elbiron, 2005) [reprint of 1909 edition], p.81.
[51]“Representation of New Netherland” in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elbiron, 2005) [reprint of 1909 edition], p.302. This was the Remonstrance, signed by Loockermans, his brothers in law Van Couwenhoven and Van Courtlandt on October 13, 1649.
[52] Charles Ralph Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire, (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1970), 2nd Edition, p.229.
[53]“Narrative of a Journey Into the Mohawk and Oneida Country, 1634-1635” in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elbiron, 2005) [reprint of 1909 edition], p.140
[54] Letter written by Reverend Johannes Megapolensis the Younger, August 26, 1644 in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elbiron, 2005) [reprint of 1909 edition], p.174. Certainly, the good Reverend’s detailed knowledge of such a subject makes one wonder whether this was acquired through first-hand experience.
[55] Janny Venema, Beverwijk: A Dutch Village on the American Frontier, 1652-1664, (Albany: SUNY Press, 2003), p.168.

Copyright 2010 by David Baeckelandt. All Rights Reserved. No reproduction without my express, written consent.

Flemish American Origins of Santa Claus

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It is the night before Christmas Eve. I had hoped to have completed for you a post that points to the Flemish Contributions to the idea and dissemination of Sinterklaas - as "Santa Claus" would have been known to our Flemish ancestors. Unfortunately, I have not fleshed out the references and the prose to the standard I aspire to, so this quick sketch will have to do.

It is worth recalling a few quick facts. Santa Claus as a concept did not gain broad acceptance in the U.S. until well into the 19th century. Most historians trace that back to three change agents: Clement Clarke Moore, John Pintard, and Washington Irving.

First, Washington Irving, while not descended from the settlers of New Netherland himself, resurrected the enthusiasm for the lives and history of those early settlers with his 1809 book A History of New York From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. While intended as a satire, the book was remarkably detailed on New Netherland history, Dutch language and customs to pass as legitimate history to the masses. Moreover, Irving's prose (then and even today) was engaging enough to become a best-seller of the time (and to remain popular well into the 20th century).

Irving's story popularized St. Nicholas - pronounced Sinterklaas - from an obscure ethnic holiday celebrated by a shrinking circle of ethnic Dutch-speakers to something tied into New York's Dutch origins. In particular, and as it pertains to our story here, Irving focused on the interaction between St. Nicholas and the patriarch of the Van Courtlandt [although he spelled it "Van Kortlandt"] family. [1]


Next. John Pintard, a merchant of untiring energy, proposed St. Nicholas' feast day, December 6th, as an alternate family holiday to the revelry on New Year's Eve. A friend of Washington Irving - and founder of the New York Historical Society - Pintard began the revival of St. Nicholas with a St. Nicholas Society Dinner on December 6th, 1810 (the year after Irving's publication). Later, this evolved into the St. Nicholas Society of New York. [2]


The final rung in this climb back to our Netherlandic roots came through another friend of Pintard's: Clement Clarke Moore. Moore was himself not a descendant either of the settlers of New Netherland. However, his wife, Catherine Elizabeth Taylor, was. Although I am unaware of Moore explicitly crediting his wife, it seems unlikely that she did not - as wives are often likely to do - inspire her husband's work. And from whence did her wife derive inspiration? Likely through maternal family traditions.

Catherine Elizabeth Taylor's mother, Elizabeth Van Cortlandt, was the great-great-great grand daughter of Oloff Van Courtlandt and Annetje Loockermans. [3] It was Annetje Van Courtlandt who, as Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer has noted, brought culture and civilization to New Amsterdam after marrying Oloff Van Courtlandt in early 1642. [4]

For forty years Annetje Van Courtlandt nee Loockerman's home was the center of social life and she led the observance of holidays and customs from the Dutch-speaking part of the Low Countries. These traditions were transmitted through her direct descendants - which include Presidents (Teddy and Franklin D. Roosevelt), actors (the Fonda family, Montgomery Cliff), movie directors (Cecil B. DeMille), authors (Herman Melville), Chief Justices (John Jay), the wealthiest Americans (John Jacob Astor), Fathers of the Country (Alexander Hamilton and Hamilton Fish), as well as assorted governors, senators, congressmen, ambassadors, mayors and other luminaries. The Van Courtlandt family tradition of Sinterklaas became the Santa Claus tradition of today. It has now been passed on to later generations and is inseparably blended with the fabric of America.


The best part of all this was that this strong, fearless pioneer woman of taste and culture (who deserves to be numbered in the first tier of Flemish Mothers of America) was from Flanders. Annetje Loockermans was born in the town of Turnhout in the province of Antwerp in the land of Flanders on the 17th March, 1618. [5] Little did she realize the legacy she would leave for 21st century America and indeed the world. [6]





With that as backdrop, Gentle Reader, it seems only fitting that I leave you with the stanzas and illustrations that inspired the adoption by first American and then world popular culture of Santa Claus. The below text is courtesy of a superb website on the poem: "Account of a Visit From St. Nicholas"


'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;



The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danc'd in their heads,

And Mama in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,



When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.



The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below;

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a minature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,


With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name:


"Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen,
"On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;

"To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

"Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"



As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of Toys - and St. Nicholas too:


And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound:



He was dress'd all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnish'd with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys was flung on his back,

And he look'd like a peddler just opening his pack:



His eyes - how they twinkled! his dimples how merry,
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;



The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.

He had a broad face, and a little round belly

That shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly:



He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laugh'd when I saw him in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.



He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And fill'd all the stockings; then turn'd with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.



He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle:

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight-

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.




Endnotes
[1] Washington Irving, Knickerbocker's History of New York, edited by Anne Carroll Moore, (New York: Doubleday, 1959). See especially pp. 27, 49-51, 58, etc. [where St. Nicholas appears in dreams to Van Kortlandt] and pp. 95-100 [description of St. Nicholas' Feast Day as celebrated by the Dutch-speakers of New Netherland. Curiously, his only nods to Flanders are to redundantly claim that each of the pear-shaped characters in the story wore "Flemish hose" and reckon that the fines they received were in Flemish pounds (1 Flemish pound = 6 Dutch Guilders).

[2] Edwin G. Burroughs & Mike Wallace,"The Domestication of Christmas," in Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 462-463. While this is an excellent account of Pintard's involvement - and the only one I am aware of - Burroughs & Wallace fail to tie the story back to New Netherland.

[3] Catherine Elizabeth Taylor (1794-1830)'s mother was Elizabeth Van Cortlandt (d. July 22, 1816) and her father was William Taylor, Lord Chief Justice of Jamaica. Elizabeth Van Cortlandt's parents were Philip Van Cortlandt (November 10, 1739-May 1, 1814) and Catherine Ogden. Philip's parents were Stephen Van Cortlandt (October 26, 1710-October 17, 1756) and Mary Walter Ricketts. Stephen's parents were Philip Van Cortlandt (August 9, 1683-August 21, 1746) and Catherine De Peyster. Philip's parents were Stephanus Van Cortlandt (May 7, 1643-November 25, 1700) and Gertrudj Van Schuyler. Stephanus' parents were Oloff Stevenszn Van Courtlandt and Annetje Loockermans. Annetje was born in Turnhout, Flanders. For the genealogy please see John Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume II M-Z, (London: Henry Colburn, 1867), pp. 1360-1363; and John Thomas Scharf, History of Westchester County, New York, Volume I, Part I, (Philadelphia: L.E. Preston & Co., 1886), pp.115-138.

[4] Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer, The Goede Vrouw of Mana-ha-ta: At Home and in Society, 1609-1760, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1898), p. 32 discusses how Annetje Van Cortlandt's home was the "center of the petticoat government" of New Netherland; p. 133 how others followed Mrs. Van Cortlandt's example with St. Nicholas Day; and p. 140 discusses how the Van Cortlandt's and other notable Dutch-speaking families perpetuated the St. Nicholas Day (and other) tradition through subsequent generations. Esther Singleton, Dutch New York, (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1909), pp.297-301 discusses the observance of St. Nicholas Day in the Netherlands but with little concrete reference to New Netherland. However, she does suggest that the wife of the Flemish Reformed minister Drisius played a role [p.301].

[5] "In Turnhout worden de doopregisters bewaard van Godefridus Lokermans (2 juli 1612) en zijn zuster Anna (17 maart 1618), kinderen van Jacob Lokermans en Maria Nicasius. Ook hun broer Pieter (geboren 5 oktober 1614) liet sporen na in zijn geboorteplaats. In de Sint-Pieterskerk op de Grote Markt van Turnhout, waar Anna en Godfridus (De Latijnse naam Godefridus werd in het protestantse Noorden al snel Govert) gedoopt werden, rust nog steeds een van hun nazaten." My grateful thanks to Karl Van Den Broeck for this reference [e-mail dialogue October 10, 2010].

[6] Note that, to produce a sobering counterpoint, that the current historian of New Netherland, Jaap Jacobs, believes there is no evidence in the historical record to support the idea that Sinterklaas was celebrated in New Netherland. See Jaap Jacobs, New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America, (Leiden: Brill, 2005), p.471. To the esteemed Dr. Jacobs (whose work I admire a great deal - even though he ignores the Flemish contribution to Nieuw Nederland), my only retort is "Bah Humbug!"


Copyright 2010 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without my express, written consent.

The Hidden Flemings in (New) Netherlands' History

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A few years back, the Flemish diplomat Axel Buyse, stationed in the Netherlands, gave a superb talk to his hosts on the extensive Flemish origins of the Kingdom of the Netherlands’ “Golden Century”[i]. He pointed out that it was no accident that the onset of Dutch greatness corresponded so closely with the subjugation of Flanders and Brabant by Spanish armies in the late 16th century.[ii] For it was the exodus of wealthy and accomplished Flemings and Brabanders to the (“liberated”) United Provinces of the (northern) Netherlands that largely made the Dutch Golden Century possible[iii].

Dutch historians of course know this. Among the pre-eminent scholars who have written in delightful detail on this subject are the pioneering Dr. J. Briels (in multiple publications including Zuidnederlanders in de Republiek, 1570-1630– Sint Niklaas: Danthe, 1985) and the more recent (and encyclopedic) Professor Gustaaf Asaert in his indispensable (and very readable) 1585:De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2002).

Sadly, historians of Dutch-American history broadly and of the New Netherlands period (1614-1664) more specifically, either ignore or obscure the origins of their Flemish forefathers
[iv]. In some cases it would be fair to state that the author in question was simply ignorant of the relevant historiography. Unfortunately, in a recent work on New Netherland pictured above and titled Kiliaen Van Rensselaer (1588-1643): Designing a New World, (Hilversum, The Netherlands: Verloren, 2010), by Professor Janny Venema, one cannot make an allowance for ignorance.

“How uncharitable!” Some might shout (and likely will). But I believe I am on solid ground here. Primarily, because Dr.Venema lists the works of both Dr. Briels and Dr. Asaert in the bibliography of this, her most recent book.
[v]

Of course to me this is an egregious albeit typical Flemish-lite/Dutch-centric bias. As a rebuttal to not only Dr. Venema but all Dutch-centric historians, I will attempt here to show that, by omission, our Dutch friends do neither themselves nor others a service by neglecting the contributions of Flanders.
[vi] Given the fact that I do have a day job (and it has nothing to do with Flemish history), I will limit my detailed critique in this post only to pages19-26 of her Chapter 1: “Images of Hasselt”. Readers can peruse this chapter online here: http://www.sunypress.edu/pdf/62261.pdf .


How “Dutch” Was the Dutch Revolt?
Dr. Venema’s first chapter (“Images of Hasselt” pp.19-26) starts with a discussion of Charles V
[vii], Phillip II[viii], and the Eighty Years’ War (Tachtigjarige Oorlog ). She acknowledges that the beeldenstorm (‘iconoclastic fury’) that started the war we know as the “Dutch Revolt” began in Flanders, but does not mention where (it was in Steenvoorde)[ix]. Its origins in Flanders may seem inconsequential to those of us four centuries later on the opposite side of the pond, but it is no different than (for Americans) recognizing that the spark of the American War of Independence began at Lexington and Concord.[x] The birthplace of a revolution or movement reflects not only the latent sentiments of the people of a region but also deeply influences the subsequent path such movements take.[xi]

One of the central figures in the story of the “Dutch” Revolt is the Count of Flanders, King of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V (1500-1558). Dr. Venema makes no mention of Charles V’s birthplace being near Ghent.[xii] This is important because it influenced how Charles was sentimentally attached to Flanders but also was loved by and successful in ruling the people of the Low Countries. Dr. Venema’s slant suggests that Charles V (pictured below at his height of power) was a Spanish ruler, when in fact contemporary Spaniards viewed Charles V as unquestionably Flemish. So much so that it led the Spaniards to revolt against him (1520-1521) in what became known as the ­Revolt of the Comuneros.[xiii]



Of course the Flemings (including his ‘hometown’ of Ghent) also rose in revolt against Charles V (in 1539-1540).[xiv] But subsequently, and despite the pervasive spread of first Lutheran (from 1519) then Anabaptist (from the 1520s) and finally Calvinist (from the 1550s) beliefs throughout the Low Countries, this very Catholic and Holy Roman Emperor Charles managed to maintain a relatively tranquil hold over an increasingly Protestant Netherlands – north and south.[xv]

Dr. Venema does mention (p. 21) that the Eighty Years’ War (Tachtigjarige Oorlog) began when the Duke of Alva marched into the Netherlands with 10,000 Italian and Spanish troops in 1567. What she fails to highlight is that it was into Flanders that the Spanish “Army of Flanders”[xvi] began its process of ‘pacification’. This is of course what led to the frenzied exodus of people, overwhelmingly from what is called the “Westkwartier” of traditional West Flanders.[xvii] It was these people who made up the unsettled waves of immigrants that ran from first Flanders to England or Germany and then ultimately the northern Netherlands and sometimes onward to New Netherlands.[xviii]


To offer further proper context, Dr. Venema cites the victories of the “Dutch” rebels but fails to recognize that these were not Hollanders but instead “South Netherlanders” who led the “Dutch” Revolt. These “Dutch” rebels were famously called “geuzen” (beggars - symbol of which is above), a title that was given to them in Flanders and as the result of a Flemings’ insouciance.[xix] Even the titular head of the “Beggars” as the rebels were called, the Prince of Orange –despite his birth and properties – called Flanders (actually Brussels, then as now the capital of Flanders) home. Ironically, the Spanish-led Catholic “Army of Flanders”, fighting against the rebels had few Flemings in its ranks. It was comprised overwhelmingly of Spanish, Italian, Walloon and German mercenaries[xx]. For the Flemings, then, their strongest allegiance – at least for the first decades of the Eighty Years’ War – was to the “Beggars”/”geuzen”.


This so-called “Dutch Revolt”, as it is now best known in English-speaking circles, almost came to an abrupt halt by the early 1570s with the success of the Duke of Alva’s legionnaires in subduing the seething Protestant strongholds of Flanders. What saved the Revolt from sputtering out completely was the doggedness of the Flemish diaspora, primarily resident in England. Dr. Venema points out (pp.22-23) that the watergeuzen “Sea Beggars” seizure of the town of Briel in April 1572 breathed new life into the resistance. What she neglects to mention is that this assault was overwhelmingly a Flemish enterprise. The Flemish diaspora, based primarily in coastal England, financed the effort and offered a source of ready recruits.[xxi] The young men who captured Briel had essentially operated a piratical Protestant fleet (much like today’s Somali version), preying on merchant shipping in the English Channel (see below).

These piratical “Sea Beggars” were led by the Flemish commanders (born in Brussels)Loedewijk van Boisot and his close confederateWillem van der Marck, Lord of Lumey[xxii] The watergeuzen then, managed to establish the first permanent haven for the “Dutch” Revolt in the Low Countries. It is difficult to overestimate the importance of this success and the flow of Flemish Protestant men and money in enabling the “Dutch” Revolt to survive.


Much like insurrections today that are clandestinely aided by another state, the Dutch Revolt was made possible by the assistance – tacit and otherwise – that Queen Elizabeth gave to their activities. English aid while critical happened primarily because the English and Flemish shared a common enemy: Spain. However, it did not hurt that key Flemish émigrés surrounded Queen Elizabeth and made their cause hers.


Queen Elizabeth’s chief spy and diplomat to the “Dutch” was a half-English, half-Flemish son of a martyred Protestant by the name of Daniel Rogers.[xxiii] Likely born in Antwerp, through his mother’s side Rogers was a first cousin to the renowned geographer Ortelius[xxiv]. Interestingly and also through his mother’s side he was a first-cousin to the long-serving (1582-1611) so-called “Dutch” Consul at London, Antwerp native Emanuel Van Meteren.[xxv] Another Fleming, charged with caring for Sir Dudley, Queen Elizabeth’s favorite and the senior Englishman in the Netherlands, was Adolf van Meetkercke, a native of Brugge and a Greek scholar resident in Leiden.[xxvi] Still others occupied nearly every tier of lesser positions both on the front lines in the Netherlands and in England.




Nor were these the only Flemings in key, “Dutch” leadership positions. The spymaster and confidant for the Prince of Orange was a cousin of Meetkercke’s: Philip Marnix van Sint Aldegonde (pictured in the above engraving by Jacob De Gheyn - of whom more later). Marnix ran the spies who enabled the Flemish-led troops to win key battles (such as lifting the Siege of Leiden in 1574 which led to the founding of the University of Leiden[xxvii] in 1575). Marnix also was the author of a key propaganda pamphlet and of the world’s oldest national anthem: “Het Wilhelmus”, which of course the Kingdom of the Netherlands now claims as its own.[xxviii] Still later, in 1583-1585, Marnix was the Mayor (burgemeester) of the most important city in Europe, the Calvinist city-state of Antwerp (until its capture by the Spanish in 1585).[xxix]


Closer to Queen Elizabeth’s person (and her daily activities) were her butler and her seamstress – both Flemish natives of Brussels.[xxx] Elizabeth’s language tutor as well was a Fleming. Elizabeth herself, exhibited some Flemish traits – not least among these her polyglot skills (she spoke Flemish, French, and Italian fluently).[xxxi] Nor should this be surprising: Elizabeth I herself, through her mother Anne Boleyn, was of Flemish origin.[xxxii]


While virtually all European nationalities and religions (including Catholics) fought for the United Provinces against Spain,[xxxiii] naturally ethnicity and language (as well as religious affiliation) played some role in tilting one toward (or away from) the Revolt. The French-speaking parts of the Southern Netherlands, separated by language and custom from the Dutch-speaking areas, tended to side with their fellow Romance-language speakers (the Spanish).[xxxiv] Certainly there were substantial numbers of Walloon Protestants who joined the Revolt. Still, percentage wise they were in the minority among the “Southern Netherlanders” in the Dutch Republic. As noted historian of the Dutch Revolt, Professor Geoffrey Parker, has pointed out, “a large number of Walloon nobles had succumbed to Spanish bribes.”[xxxv]

While not exclusive, the Dutch-speakers of the Southern Netherlands then remained as the dominant contingent in the Dutch Revolt. As Dr. Venema mentions (p.23), following their success at Den Brielle, representative political and military stakeholders summoned a meeting at Dordrecht (aka Dort) in 1572. There they elected William of Orange their leader. What Dr. Venema fails to point out is that the leading political representative (dispatched by the Prince of Orange) was Philip Marnix, the Fleming. The primary military representative was Willem Van der Marck a Flemish native of the Bishopric of Liege.[xxxvi] It was thus a concave at Dort, led by Flemings that appointed William, Prince of Orange as the leader of the Dutch Revolt in 1572.



Dr. Venema’s overview in her opening chapter touches on the political as well as the military developments. Unfortunately, her recounting of the Dutch Revolt’s political turning points (p.23) appears a bit disjointed.[xxxvii] One very significant development she neglects to mention at all is the Pacification of Ghent (a famous allegory print pictured above).[xxxviii] This is a critical omission. As one legal historian recently remarked: “The Pacification of Ghent was a crucial moment in the Revolt of the Netherlands against Spain.”[xxxix] It was significant first because all the provinces (Dutch and French speaking) united against the Spanish-led rulers. It also served as the basis for legal recognition of religious tolerance. This of course was one of the moral justifications of the Dutch Republic (at least in the eyes of historians). However, the idea of toleration and freedom of religion was the culmination of a long series of developments unique to Flanders broadly and Ghent more precisely.[xl]



Be that as it may, Dr. Venema places greater emphasis on the Act of Abjuration (p.23 - the text pictured above) – if only because she actually mentions this versus the cold shoulder she gives to the Pacification of Ghent ). But here again we have an important milestone in the development of the Dutch Republic without credit due. The Act of Abjuration (Plakaat van Verlating in Dutch) is as important to Americans as it is to the Dutch and Flemish. Not only is it the Netherlands’ equivalent of the American Declaration of Independence, but The Act of Abjuration it was also one of the reference points (and perhaps the primary template) used by Thomas Jefferson in drafting the American Declaration of Independence .[xli] As you might expect, given my emphasis of this here, the primary author (and at least half of the four committee members) was Flemish.[xlii]


After having succeeded the Prince of Orange as the “Royalist” Stadthouder of Holland and Zealand from 1567-1573 (in other words fighting against the Seabeggars when they took Briel), Antwerp native Maximilian of Hennin became the new Commander in Chief of the Rebel armies.


The Prince of Orange was assassinated in 1584 (July 22nd) by a Frenchman. The act shocked and demoralized those fighting against Spain and as such was an inflection point in the Dutch Revolt (perhaps much like JFK’s 1963 assassination impacted a generation of Americans). Dr. Venema uses a famous print of the time by Baudartius to illustrate the act (on page 22). What Dr. Venema does not make clear is that Baudartius was important in his own right and important to the story of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, the “Dutch” Revolt and the History of New Netherland.


As the source Dr. Venema cites clearly (albeit in Latin) states (”Scriptore Wilhelmo Baudartio Deinsiano Flandro”), Willem Baudaerts/Baudartius was from Deinze in Flanders. As a boy in Sandwich, England, he most certainly knew men that had sailed from Sandwich to join the attack on Den Brielle in 1572. As a Biblical scholar[xliii], he was one of the handful of scholars selected to undertake the official state-sponsored translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Dutch (the Statenvertaling).


Like Petrus Plancius, another Fleming (from Dranouter, near Ieper in West Flanders) Baudartius was also vehemently anti-Spanish and believed that it was a God-given duty to strike the Spaniards wherever one might be able. For that reason he not only drafted a strong polemic against the 12 year truce with Spain (1609-1621) in 1610, but also republished Emanuel Van Meteren’s Histoire (which included the first printed account of Henry Hudson’s “discovery” of the Hudson River Valley) in 1614, after Van Meteren’s death.[xliv] This keen interest in the New World found an outlet in his daughter’s son, Willem Beeckman, who arrived in the 1650s to New Netherland. Beeckman later became New York City’s longest serving mayor.[xlv]



Besides the use of Baudartius’ print, Dr. Venema also inserts an illustration (on page 25) from a military manual from the period. This manual, created by the Antwerp native Jacob de Gheyn[xlvi], was called Wapenhandelingen van Roers[xlvii]. This manual (the illustration above being one of the 42 stances for loading a musket) is relevant for several reasons. The military exercises described in the manual (step-by-step procedures for loading and firing efficiently and in ranks the musket) reflected the military innovations that gave the "Dutch" victory on the battlefield. These tactics mimicked Roman legions’ massed javelin throwing, but applied it to massed musketry. The ‘discovery’ (rediscovery?) of this approach was by the Flemish (and Catholic) scholar (and dean of Leiden University), Justus Lipsius.[xlviii] in his De Militia Romana, published in 1595.


As is the irony in so many wars fought in the name of God, the Dutch Revolt was yet one more where both sides (Spanish Catholics and Dutch-speaking Protestants) believed that the Almighty firmly endorsed their own position (and implicitly condemned the other). Religion of course was a key component of not only the raison d’etre for its birth but also for the continued existence of the Dutch Republic. The right religion for those close to the movers and shakers of the Dutch Republic was the Dutch Reformed Church, which was Calvinist in outlook but allied (and in communion with) the English (Anglican) and Scottish (Presbyterian) state churches. With very few exceptions, advancement in the Dutch world required at least perfunctory (and often, aggressively participatory) involvement with the Dutch Reformed Church.


The leading proponent of the strict, unyielding Calvinist outlook for the Dutch Reformed Church that ended triumphant after decades of struggle was Franciscus Gomarus (pictured below, and of whom Dr. Venema references later in her book, but of course without reference to his Flemish roots), a native of Brugge, West Flanders. Gomarus was claimed as an ally by the American Pilgrim Fathers (which to me is unlikely, and a subject for a future post) and was the leader of the school of thought called the Counter Remonstrants.




The Counter Remonstrants believed in war to the death against Spain, the reclamation of Flanders and Brabant back from the Spanish, and the predestined salvation of the “Select” members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Overwhelmingly they were the “war party” and were in many of the positions of influence in government and the Church. Like their leader, they were largely “Southern Netherlanders” – overwhelmingly of whom were the Flemish. In short, financed by Flemish émigrés, led by Flemish military and political leaders, while inspired and justified by Flemish theologians, the “Dutch” Revolt, appears to have been heavily Flemish.


Virtually all of this refutation of the popular characterization of the Dutch Revolt as some kind of native-born, autonomous rising by the indigenous population of Holland, as often portrayed by our Dutch friends to the north, is available to Dutch scholars in their own language. So there is no excuse for its omission by historians of the Netherlands. Of course, this same admonition applies to historians of a part of the Dutch Republic’s overseas holdings, New Netherland. And this post is really directed to them.


Permit me then, Gentle Reader, to close with a reminder again of the Flemish claim to this period in history, courtesy of the pre-eminent historian on the Dutch Revolt in every language, Professor Geoffrey Parker:

“Between 1540 and 1630, perhaps 175,000 South Netherlanders left their homes, 150,000 of them eventually finding refuge in the Dutch Republic. Many were people of the greatest distinction in their chosen fields: 300 Calvinist ministers, as well as many elders and deacons, came to parishes in the North from Flanders and Brabant; 375 Dutch artists, including Hals, Cuyp, van Ostade and van der Velde, also came from the South, as did the dramatists Vondel and Barlaeus, the architect Lieven de Key, and over 400 school and university teachers. Finally, of 364 known publishers and bookdealers active in the Republic before 1630, two-thirds were southern exiles. Their influence on the language, culture and religion of the North Netherlands would be hard to overstate.”[xlix]

At some point in the future – which at this point is long with unfinished posts – I will include a more detailed examination of the other Flemings surrounding Kiliaen Van Rensselaer.

Endnotes
[i] Axel Buyse’s talk, delivered March 13, 2006, was titled “Flemings and Brabanders in the Land of Rembrandt” and can be accessed here: http://www.codart.nl/images/CODART%20NEGEN%20congress_Text%2004%20Axel%20Buyse.pdf
[ii] My thanks to Jan Offner of Flanders Investment Trade for initially referring his colleague’s excellent essay to me. But I owe Jan a deeper thanks also because while the content is not his, the original inspiration of this blog is. It is Jan who challenged me to chronicle the Flemish Contribution to America – and to do so with proper citations. Note that there are some Anglo-Saxon historians, pre-eminent among which is Jonathan Irving Israel in his Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585-1740, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989) 2002 reprint, pp.5-6, who believe that the causation between the fall of Antwerp in 1585 and the rise of the Dutch Republic are not directly connected. However, it is curious how virtually all date the trajectory of the Dutch Republic’s rise from 1585 (as does Dr. Israel), the year that Antwerp fell to the Spanish troops under the Duke of Parma. Which of course implies causation. See especially p. 30: “The Fall of Antwerp in 1585 was undeniably a crucial event in economic as well as in political and religious history. But the fall of Antwerp, and the closing of the Scheldt to maritime traffic, do not, as is so often assumed, in themselves explain the subsequent transference of Antwerp’s entrepot role to Holland and Zealand. Control over Europe's rich trades did not simply migrate from the South to the North Netherlands in this straightforward way, however alluring such a notion might be. What actually transpired was much more complex.”
[iii]“Sixteenth-century Holland was, compared with Flanders and Brabant, a small town community.” Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609, (London: Ernest Benn, 1932), 1966 reprint, p.275. Professor Geyl’s work is excellent for those native English speakers who wish to see Flemings properly credited for their role in the Dutch Revolt. Note: Dr. Geyl was thoroughly Dutch, born at Dordrecht and schooled at the University of Leiden http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_Geyl . For those who can read Dutch and secure a copy of it, his broader, 2 volume work, Geschiednis van de Nederlandse Stam, (Amsterdam, 1949) is to me still an excellent resource.
[iv] For a sharp argument about how today’s Netherlanders are of Flemish origin, see the excellent (in Dutch) argument (“Warrom een Hollander een (halve) Vlaming is”) here: http://www.roepstem.net/hollandervlaming.html
[v] In fairness to Dr. Venema, the rest of her book actually incorporates quite a bit of reference to the “Southern Netherlanders”. However, even there she either ignores the Flemish origins of critical figures – such as Petrus Plancius’ Dranouter, West Flanders origins or Franciscus Gomarus’ Brugge, West Flanders origins – or where she contradicts authorities like Professor Asaert in saying Gerard Thiebault was a Frenchman (p. 145) when in fact he was a native of Antwerp. (Asaert, pp. 141, 179). Unfortunately, Dr. Venema's book is marred with periodic unnecessary typos - such as spelling "London" as "Londen" (p.321).
[vi] Inevitably there might be some who will wag a finger in my direction because of this post and whisper that I am anti-Dutch. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Besides the fact that my favorite foreign national anthem is Het Wilhelmus – and not just because it was written by the Fleming Phillip Marnix – I have a deep belief that we are, like other ethnicities, artificially separated by military truces (e.g. the Germans, the Koreans, etc.). Once a Flemish Republic is declared - thankfully even more likely given the current political paralysis in Belgium – we should seek closer ties with the Netherlands. Incidentally, I have no animosity toward Dr. Venema herself (or any of the other Dutch historians). I simply wish that they would give credit where credit is due. In this case it means to the Flemings and Brabanders who brought their moveable wealth, talents, and connections to the Dutch Republic.
[vii] Charles V’s life is chronicled in English by several historians, none who truly explore his Flemish upbringing. Still, if I were to pick one book to use as a starting point, Harald Kleinschmidt, Charles V: The World Emperor, (Glouccestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2004).
[viii] The authoritative biography on Phillip II in English (and several other languages as well) remains Geoffrey Parker, Philip II, (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1978). The good Dr. Parker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Parker_(historian) ) recently released a revised version in Spanish.
[ix] See, for example, Herman Kaptein, De Beeldenstorm, (Verloren, 2002), p.42 Online reference downloaded January 29, 2011 http://books.google.com/books?id=txpRRZe7tlcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Herman+Kaptein%22&hl=en&ei=1EBETb_rM8OBlAeTxZgd&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=steenvoorde&f=false . Professor Kaptein clearly states that the Iconclasm (Beeldenstorm) of statuary destruction that started the “Dutch” Revolt began in “the Flemish village” (“het Vlaamse dorp”) Steenvoorde.
[x] Those who began the iconoclasm were radicalized not only by their religious inclinations (uncompromising Calvinism) but also because, like political refugees the world over, they had been dispossessed of their livelihood and homes. “It is no coincidence that one of those who began the image-breaking in August 1566 was Jacob de Buzere, minister of the Dutch [language] church at Sandwich [England], and after the collapse of the Revolt in the spring of 1567 resistance was continued by a band of marauders recruited in Norwich and Sandwich, who carried out a series of brutal attacks in Flanders.” Andrew Pettegree, Foreign Protestant Communities in Sixteenth-Century London, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 252-253. Kindly note that this and other studies of the so-called “Dutch” Protestant churches in England at this time carry overwhelming proof that the Low Countries’ origin of the “Dutch” in England was overwhelmingly Flemish and that they actively gave their money and men to the cause of the “Dutch” Revolt. For example, in referring to the so-called “Dutch” church at Sandwich, the authoritative historian on that community declared that: “With very few exceptions they [Dutch-speaking exiles in Sandwich] were all natives from East and West Flanders or Brabant...They came from localities such as Antwerp, Axel, Bethune, Bruges, Deinze, Ghent, Hulst, Izegem, Kortrijk, Moorsele, Ostend, Oudenaarde, Pamel, Roeselare, Ronse, Turnhout, Wervik, the Westkwartier of Flanders.” Marcel Backhouse, The Flemish and Walloon Communities at Sandwich during the Reign of Elizabeth I (1561-1603), (Brussel: Paleis der Academien, 1995), p. 18.
[xi] Luckily for us in this day and age, the primary source material for the “Dutch” Revolt is available online and in translation. For those interested, the url is here: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/koss002text01_01/koss002text01_01_0002.php
[xii] There has been a great deal of scholarly debate recently about where Charles Quint was actually born. Natives of Ghent will often show you the “house where Charles Quint was born” (as a kind Ms. Brigitte Dhondt did for me and my father in 2007). A statue exists there to commemorate the occasion. However, one recent writer declared Eeklo to be his birthplace while another (also using heretofore undiscovered primary resources) argues that it was near Eeklo but actually on the road, while in transit, that Charles V was born (my thanks to Mr. Hugo Baeckeland for this reference). The key point however is that Charles V was supremely Flemish in not only birth but outlook. This makes him the first global leader of Flemish origin. Please see Marc Van Hulle, “Keizer Karel was een Eeklonaar”, in Het Nieuwesblad, 31 October, 2006, downloaded February 6, 2011 http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=GQL13TQNJ and http://users.telenet.be/keizerkarel/eeklo.htm This point of history that came to me courtesy of (separately) Professor Matthias Storme and amateur historian Hugo Baeckeland of Eeklo.
[xiii] That revolt was in part directed against the Flemish courtiers around Charles V, especially Willem II van Croy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_de_Cro%C3%BF the Lord of Temse and Aarschot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarschot .The only English language full treatment of the Comunero Revolt I am aware of is the polemic by Henry Latimer Seaver, The Great Revolt in Castile: A Study of the Comunero Movement of 1520-1521, (New York: Octagon Books, 1966). Seaver’s account is marred by chapter titles such as “The Flemish Pillage” and references to “the rapacities of the Flemish courtiers” [p.47].
[xiv] The Ghent Revolt of 1539-1540 ended in the expected subjugation of Ghent, but given the offence, a relatively mild (in terms of blood debt) price paid by the Gentenaars. But it also lead to the nickname for Gentenaars as "de stroopers" (for the noose that they were required to wear around their necks in supplication to Charles V). The only English work on this I am aware of is the G.P.R. James, Mary Burgundy, or The Revolt of Ghent (1833), 2 Vols. Whatever you are tempted to do, do NOT buy the reprints of this book floating around. It is chock full of inaccuracies (example: “Hainaut” is rendered “Hainnut”) and improbable dialogue. If one must, then download it for free from Google books. On the issue of Ghent’s history as an independent state, see Professor Wim Blockman’s “De Tweekoppige Draak: Het Gentse Stadsbestuur Tussen Vorst en Onderdanen, 14de-16de Eeuw”.Sourced online here: https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/1887/1446/1/351_037.pdf
[xv] Curiously, Dr. Venema does not even mention (in her bibliography) the premier works on the Reformation in the Low Countries in English. First and foremost (and by a Leiden Ph.D. graduate no less): Alastair Duke, Reformation and Revolt in the Low Countries, (London: Hambledon & London, 2003). For the Anabaptist side of the story in Flanders, please see A. L. E. Verheyden, Anabaptism in Flanders, 1530-1650, (Sottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1961). For the Calvinist bit, please see Guido Marnef, “The Changing Face of Calvinism in Antwerp, 1550-1585”, in Andrew Pettegree, Alastair Duke, and Gillian Lewis, eds., Calvinism in Europe, 1540-1620, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp.143-159. Lastly but hardly least, is the excellent (and supremely relevant) work by Peter Arnade, Beggars, Iconoclasts, & Civic Patriots: The Political Culture of the Dutch Revolt, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008).
[xvi] See Geoffrey Parker, The Dutch Revolt, (New York: Penguin, 1979) for the seminal work on this subject in English. Dr. Parker, while not highlighting the Flemish contribution, is acutely conscious of it.
[xvii] The Westkwartier (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westkwartier ) is that part of West Flanders called the Westhoek with that part of Flanders seized by French “Sun King” Louis XIV in 1679 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Nijmegen ).
[xviii] Consider, for example, the Ten Eyck and Boel families. They are often labeled either Dutch or German. But in fact, the family were originally long term residents of Antwerp who fled the city after its fall (1585) and settled for a time in Cologne (1588? To 1620s?) before moving then to Amsterdam (citizens by 1645) and finally New Netherland (in 1651). SeeGwenn F. Epperson, New Netherland Roots, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994), especially Appendix C “The Ten Eyck-Boel European Connection”, pp. 125-129.
[xix] According to Professor Geyl, it was the Flemish nobleman Dolhaim who was first charged with organizing the Flemish Protestant pirates as a real fighting force in 1569. See Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609, (London: Ernest Benn, 1932), 1966 reprint, pp.113-114. The appellation was intended as a derogatory comment by the Walloon nobleman Berlaymont. See Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609, (London: Ernest Benn, 1932), 1966 reprint, pp.87-88. Curiously, Professor Geyl says that at the time the term had deeper meaning: a reference to the Wild Beggars” of West Flanders. Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609, (London: Ernest Benn, 1932), 1966 reprint, p.113. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geuzen for the story of the origin of the term.
[xx] See Geoffrey Parker, The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567-1659: The Logistics of Spanish Victory and Defeat in the Low Countries’ Wars, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1972), 1987 Reprint, Appendix B, “Organization of the Army of Flanders”, (b) Muster of the Army of Flanders, 24 March 1601, p. 276. The Army of Flanders at this time comprised roughly 6,000 Spaniards, 1200 Italians, nearly 9,000 Germans, 4,700 Walloons, and 1,700 “Burgundians” [??]. A roster of the “Dutch” troops under arms at this time (or, for example, in the Siege of Ostende) shows a very high percentage of Flemings in the line (as well as in command).
[xxi] See especially, D.J.B. Trim, “Protestant Refugees in Elizabethan England and Confessional Conflict in France and the Netherlands, 1562-c.1610”, in Randolph Vigne and Charles Littleton, eds., From Strangers to Citizens: The Integration of Immigrant Communities in Britain, Ireland and Colonial America, 1550-1750, (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2001), pp. 68-79.
[xxii] In an earlier post here http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2009/11/flemish-influence-on-pilgrims-part-5.html I chronicled the extensive Flemish contributions to the siege and successful capture of Briel as well as the lifting of the Siege of Leiden. It was an annual celebration of the latter event which the Pilgrims copied and made their own. Culminating in the Fall American holiday now known as Thanksgiving Day.
[xxiii] Amazingly to me, no biography exists on Daniel Rogers, but swathes of his life have been obliquely chronicled. The best English source that I am aware of is J. A. Van Dorsten, Poets, Patrons and Professors: Sir Philip Sidney, Daniel Rogers and the Leiden Humanists, (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 1962), pp. 9-75.
[xxiv] Curiously, this trio of first cousins – Emanuel Van Meteren, Daniel Rogers and Abraham Ortelius – while close, occupied varied posts on the religious spectrum. Van Meteren, while an important elder and figure in the Dutch Church in London (and also the French and Italian Calvinist churches there) was viewed as orthodox (in a Reformed sense) by the religious establishment in the Netherlands (such as Petrus Plancius, et.al.). It is unclear what Daniel Rogers’ specific church affiliation was, but it is unlikely that it deviated much from the now required Church of England allegiance (given his proximity to the Queen). Meanwhile, Abraham Ortelius, nominally a Catholic, is reputed to have shared with Van Meteren a certain affinity for the “Family of Love”, a sect abhorred by Calvinists, Anglicans and Catholics alike. Please see the footnotes in my earlier posting here: http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2009/07/flemish-fathers-of-america-emanuel-van.html On a slightly different note, “Abraham Ortelius, maker of the first atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum or Theatre of the World, was one of the most prominent citizens of Antwerp at the time that this city was the trading centre of Europe and indeed the world, in the second half of the sixteenth century.” Marcel P.R. van den Broecke, Ortelius Atlas maps: An Illustrated Guide, (Tuurdijk: HES Publishers, 1996), p. 9. As far as I am aware of, this is the most complete source for Ortelius and his work in English.
[xxv] Please see my earlier post on Van Meteren here: http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2009/07/flemish-fathers-of-america-emanuel-van.html . The only full biography on Van Meteren is W.D. Verduyn, Emanuel Van Meteren, (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1926). As far as I am aware, despite his immense contributions and influence, no full biography on Van Meteren in English exists.
[xxvi] As far as I know, no biography exists of the interesting Van Meetkercke. But Professor Asaert comments [p. 297] that "Een van de trouwste adviseurs en medestanders van de landvoogd was de Vlaming Adolf van Meetkercke." [Dr. Asaert means trusted by the Earl of Leicester at Leiden]. Note also that [p.295 Asaert] "In een kielzogbevonden zich al meteen een aantal Vlamingen die eerst in Engeland een toevlucht hadden gevonden maar die nu het land blijk gaf van minder tolerantie tegenover vreemdelingen de oversteek naar Noord-Nederland waagden." See Gustaaf Asaert, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2002). For a look at Professor Van Meetkercke’s scholarly treatise, see the online scans posted here:
his
http://dfg-viewer.de/show/?set%5Bmets%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fmdz10.bib-bvb.de%2F%7Edb%2Fmets%2Fbsb00012953_mets.xml
[xxvii] As Dr. Briel has demonstrated, Leiden itself was more than 50% Flemish when the Pilgrims resided there. Dr. J. Briels, Zuid-Nederlanders in de Republiek 1572-1630: Een Demografische en Cultuurhistorische Studie, (Sint-Niklaas: Danthe, 1985), “Table XXI: Immigratie in de Noordelijke Nederlanden-Samenvatting”, p. 214. Several other cities, such as Haarlem and Middelburg, also had more than 50% non natives in 1622. As such, the Flemish dominated virtually every aspect of Leiden’s university town’s existence. Professor Asaert states: "In Leiden namen vooral Vlamingen de plaatsen in van e uitgestoten remonstraten en katholieken. In de kerkenraden hadden Brabanders en Vlamingen zoals gezegd al een grote invloed verworven....In Leiden, met een gemengd calvinistisch-remonstratse kerkenraad, vroeg de magistraat in 1615 aan Episcopius, de bekende remontstrantse hoogelaar, of hij voortaan 's zondags regelmatig aan de predikdienst wilde meewerken. 'Neen,' antwoordde de arminiaan, 'ik wil niet onderworpen zijn aan de censuur van de Vlamingen in de kerkenraad.'” Gustaaf Asaert, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2002), p.294.
[xxviii] Marnix is yet another “Flemish Father” of the Dutch Revolt, neglected by historians. Perhaps it is in part because he presided over the fall of Antwerp in 1585. But his “Bijenkorf” was the polemic that helped articulate the rebels position and helped to justify their actions in the eyes of the people and that of foreign powers. It was translated into multiple languages and served to rally not only Flemings and Dutchmen but the English and other Protestant standard bearers as well. See the text of De Bijenkorf der H. Roomsche Kerk (1569) here http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/marn001bien01_01/
[xxix] As the Belgicist (and therefore, hardly a friend of Flanders) historian Henri Pirenne declared about Antwerp at this point in history: “Throughout the sixteenth century the Low Countries formed no more than its [Antwerp’s] suburbs.” Leon Voet, Antwerp, The Golden Age: The Rise and Glory of the Metropolis in the Sixteenth Century, (Antwerp: Mercatorsfonds, 1973), p.7.
[xxx] The introduction of the carriage to England was by Willem Boonen, who was also England’s first coachman – a role that thanks to books and movies appears to be a quintessentially English occupation. See John J. Murray, Flanders and England: The Influence of the Low Countries on Tudor-Stuart England, (Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1985), p. 156. Also, for a broader (albeit superficial) survey of the many contacts between the English and the Flemish see my posting of a speech by Professor Murray here: http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2010/02/flemish-influence-on-pilgrims-part-7.html . “Mrs. Dingham van der Plasse, the daughter of a Flemish knight, introduced the art [of starching] into England; for the fee of five pounds sterling she was prepared to instruct English gentlewomen in the approved methods of getting up linen, and so greatly was her teaching prized that she soon amassed a considerable estate.” See W. Cunningham, Alien Immigrants to England, 2nd ed., (London: Frank Cass & Co., 1969), p.148 .
[xxxi] For Elizabeth’s fluency in Flemish please see http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/elizabeth/section1.html .
[xxxii] See my earlier post here for details on Queen Elizabeth I’s Flemish origins. http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2009/07/flemish-influence-on-pilgrims-part-4.html
[xxxiii] An online list of the known nationalities of soldiers fighting for the United Provinces in the ranks shows not only Dutch, Flemish, English, French and Walloons, but also Spaniards, Italians, Germans and others. The online excel sheet tally is part of the “Vlaanderen” subsection of the Dutch online genealogical website. A List of all known and registered Flemings emigrating to the Netherlands before 1800 can be found here: http://www.ngv.nl/Vlamingen/homepage.php?site=NGV&frams=n&action=listkopregels&order=d
This is reflected in the nationalities of those resident in New Netherland. My own simple tally included Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Flemish, French, Italian, German, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Walloon and even Moroccans and Angolans (as well, of course, of Native Americans). Although my own work produced that range, the two scholarly monographs I am aware of on this subject cite a smaller range of nationalities. See for example, “Representative Pioneer Settlers of New Netherland” in The New York Genalogical and Biographical Journal, Volume 35 (January, 1934), pp.2-12. This gives only Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Flemish, German, Norwegian, and Walloon. Also, Oliver A. Rink, “The People of New Netherland: Notes on Non-English Immigration to New York in the Seventeenth Century” New York History, January, 1981, pp. 4-42 (which really delves into the professions, not so much the ethnicities of New Netherland’s population), and David Steven Cohen, “How Dutch Were the Dutch of New Netherland”, in New York History, January, 1981,pp. 43-60 (which attempts to determine the ethnicities of the inhabitants through the known backgrounds of West India Company military stationed in New Netherland). For the record, the second article claims only slightly more than 3% (31 individuals) of the known military were Flemish. For the record, my atlly of known individuals with distinct Flemish ethnicity in New Netherland at this time is more than 100.
[xxxiv]“The Spanish party [meaning government at Brussels and their Walloon collaborators] felt that nothing but fear of the garrisons kept the people in check, and every precaution had been taken. In all the most exposed towns [to attack by the Dutch-speaking rebels] – Thienen [Tirlemont], Leuven, Brussels, Mechlin [Mechelen] – [the Spanish Duke of] Alva had placed reliable governors, Walloon noblemen every one of them …all with Walloon troops.” Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609, (London: Ernest Benn, 1932), 1966 reprint, p.107
[xxxv] Geoffrey Parker, Spain and the Netherlands, 1559-1659: Ten Studies, (Glasgow: Fontana Collins, 1979), p.35
[xxxvi] For the record, even I recognize that not all good things come out of Flanders. Lumey was an excellent example of that. While a leader of the band that captured den Briel in 1572, “The Brill, under Lumey, became a veritable den of robbers.” Lumey tortured and massacred priests, robbed churches, and essentially acted more like a servant of Satan than of a Christian movement. After his arrest (January, 1573) and expulsion (1574) from the ranks of the “Beggars”, Lumey relocated to Germany – and returned to Roman Catholicism! See Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609, (London: Ernest Benn, 1932), 1966 reprint, pp. 126-129.
[xxxvii] For some reason, Professor Venema does not include in her biography Martin Van Gelderen. The Political Thought of the Dutch Revolt,1555-1590, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). A quick review of this book might have helped add some coherence to this background section of her book.
[xxxviii] See Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609, (London: Ernest Benn, 1932), 1966 reprint, pp. 145-160 for a concise yet fair discussion of the Pacification of Ghent.
[xxxix] R.C. Van Caenegem, Law, History, the Low Countries, and Europe (London: Hambledon Press,1994), p.114.
[xl]“The idea of the rule of law was already present in Flemish cities in the twelfth century….When count William Clito came to power in Flanders in 1127, he guaranteed the inhabitants of his cities a right judgement of the cities’ aldermen against every man and against himself [the count]. The prince is already [at this time then] subject to the laws. The 1127 city charters were not mere words. On 16 February 1128, Ivan, Lord of Aalst, acted as the spokesman of the city of Ghent before the count. Ivan rebuked the court [sic] for not respecting the privileges he had given the burghers of Ghent and other cities. To settle the matter, he proposed [that] a special court should convene, in which the Peers of Flanders and representatives of the clergy and the people would sit to judge over the count. If this court should find the count unworthy of the countship, he would have to give it up. The count did not agree to this and Ivan and Ghent rose in revolt.”
“William was killed in the civil war that ensued and a new count came to power. The background of the conflict was the opinion of Ghent and other cities that there was a contractual relationship between the count and the citizens. They recognized him as their lord and he, in turn, recognized their privileges. If the count no longer respected his part of the deal by acting against the rights of citizens, they had a right to break their contract and to fight him. This contractual conception of the relationship between ruler and subjects returns in the city charters granted by William’s successor. Thereafter the counts managed to suppress it, but it reappeared at regular times in Flemish history. In 1191 the first article of a charter for the city of Ghent stated that the citizens were only subject to the count as long as he wanted to treat them justly and reasonably….The 1581 Act of Abjuration is reminiscent of Ivan of Aalst. By his failure to respect the rights of his subjects, Philip II of Spain had lost his right to rule the Netherlands.” See Hubert Bocken & Walter de Bondt, Introduction to Belgian Law, (Kluwer 2000) p.20, IV. “Belgium’s contribution to Law” My thanks to Professor Matthias Storme for this reference.
[xli] See Barbara Wolff (1998-06-29). “Was The Declaration of Independence Inspired by the Dutch?”, http://www.news.wisc.edu/3049 Accessed February 6, 2011. The implications of the Flemish interest in the rule of law and the rights of individuals against the arbitrariness of the State go back centuries. The tie between the Flemish struggle for independence for their rights in 1302 and the U.S.’ own struggle in 1776 is nicely overviewed here by the impressive polymath Dr. Paul Belien: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/58 For a quick overview of the Act of Abjuration, its authors and its importance, the Wikipedia summary is sufficient: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Abjuration
[xlii] The author was Jan van Asseliers, a native of Antwerp and the secretary for the Council of State (Raad van State) as well as the pension – see http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/webviews/page.webview?eadid=NL-HaNA_1.01.01.00&pageid=N1033E. “The committee of four who advised on the drafting was composed of four members – Andries Hessels, greffier (secretary) of the States of Brabant; Jacques Tayaert, pensionary of the city of Ghent; Jacob Valcke, pensionary of the city of Ter Goes (now Goes); and Pieter van Dieven (also known as Petrus Divaeus), pensionary of the city of Mechelen– was charged with drafting what was to become the Act of Abjuration. The Act prohibited the use of the name and seal of Philip in all legal matters, and of his name or arms in minting coins. It gave authority to the Councils of the provinces to henceforth issue the commissions of magistrates. The Act relieved all magistrates of their previous oaths of allegiance to Philip, and prescribed a new oath of allegiance to the States of the province in which they served, according to a form prescribed by the States-General. The actual draft seems to have been written by the audiencier of the States-General, Jan van Asseliers.”
A Dutch/English translation can be found here:
http://www.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1501-1600/plakkaat/plakkaat.htm .
[xliii] Again, amazing to me, there is no dedicated biography on Baudartius. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Baudartius. That said, some of Baudartius’ works can be downloaded here: http://libguides.calvin.edu/content.php?pid=47579&sid=663990
[xliv] Please see my earlier post to see scanned copies of Emanuel Van Meteren’s central work as well as the specific entries dealing with Henry Hudson’s famous landfall here: http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2010/12/flemish-influence-on-henry-hudson.html
[xlv] George Herbert Walker Bush (41st U.S. president ) and George W. Bush (43rd) are among two of the descendants of Willem Beeckman – and in turn, of course, of Willem Baudaert/Baudartius. See http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=BLELE_20100809_004 and especially Eddy Lefevre, “Amerikaanse president George W. Bush heft Deinse roots,” in het Nieuwsblad, February 7, 2008, downloaded February 6, 2011 http://nieuwsblad.typepad.com/deinze/2008/02/amerikaanse-pre.html .
[xlvi] The Wikipedia description of De Gheyn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_de_Gheyn_II ) does not reflect his true importance. For that I would recommend Geoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution: Millitary Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500-1800, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). p. 20.
[xlvii] A copy of the manual and its importance is explained here: http://www.kb.nl/galerie/stijl/047wapenhandelinge-en.html .
[xlviii] Geoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500-1800, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p.20. The Wikipedia bio here gives one a sense of Lipsius’ importance to the age and the Dutch Revolt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justus_Lipsius
[xlix] Geoffrey Parker, "New Light on an Old Theme: Spain and the Netherlands 1550-1650." European History Quarterly 1985 15(2): 219-236; p. 226

Copyright 2011 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without my express, written consent.

Annetje Loockermans - Flemish Mother of America

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Today, March 17th, is the birthday of Annetje Loockermans. In her day (the 1640s to the 1680s), in Nieuw Nederland, she was the supreme arbiter of fashion, taste, and polite society. It is thanks to her that we today celebrate Christmas with the tradition of Santa Claus. But she was much more than simply a purveyor of popular customs or the colonial equivalent of Ms. Manners. Annetje Loockermans brought civilization to New Netherland. More importantly, she literally gave birth to the elite of America. As such she deserves first rank recognition as a Flemish Mother of America.



Turnhout and the Loockermans


Next year, 2012, the Flemish city of Turnhout celebrates 800 years of municipal existence. Plagued by wars, civil unrest and emigration, Turnhout has yet retained a history worth recording. Yet, despite all the hoopla attendant to its long existence, Turnhout strangely seems to have forgotten the contributions of some of its sons and daughters to the world stage. (Although the Knack Editor Karl Van Den Broeck is working to correct this.) One of those daughters, Annetje Loockermans, was the pre-eminent lady of New Netherland society from the 1640s until her death in 1684.


As Mrs. Van Cortlandt (she married an ex-enlisted soldier with that fine surname and made him a man of stature) Annetje Loockermans is credited with having brought the Netherlandic tradition of celebrating Sinter Klaas (Saint Nicholas) to America – and this at a time when the Puritans of New England had outlawed the celebration of Christmas. [1] More importantly, her North American offspring today literally number in the millions and include the elite of business, government and academia from the past four centuries. [2]


What do we know of this “Flemish Mother of America”?



Sint Pieterskerk in Turnhout where Anna Lokermans (Annetje Loockermans) was baptized a Catholic in 1618

New Netherland


Anna/Annetje was born March 17, 1618 and was baptized a Catholic in Sint-Pieterskerk in Turnhout. [3] At the time, many Flemish Protestants outwardly conformed to Roman Catholic Church practice while clandestinely observing some version of “reformed” Christianity. It is possible – given her family’s later prominence in the (Calvinist) Dutch Reformed Church in New Netherland (something not easy to attain [4] ) – that her family had long been crypto-Calvinists whose worship and beliefs were kept hidden from their neighbors and the authorities. [5]


Regardless of their Roman Catholic baptisms, her Flemish siblings and half-Flemish children would later become prominent members of the Dutch Reformed Church in the North American Dutch outpost called New Netherland. [6]





Like her brother Govert Loockermans, part of Annetje’s success must be attributed to her force of character. Later the strength of familial ties through her brother Govert’s wife, the noted and respected widow of Jan de Water [7] , Adriantje, (who was a niece of Gillis Verbrugge, head of the largest trading house in Amsterdam doing business in New Netherland and her brother’s boss) also helped. But in the end it was Annetje alone who carved herself a place as the leading lady of Nieuw Nederland.


It is uncertain when Annetje first came to America. My suspicion is that she joined her brother Govert Loockermans when he returned to New Netherland late in 1641. For it is not until she had married in 1642 that we begin to read about her in New Netherland chronicles.


Annetje’s husband was a rising merchant known as Oloff Van Cortlandt. Van Cortlandt was a first-generation Netherlander (his parents were Scandinavians), who had been a common WIC soldier for at least a few years before striking out as a “freeman” [someone who was neither employed by nor contractually tied to the West India Company]. Their first introduction may have come through Annetje’s brother Govert, who was a successful merchant, a fighting man, and of similar age (more about Govert to come in a future post).



By the early 1640s Van Cortlandt was a man destined for great things. “Oloff Stevensz van Cortlant" [8] had been [the] store-keeper for the Company and deacon of the church [but not until after marrying Annetje Loockermans in 1642]; later he was burgomaster of New Amsterdam.” [9] It is difficult to know how much of Van Cortlandt’s success can be attributed to Annetje. But perhaps like all good marriages, their strengths were complementary and the sum of the two was greater than individually they could have hoped to accomplish. [10]




But Annetje did not need a marriage to further her family connections. If anything she already had a strong network. Annetje’s brother, Govert’s wife’s sister (in other words, Annetje’s sister-in-law by marriage through her brother Govert) had married Jacob van Couwenhoven. [11]“Jacob van Couwenhoven had come out in 1633 [on the same ship as brother Govert's first voyage] and resided at first at Rensselaerswyck; he was afterward of note as a speculator and a brewer in New Amsterdam.” [12]


Incidentally, both Van Couwenhoven and Loockermans worked as agents for the Verbrugges. Nor were they alone. “Family ties linked most of these factors to their masters in Amsterdam. Johannes de Peijster, dispatched by the Verbrugges to New Netherland to assist Govert Loockermans, was described by Seth Verbrugge as ‘my wife’s uncle’s sister’s son, of good background’.” [13] So through Govert’s wife, Annetje was also connected to a powerful Amsterdam merchant family (of Flemish origin).




While Netherlandic society – and of course the norms of New Netherland itself – allowed a great deal more equality between the genders, at the end of the day 17th century colonial society did make gender distinctions. Later descendants, regardless of whether they echoed wishful beliefs or family lore, believed Annetje held first place among the women of New Netherland. “There was an unwritten law among the Dutch women, that some member of the family should be acknowledged as a leader, whose influence was unbounded and whose dictates were obeyed without question. The sister of Govert Loockermans [Annetje Loockermans] was one of these autocrats, and it was mainly due to her energy that her entire family emigrated to America.” [14]



For me at least, the documentary evidence of Annetje prodding Govert onto a privateering vessel to cross the Atlantic (or, even more unlikely, taking ship for New Amsterdam before Govert in 1633) does not exist. Still, Annetje was someone who at least among her descendants is remembered as a person who got things done. For example, Annetje Loockermans is credited by her myriad descendants as having been the driving force behind the first municipal improvements in New York City: the paving of the dirt streets with cobblestones. [15] Her descendants likewise credit her with other domestic innovations such as a space-saving folding bed. [16] Modest accomplishments to be sure but still indications of intelligence, drive and resourcefulness.



If snippets of information are any standard to go by, Annetje Van Cortlandt nee Loockermans was close to her half-Flemish daughter, Maria Van Rensselaer nee Van Cortlandt. Both were married to men considered two of the most powerful in New Netherland. Still, both women exerted influence in their own right as well as behind the scenes. It may very well be, as a late 19th century descendant claimed, that Annetje Loockermans and her peers “governed their husbands…” [17] However, if they did, they showed exceptionally strong wills: neither husband ever struck his contemporaries as 'hen-pecked' or weak-willed. While Annetje’s daughter Maria Van Rensselaer is worthy of a bio in her own right, together, mother and daughter were clearly a force to be reckoned with. Jointly they are anecdotally credited with helping to avert a bloodbath by convincing their husbands not to forward monies to a useless battle against the mercenaries and English freebooters who captured New Netherland in 1664. [18]






After Annetje


The documentary and historical trail left by Annetje Loockermans the person is sparse. But I think it is fair to say that Annetje Loockermans did more than act as a spur to her husband. Nor was she simply an ornament for polite society, a 17th century version of an Upper East Side socialite, or even an innovative pioneer woman (although she was all of those too).



One measure of any person’s mark in this world is how their children and grandchildren have fared in the world. Annetje Loockerman’s real legacy (to me at least) is the contribution her offspring have made to society and history. On that basis this Turnhoutse lass did quite well in fact. First, Anna’s female offspring married well.


First and foremost among Annetje’s female descendants in both accomplishments and affinity was her daughter Maria Van Courtlandt. The half-Flemish Maria married the equally part Flemish Jeremias Van Rensselaer, grandson of the patron of Rensselaerwijck. Their patroonship was in fact the only real feudal estate to survive the Revolutionary War (up until 1839). More importantly, Maria proved her mettle as a 27 year-old-widow, raising 6 young children on a huge estate, dealing with every aspect of the business while literally fighting off conniving relatives, hostile Indians, and French invasions. All this while crippled with a debilitating handicap. Truly a model of the “pioneer woman”. [19]


Margaret Kemble Gates, Great-grand-daughter of Annetje Loockermans and wife of the British General who started the American Revolutionary War by attacking Lexington & Concord in April, 1775



Later generations found equal prominence. Margaret Kemble (great grand-daughter) married General Thomas Gage (British general at the start of the Revolutionary War). Gage is best known perhaps as the British general who ordered the redcoats to march on Lexington and Concord, thereby triggering 'the shot heard around the world' and the opening of the American War of Independence. While choosing a losing side in a war is not much of an accomplishment. Sticking with someone whose fortunes have waned, “’Til death do us part” certainly is.



Elizabeth Schuyler 3rd great grand daughter of Annetje Loockermans and wife of Alexander Hamilton


The elegant and intelligent Elizabeth Schuyler (3rd great grand-daughter) married Alexander Hamilton (aide-de-camp to George Washington, Founding Father of the United States, 1st Secretary of the Treasury, etc.). As the bastard son of a distant relative, she might have easily rejected his proposal for marriage but weathered considerable societal criticism to marry the man. Elizabeth Schuyler not only ‘stuck by her man’ when he was illicitly meeting other women (including her sister) but when Aaron Burr’s dueling pistol felled her husband in 1804, she raised their eleven children alone.




Elizabeth’s contemporary, Harriet Livingston (3rd great grand-daughter) married Robert Fulton (inventor of the steam engine and protege of Benjamin Franklin), while not as well known, had perhaps a more tranquil life. But it was several generations before a family tradition known as Sinter Klaas (and today Santa Claus) was transmitted through several generations to the world.






Catherine Eliza Taylor (5th great grand-daughter) married Clement Clarke Moore (author of “Twas the Night Before Christmas”). Arguably one of the things Flemish women have given the world yet, with traditional Flemish modesty, avoiding acclaim for their contribution to world culture.




Last here (although by no means least in the line), Anna Livingston Street (6th great grand-daughter) married Levi Parsons Morton (22nd Vice President of the United States under Benjamin Harrison). Morton was also the Ambassador to France during the construction of the Statue of Liberty and drove in the first rivet. Of course at this level of remove it is hard to judge whether any generational memory of Annetje Loockermans remained. But this nicely ties back to my roots. The village of Morton Grove, IL, just a few miles south of where I live, is named after him. [20]





And what of the male line? Of Annetje Loockermans’ immediate male descendants, two deserve special notice. One son, Stephanus Van Cortlandt became the 1st native born mayor of New York City. A second son, Jacobus, followed Stephanus footsteps and became only the 2nd native born mayor of New York City.





In subsequent generations other remarkable men were born of her line. John Jay (2nd great-grandson - thru Jacobus' line - pictured above) negotiated the end of the Revolutionary War and became the 1st Chief Justice of the United States. James Fenimore Cooper (4th great-grandson), perhaps with some inkling of the contact his ancestors had with the Native Americans, was the author of a best-selling book of the American Frontier (and perhaps the first popular literature to portray Native Americans in a sympathetic light). The book was called “The Last of the Mohicans”. Another descendant of the same generation, Stephen Watts Kearney (4th great-grandson), became not only a hero of the Mexican War (1847-8) but also the liberator of California.




In the next generation another author surfaced. Herman Melville (5th great-grandson) became the author of “Moby Dick”. This book, like “The Last of the Mohicans”, was a “bestseller” of the 19th century and is considered a classic today. Three generations later, in a curious return to a trade dominant in New Netherland (furs) another descendant, John Jacob Astor (7th great-grandson) ran the American Fur Trading Company. Like his 7th great grand uncle Govert Loockermans, Astor turned his fur riches into landed wealth. One of the richest man in mid-19th century America (and the first multi-millionaire) his name remains a synonym for wealth.



Annetje’s descendants also pursued other paths. Montgomery Clift (8th great-grandson), a name largely unknown by today’s Generations X, Y, and Z was a leading man movie actor from the 1940s-1960s. Another descendant of that same generation was the globally known Cyrus Vance (8th great-grandson). As the Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter he sought peace in the Middle East.






The extended Loockermans family did not do too poorly either. In New Netherland Anna’s niece and namesake Anna Loockermans (Anna senior’s brother Pieter’s daughter) married Adam Winne (the son of Gentenaar Pieter Winne/Winnen – see my post on the Gentenaars of New Netherland). [21] Perhaps because of the unique combination of two Flemish ancestries (!), their offspring proved the most illustrious: Theodore Roosevelt (President of the United States - pictured above) and Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady of the United States and wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt).



Just as Annetje led New Netherland’s “society”, her brother, Govert Loockermans (1612-1671), was a leader in the political, economic and military circles of the colony. Govert Loockermans rose from very modest beginnings, attained great financial success, held numerous offices (civil, military, and religious), and died the richest man in New Netherland – if not of all of North America. [22] But his story is for a later post.




Anna Lokermans was born March 17th, 1618 in Turnhout. Annetje Loockermans was married February 26th, 1642 in New Amsterdam. Anna Van Courtlandt nee Annetje Lokermans/ Loockermans died April 4th, 1684 in New York City, surrounded by her family at the end of a life well lived. The fact that she and her husband passed away within months of each other underscores the close tie between them and the example of a married couple who became “one flesh”.



So if you visit New York City and pass a street, a train station, or a manor house with the Dutch name “Van Cortlandt”, remember that it was a woman from Turnhout who at made an equal if not greater contribution to the propagation of that family name and to the great fortune of America. My next post will bring us back to New Netherland and reconnect the Loockermans, the Mohawks, and the Flemish Protestant émigrés.




Endnotes


[1] See http://www.pilgrimhall.org/bradfordjournalchristmas.htm Downloaded March 17, 2011.



[2] See the excellent online outline of the descendants of Govert’s father, Jan Loockermans here: http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/printerready/science/geography_items/carters/craters_r.html December 10, 2010. This data was presumably culled from the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record.



[3] "In Turnhout worden de doopregisters bewaard van Godefridus Lokermans (2 juli 1612) en zijn zuster Anna (17 maart 1618), kinderen van Jacob Lokermans en Maria Nicasius. Ook hun broer Pieter (geboren 5 oktober 1614) liet sporen na in zijn geboorteplaats. In de Sint-Pieterskerk op de Grote Markt van Turnhout, waar Anna en Godfridus (De Latijnse naam Godefridus werd in het protestantse Noorden al snel Govert) gedoopt werden, rust nog steeds een van hun nazaten." E-mail correspondence from Karl Van Den Broeck dated October 10, 2010.



[4] Church membership was not something easily attained. “Those who were members [of the Dutch Reformed Church] upon their emigration to New Netherland, or when they removed within the colony, had to produce a certificate of membership from their previous congregation.” Jaap Jacobs, New Netherland: a Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America, (Leiden: Brill, 2005), p.290. Please note that this was a fairly elite group. “Although the Reformed Church was the public church [of New Netherland], its membership remained low at less than 20 percent of the [European] population.” Ibid, p.478. The total European population at 1664 has been variously estimated at between 9,000 and 10,000 individuals. Thus, less than 2,000 of the European inhabitants were members of the Dutch Reformed Church in 1664.



[5] Just for the record, whether the Loockermans were crypto-Calvinists while in Turnhout or simply converted later when in Amsterdam, practice of Roman Catholicism in the (northern) Netherlands would have proved difficult. To quote the eminent historian Charles Ralph Boxer: “For over a hundred and fifty years after the relative triumph of militant Calvinism at the Synod of Dordrecht [1618-1619], Roman Catholics could not legally worship in public or in private, nor could they belegally christened nor married by a Roman Catholic priest. They were forbidden to give their children a Roman Catholic education, or even to send them abroad for the purpose of receiving one there. The wearing of crucifixes, rosaries or Roman Catholic insignia of any kind, the buying and selling of Roman Catholic religious books, devotional literature, prints and engravings, the saying or reciting of Roman Catholic hymns and songs, the celebration of Roman Catholic feast-days and holidays, were all forbidden by law. No Roman Catholic could hold an official post, whether municipal, university, legal, naval or military. Unmarried Roman Catholic women were not allowed to make a will; and any bequest to a Roman Catholic foundation was held to be null and void in law. In most places, the children of mixed marriages had to be brought up as [p. 138] Protestants, and there were so many other vexatious legal hindrances in the way of practising the Roman Catholic faith that, if these penal laws had been properly enforced, the liberty of conscience which was grudgingly allowed to Roman Catholics would have been almost valueless by itself. In addition to all these civil disabilities from which the Dutch Roman Catholics suffered, they were for long regarded by many of their Protestant compatriots as being real or potential traitors – from 1568 to 1648 in the interests of Spain , and from 1648 to 1748 in that of France.” C.R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 1600-1800, (London: Penguin Books, 1990), pp. 137-138.



[6] Although baptized Catholic in Turnhout, Loockermans must have had some affidavit of his Reformed Church credentials (and they must have been deemed legitimate.) since he was married in a Reformed Church in Amsterdam and later became a prominent member of the church in New Amsterdam (e.g. churchwarden from 1655-1656). Interestingly, from 1624 (the first WIC settlers in New Netherland) to 1664 (when New Netherland fell to the English) 13 Dutch Reformed Ministers – including the Fleming Samuel Drisius – served in New Netherland. Of course only a fraction of those at any time served concurrently – even though there were 11 churches in New Netherland in 1664. For the source of this information and further details behind this, please see “Gerald F. De Jong, “The Education and Training of Dutch Ministers”, pp. 9-16 in Charles T. Gehring & Nancy Anne McClure Zeller, Education in New Netherland and the Middle Colonies: Papers of the 7th Rensselaerswyck Seminar of the New Netherland Project, (Albany: New York State Library, 1985). Of course, this does not include the hidden Lutherans, Catholics, Quakers, and others who either followed their conscience in private or met secretly in home services. A list of the clergymen – Dutch Reformed, Independent, and including Jesuit missionaries to the Iroquois – can be found in E.B. O’Callaghan, The Register of New Netherland 1626 to 1674, (originally published at Albany, 1865; Genealogical Company reprint at Baltimore, 1998), pp. 118-122.



[7] “Jan de Water, had been active with his brothers Isaack and Jacob in the Arctic trade…[and his family was] among the financial backers to a Swedish colony on the Delaware River promoted by disillusioned Dutch West India Company director Samuel Blommaert….[but he] subsequently disappeared at sea during a hurricane, [as captain of] the Kalmar Nyckel, lead ship of the two vessels the Swedish South Sea Company sent to the Delaware in 1637.” David William Voorhees, “Family and Faction: The Dutch Roots of Colonial New York’s Factional Politics,” pp.129-147 in Martha Dickinson Shattuck,Explorers, Fortunes & Love Letters: A Window on New Netherland, (Albany: Mount Ida Press, 2009), p.132.



[8] The spellings of “Van Cortlant” are also variable. I will use the most common version: Van Courtlandt.



[9] J. Franklin Jameson, “The Representation of New Netherland, 1650,” in Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elibron Classics Reprint, 2005), pp.285-354; p. 290.


[10] “A common soldier in the employ of the West India Company [when he arrived in New Netherland circa 1637-1638], Oloff soon added the patronymic “Van Cortlandt” to his name and began a meteoric rise to a position of prominence in [p.4] the nascent colony. Starting his office-holding career as an inspector of tobacco in 1640, Oloff, some six years later, became a member of the short-lived legislative unit known as The Nine Men. Oloff filled many posts on the municipal and provincial levels between 1640 and his death in 1684. He did not forget his military past, because among his various capacities he served as a colonel in the Burghers’ Corps, or municipal militia, helped improve the fortifications of Fort Amsterdam, and became a commissioner of Indian affairs for the province. While performing these duties, he acquired one of the great fortunes in the colony through his brewery activities.” Jacob Judd, The Revolutionary War Memoir and Selected Correspondence of Philip Van Cortlandt, (Tarrytown: Sleepy Hollow, 1976), pp.3-4.


[11] This Van Couwenhoven may have been part of the same extended family from which sprung the Vancouver family – of which “Van Couwenhoven” is an Anglicized version. Please see my “Was George Vancouver Flemish” http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2010/01/was-george-vancouver-flemish.html


[12] J. Franklin Jameson, “The Representation of New Netherland, 1650,” in Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, (New York: Elibron Classics Reprint, 2005), pp.285-354; p. 290.


[13] Jaap Jacobs, New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America, (Leiden: Brill, 2005), p.70.


[14] Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer, The Goede Vrouw of Mana-ha-ta: At Home and In Society, 1609-1760, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898), pp, 23-24.


[15] “It will be interesting at this point to pause a moment and to take a hasty survey of New Amsterdam at this period. The town was clustered about the fort, which faced Bowling Green, and is now occupied by a row of trans-Atlantic steamship offices. The northern limit of the city was at Wall street, where a fence of wooden palisades stretched across the island from river to river. Two gates, one at Broadway, the other close to the East River, were the only means of egress. These gates were guarded by sentries and were closed every evening, precisely at nine o'clock. Seventeen streets traversed the settlement, but of these all but three were little crooked lanes, determined, in all likelihood, by cows, that had their own notions regarding the nature of thoroughfares. The principal path was Pearl street, which skirted the [p. 143] shore, (Water, Front and South streets, at this period being still under water). Broad street, a ditch, extending almost to the present Sub-treasury, was crossed by two bridges and in appearance was a reminder of the Water streets of Old Amsterdam. Broadway was the relic of an old Indian trail and was not of much importance. Its western side was a stretch of farm land and the east was occupied by small houses, tenanted by tailors, bakers and other small tradesmen. None of the roads were paved at this time. A few years later, Madame Van Courtlandt, wife of Oloff Van Courtlandt, the Brewer, a worthy dame of Old Holland, who abhorred dust, began a series of complaints that resulted in a pavement of cobble stones along the lane in which she lived. People came from far and near to see the great improvement and laughingly called it "the Stone Street," which name it still retains at the present day.” The Judaens Society Addresses, 1897-1899, (New York: The Judaean Society, 1899), pp. 142-143


[16] “The houses were built of yellow and black Dutch bricks, giving the place the appearance of a city of checker boards. The gable ends faced the street and the roofs showed a series of "crow-steps" leading up to the chimneys, thus enabling the "sweeps" to reach without trouble, their destination. There were no stoves in the town, but the open fire-places bordered with tiles containing biblical scenes, offered abundant comfort and genial warmth. No carpets adorned the rooms but the parlor floor was covered with a layer of sand in which the "Goede Vrow" [Annetje Loockermans] drew all sorts of fancy tracings, this being one of her proudest accomplishments. In the reception room, there was a closet, built into the wall which, on being opened, disclosed a shelf and bedding, that were always [p. 144] ready for the sudden guest. This, no doubt, was the prototype of our modern Yankee folding bed. The Judaens Society Addresses, 1897-1899, (New York: The Judaean Society, 1899), pp. 143-144.


[17] Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer, The Goede Vrouw of Mana-ha-ta: At Home and In Society, 1609-1760, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898), p.131


[18] Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer, The Goede Vrouw of Mana-ha-ta: At Home and In Society, 1609-1760, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898), pp.117-118.


[19] “Maria Van Cortlandt Van Rensselaer (July 20, 1645-January 24, 1688/89) was born in New Amsterdam. Her mother was “well-connected” and her father was wealthy. When she was only 17 [April 27, 1662], Maria married Jeremais Van Rensselaer and moved to his landed estate near Albany. In their ten-year marriage they had four sons and two daughters. In 1624 [sic – actually 1674], her husband died and Maria had to assume responsibility of running and managing gristmills and sawmills on the 24-mile square [actually it was 528 square miles – 24 miles by 24 miles] property. In addition she had to hire workers and pay all the bills. She succeeded in getting a clear title to the property after the English ousted the Dutch in 1673. She was harassed by male family members who wanted to take over her land and business, but she prevailed. In 1685, a settlement was reached and she remained in charge of her estate as well as securing it for her children. Maria Van Rensselaer died at age 43. She had gained for her children the richest land patent in the colony. Marriages of her children created alliances with other important clans and established one of the most important families of early New York. She is an early model of a widow learning business skills to secure a future for her children.” The author of this piece somehow missed the fact that she suffered from a debilitating handicap that made it difficult for her to walk and confined her to bed for long periods on top of all the above. See http://www.nwhp.org/resourcecenter/pathbreakers.php downloaded March 17, 2011.


[20] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_P._Morton


[21] Please see my earlier post on the Gentenaars of New Netherland here: http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2009/07/gentenaars-of-nieuw-nederland.html


[22] The exact amount of his wealth varies dramatically. “Gouvert Loockermans died in 1670, reputed the richest individual in North America. He was worth 520,000 Dutch guilders, an immense sum for the period in which he lived.” See the Biographical and Genealogical History of the State of Delaware, Volume 1, (Chambersburg, PA: J.M. Runk & Co., 1899), p. 93. More recently: “Merchant Govert Loockermans from Turnhout, Antwerp Province (Belgium), whose 52,702-guilder estate at the time of his death in 1671 made him New York’s wealthiest merchant.” David William Voorhees, “Family and Faction: The Dutch Roots of Colonial New York’s Factional Politics,” pp.129-147 in Martha Dickinson Shattuck, Explorers, Fortunes & Love Letters: A Window on New Netherland, (Albany: Mount Ida Press, 2009), p.131.


Copyright 2011 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without my express, written consent.

The Flemish Founding of the W.I.C. (Dutch West India Company) - Part 1

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With this post I hope to re-ignite my discussions about the Flemish involvement with the American Pilgrims. For those unfamiliar with those postings #1,#2,#3,#4,#5,and #6, can be accessed by clicking on the relevant #. In that sense, this might be viewed as #7 of the “Flemish Influence on the American Pilgrims” series.

Permit me then, Gentle Reader, to offer you evidence of the involvement of the Flemish in the establishment of the W.I.C. Obliquely, I will also illustrate through this the West-Indische Compagnie’s importance to the Discovery and Settlement of America. Part 2 of this monograph will post under the date July 1st. Later, in a subsequent post, I intend to detail the heavy Flemish involvement through the W.I.C. in Nieuw Netherland itself.


Background

While the W.I.C. was chartered in 1621, its origins stretch back half a century to a place broadly called “The Low Countries” (Flanders and the Netherlands) and to the time of the Protestant Reformation.[i] To understand the story of the W.I.C. we need to recap the historical context.[ii]

The roots of the West India Company began amidst the confusion of civil disorder and religious strife. In 1566 a revolt broke out in a village in western Flanders.[iii] It began with Dutch-speaking Protestant youth smashing statuary, burning Roman Catholic missals, and roughing up clergy.[iv] It spread east and north throughout the Low Countries: a volatile mix of hooliganism[v], Calvinism and nationalism.[vi]

Since the sovereign ruler of what we now know as Benelux and northern France was the Spanish king, Phillip II, it was inevitable that Spanish troops were ultimately brought in to restore order. While initially successful, the presence of a foreign standing army, the imposition of additional taxes to absorb the cost, and the underlying friction between counter-reformation Catholics and hard-core Calvinists doomed the region to almost exactly 80 years (1567-1648) of ruthless warfare.[vii]

For the first thirty or so years (i.e., until the 1590s) the Dutch-speaking Protestants had the worst of it. At least 175,000 fled the rich cities of Flanders.[viii] Some went to Protestant port cities (like Rouen and La Rochelle) in France; many more onto Reformation England and Protestant Germany (especially Cologne).[ix] Many exiles likely viewed their departure as a temporary measure.

Of course not every Calvinist, Lutheran and Anabaptist left Flanders at this time. Many went underground and outwardly accepted Catholic practices while secretly professing something else.[x] For those who remained behind, external funding (from Protestant rulers and the Dutch-speaking diaspora)[xi] and a steady stream of illicit returnees enabled them to continue as fighters. These men first launched guerilla-style raids on the Flemish coast (from piratical lairs across the Channel in England) and ultimately seized control of coastal enclaves.[xii] As Dutch-speaking territory was liberated from Spanish control, Flemish Calvinists in England and Germany followed the military advance by resettling in these more familiar environments.[xiii]

The overseas Flemings, many of whom were hardened by Calvinist conviction[xiv], privation, and certainly exile, were not content to remain in “liberated” cities like Amsterdam, Haarlem, Leiden, and Middleburg.[xv] Rather, they were impatient to reclaim their lost homes in the South Netherlands (modern-day Belgium and northern France). Moreover, because of their unwavering belief in the justness of their cause, this war assumed the status of what today we might call a “jihad”. Any opposition posed to the Flemish Calvinists’ objectives was perceived as resistance to God’s Will. As a prominent Dutch historian remarked, “The value of Calvin’s teaching in the Low Countries, among a population long unhappy under foreign domination, lay in the fact that it sanctioned all human action.”[xvi]


The Role of Antwerp

At the center of many of these historical developments was the city of Antwerp.[xvii]“Antwerp was truly the leading [European] city in almost all things [in the 1500s], but in commerce it headed all the cities of the world,” as the Italian contemporary historian (and 16th century Antwerp resident) Gucciardini observed.[xviii] Antwerp was the center of the printing industry[xix] and was also the most important bourse and capital market in Europe (and thus the world at that time).[xx] It was here that everything from West African gold to North American beaver pelts, from spices from the East to copper from Hungary and textiles from Flanders was brought to market. In short, “Antwerp’s economy was an important, and sometimes even the principal, artery of the whole European economy.”[xxi]

Antwerp, “held a position such as [has] never been held before or since by any other town…this cosmopolitan city controlled exclusively the money market of the known world, and the whole varied interchange of goods and wealth. Every nation had its concessions within its walls, every important loan in Europe was negotiated here.”[xxii] It was in 16th century Antwerp that the Fugger family made their fortunes in trading world commodities – reputedly at 50% net profits over the course of fifteen years.[xxiii] It was in Antwerp too that the Portuguese king sold the spices that his ships brought back from India with a return of more than 50x.[xxiv] It was a place where cultures mingled, fortunes were made, and ideas allowed to percolate. In other words, sixteenth-century Antwerp was the New York City of its day.

Within the seventeen provinces of the Low Countries, Antwerp’s position was also pre-eminent. The Belgicist historian Henri Pirenne (no fan of things from Flanders and Brabant) observed that “’The Netherlands, are the suburb of Antwerp’”.[xxv] While the rest of the world is “its [Antwerp’s] periphery.”[xxvi]Flanders and Brabant were urbanized and prosperous; the rest of the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands (at this time) were, by comparison, backwaters.[xxvii] Innovations and connections for the entire “Low Countries” [modern-day Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg and northern France] radiated out from this critical hub; resources – whether people or materiel – were pulled to its marketplaces.


Antwerp’s Émigrés

Despite their attachment to material success, the Flemish did not neglect the spiritual. As suggested above, during the first decade of the “Dutch Revolt” the impetus for the movement came out of Flanders and Brabant. Such momentum for the Revolt quickly concentrated in the primary cities: Gent, Brugge, and Antwerp. Of these cities, in the fight against Spain, Antwerp was the most important.

After a confusing series of twists (which are not central to our story) religious and linguistic divisions among the inhabitants of the Low Countries assisted the Spanish military’s reconquest of their wealthiest dominion. From the late 1570s the Spanish reduction of Flanders proceeded with steady success. Town after town fell. Up until the mid/late 1580s, the “final redoubt” of the “Dutch Revolt” was Antwerp.[xxviii] It was here that the Prince of Orange for a time made his headquarters and it was at Antwerp that the Prince’s spymaster, Philip Marnix, a native of Brussels, ruled until 1585 as Antwerp’s Burgemeester (mayor).[xxix]

In 1585 the Spanish armies finally stormed and took Antwerp after a three year siege. Resident merchants – Protestant as well as Catholic – sought safer refuge. Some families again went back to southeastern England, coastal France or western Germany (especially Cologne). Many more – sometimes via a circuitous path – left for the pockets of liberated territory in the “North.” They swarmed cities like Amsterdam, Haarlem, Middleburg, and Leiden. In some places the Flemish and Brabander “exodus” swamped the locally-born population, altering customs and dialects.[xxx]

But these exiles were not (for the most part) impoverished illiterates. They were, by and large, as one historian called them, “men of the greatest distinction in their chosen fields.”[xxxi] They retained their influence while in exile. “The [Flemish] exiles were very numerous and enterprising. An astonishingly large number of the men eminent in this generation in Holland and Zealand came thither from the southern provinces. [Cornelis] Aerssens, the secretary of the States General, his son [Frans], the ambassador at Paris[xxxii], [Francois] Caron the ambassador in England, [Nicasius] de Sille the pensionary of Amsterdam[xxxiii], Justus Lipsius[xxxiv], [Franciscus] Gomarus the leader of the [Calvinist] orthodox, [Petrus] Plancius the geographer, [Emanuel] van Meteren [xxxv] the historian [and Dutch Consul at London], Judocus and Hendrik Hondius the engravers, Balthazar de Moucheron, Isaac and Jacob Le Maire, [Samuel] Godyn [and Samuel Blommaert] and [Johannes] de Laet – all these were natives of the region now called Belgium.”[xxxvi] By no means is this list exhaustive: it is only a sampling of a few of the prominent men of the “Dutch Golden Age” who came from Flanders.

Regardless of their numbers or the fact that they kept status in the North, it still was not home. These Flemish Protestant exiles wanted their ancestral homes back and they would not rest until they had made that happen. Pre-empting Douglas MacArthur nearly 400 years later (“I shall return!”), Philip Marnix, the Brussels-born former Burgemeester of Antwerp and a close confidant of Prince William of Orange, offered a plaintive vow to those in Spanish-occupied Flanders and Brabant before he died in 1598: “Hoe cond ik U mijn broeders oyt vergheten?” [How could I forget you, My Brothers?].[xxxvii] As one historian observed: “In 1600…the hope of recapturing Flanders still lingered in the hearts of her refugees.”[xxxviii]

From Antwerp to Amsterdam

As we have seen, up until 1585, Antwerp was the pre-eminent city in not only Flanders but also the Netherlands. Up until 1585 80% of all exports from the entire Netherlands shipped through Antwerp.[xxxix]With the destruction and reduction of not only Antwerp but the rest of Flanders, artisans and merchants were forced to flee. It was not logical for these Antwerp merchants to chose Amsterdam: it had neither the best harbor (poorly accessible) nor industry, nor surplus capital.[xl] However, those same features made the city physically defensible and hospitable to those who brought industry, connections and capital.

In the years after 1585, Amsterdam experienced a “huge influx of young merchants and entrepreneurs” from Antwerp.[xli]This influx included young merchant-entrepeneurémigrés from such prominent Antwerp families as the Bartholotti, Coymans, Godijn, Van Os, Sautijn, de Schot, and de Vogelaer. These families (and other less prominent families from the South) converted Amsterdam from a place notable only for buying wainscoting in the 1560s[xlii] to the dominant center for shipping, commodities and capital by the early 1600s.[xliii] All these families came to play a significant role in overseas trade – especially through the V.O.C. (established in 1602).

The V.O.C.– Vereinigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or Dutch East India Company – “served as a model for the establishment of [trading] companies in other countries”, which underscores its importance to history.[xliv] By the time of the founding of the W.I.C. in 1621, they had not only turned the V.O.C. into one of the most profitable companies in history[xlv], they had become the merchant-elite of Amsterdam.[xlvi] As such, these émigré merchants of Antwerp played a dominant role in the Discovery and Settlement of America.


The influx of Antwerp merchant-entrepeneuers, had a profound impact on Amsterdam and its relations with the outside world. The Flemish émigrés’ capital and connections, enabled Amsterdam, by the end of the 16th century, to dominate not only culture, language and customs, but also overseas trade and diplomacy for the entire Dutch Republic.[xlvii] In the words of the 19th century U.S. Ambassador to the U.S. (and trailblazing Henry Hudson scholar), Henry Cruse Murphy, “A large portion of this new impulse [for foreign trade and exploration by the “Dutch”] was due to that element of the population which had emigrated from Antwerp and other commercial and trading cities of the Spanish Netherlands, refugees for conscience sake; to whom,

indeed, much more of the maritime greatness and prosperity of the United Provinces are to be attributed than has generally been conceded.”[xlviii]

Surprisingly, despite the influx, ‘Zuidnederlanders’ were only 11% of the merchants in Amsterdam in 1585. But by 1610 were fully 1/3 of all Amsterdam merchants. By 1630 that percentage had slipped back so that only 1/5 of all Amsterdam merchants could be identified as ‘Zuidnederlanders’.[xlix] Nevertheless, the Flemish émigrés remained a potent component in Amsterdam well into the remainder of the Dutch Republic’s “Golden Century”.


The “Originator” of the West India Company

One of these Flemish merchant-entrepeneur émigrés became the “Originator” of the W.I.C. His name was Willem Usselinckx. According to Emanuel Van Meteren (a confidant of William, the Prince of Orange[l]), and like Usselinckx, a fellow Protestant refugee from Antwerp, Willem Usselinckx was “a man well informed of trade and conditions in the West Indies.”[li]

That knowledge of Iberian America and the sources of its wealth there were to become a cornerstone of the founding of the W.I.C. Johannes de Laet,[lii] an Antwerpenaar and the unofficial historian of the W.I.C., began his 1644 edition of the Jaerlijck Verhael, with a rationale for the existence of the Company. In his words, the King of Spain (Philip II until 1598 and his successors thereafter), was the greatest power in Christendom and indeed the whole world. Yet he had set the power and might of this kingdom – derived from the wealth of the Americas – against the United Provinces of the Netherlands (by which he meant modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands). De Laet concludes his opening address by stating that, “the entire world knows the great amounts of gold and silver carted out [of America] yearly.”[liii] Ergo, steal the Spanish king’s gold and silver treasure fleets and one can cripple his ability to make war against the Dutch-speaking peoples.

Willem Usselinckx had an idea, a vision. His concept was rooted in experience and offered a solution that might defeat the Spain and eject her armies from Flanders. “According to the plan [that Willem Usselinckx devised], the Dutch [speaking] colonists [in America] would convert the Indians to Calvinism, arm them,….and initiate them in[to] the techniques of modern warfare.”[liv]

Usselinckx first got the idea of establishing the W.I.C. when he as a young factor (merchant) in the Azores, Portugal, and Spain. More importantly, since the Azores were a “service depot” for Spain’s returning treasure fleet from the Americas, Usselinckx observed the paths of the Spanish treasure galleons and watched them unload chests of sugar, bullion, and slaves at Spain’s port in Seville.[lv] Chock full of gold and silver extracted at great human cost from the mines at Potosi, Peru and in Mexico, it was not difficult for a fervent Calvinist like Usselinckx to see that the Achilles heel of his homeland’s “erf-viand” (arch-enemy), Roman Catholic Spain, was the shipment of bullion across these vast, open seas in large, unwieldy Spanish galleons.

When Willem Usselinckx finally did return to the Netherlands, in about 1591, he was a very rich man.[lvi] He was also described as a man who was, “Intelligent and well-spoken… a devout Calvinist and hater of the Spanish monarchy” whose life-long obsession was to undermine the Spanish position in the Americas.[lvii] These attributes enabled Usselinckx to be taken seriously by other, unyielding Protestants from Flanders such as Petrus Plancius. It was at this time [the early 1590s] that Usselinckx first began advocating for a West India Company.[lviii] But while Usselinckx had the vision, the passion, and the energy, he needed the assistance of others to make this vision a reality.

One of those able to take this vision to the next level was Petrus Plancius. Plancius, a native of Dranoutre (near Ieper/Ypres in West Flanders), was a fiery theologian whose beliefs are best described as ‘old school’ Calvinist. Plancius was also a well-respected cartographer with practical experience as an investor in trading voyages to Africa and Asia. Plancius later became an investor in the V.O.C. (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie – the“Dutch” East India Company)and, until his death in 1616, supplied all of the charts and maps used by the V.O.C. In this capacity Plancius supplied the charts that Henry Hudson used to sail to New York in 1609.[lix] But most importantly for our story here, Plancius came to know Willem Usselinckx early – certainly no later than 1600[lx]– and believed in Usselinckx’ vision.

The Role of Radical Calvinism

Besides his cartographic knowledge and his adherence to Usselinckx’ plan for a West India Company, Petrus Plancius brought other attributes to the table. Plancius was a well-respected theologian at a time when theologians of the right stripe mattered. He had also invested in and made money from far-reaching trading voyages.[lxi] Critically for this story he also was well connected to other influential men in the Dutch Republic. One of these influential men was the Councilor of the High Court, Francois Franeken. The scholar and jusrist believed in this project and sought to promote it at the highest levels. Franeken “saw in a West India Company an excellent tool with which to fight Spain in the New World.”[lxii]Collectively these men, and other Flemish Calvinists like them, saw a win-win scenario. The establishment of a W.I.C. could offer a chance for the United Provinces to reclaim Flanders from Spain, end the war, achieve great wealth, and spread the gospel according to Calvin.

However, not everyone believed in the mission to recover Flanders from the Spanish and spread the war to new territories. Often, those who did not believe in this were humanist Protestants. They also tended to not be exiles, rather they came from among the residual landed elites of Holland and other northern Netherlands provinces. As a Dutch historian put it, they were “humanistic Calvinist[s]…too lukewarm to be martyrs, too honest to be hypocrites.”[lxiii]

This segment of society, because they had at one time printed a “Remonstrance” against the predestination theology of the Flemish refugees, were called “Remonstrants”.[lxiv] Their opponents, dominated by the émigré merchant-entrepeneurs overwhelmingly from Antwerp, were naturally called “Counter-Remonstrants”.Since as one historian points out, “the W.I.C. was the creation of the Counter-Remonstrants,” it is important that we understand the religious issues.[lxv]

At the risk of overly simplifying a complicated theological debate, the Remonstrants were Dutch humanists[lxvi] who believed that every person had free will. One's salvation was a matter of making the right choices, so an individual could either accept or reject God’s offer of salvation. The Counter-Remonstrants, on the other hand, that God’s omniscience cannot be limited. Since He knows all things and stands outside history (as it were) He already knows who the chosen few are. In other words, history unfolds as part of His plan, and those granted salvation was known by Him since before time. A concept many refer to as “Predestinantion”.

The debate between these two groups of Protestant theologians spilled over from the academic to the political. Generally speaking, those theologians who believed in free will (the Remonstrants or “Arminians” – after the Remonstrants’ Dutch leader) became closely identified with the “peace party” in politics. They saw more value in trade and accommodation with Spain than in unrelenting warfare. Their most prominent political supporter was Johannes Oldenbarnevelt.

The Counter-Remonstrants (or “Gomarists”, after their West Flemish leader, Franciscus Gomarus), became strongly identified in Dutch Republic politics with the “war party”. Their most prominent national advocate (besides Gomarus himself) was the son of the Prince of Orange, the Stadhouder Maurice, Captain-General of the army.

Both Arminians and Gomarists believed that these tensions between the two theological camps could only be resolved through a conclave of leading Protestant theologians. The Arminians began calling for a synod in 1610 which finally convened for six months in 1618-1619 at Dordrecht. While officially theological in nature, it was presided over by the United Provinces’ ruling body, the States General. Flemish attendees included the enterprising polymath Johannes De Laet of Antwerp as well as the relentless Petrus Plancius.

There were several important outcomes of the Synod. First, the Contra-Remonstrants under the Bruggeling Franciscus Gomarus were victorious. The Arminians were chased from pulpits in the Netherlands and scattered. The Gomarists’ interpretation of Scripture (making Predestination a central pillar of the Dutch Reformed Church) was deemed the correct one (and is today generally called the Belgic Confession). Second, a committee of 6 Hebrew/Greek scholars – three for the Old Testament and three for the New Testament – was appointed to preside over a new translation of the Bible (to correct what were perceived to be the Lutheran tilt of the first Dutch-language Bible printed at Antwerp in 1526).

This new Bible was to be the standard for the Dutch Reformed Church until the 20th century. At least half of these scholars – William Baudartius of Deinze, and Gerson Bucerus on the Old Testament; and the Gentenaar Antonius De Waele on the New Testament – were Flemings.[lxvii]Overseeing the entire effort were two others whom today we would call Flemings: The Antwerpenaar Anthonius Thysius and the Bruggeling Hermannus Faukelius[lxviii]. Later editing and revisions of these initial translators was tightly controlled by Franciscus Gomarus. Gomarus’ Contra-Remonstrant team included Gomarus, Thysius, Sebastian Damman of Antwerp and the sons of two Flemish immigrants: Joos Larenus (=Van Laren), and Johannes Polyander van Kerckhoven.[lxix] The Bible translation and editing project consumed the attention of these scholars until 1635. Upon completion, half a million Bibles were printed and disseminated throughout the Netherlands and its overseas settlements – including New Netherland of course.

Protestant Christian theology was not the only area impacted by the Flemings who controlled the Synod of Dordrecht. The political implications of the Synod were far-reaching too. The Arminians’ loss of influence in the theological debate was matched by the Peace-Party’s loss of political power. The Synod concluded May 9, 1619. Four days later (May 13th) Johannes Oldenbarnevelt, the Pensionary of Holland who in the interests of the 12 Year Truce with Spain (1609-1621) had quashed efforts in 1606-1609 to set up the W.I.C., was beheaded.[lxx]

The way was now open for the Republic to resume a war footing. And, as part of that effort, a quasi-military company was needed that would take the fight to Spain’s rich New World settlements. In the words of one historian of the W.I.C.: “The establishment of the [Dutch] West India Company resulted from a mixture of political and economic objectives, but its development was determined chiefly by political events and motives.”[lxxi]

Please see Part 2 of the Flemish Founding of the W.I.C. here.


Endnotes

[i] An excellent online English language description of what transpired can be found here:http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/koss002text01_01/koss002text01_01_0002.php . As these Dutch authors point out, “The expansion of Calvinism in the Southern Netherlands, particularly in Flanders, took place long before it achieved success in what were later to become its strongholds: Holland, Zeeland and Friesland.” E.H. Kossmann & A.F. Mellink, Texts Concerning the Revolt of the Netherlands. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1974) http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/koss002text01_01/koss002text01_01_0002.php p.8

[ii] For those interested in a deeper dive into that historical context – at least in so far as the political and religious milieu in the Low Countries intersected at that time, I would recommend a look at Alastair Duke,Reformation and Revolt in the Low Countries, (London: Hambledon & London, 2003). For the Anabaptist side of the story in Flanders, please see A. L. E. Verheyden,Anabaptism in Flanders, 1530-1650, (Sottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1961). For the Calvinist bit, please see Guido Marnef, “The Changing Face of Calvinism in Antwerp, 1550-1585”, in Andrew Pettegree, Alastair Duke, and Gillian Lewis, eds.,Calvinism in Europe, 1540-1620, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp.143-159. Another excellent perspective is in Martin Van Gelderen.The Political Thought of the Dutch Revolt,1555-1590, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).Lastly but hardly least, is the excellent (and supremely relevant) work by Peter Arnade,Beggars, Iconoclasts, & Civic Patriots: The Political Culture of the Dutch Revolt, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008).

[iii] The small Flemish village where the iconoclasm (“beeldenstorm”) began was Steenvoorde (since 1688, with few interruptions, under French occupation). The trigger for the iconoclasm that began the “Dutch Revolt” was the preaching of Sebastian Matte, a hatmaker from Ieper who, returning from exile in England (to where he had fled in 1563), delivered a fiery speech outside the St. Laurence monastery in Steenvoorde. Immediately afterwards, an ex-Augustinian monk (also from Ieper) by the name of Jacob de Buzere, led twenty toughs into the convent there where they began smashing and wrecking. So began the “Dutch” Revolt. See Geoffrey Parker, The Dutch Revolt, (Middlesex: Penguin, 1979), pp.74-75. For graphics seehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeldenstorm

[iv]Those who began the iconoclasm were radicalized not only by their religious inclinations (uncompromising Calvinism) but also because, like political refugees the world over, they had been dispossessed of their livelihood and homes. “It is no coincidence that one of those who began the image-breaking in August 1566 was Jacob de Buzere [native of Ieper/Ypres], minister of the Dutch [language] church at Sandwich [England], and after the collapse of the Revolt in the spring of 1567 resistance was continued by a band of marauders recruited in Norwich and Sandwich, who carried out a series of brutal attacks in Flanders.” Andrew Pettegree,Foreign Protestant Communities in Sixteenth-Century London, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 252-253. Kindly note that this and other studies of the so-called “Dutch” Protestant churches in England at this time carry overwhelming proof that the Low Countries’ origin of the “Dutch” in England was overwhelmingly Flemish and that they actively gave their money and men to the cause of the “Dutch” Revolt. For example, in referring to the so-called “Dutch” church at Sandwich, the authoritative historian on that community declared that: “With very few exceptions they [Dutch-speaking exiles in Sandwich] were all natives from East and West Flanders or Brabant...They came from localities such as Antwerp, Axel, Bethune, Bruges, Deinze, Ghent, Hulst, Izegem, Kortrijk, Moorsele, Ostend, Oudenaarde, Pamel, Roeselare, Ronse, Turnhout, Wervik, the Westkwartier of Flanders.” Marcel Backhouse,The Flemish and Walloon Communities at Sandwich during the Reign of Elizabeth I (1561-1603), (Brussel: Paleis der Academien, 1995), p. 18.

[v]“The new creeds upset the authorities not only for the religious reasons, but also because they bred lawlessness.” John J. Murray, Antwerp in the Age of Plantin and Brueghel, (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970), p.36. “The term beeldenstorm usually conjures up a scene of indiscriminatedestruction with wreckers and looters running amuck in the churches. Such outbreaks were in fact comparatively rare in the northern Netherlands.” Alastair Duke, Reformation and Revolt in the Low Countries, (London: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p.162.

[vi] My explanation here is incredibly condensed and simplistic. Those with an interest in a more thoughtful treatment of the subject matter in English may want to pick up the classic: The Dutch Revolt, by Geoffrey Parker (Cambridge, 1977). For an online sequence please see my series “The Flemish Influence on the Pilgrims” in my blog, Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. A further note is in order here. While today the Dutch-speakers of the Netherlands (which is a corruption of the Dutch language term for the ‘Low Countries’ – Nederland) are called “Dutch” and those of Flanders called “Flemish” in reality, they were originally united by government, language, and culture. Even today, all children in the Netherlands and Flanders officially study the same language, “ABN” (General Refined Dutch). Thus, in many respects, the difference between the Dutch and Flemish is akin to that between (say) North Koreans and South Koreans.

[vii] Geoffrey Parker, Philip II, (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1978), 1st ed., pp. 74-78.

[viii]Geoffrey Parker, "New Light on an Old Theme: Spain and the Netherlands 1550-1650."European History Quarterly1985 15(2): 219-236; p. 226

[ix]“Cologne…while it may not seem a particularly obvious conduit for the Dutch or Flemish precursors of New Netherland colonists, was shared as such by, for example, the Beeckman family [from Deinze], the ten Eyck family (via their Boel ancestry)[from Antwerp], and by the Nevius family (via their Becks ancestry).” John Blythe Dobson, “The Ver Veelen Family in Cologne and Amsterdam,” pp.123-127 in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, April, 2002; pp.123-124. The Ver Veelens were from Antwerp.

[x]“On 17 August 1585, Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, conquered Antwerp….Included among these refugees [from Antwerp] were members of the Boel family who chose Cologne, Germany as their new home. Although many Boel baptisms were found in the register of the Notre Dame Cathedral of Antwerp, only two were children of Adriaen Boel and his wife Cornelia....It was not unusual for Protestants to have a few of their children baptized in the Catholic Church to give the impression [that] they were devout Catholics.” Gwenn F. Epperson, New Netherland Roots, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994), p.129.

[xi]“The strangers [alien immigrants in England] undoubtedly made an important contribution to the war effort across the narrow seas [in the Low Countries].” The author goes on to cite examples of funds raised from the Flemish and Walloon Protestant communities in England as well as the troops raised continuosly from the late 1560s through the early 1600s. To cite but one Flemish example: Adolf Van Meetkeercke was born in Brugge and had four sons. A scholar of Greek, he became the liaison between the government of the United Provinces and Queen Elizabeth’s chief representative there, the Earl of Leicester. Although the entire family was forced to flee to England (in 1580, in part because of his Anglophile sentiments), each son returned at the head of an English military unit. Two died in the wars. Of the two that survived, one continued to serve – eventually under the command of Sir Francis Drake. Drake commended this son (Baldwin, Adolf’s second) for bravery off Cadiz in 1596, for which service he was knighted. See D.J.B. Trim, “Protestant Refugees in Elizabethan England and Confessional Conflict in France and the Netherlands, 1562-c.1610,” pp. 68-79, in Randolph Vigne and Charles Littleton, eds., From Strangers to Citizens: The Integration of Immigrat Communities in Britain, Ireland and Colonial America, 1550-1750, (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2001).

[xii] Please see my earlier post on the extensive role that émigré Flemings played in the Sea Beggar attacks and especially the key victory at Den Briel in 1572 and in the liberation of Leiden in 1574. See my post here on the connection between the Flemish, the liberation of Leiden, and the Flemish connection to the two, please see http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2009/11/flemish-influence-on-pilgrims-part-5.html. Note also Dr. J. Briels, Zuid-Nederlanders in de Republiek 1572-1630: Een Demografische en Cultuurhistorische Studie, (Sint-Niklaas: Danthe, 1985), “Table XXI: Immigratie in de Noordelijke Nederlanden-Samenvatting”, p. 214. Several other cities, such as Haarlem and Middelburg, also had more than 50% non natives in 1622. This has prompted Gusaaf Asaert, in 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), p.156, to call Haarlem (for example) “een half-Vlaamse stad”.

[xiii] See especially Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1980), 2nd Ed., pp.180-202.

[xiv] While the association between Flemish Protestants and Contra-Remonstrant (=”hard-core”) Calvinism was strong, it was not absolute. As Professor J.G. Van Dillen noted, 40 of the 250 Arminian preachers he identified in Amsterdam in the 1620s were “Zuidnederlanders”. See “Naschrift van Dr. J.G. Van Dillen” in W.J. van Hoboken, “Een wederwoord inzake de Westindische Compagnie,” pp. 49-56, inTijdschrift voor Geschiednis, 75ste, #1, (1962), p. 54.

[xv] It is worth repeating that in 1622, the year after the establishment of the W.I.C., several Netherlands cities (e.g., Haarlem, Leiden, & Middleburg most prominently) had more than 50% (!) “Zuidnederlanders” in their recorded population. The dominant part of these Zuidnederlanders we would today call Flemings. See Dr. J. Briels, Zuid-Nederlanders in de Republiek 1572-1630: Een Demografische en Cultuurhistorische Studie, (Sint-Niklaas: Danthe, 1985), “Table XXI: Immigratie in de Noordelijke Nederlanden-Samenvatting”, p. 214.

[xvi] Cornelis Ch. Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and On the Wild Coast: 1580-1680, (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1971), p.5.

[xvii] If you have an interest in Antwerp, by all means THE book to get on this period of time is Leon Voet,Antwerp, The Golden Age: The Rise and Glory of the Metropolis in the Sixteenth Century, (Antwerp: Mercatorsfonds, 1973). Besides esthetically beautiful, it is well-written, colorful, and includes trivia not found in English elsewhere in print.

[xviii] John J. Murray, Antwerp in the Age of Plantin and Brueghel, (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970), p.43.

[xix]“Of the approximately 4,000 works printed in these years [1500-1540] in the Netherlands, 2,250 were produced at Antwerp, compared with 1,340 in the Northern Netherlands and 405 in [the] Southern Netherlands centers outside Antwerp. Of the 135 printers then active in the Netherlands, 68 were in Antwerp, 16 in the rest of the Southern Netherlands, and 51 in the northern provinces. In the following decades this concentration process was carried further.” Leon Voet,Antwerp The Golden Age: The Rise and Glory of the Metropolis in the Sixteenth Century, (Antwerp: Mercatorfonds, 1973), p.395.

[xx]“Antwerp, the biggest commodity market of the West, had become its biggest money market….Portuguese and English monarchs also addressed themselves to Antwerp financiers…The biggest commodity and money mart of Europe of that time, the pulsing heart of its chief industrial country, with an industry of its own in full expansion – Antwerp in 1520-1560, could be said to have the wind in its sails.” Leon Voet, Antwerp The Golden Age: The Rise and Glory of the Metropolis in the Sixteenth Century, (Antwerp: Mercatorfonds, 1973), p. 161.

[xxi] John J. Murray, Antwerp in the Age of Plantin and Brueghel, (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970), p.44.

[xxii]John J. Murray, Antwerp in the Age of Plantin and Brueghel, (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970), p.44.

[xxiii] This return actually understates their profitability because it only reflects the net increase in retained earnings. See Jacob Strieder, Jacob Fugger The Rich: Merchant and Banker of Augsburg, 1459-1525, (Washington, DC: Beard Books, 2001) reprint of 1931 Adelphi edition, trans. By Mildred L. Hartsough, ed. By N.S.B. Gras. pp. 86-90. By comparison, Vasco de Gama’s famous return home after a three year journey around Africa to India and despite having mismatched goods for trade (who needs wool clothing in the Indies?), made a 60x or 4,700% return for his investors. See Charles Corn,The Scents of Eden: A History of the Spice Trade, (New York: Kodansha, 1999), p.xxiv

[xxiv] See my article on the importance of spices and its connection to 16th century Flanders here:http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2009/10/flemings-around-magellan-and-first_31.htmlCuriously, Fugger historians believe that Antwerp helped make Jakob Fugger’s wealth possible and symbiotically he contributed to Antwerp’s 16th century greatness as “a world trading center”. See Jacob Strieder, Jacob Fugger The Rich: Merchant and Banker of Augsburg, 1459-1525, (Washington, DC: Beard Books, 2001) reprint of 1931 Adelphi edition, trans. By Mildred L. Hartsough, ed. By N.S.B. Gras. Pp. 101-102.

[xxv] Fernand Braudel, Civilization & Capitalism, 15th-18th Century: The Structures of Everyday Life, Vol. 1, (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), p. 504 and Vol. 3, p.39. Quoting Henri Pirenne,Histoire de Belgique, III, 1907, p. 259

[xxvi] Fernand Braudel, Civilization & Capitalism, 15th-18th Century: The Perspective of the World, Vol. 3, (New York: Harper & Row, 1979), p.39. Quoting Henri Pirenne, Histoire de Belgique, III, 1907, p. 259

[xxvii]The full poem is "Hoe cond ick U mijn broeders oyt vergheten; Daer wij toch sijn in eenen stronck gheplant; Al zijn wij noch so veer van een geseten; So can ons doch gescheyden zee noch lant..." Marnix van Sint-Aldegonde, Heylige schriftuerlijcke Lofsangen, (1589) quoted in Gustaaf Asaerts, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), p.317.

[xxviii]See especially Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1980), 2nd Ed., and Geoffrey Parker, The Dutch Revolt, (Middlesex: Penguin, 1979), for an overview.

[xxix] Philip Marnix is yet another “Flemish Father” of the Dutch Revolt, neglected by historians. Perhaps it is in part because he presided over the fall of Antwerp in 1585. But his “Bijenkorf” was the polemic that helped articulate the rebels position and helped to justify their actions in the eyes of the people and that of foreign powers. It was translated into multiple languages and served to rally not only Flemings and Dutchmen but the English and other Protestant standard bearers as well. See the text ofDe Bijenkorf der H. Roomsche Kerk(1569) herehttp://www.dbnl.org/tekst/marn001bien01_01/ All this means (to me at least) that Marnix deserves his own post. Besides mayor of Antwerp, spymaster for William, Prince of orange, author of the lyrics for “Het Wilhelmus” (the world’s oldest national anthem), he was also a polymath of the first degree. For a biopic, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Marnix_van_St._Aldegonde

[xxx] There is an excellent map on p. 180 of Geyl’s book which shows the year-by-year advances of the Spanish between the mid 1570s and 1594. The sequence, for the record, of notable Spanish captures of Dutch-speaking cities were Leuven & Roermond (1578), Den Bosch & Maastricht (1579), Groningen & Koevoerden (1580), Oudenaarde & Steenwyck (1582), Dunkirk, Eindhoven, Nieuwpoort, & Zutphen (1583), Brugge, Gent, & Ieper (1584), Antwerp, Brussel, Mechlin, & Nymwegen (1585),Venlo (1586) and Deventer & Sluis (1587): Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1980), 2nd Ed., p.180.

[xxxi]Geoffrey Parker, "New Light on an Old Theme: Spain and the Netherlands 1550-1650."European History Quarterly1985 15(2): 219-236; p. 226

[xxxii] Bios on the father Cornelis (born in Antwerp), and the son Frans (born in Brussel), can be found here Gustaf Asaert, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), p. 207.

[xxxiii] De Sille was born at Mechelen. His bio can be found here: Gustaf Asaert, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), p. 205.

[xxxiv] Lipsius was born at Vilvoorde, a town on the periphery of Brussel. He I an example of the shifting political sands at this time: first dean of the University of Leiden(sponsored by the Prince of Orange as a reward for the valiant defense by the inhabitants in 1574 – see my blog post on the subject here: http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2009/11/flemish-influence-on-pilgrims-part-5.html), and then switched to the University at Leuven (under Spanish, Catholic control). Many made these switches.

[xxxv]Please see my earlier post on Van Meteren here:http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2009/07/flemish-fathers-of-america-emanuel-van.html. The only full biography on Van Meteren is W.D. Verduyn,Emanuel Van Meteren, (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1926). As far as I am aware, despite his immense contributions and influence, no full biography on Van Meteren in English exists.

[xxxvi] John Franklin Jameson, Willem Usselinkcx: Founder of the Dutch and Swedish West India Companies, (Boston: G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1887), Vol. 2, Issue 3, p.27

[xxxvii] Quoted in Hugo De Schepper, Belgium Nostrum, 1500-1650: Over Integratie en Disintegratie van het Nederland, (Antwerpen: De Orde van Den Prince, 1987), p.i.

[xxxviii] Cornelis Ch. Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and On the Wild Coast: 1580-1680, (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1971), p.35.

[xxxix] Leon Voet, Antwerp The Golden Age: The Rise and Glory of the Metropolis in the Sixteenth Century, (Antwerp: Mercatorfonds, 1973), p. 314.

[xl] Violet Barbour, Capitalism in Amsterdam in the 17th Century, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966), p.13.

[xli] Gustaf Asaert, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), p. 219.

[xlii]“Sir Thomas Gresham, who knew continental markets well, thought of Amsterdam, if we may judge from his correspondence, only as a place in which to buy wainscoting.”Violet Barbour,Capitalism in Amsterdam in the 17th Century, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966), pp.14-15. Incidentally, Gresham is famous for having established the London Stock Exchange, modeling it after the Antwerp Bourse.

[xliii] Violet Barbour, Capitalism in Amsterdam in the 17th Century, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966), p.18.

[xliv] There is an extensive list of “financial firsts” that the V.O.C. can effortlessly lay claim to. These “firsts” I am compiling as material for a future post. But those interested in (to cite just one example) the corporate governance ‘firsts’ that stem from the founding of the V.O.C. (as well as the source of my quote in the sentence above) should see Ella Gepken-Jager, Gerard van Solinge, and Levinus Timmerman, eds., VOC 1602-2002: 400 Years of Company Law, (Nijmegen: Kluwer, 2005), Law of Business and Finance Series, Vol. 6, p.x.

[xlv]Henry Hudson in Holland: An Inquiry Into the Origin and Objects of the Voyage Which Led to the Discovery of the Hudson River With Bibliographical Notes, (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1909), reprint, pp.17-18. “As early as 1650, total dividend payments were already eight times the original investment, implying an annual rate of return of 27 per cent.” Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World, (New York: Penguin, 2008), p.137. Incidentally, an annual dividend rate of this magnitude places the V.O.C. returns at better than any 20th century investor known.

[xlvi] Gustaf Asaert, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), p. 219.

[xlvii]“Naschrift van Dr. J.G. Van Dillen” in W.J. van Hoboken, “Een wederwoord inzake de Westindische Compagnie,” pp. 49-56, inTijdschrift voor Geschiednis, 75ste, #1, (1962), p. 53..

[xlviii] Henry C. Murphy, Henry Hudson in Holland: An Inquiry Into the Origin and Objects of the Voyage Which Led to the Discovery of the Hudson River With Bibliographical Notes, (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1909), reprint, p. 5.

[xlix] Gustaf Asaert, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), p. 219.

[l] The circle of friends prominent men at this time had could often be proven by means of their Album Amicorum(“Friendship Book”). Thus, in Van Meteren’s is a detailed statement of friendship, penned by the Stadthouder, William of Nassau, and dated April 13, 1578. In the same album one also finds other leaders of the time including Philip Marnix (July 20, 1576 in Middleburg), Van Meteren’s 1st cousin Abraham Ortelius (March 15, 1576 in Antwerp and April 13, 1577 in London), Daniel Rogers another 1st cousin and Queen Elizabeth’s spy/envoy, June 6, 1578 in London), Simeon Ruytinck (Gent-origin leader of the “Dutch” Church in London (no date), and Petrus Plantius (November 4, 1595 in Amsterdam). See W.D. Verduyn, Emanuel Van Meteren, (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1926), pp.231-233..

[li] Cornelis Ch. Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and On the Wild Coast: 1580-1680, (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1971), p.35.

[lii]“De Laet combined a commercial spirit with religious zeal and a vast knowledge of many subjects. He was an upright Contra-Remonstrant, [and he] had been a member of the famous Synod of Dordrecht which had set the record straight concerning the true religion.” Cornelis Ch. Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and On the Wild Coast: 1580-1680, (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1971), p.30.

[liii] The actual passage is: “De meeste middelenwaer mede den Koningh van Hispangnien de gantsche Weerelt, ende insonderheyt Christenrijck, soo vele Jaren in roeren heft gehouden, ende dese Gheunieerde Provintien soo machtich bestreden, zijn voornementlijck hem toe-ghekommen uyt de over-ricke Landen van America: Wat groote schatten van Goudt ende Silver hy uyt die ghewesten jaerlijcks heft ghetrocken is alle de Weerelt ghenoegh bekent.” Johanne De Laet,Historie ofte Jaerlijck Verhael van de West-Indische Compagnie, (Leyden: Bonaventeur en Abraham Elsevier, 1644), p.1.

[liv] Cornelis Ch. Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and On the Wild Coast: 1580-1680, (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1971), p.35.

[lv] Cornelis Ch. Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and On the Wild Coast: 1580-1680, (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1971), p.34.

[lvi] Cornelis Ch. Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and On the Wild Coast: 1580-1680, (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1971), p.35.

[lvii] The full sentence actually is: “Intelligent en welsprekend, begaafd met een levendige fantasie, overtuigd Calvinist en hater van de Spaanse monarchie, heft hij zijn leven lang telkens weer nieuwe plannen ontworpen om de Spaanse machtspositie in Amerika te ondermijnen.” J.G. Van Dillen, “De West-Indische Compagnie, Het Calvinisme en de Politiek,” in Tijdschrift voor Geschiednis, 74, Aflevering 2 (1961), p. 145.

[lviii]“The date of conception for the WIC is not entirely clear. Usselinckx claims to have been discussing the project from the early 1590s, and in a pamphlet of 1630 he notes (three times) that his efforts on behalf of the Company predated its foundation by thirty years – dating it, thus, from 1591.” However, “the earliest published proposals for a WIC date from 1604 – a now lost “police” recorded in Van Meteren.” Benjamin Schmidt, The Dutch Imagination and the New World, 1570-1670, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), paperback edition, 2006; pp. 366-367, n96 & n103.

[lix] Not only did Plancius supply the charts for Hudson’s voyage but he played a critical role in slapping the difficult (and it seems dishonest) Henry Hudson in line. See copies of V.O.C. correspondence (both transcripted and in translation) in Henry C. Murphy, Henry Hudson in Holland: An Inquiry Into the Origin and Objects of the Voyage Which Led to the Discovery of the Hudson River With Bibliographical Notes, (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1909), reprint. See especially the Translations on pp. 139-140.

[lxi] Gustaf Asaert, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), p. 221.

[lxii] Cornelis Ch. Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and On the Wild Coast: 1580-1680, (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1971), p.35.

[lxiii] Cornelis Ch. Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and On the Wild Coast: 1580-1680, (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1971), p.32.

[lxiv]See for example, this interesting passage from Professor Asaert: "In Leiden namen vooral Vlamingen de plaatsen in van e uitgestoten remonstraten en katholieken. In de kerkenraden hadden Brabanders en Vlamingen zoals gezegd al een grote invloed verworven....In Leiden, met een gemengd calvinistisch-remonstratse kerkenraad, vroeg de magistraat in 1615 aan Episcopius, de bekende remontstrantse hoogelaar, of hij voortaan 's zondags regelmatig aan de predikdienst wilde meewerken. 'Neen,' antwoordde de arminiaan, 'ik wil niet onderworpen zijn aan de censuur van de Vlamingen in de kerkenraad.'” Gustaaf Asaert,1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2002), p.294.

[lxv]“De West-Indische Compagnie was de schlepping van het Contra-Remonstrantisme”. See Pieter Geyl, Geschiednis van de Nederlandse stam, (Amsterdam, 1949), Vol. I, p.484.

[lxvi] However, there were prominent Flemish theologians among this group as well. For example, Petrus Bertius (1565-1629) who was born in Beveren-Roesbrugge in Flanders and died in Paris. Like Plancius Bertius was a cartographer. Unlike Plancius, he supported Arminius (and was one of those who drafted the “Remonstrance” that gave the group its name). As a result of the rise of the Counter-Remonstrants, he fled to France and at the invitation of Louis XIII became the royal cosmographer. He died a Roman Catholic. See Gustaf Asaert, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), p. 117.

[lxvii] Baudartius was based at Zutphen. His grandson Willem Beekman became the longest serving New York City Mayor. His descendants include Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and George W. Bush. Baudartius grandson, Willem Beekman, was to become the longest-serving New York City mayor. The family connection has been chronicled in here:http://www.wargs.com/political/bush.html. Bucerus was based at Veere and had solid English contacts (as did Baudartius, who had been raised in Sandwich, England; and Gomarus for that matter – who had studied at Oxford and graduated from Cambridge). Meanwhile, Herman Faukelius was a preacher at Middleburg. See Gustaf Asaert, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), pp. 177-178 and p. 305. For a quick online review, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statenvertaling .

[lxviii]See Gustaf Asaert, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), pp. 177-178 and pp.304-305.

[lxix]Polyander, whose father was born in Gent, was the Leiden theologian (together with Gomarus) most frequently referred to by the Pilgrims at Leiden as their close friend. For that reference, see William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647, (New York: Random House, 1981), Francis Murphy, ed., 1st ed., pp. 20-22. Polyander, in fact, wrote the introduction (dated January 10, 1617) to the first Dutch language book printed by William Brewster (the “Commentary on Proverbs” by Cartwright) off of the Pilgrim’s Press. SeeRendel Harris & Stephen K. Jones, The Pilgrim Press: A Bibliographical & Historical Memorial of the Books Printed at Leyden by the Pilgrim Fathers, (Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons, 1922), Figure 22, at the end of the book (no page number). Later, Polyander and the Gentenaar Antonious Walaeus (De Waele) were to act as intermediaries from King James to Thomas Brewer to shut down the Pilgrim Press. See D. Plooij,The Pilgrim Fathers From a Dutch Point of View, (New York: New York University Press, 1932), pp. 76-77. For context on the Pilgrim-Polyander connection, see George F. Willison, Saints and Strangers: Being the Lives of the Pilgrim Fathers and Their Families, with Their Friends and Foes; and an Account of Their Posthumous Wanderings in Limbo, Their Final Resurrection and Rise to Glory, and the Strange Pilgrimmages of Plymouth Rock, (Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1981), pp. 99, 107. For the background/bio on Polyander see Gustaf Asaert, 1585: De Val van Antwerpen en de Uittocht van Vlamingen en Brabanders, (Tielt: Lannoo, 2004), pp. 177, 305.

[lxx] Not only Oldenbarnevelt, but his close allies and family suffered the retribution of the Contra-Remonstrants. His allies were deprived of their goods and imprisoned. His sons plotted revenge against Prince Maurice but failed. One (Renier) killed himself. The other (Willem), married to the grand-daughter of Philip Marnix, the Prince of Orange’s right-hand, spymaster and the author of the lyrics to Het Wilhelmus (the Dutch national anthem) fled to Brussels and outwardly became a Roman Catholic. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_van_Oldenbarnevelt as well ashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_van_Oldenbarnevelt and Cornelis Ch. Goslinga, The Dutch in the Caribbean and On the Wild Coast: 1580-1680, (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1971), pp. 36-39.

[lxxi] W.J. van Hoboken, “The Dutch West India Company; The Political Background of its Rise and Decline,” in J.S. Bromley, et.al., eds., Britain and the Netherlands in Europe and Asia, p. 61.


Copyright 2011 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. No reproduction in any form is permitted without my express, written consent.

The Flemish Founding of the Dutch West India Company - Part 2

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In my earlier post we reviewed the historical conditions that explained Antwerp’s pre-eminence in business, finance and trade in the 16th century. Next, we looked at the exodus of Zuidnederlanders – Southern Netherlanders, of whom the Dutch-speaking Flemings and Brabanders predominated – from Antwerp, especially to Amsterdam.We then reviewed the heavy Flemish involvement in and influence upon religious orientation in the Netherlands. Because one’s religious stance was strongly correlated with one’s political stance, we showed how the interconnectivity between the Flemings and the Contra-Remonstrants created an environment conducive to the establishment of the “Dutch” West India Company – the W.I.C.

In this post I will attempt to highlight another tranche of the many Flemish contributions to the founding of the Dutch West India Company, aka, the W.I.C.


Fish and Furs
The founding of the Dutch West India Company (the “W.I.C.” in Dutch) in 1621 follows a direct chain of events back to Henry Hudson. But Henry Hudson’s 1609 “discovery” of the river valley that bears his name, while important, was hardly the first time Flemings (or others, for that matter) had sailed to the North American coast. The Vikings of course had made it perhaps as far south as Cape Cod or even Rhode Island around the year 1000.[i] Flemish “mijts” – the small denomination copper coins the Bible calls “mites” in English[ii]– have been found by the 10s of 1000s near Concepcion Bay in Newfoundland[iii]. These coins were minted in the late 1300s to mid-1400s. So it is eminently feasible that Flemish fishermen made it to Newfoundland more than 100 years before Hudson reached the North American coast.[iv] But as I will show below, we do not need to look that far into the past to find Henry Hudson's Flemish predecessors along the North Atlantic coast.

The drivers of these Flemish predecessors were fish and fur. In fact, among other motives, the push to the North American coast by pre-Hudson Flemings was to meet an insatiable, commercial demand for fish. The twin pressures of religiously-mandated fasts (where fish but not meat could be consumed) and a rising population in Europe, could only find relief through increased fish supplies.[v] Because refrigeration was non-existent and salting was not always possible, the cod (pictured above) which is not an oily fish, and hence can be air-dried[vi], was ideal. Of course, as cod fish stocks close to Europe’s coasts were depleted, fishermen were forced to sail deeper into the North Atlantic for good catches.[vii] Since cod prefer shallow water – they are commonly found at depths of 20 fathoms (120 feet) or less[viii]– where one finds cod, one is likely not far from a shoreline.



Nor was it a matter of guesswork to find the cod: in modern times cod have been tracked migrating from the North Sea near the Flemish and Dutch coast direct to Newfoundland (aka, "Terra Nova" as pictured above) .[ix]Following schools of migrating fish is one thing but it helps to know where one is going. Flemish innovations in fishing, navigation and shipbuilding (e.g., the “Flemish Buss”[x] enabled fish to be dried on board) made such journeys across the North Atlantic possible. As one very prominent Dutch historian has stated, “the Dutch had no knowledge of the techniques of cod fishing off Newfoundland and no shore rights to dry their fish.”[xi] But merchants at Antwerp and along the Flemish coast from Oostende south to Gravélines and Dunkirk did.[xii]
Flemish fishermen had perfected the technology of preserving fish first.[xiii] Flemish fishermen – often from the diaspora, such as the “Flemish Isles” (i.e., the Azores) – utilized these advance-
ments to efficiently catch codfish.



Once caught, the cod were gutted and dried. Initially this was done at beachcomber camps but it could also be accomplished from the deck of a Flemish buss.[xiv] The fishermen who sailed to and from Newfoundland – as Columbus learned firsthand – utilized a “Flemish needle”[xv] (compass) and a “compass rose” (whose wind directions were, even for the Spaniards and Portuguese, printed in Flemish).[xvi] In short through direct experience and the application of this experience to solutions Flemings solved important problems for trans-Atlantic explorers.



Even with the application of the innovative tools the Flemings developed, fishing expeditions were costly and risky. Crews were compelled then to engage in part-time whaling and trading in order to make the voyages profitable. Whaling, of course, was done while seaborne. The trading, on the other hand, started while the fishermen were drying cod on coastal flats: the fishermen then engaged in petty trade (personal items) with the aboriginals they encountered. Over time, this became an important supplement to the uncertain results fishing yielded. The attractiveness, on the one hand, of European manufactured goods (axes, knives, utensils) to aboriginals was matched by the European hatters’ need for inexpensive furs – especially beaver pelts[xvii]– that Native Americans had access to. By the late 1500s, each side found great value in this exchange.[xviii] That there was a value proposition attractive to both sides hastened the arrival of Europeans to North America.




The French (Canadian) Connection
The innovations that made trans-Atlantic fishing economically possible were also those that made trans- Atlantic seafaring possible. Noted Amsterdam archivist/historian Simon Hart has shown that in the years immediately prior to Henry Hudson’s “discovery” of the Hudson Valley area, ships owned by Flemish émigrés were sailing, trading, fishing, and fighting up and down the North American coast. To offer but one documented case: the Antwerp émigrés Balthazar de Moucheron (about whom more later) and Cornelis Meunicx sent at least one ship “for the fishery near Terra Nova [Newfoundland]” in March, 1597.