Lodewijck Huygens’ Spanish Journal, 1660-1661: Perceptions of Spain and Confirmation of the Identity of the Dutch Republic

Abstract

Travel narratives are a historical source full of pitfalls. Nevertheless, these stories do provide much historical information, not just about the country visited and its people, but about the traveller as well. Texts of this genre in particular tell us much about the traveller’s perceptions of the other. At the same time, the self-image vis-à-vis the other will be reconsidered on the basis of the visit to the other’s country, and will be adjusted or reconfirmed with old and new arguments. This rarely leads to a completely new image; rather, there will be adjustments within the framework of existing perceptions. All of this applies to Lodewijck Huygens (son of Constantijn) and his Spanish Journal (1660–1661), where the Spaniard gets a new position within the prevalent perceptions and opinions about relations between Spain and the Dutch Republic after the Eighty Years’ War. The ordinary Spaniard is no longer perceived as the enemy; instead, like the Dutch in the sixteenth century, he, too, is a victim of Spanish tyranny and of the Roman Catholic Church. The author’s self-image is also reconsidered; in this particular case it leads to a confirmation of his identity and a justification of the emancipation of his fatherland as an independent free nation because, if the Dutch Revolt had not succeeded, the Netherlanders might have been living in the same miserable conditions as the Spaniards.