Confessional public diplomacy? Bernardino de Rebolledo’s defence of Catholicism in Denmark, 1655–1656

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the possibilities for diplomats in mid-seventeenth-century Europe to engage in confessional public diplomacy beyond their own confessional sphere. It does so by examining two concrete initiatives Bernardino de Rebolledo, Spain’s envoys to Copenhagen, undertook to defend Catholicism: first the support for the controversial conversion of Queen Christina of Sweden to Catholicism, second the reaction to the Danish edict forbidding the practice of non-Lutheran confessions on Danish soil. This analysis demonstrates the Spanish envoys’ understanding of how public opinion worked and how it could be influenced. Moreover, it shows how this occurred in the absence of clear instructions from their superiors in Madrid, demonstrating the autonomy and agency of early modern diplomats in conceiving public diplomacy actions.

KEYWORDS:

• Public diplomacy, religion, Spanish monarchy, Denmark, Dutch Republic, seventeenth century

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. I want to thank the volume editors, Nina Lamal and Klaas Van Gelder, as well as the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions. Likewise the comments of Thomas Donald Jacobs were helpful when making the final revision.

2. Simancas, Archivo General de Simancas (hereafter AGS), Estado, leg. 8468, fol. 78v: Gamarra to Rebolledo from The Hague on 13 January 1656. This letter is a reply to Rebolledo’s letter, written from Copenhagen on 18 December 1655, to Gamarra, in Brussels, Archives générales du Royaume/Algemeen Rijksarchief (hereafter AGRB), Ambassade d’Espagne à La Haye (hereafter AELH), reg. 515.

3. On the Edict, see: Garstein, Rome and Counterreformation.

4. Between 1650 and 1656 and focusing on Western or Northern Europe, the following wars took place: Spanish-Portuguese, Franco-Spanish, Anglo-Dutch, Anglo-Spanish, and the Great Northern War from 1655 to 1660. For the fears of a confrontation on religious grounds, see Roberts, “Cromwell and the Baltic,” 408.

5. On the peace and religious coexistence, see Rendtorff, “Religion und Konfession,” 238–49; Asch, “Religious toleration,” 75–89.

6. An example is the report sent to Madrid by the Spanish ambassador in Vienna, the Marquis de La Fuente, in which he summarises his position concerning the Northern War. La Fuente had told the imperial government he opposed a confrontation along confessional lines. His view was shared by officials in Madrid. The report was sent with a letter to Philip IV from Vienna on 8 May 1657: Madrid, Archivo Histórico Nacional (hereafter AHN), Estado, libro 125, fol. 117r–126v.

7. Even if religion played a less prominent role in European affairs after 1648, its influence should not be underestimated. Confessional arguments remained important in conducting foreign policy. For instance, the English attack upon the Spanish Monarchy in 1655–1656 was partially based on confessional grounds. See Prestwich, “Diplomacy and Trade,” 103–21. On the role of religion after 1648, see Onnekink, ed., War and Religion After Westphalia; Mühling, Die europäische Debatte; Windler, “„Allerchristliche” und „Katholische Könige””.

8. For the Spanish case, see Bravo Lozano, Tierras de Misión. Oskar Garstein presents further information on French and Portuguese activities in this field in Garstein, Rome and Counterreformation, 511–22.

9. One of the strategies was to convert rulers, because the general idea was that once a ruler had converted, it was just a matter of time before their subjects would follow. See Mader, “Conversion concepts,” 37; Mader, “Fürstenkonversionen zum Katholizismus,” 403–40.

10. Quote taken from Auer, Theorie der Public Diplomacy, 26.

11. The idea of public diplomacy is an outcome of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as Gullion’s definition and the academic literature show. The main bibliographic references deal with case studies from the First World War or the Cold War and major scholars in the field, like Joseph Nye, are from fields such as international relations studies or political sciences. Furthermore, research on public diplomacy is relatively recent and the term “public diplomacy” itself was defined by Eytan Gilboa as “new” in 2008: Gilboa, “Searching for a Theory,” 55. Currently, there is an ongoing discussion about its limits. See for instance Auer, Theorie der Public Diplomacy in contrast to the different uses of the term ranging from propaganda to public relations by Vlahos, Snow or Cull in their contributions to Snow and Taylor, eds., Routledge Handbook. Also see Schindler, The Origins of Public, 6 and Falk, Public Diplomacy, 2–3.

12. Hassner and Svensson, “Introduction,” xvii; Fox, “Religion as an Overlooked Element”. Cooper, Heine, and Thakur, eds., The Oxford Handbook does not contain an entry on religion and diplomacy. Two recent articles published in 2017 and 2018 respectively show that scholarship in international relations is still “rediscovering” religion as a relevant factor in contemporary foreign policy. None of the articles links religion and public diplomacy: Hurd, “Narratives of de-secularization”; Fahy and Haynes, “Introduction: Interfaith on the World”. The different articles in Melissen, ed., The New Public Diplomacy do barely refer to religion. Only Sharp, “Revolutionary States,” 114–7 mentions religion in the Iranian Revolution, but again it is not seen as a key element. In Snow and Taylor, eds., Routledge Handbook, religion is absent from the picture. An exception is Seib, ed., Religion and Public Diplomacy, which completely focuses on the present and has a very limited conception of the historical past. According to the volume’s editor, Philip Seib, the second article in the volume dealing with the connections between Pope John Paul II, the Catholic Church in Poland, and Radio Free Europe provides “historical perspective”: Seib, “Introduction,” 5. Much of the same happens in Leight, ed., Essays on faith diplomacy and Cull, Public Diplomacy: Lessons from the Past.

13. Cull, Public Diplomacy: Foundations, 3.

14. See Helmers, “Public Diplomacy,” 401–20; Schindler, The Origins of Public, 8; see the different contributions in this volume as well.

15. Bauer, “Strukturwandel”; Garnier and Vogel, eds., Interkulturelle Ritualpraxis.

16. Sawilla and Schlögl, eds., Jenseits der Ordnung?

17. On Rebolledo’s career until 1648, see Casado Lobato, “Un poeta y diplomático leonés”.

18. Andreas Pečar and Karin MacHardy among others have used Pierre Bourdieu’s theories to expose the ways the early modern nobility acted in order to remain at the top of the social scale. This included the acquisition of cultural capital as well as the embodiment of certain values, worldviews and acting forms labelled by Bourdieu as “habitus”. Rebolledo’s long career, including his years in Denmark, constitutes a magnificent example of this embodiment of aristocratic worldviews and forms of acting: Pečar, Die Ökonomie der Ehre, 126–38; Pečar, “Status-Ökonomie,” 91–108; MacHardy, War, Religion, 164–75, particularly 164–8.

19. The classic work on Rebolledo’s years in Denmark is Gigas, Grev Bernardino; an abridged account in Spanish in Casado Lobato, “Un poeta y diplomático,” 21–58. The most recent revision of his years in Denmark and the position of his mission within the Spanish Monarchy’s policies towards Northern Europe in Corredera Nilsson, Dealing with the North.

20. Rebolledo’s interest in theological matters was noticed by contemporaries, as the poem dedicated to him in the book Apollos Harp published in 1658 by, among others, Constantin Huygens, demonstrates: Huygens et al., Apollos Harp, 168–9.

21. Gigas, Grev Bernardino, 201–2 and 213–21.

22. Recent analyses of Rebolledo’s Selvas Dánicas in Sáez, “El ingenio de la diplomacia,” in Ruiz Pérez, “Visión y mirada en las Selvas dánicas,” and in Kluge, ““Qu’assi Saxo le nombra””.

23. On Rebolledo’s works González Cañal, ed., Edición Crítica; González Cañal, La obra dramática.

24. On the Dissertatio Apologetica¸see Corredera Nilsson, Dealing with the North, 300.

25. Gersdorff was not the only high-ranking official who showed an interest in theological discussions. In his printed letter to Ramiro de Quiñones, de Rebolledo portrays the intellectual interests of part of the Danish court and the role played by theological discussions: Rebolledo, Ocios, 195–7.

26. An account of these other activities, although from a Roman Catholic perspective, in Garstein, Rome and Counterreformation, 447–99.

27. Rebolledo’s instructions in AGS, Estado, leg. 2257. Another copy in AHN, Estado, 2880, Exp. 29.

28. In my doctoral dissertation I have examined Rebolledo’s correspondence from Denmark, see see Corredera Nilsson, Dealing with the North. The lack of comments on religious matters in the letters sent to him is striking. The best example is Rebolledo’s complaint to Philip IV in a letter from 7 August 1652: “And I can truthfully assure, that nothing is uselessly or lacklustre spent and that the chapel (in which particular I have never received an answer) costs me more than what my fortune can resist” [“ … Y puedo asegurar con toda verdad, que nada se gasta inutil ni deslucidamente y que la Capilla (en cuyo particular nunca he tenido respuesta) me cuesta mas de lo que el Caudal puede resistir … ”]: Rebolledo to Philip IV, Copenhagen, 17 August 1652: AGS, Estado, leg. 2440, fol. 10. Unless otherwise stated, all the translations are my own.

29. For the instructions given to the Spanish ambassadors to England during the seventeenth century, see Sanz Camañes, “Las instrucciones de los embajadores”. A general overview of the diplomats to The Hague between 1648 and 1678 and their activities in the religious field in Herrero Sánchez, El acercamiento hispano-neerlandes, 215–30. Bravo Lozano’s research on Spanish diplomats active on the British Isles from 1660 onwards shows that Rebolledo’s actions were not exceptional. He followed the trends of his time: Bravo Lozano, Tierras de misión. On the embassy chapels: Kaplan, “Diplomacy and Domestic Devotion,” 341–61.

30. Gamarra (later Pimentel’s) instruction in AGRB, Secrétairerie d’Etat et de Guerre (hereafter SEG), Reg. 252. The draft of La Fuente’s instruction in AHN, Estado, leg. 3455, doc. 35; published in Corredera Nilsson, Todos Somos Godos, 284–6. The draft of La Fuente’s instruction is particularly interesting because it contains a short paragraph where the only reference to Catholicism has been crossed out.

31. On this title, its implications, and the tensions between the Spanish crown and the Papacy, see Martínez Millán, “La evaporación del concepto,” 2143–96.

32. On the Congregatio and its activities in Northern Europe: Garstein, Rome and Counterreformation; Denzler, Die Propagandakongregation in Rom, 100–1.

33. Neither Emil Gigas nor Johannes Metzler give any information that may suggest the existence of sources revealing such cooperation: Metzler, Die Apostolischen Vikariate des Nordens; Gigas, Grev Bernardino. Sven I. Olofsson comes to the same conclusion as Metzler and Gigas: Olofsson, Drottning Christinas, 264, note 8.

34. Garstein comments that Rebolledo and Francken did not know about Rome’s attempts to approach Christina through Father Antonio Macedo: Garstein, Rome and Counterreformation, 648–9.

35. On the conversion, see Olofsson, Drottning Christinas; Garstein, Rome and Counterreformation, 525–765. A critique of Garstein, along with a revision of the reasons that could have led Christina to convert, in Åkerman, “Between Libertinism and Catholicism,” 221–34.

36. General remarks on Queen Christina’s presence in printed newspapers in Wåghäll-Nivre, “Eine Königin,” 301–32. Another example of the attention paid by different actors to Christina’s travel and actions can be found in the letters of Andrea Mangelli, the Papal Internuncio, sent from Brussels to Rome: see, Lambert, ed., La correspondence. I want to thank Klaas Van Gelder for providing me with this information.

37. On the pamphlets around Christina’s abdication and conversion, see Wåghäll and M. Eckart, “Narrating Life,” 319–23. Texts printed during 1655–1656 dealing with Christina’s change of faith appeared in Spanish, Dutch, French, Italian, Latin, German and English.

38. A Relation of the Life of Christina of Sweden. On several defamatory pamphlets: Rodén, Drottning Christina, 152–4.

39. This is based on the information provided by the Bodleian Library’s catalogue: http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph016438295 (accessed 6 January 2021).

40. On Pimentel: Brieve relation, 12

41. An examination of this aspect in Corredera Nilsson, Dealing with the North, 226–33.

42. Les Raisons et Motifs de la conversion, 6.

43. Carta de un gentilhombre católico escrita en Copenhague, 10 de Diciembre 1655: AGRB, AELH, Reg. 515.

44. Part of the North-European elites not only spoke French, but also understood Spanish. For an indication of the spread of the Spanish language throughout Europe Sáez Rodríguez has pointed to the publication of grammar books to learn the language in different countries, see Sáez Rodríguez, La lengua de las gramáticas.

45. A Spanish copy sent to Gamarra in AGRB, AEHL, reg. 515: Carta de un gentilhombre católico escrita á Copenhague, 10 de diciembre 1655. The copies of the French version carry two slightly different titles: Lettre d’un gentilhomme Catholique á Copenhagen and Lettre d’un Gentilhomme François escrite à Copenhagen, le 10. de Decemb. 1655. The Lettre d’un gentilhomme Catholique á Copenhage was reproduced by Johan Arckenholtz in his biography of Christina, written in the eighteenth century. Arckenholtz indicated that a certain “Mr Gram” had provided him with a copy: Arckenholtz, Memoires concernant Christine, vol. 1, 465. Copies indicating that the author was supposedly a French gentleman can be found in Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia (hereafter RAH), L-66, folleto nº 17 bis and in the Kongelige Biblioteket in Copenhagen. Garstein suggests that the copy held in Denmark and the one reproduced by Arckenholtz are similar in their content: Garstein, Rome and Counterreformation, 642. Besides these copies, a handwritten summary of Lettre d’un gentilhomme Catholique á Copenhage can be found in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek’s manuscript collection (http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/bsb00116474/image_433, accessed 20 July 2020). This summary was part of the Collectio Camerariana, but how it entered this collection is unknown, as Ludwig Camerarius died in 1651. Its existence in this collection further confirms that the letter must have had some degree of circulation in a variety of forms among the European elites. I want to thank the staff of the Handschriften und Alte Drucke department for their help in providing me with the link to the digitised version.

46. On the Ocios see González Cañal, ed., Edición crítica. The letter in: Rebolledo, Ocios. vol. 1, 398–406.

47. Even if Rebolledo might have been only partially involved in the process, the document can be seen as an exercise in self-promotion. For more information about Rebolledo’s attempts at self-promotion through his literary work and his diplomatic correspondence consult Corredera Nilsson, Dealing with the North, 280–313.

48. AGS, Estado, leg. 8468, fol. 78v: Gamarra to Rebolledo, The Hague, 13 January 1656. This letter is a reply to Rebolledo’s letter, written from Copenhagen on 18 December 1655, to Gamarra: AGRB, AELH, reg. 515: “Por responder a una muy indecente calunia [sic] contra la conbersion [sic] de la Reyna a sido forçoso probar que mucho antes de Agosto de 52 deseaba la amistad del Rey nro Señor y tener Maestro Catholico.”

49. Rebolledo’s correspondence with Gamarra is chronologically organised in the archive. Immediately following the letter, there are two copies of the pamphlet in Spanish, written by different hands. They were attached to Rebolledo’s letter: AGRB, AELH, Reg. 515.

50. See Garstein, Rome and Counter-Reformation, 476–82; Gigas, Grev Bernardino, 202–4. On Frederick III’s interest in theological debates see Roding, “The ‘Kunst und Wunderkammer’,” 39.

51. Garstein sees the debate as part of the Catholic strategy to “regain” Northern Europe. It could also be interpreted as part of the “reunion movement” existent after 1648 that sought to reconcile the different Christian confessions and, ideally, bring them together again. On the “reunion movements” in Europe see Bradley, “Toleration and movements”, 348–70.

52. For Danes who were against the toleration see Garstein, Rome and the Counterreformation, 466–9.

53. On Rebolledo’s chapel more in Corredera Nilsson, Dealing with the North, 431–8.

54. A detailed account of the Swedish-Danish negotiations from 1655 until the outbreak of the war in 1657 in Carlbom, Magnus Dureels. Carlbom examines in detail the political and commercial aspects on pages 55–80. Unfortunately, he neglects the confessional aspects of the negotiations.

55. Roberts, “Cromwell and the Baltic,” 407.

56. On Denmark’s neutrality: Corredera Nilsson, Dealing with the North, 108–22; Lockhart, Denmark in the Thirty Years’ War.

57. This at least is Åke Lindqvist’s interpretation: Lindqvist, Politiska förbindelser, 163–4.

58. See point 7 of the Swedish proposal and point 9 of the Danish one in Carlbom, Magnus Dureels, 56.

59. A translation into English in Garstein, Rome and the Counterreformation, 470–1.

60. It seems that some foreigners were serving at the Danish court, probably Italian musicians.

61. AGS, Estado, leg. 2444, fol. 220: Rebolledo to Philip IV, Copenhagen, 18 December 1655; also fol. 221: Rebolledo to the secretary Gerónimo de la Torre, Copenhagen, 18 December 1655, and the letters in AGRB, AELH, reg. 515.

62. The translation in AGS, Estado, leg. 2444, fol. 223; the printed copy on fol. 224.

63. On Danish-Dutch relations, Fabricius, Hammerich, and Lorenzen, Holland–Danmark: forbindelserne; Lockhart, Denmark in the Thirty Years’ War.

64. The extraordinary mission with Coenraad van Beuningen, Godard Adriaan van Reede and Matthijs van Viersen as representatives left The Hague in January 1656.

65. On the vividness of the printing and distribution of pamphlets in the United Provinces during the seventeenth century in general, and in the 1650s in particular: Deen, Onnekink, and Reinders, eds., Pamphlets and Politics; Harms, Pamfletten en publieke opinie, 91–128.

66. It is challenging to find in which newspaper the edict was published. For the Amsterdam newspapers Tijdinghe and Ordinarise Middel-weeckse Courante and The Hague, no issues have survived for December 1655. See Der Weduwen, Dutch and Flemish Newspapers.

67. AGS, Estado, legajo 8468, fols. 78–79: Esteban de Gamarra to Bernardino de Rebolledo, The Hague, 13 January 1656: “Se ha executado lo que se hauia encargado a mi confessor […], inseriendose en la Gazeta el articulo que venia en su carta, y hauiendose impreso en flamenco el Edicto que allí se publicó de que no quedan poco sentidos los Predicantes y aun los mas de los mismos estados. Veremos si produce el efecto que suponeis, pareciendome que sus embaxadores extraordinarios que partieron de esta villa lunes passado para essa corte no embargante el rigor del tiempo, no dexarán de pasar oficios con aquel Rey para su reuocaçion”; and AGRB, AEHL, reg. 515. Rebolledo’s letter from December shows how thorough his thinking on this matter was. He asked Gamarra: “ … hazed que se execute lo que contiene, q.e queremos ymitar a S. Pablo en defendernos de los Fariseos con los Saduceos, que aun eran peores que ellos” [“to execute what it [an extra paper] contains, as we want to imitate St. Paul and defend us from the Pharisees with the Sadducees, who were even worse”].

68. A partial revision of the edited correspondence between Coenraad van Beuningen and Johan de Witt did not provide any results: Brieven aan Johan de Witt.

69. Neither Rebolledo’s nor Gamarra’s correspondence for the years 1655–1656 (conserved at the archives in Simancas) contains any further information on the impact of the initiative.

70. According to the available sources, Brussels had a very limited role in Rebolledo’s mission. There are no orders coming from Brussels dictating Rebolledo’s actions on any aspect of his mission.

71. I want to thank Thomas Donald Jacobs for providing me with a copy of his article, making possible to compare similarities and differences in the way Cárdenas and Rebolledo approached public diplomacy issues.

72. See for instance AGRB, AELH, reg. 515: Rebolledo to Gamarra, 18 December 1655; AGS, Estado, leg. 2444, fol. 221: Rebolledo to Gerónimo de la Torre, Copenhagen, 18 December 1655. See also AGRB, AELH, reg. 515: Rebolledo to Gamarra, 29 December 1655, and AGS, Estado, leg. 2444, fol. 238: Rebolledo to Philip IV, Copenhagen, 29 December 1655.

73. Even if the sentences differed only slightly, the selection of content was clearly the result of conscious decision. Rebolledo, for instance, informed the Marquis of Castel Rodrigo, Philip IV’s ambassador at the imperial court, on the edict. He did not send him a copy, neither did he inform him about the decision to try to stop it by influencing the public opinion in the United Provinces. Apparently, only Gamarra, who was directly involved in the initiative, knew about it. See AGS, Estado, leg. 2444, fol. 194–195: Rebolledo to Castel Rodrigo, Copenhagen, 8 December 1655.

74. Rebolledo’s pamphlet seems to have been a reaction against two French ones which were published in 1655 carrying the title Brieve relation de la vie de Christine reyne de Suede and Le génie de la reyne Christine de Suède respectively. Both pamphlets differed partially in their content, but reproduced verbatim several fragments, including the paragraph in which Philip IV’s extraordinary envoy to Sweden, Antonio Pimentel, was made responsible of Christina’s decision to quit the crown: Le génie de la reyne Christine de Suède, 11–12 and Brieve relation de la vie de Christine reyne de Suede, 11. For more on these pamphlets, the translation of the Brieve relation into English in 1656, and the way Christina was attacked: Wåghäll Nivre, “Writing life – writing news,” 221–39.

75. AGS, Estado, leg. 2444, fol. 221: Rebolledo to Gerónimo de la Torre, Copenhagen, 18 December 1655; AGRB, AELH, reg. 515: Rebolledo to Gamarra, Copenhagen, 18 December 1655.

76. At least one of the pamphlets was translated into Dutch: De Ingeboren Aert Ofte Humeur Van Christina.

77. Snyder, Dissimulation; Rodríguez de la Flor, Pasiones Frías; Zagorin, Ways of Lying.

78. On the actor-centred perspective: Thiessen and Windler, “Einleitung: Außenbeziehungen,” 1–12.

79. Likewise, it should not be forgotten that in the Spanish seventeenth-century thinking the royal secretary played the role – in Arndt Brendecke’s words – of “institutional interface” between the sovereign and the “outside world”: Brendecke, “Informing the Council,” 238–9.

80. The practice of diplomacy from approximately 1500 to 1800 presents special features and has led Hillard von Thiessen to label it as “old-style diplomacy”: Thiessen, “Diplomatie vom type ancient,” 471–503.

81. Falk, Public Diplomacy, 8.

82. According to Nicholas Cull, listening to the audiences, diplomats want to interact with is a key feature in modern public diplomacy: Cull, Public Diplomacy: Foundations, 4.

83. Falk, Public Diplomacy, 3.

84. This need to reintroduce the general public into the picture has been pointed out for the case of state-building processes: Blockmans, Holenstein, Mathieu, and Schläppi, eds., Empowering Interactions.