With ceremony the Flemish city of Ghent has taken receipt of an historic letter from Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland, written in 1578. The letter was addressed to the leader of the Protestant regime in power in the city at that time. It recently surfaced in Scotland. Ghent was able to prevent the letter being auctioned. It is giving the document pride of place in the city archives.
A spy was entrusted with bringing the document dated 30 December 1578 to the city council, which was then run by rebels led by Jan van Hembyse. The city had just become a Calvinist republic, a special historical period that lasted six years.
It was in late August that the city was told that the letter would be auctioned in Edinburgh. ‘We received a tip off, because we did not know the letter existed. Van Hembyse did not keep it in the town hall and so it remained under the radar for centuries,’ explains Nele Lefever of the Archives of Ghent.
The city started negotiations with the auction house and the private owner of the letter to bring the document back home to Ghent. The letter ended up in Scotland as a result of several previous auctions. Ghent was eventually able to buy the document for 23,000 euros.
‘We are proud that the letter is back. It is a symbol of Ghent's individuality. The document will have its place in the archives. We will display a replica in the city hall until April, so visitors can come and see the letter for themselves,’ says alderman Filip Watteeuw.
English request to spare Catholics
The letter came from Queen Elizabeth I, who was worried about the fate of Catholics in Ghent. She sent the letter on 30 December 1578. ‘It is a manuscript written in French in which she asks for a fair trial for Catholic nobles, who had been imprisoned in the city for 14 months,’ says Lefever.
In 1577, Calvinists seized power in a revolt and established a republic. The Catholic elite was thrown in jail. A year later William of Orange travelled to Ghent to mediate and eventually reached an agreement on their release.
The letter arrived a few days after the Catholics had been released. So the document had little impact, but it is a special testimony to the short-lived Calvinist regime in Ghent. That remained in power until 1584, in August Van Hembyse was arrested and beheaded on the Veerleplein. The Protestants fled the city and Ghent once again came under Spanish rule.