Immigrants in Tudor and Early Stuart England

Abstract

IMMIGRANTS fleeing persecution pose urgent problems for policy-makers all over the world these days, so a book describing past experiences of the same kind is a golden gift, offering much food for thought. One substantial volume on this theme was published by the Huguenot Society in 2001 (ed. Randolph Vigne and Charles Littleton). Now appears another volume, confined to England and the age of the Tudors and Stuarts. Twelve essays by eight scholars broaden the scene further with fresh evidence, prompting fresh reflections. This one underlines, in particular, how much new information is brought to light by exploring documents held in archives in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Now, instead of generalities concerning English policy towards aliens, which satisfied the history books fifty years ago, these essays locate people geographically, strive to understand their point of view when leaving their native places without knowing when or if they would ever return, and observe their different cultures influencing English ways. Raingard Esser offers an original perspective on the foreigners’ way with town pageants, adding their touches to the civic style of Norwich. Other authors sympathetically portray the attitudes of English craftsmen who, in periods of depressed trade, understandably blamed the competition of foreigners for their troubles. The term ‘xenophobia’ that flits across these pages several times seems out of place once authors draw local cirumstances and particular phases in the trade cycle into consideration.