Public Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe: Theatrical Entertainments for the State Journeys of English and French Royals into the Low Countries, 1577-1642

Project Information

PUBLICDIPLOMACY

Grant agreement ID: 101029762

DOI

10.3030/101029762

Project closed

EC signature date 22 April 2021

Start date 1 September 2021

End date 31 August 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 175 572,48

EU contribution

€ 175 572,48

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PUBLICDIPLOMACY (Public Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe: Theatrical Entertainments for the State Journeys of English and French Royals into the Low Countries, 1577-1642)

Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

European governments often rely on social media to manage their international relations. This is what scholars of international relations have called Public Diplomacy (PD): the effort of diplomatic actors to influence foreign affairs by reaching out to international audiences through actor-to-public interaction. Rather than being a modern invention, historians such as Helmer Helmers and William T. Rossiter have demonstrated that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries printed media were already widely used for PD. Knowledge of this tradition helps to increase historical awareness about ideas and practices of diplomatic communication and collaboration prior to the foundation of the European Union.

However, regularly overlooked in scholarship on the early modern history of PD and diplomacy in general is the important role that the performing arts—much like social media today—played in managing foreign affairs. This research project has sought to redress the balance and expand knowledge about the diplomatic function and reception of the early modern performing arts within the context of the state journeys that the English and French royal crown made into the Low Countries between 1577 and 1642. Never been studied in depth before, the theatrical entertainments given for the voyages, including tableaux vivants, triumphal processions, and mock naval battles, constitute excellent examples of early modern PD. By bringing together the fields of early modern diplomacy and the performing arts, the project boasted a genuinely interdisciplinary approach to the state journeys that is essential to understanding the historical development of PD today. Contributing to such an understanding highlights the importance of arts and culture - what Joseph Nye has termed 'soft power' - for promoting and preserving diplomatic communication and collaboration between states.

Key results of the action included a one-day hybrid conference at Leiden University (contributions to which will appear - expanded and reworked - in an open access special journal issue), a public outreach programme at a regional Dutch archive, one major open access journal article, one short overview journal article, three major peer-reviewed book chapters, various contributions to popular media and (online) scholarship platforms, and a first draft of a monograph on the topic, provisionally entitled Public Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe: Royal Tours of the Low Countries, 1577-1642. The latter monograph is the first book-length study to analyse how the theatrical entertainments served as both lubricants in negotiations between representatives of the Low Countries, England, and France, and as tools for promoting collaboration between those countries to a European audience of diplomats, nobles, and non-elites.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

PUBLISHED ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS (selected):

1. Bram van Leuveren, ‘Print and Pageantry as Early Modern Tools for Public Diplomacy: French-Language Pamphlets on the Habsburg-Bourbon Weddings (1614- 1615) and Marie de Médicis's Tour of the Low Countries (1638)’, Medievalia et Humanistica 48 (2023), 135-164, https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3637076 [open access journal article].

EXPLOITATION AND DISSEMINATION OF RESEARCH during the Fellowship (selected):

Organised conference:

2. Pageantry, Ritual, and Popular Media: Netherlandish Practices of Public Diplomacy in 16th- and 17th-Century Europe, Leiden University, LUCAS, 2 December 2022 [hybrid conference].

Academic talks (selected):

1. ‘Theatre as Public Diplomacy in the Low Countries, 1570s-1640s’ (online meeting, Medieval and Early Modern Cluster, LUCAS, 14 October 2021), Leiden University.
2. ‘Spektakel als publieke diplomatie. Drukwerk, schrift en multimedia, 1570-1640’ [Spectacle as Public Diplomacy: Print, Writing, and Multi-Media, 1570-1640] (online meeting ‘Public Diplomacy’ research team of Dr. Helmer Helmers, 13 December 2021), KNAW, Amsterdam.
3. ‘Female Travel and Diplomacy: The Progress of Marie de Médicis into the Low Countries in 1631/38’ (in-person conference, ‘RSA Dublin 2022’, Renaissance Society of America, 30 March-2 April 2022), Dublin.
4. ‘Banquet for Marie de Médicis at the East-India House in Amsterdam (1638): Colonial Violence and Orientalism in Performance’ (online conference, ‘Spectacular Orientalism in Early Modern Europe’, Society for European Festivals Research, 8-9 June 2022), Goldsmiths, University of London.
5. ‘Spectacle as Public Diplomacy in the Low Countries, 1570s-1640s’, Global Spectacles, Medieval and Early Modern Cluster meeting, Leiden University, LUCAS, 8 November 2022.

Popular contributions (selected):

1. Bram van Leuveren, ‘Een vergeten kunstenares uit 16de-eeuws Alkmaar’ [A Forgotten Woman Artist From 16th-Century Alkmaar'], Alkmaarsche Courant, 18 April 2023, pp. 8-9 [newspaper article]. Online version: https://www.regionaalarchiefalkmaar.nl/verdieping/blog/1016-vergeten-alkmaarse-kunstenares-uit- de-laat-zestiende-eeuw.
2. Bram van Leuveren, 'Mocking the Monarch: What Do Memes About Queen Elizabeth II Have In Common With Unruly Spectators of Renaissance Spectacle?', Leiden Arts in Society Blog, 7 December 2022, https://www.leidenartsinsocietyblog.nl/articles/mocking-the-monarch-what-do-memes-about-queen-elizabeth-II-have-in-common-with-
unruly-spectators-of-renaissance-spectacle [blog post].
3. Bram van Leuveren, ‘Neptune on the Amstel: Theatre as Public Diplomacy in the Early Modern Netherlands’, Leiden Arts in Society Blog, 6 October 2021, https://www.leidenartsinsocietyblog.nl/articles/neptune-on-the-amstel-theatre-as-public-diplomacy-in-the-early-modern-netherlands [blog post].

Public outreach talk (selected):

1. ‘Feest in Alkmaar! Vorstelijke bezoeken aan de stad in de zestiende tot achttiende eeuw’ [Party in Alkmaar! Royal Visits to the City in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries], Regionaal Archief Alkmaar, 22 May 2023 [lecture and workshop].

ACADEMIC PUBLICATION IN PROGRESS (selected)

1. Bram van Leuveren, Public Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe: Royal Tours of the Low Countries, 1577-1642 (provisional title) [monograph], first draft.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

1. Bridging gap between diplomatic history and performance arts studies within an early modern Dutch and European context.

2. Educating non-academic audiences on the impact of the early modern Anglo-French tours of the Netherlands on urban environments today.

3. Educating under-/postgraduate students about the intimate relations between early modern diplomacy and the arts, and the potential relevance of soft power for international relations today.

4. Engineering closer ties between university and archival/heritage sectors.
Through:

5. Contribution to ongoing public debate in the Netherlands about the colonial legacy of the Dutch East-India Company within the Netherlands today.
Through:

6. Contribution to public debate, both in the Netherlands and - potentially - other parts in the world, about the diplomatic and political impact of Queen Elizabeth II's passing on 8 September 2022 and the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla in London on 6 May 2023 by bringing in my expertise as cultural historian of early

Dr Bram van Leuveren

Ceremonial entry of François, Duke of Anjou, into Antwerp, February 1582 (British Library, London)