Delivering the news : the Huguenot gazettes published in the Dutch Republic compared with the Paris Gazette, 1671-1701

Abstract

This thesis represents the first analytical overview of the Huguenot gazettes that were published in the Dutch Republic during the last quarter of the seventeenth century (1671-1701). Huguenots settled in the Dutch Republic from the second half of the seventeenth century in order to get away from the prosecutions that had started by the French state during the 1660s. Some of these refugees started working in the thriving Dutch printing industry while others worked as correspondents or writers in the news market. The production of newspapers in the United Provinces and the establishment of two Francophone gazettes published by Dutch courantiers helped the Huguenot editors and publishers to obtain the necessary experience in the news market. Thus, when the number of Francophone readers increased due to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, these Huguenot editors and publishers established their own ventures alongside their fellow countrymen who arrived in the United Provinces after 1685. The emergence of the Huguenot gazettes in the United Provinces coexisted with the constant warfare of King Louis XIV against several European states. Indeed, France was at war by 1672, first with the Dutch in the Franco-Dutch war (1672-1678), then against the Spanish Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire (1683-1684) which was the prelude to the War of the Great Alliance (1688-1697) where France confronted a major block of European states. This project argues that each Huguenot newsman had his own agenda, focusing on a different news market, and thus the attitude towards France and the French King Louis XIV varied in the Huguenot press. The existing literature deals mostly with the Huguenot gazettes that were published in the Dutch Republic during the eighteenth century, and especially with the Gazette d’Amsterdam and the Gazette de Leyde. Few works have focused on the establishment of the Huguenot gazettes during the seventeenth century, giving only details about the changes in form and format and presenting the names of the publishers, editors and collaborators. It is generally accepted that the first generation of the Huguenot editors and publishers were hostile towards France, a stance which would change in the eighteenth century. My research challenges the existing scholarship through a comparison between the reports appearing in each Huguenot gazette, revealing the different political agenda of each Huguenot newsman, an agenda that was not, nevertheless, consistent.