The Hartlib Papers on Protestant Revolt on the Continent in the 1620s to 1640s

• In Event: Receptions and Representations of Revolts in Early Modern Diplomacy II: England and the Continent

Abstract

German refugee Samuel Hartlib, who had settled in the center of London since 1628, became for thirty years the main intellectual hub between England in revolution and the continent that was facing agressive Catholic reconquest. An active diplomacy on the continent was insistently trying to gain English support for their cause. Hartlib's unpublished and relatively unknown correspondence (25,000 sheets) sheds new light on how the English revolution fuelled European intellectuals' hopes for a reorganization of society and a revival of European Protestantism with England as its spearhead. From the perspective of Hartlib’s international networks and his engagement with Cromwell’s politics, the talk will analyze both these projects of Protestant reorganization of European societies, and how European intellectuals were attracted by the reforming ambitions of the English revolution. When Hartlib solicited them, many were ready to leave everything they had to join the Commonwealth.

Author

• Stéphane Haffemayer, Université de Caen Basse Normandie