Duke De Alva

[RichardB]

1570. Artisans from the Netherlands settle in Hallamshire.

" The cruel Duke of Alva had driven numbers of

artisans from their homes in the Netherlands; they

fled for safety to England, where they were cordially

received by the Queen, and by the advice of

her Chamberlain, the Earl of Shrewsbury settled

in various parts of the kingdom, all of one occupation

in the same place; thus enabling them to carry

on their several crafts with advantage.

Of these recusants, all or the greater part of them who were

artificers in iron, were sent to the Earl's own estate

in Yorkshire, and hence we may date, the first improvement

in Sheffield cutlery."

Now began to be made shears, sickles, knives of every kind, and

scissors; the manufacturers of each article confining

themselve to some particular village, which arrangement

in a great measure continues to this day."—Northern Star.

[RichardB]

This man gets a mention in

Sheffield

Past and Present

Being a biography of the town during eight hundred years.

by Rev. Alfred Gatty

Published by Thomas Rodgers, Change Alley Corner, Sheffield (1873)

[dunsbyowl1867]

You should really be thanking his boss, the Pope - you can understand the desire of those Dutch metal bashers to escape.

"Meanwhile, the papacy had passed the first judicial act of genocide of modern times. On 16 February 1568 the entire population of the Netherlands—three million—was condemned to death as heretics apart from a few named exceptions. Ten days later, the Spanish King Philip II ordered Alba to carry out the sentence. In the terror which followed, the wealth of the prosperous merchants made them a particular target, and axe, rope, and fire consumed the natural leaders of Dutch society. Alba wrote to Philip coolly estimating the number to be executed after Holy Week 1568 ‘at eight hundred heads’. Alba is said to have admitted to personal responsibility for 18, 600 executions during his six-year tenure—a plausible figure, but the additional number massacred with increasing barbarity by his troops is incalculable."

[RichardB]

Oh Dear !

We missed the 441st Anniversary by 3 days !

[Beery]

So I wonder what surnames these Dutch cutlers had? . Are there many Dutch names in the Sheffield area?

[RichardB]

His son had the habit too ...

THE PERSECUTION BY THE DUKE DE ALVA, IN THE NETHERLANDS.

Relevant extract :

WHEN the light of the gospel was much spread abroad in the Netherlands, King Philip of Spain sent the Duke de Alva with a great army to root out the pro­fessors of it, who exercised unparalleled cruelty against all sorts of persons, both of the nobility and commons, permitting his. soldiers to ravish honest matrons and virgins, many times causing their husbands and parents to stand by and behold it. This duke, on a time, boasted at his own table, that he had been diligent to root out heresy; and that, besides those which he had slain in the war, in the space of six years he had put above 18,OOO persons into the hands of the common hangman.

His son, Don Frederic, being sent by him to Zutphen, was received by the burghers, without any opposition. He was no sooner entered, but he fell to murder, hang, and drown many of the inhabitants, spewing infinite cruelties upon wives and virgins, not sparing infants. From thence marching to Naerden, in Holland, the in­habitants made an agreement with him, and he entered the town peaceably. But never did Turks or Scythians commit more abominable cruelties; for when the burghers had given the best entertainment they could to him and his soldiers, he caused it to be proclaimed, that they should all assemble themselves together in the chapel of the hospital, where they should be made ac­quainted with the laws, according to which they should hereafter govern themselves. But when these poor people were thus assembled, he commanded his soldiers to murder them all, without sparing one. The men were massacred. The women were first ravished, and then mur­dered. The children and infants had their throats cut. In some houses they tied the inhabitants to posts, and then set fire to the houses, and burnt them alive. So that in the whole town, neither man, wife, maid, nor child, old nor young, were spared. At last the town was wholly razed to the ground.

After this, Don Frederic besieged Haerlem, which held out against him for a long time, but at last, their pro­vision being spent, they lived upon. the flesh of horses, dogs, cats, and such like. At last, this also failing them, they were forced to surrender the town upon composition, by which they were to pay 24O,OOO florins, to redeem themselves and town from spoil. Don Frederic, having thus got the town into his hands, commanded, that at the tolling of the great bell all the burghers and soldiers should bring in their arms into the state-house; that the townsmen should go into the cloyster of Zyel, the women into the cathedral-church, and the soldiers into another church. This done, all the ensign bearers were singled out and imprisoned, and whilst the poor burghers were guarded in the church, the perfidious Spaniards plun­dered their houses. The next day Don Frederic caused 3OO men to be hanged and beheaded. The next day Captain Riperda and his lieutenant were beheaded, and a godly minister, called Stcnibach, was hanged, and 247 soldiers were drowned in the sea of Haerlem. The next day a great number were executed, and the day following 3OO more soldiers and burghers lost their heads, and with them a godly minister, called Simon Simonson. Presently after three of the principal men lost their heads, and shortly after all the English and Scotch were beheaded before the hospital door. In the mean time a party of soldiers that lay without in a sconce, were all starved to death.

http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/christia...l4/CL4Part2.htm

[Guest Gramps]

So I wonder what surnames these Dutch cutlers had? . Are there many Dutch names in the Sheffield area?

They weren't Dutch and neither were they 'cutlers'. It's a lot of folklore based on a little bit of fact ;-)