Historias de lo sobrenatural

Prosecuting the French: patterns of trials against French defendants in Valencia, 1566–1686

ABSTRACTA serial study of court records from two different jurisdictions in early modern Valencia shows that during the years 1566–1686 there was one single period with significantly higher numbers of trials against French defendants. This coincided with the period of the Spanish monarchy's greatest worries about outside influence in Spain. However, the increased number of trials is only traceable in one of the two courts under study, that of the Inquisition, which was under the control of the central government. The locally controlled court of criminal justice (Justicia) did not show any such increased activity against Frenchmen.

El Santo Oficio de la Inquisición en Barcelona y soldados protestantes en el ejército de Cataluña

The case summaries sent to the central council of the Inquisition in Madrid by the tribunal in Barcelona show that a number of Protestant soldiers were in Spanish service in the second half of the seventeenth century. These soldiers were not persecuted by the Holy Office, but denounced themselves voluntarily in order to be allowed to convert to Catholicism. The majority of them were from German-speaking areas, and many came from within the Holy Roman Empire. The letters exchanged between Madrid and Barcelona show that this reflected a deliberate policy by the Inquisition of not trying soldiers in Spanish service, nor prisoners of war or deserters from the French army during this period.