Impact case study database
An English Embassy in Valladolid, 1605: Recreating the historical past for schools, tourists, and citizens
1. Summary of the impact
**
Until recently Salamanca and Madrid have dominated the tourism sector in central and north-western Spain with Valladolid’s popularity as a tourist destination increasing only in the past few years. Most citizens of Valladolid and tourists visiting were unaware of its status as a former capital of Spain (1601-6) and the important role it played in the country’s cultural history. Hutchings’ work on the English embassy’s 1605 visit to the city and the ratification of the 1604 Anglo-Spanish Treaty of London has had a significant impact on Valladolid’s cultural and educational offerings for citizens and tourists alike. His work provides a new geopolitical and literary interpretation of the region’s history which places Valladolid at the centre of an important juncture in European history. Hutchings’ engagement with local government, the tourist office and secondary schools to develop resources that reflect Valladolid’s significance has changed the way the city is perceived by its inhabitants and visitors alike.
2. Underpinning research
Hutchings’ research focuses on Anglo-Spanish relations in the 16th - 17th centuries, in particular the events of 1603-5 and the Anglo-Spanish treaty through collaborative work with Berta Cano-Echevarría (Universidad de Valladolid). This research has generated a cluster of outputs which focus on intersecting cultural, historical and political themes. In particular the close literary relationship between the two countries has been highlighted by the transmission of Don Quixote to England only a few months after its publication in Spain. In 1605 Cervantes was living in Valladolid and the first extant reference to the novel appears in one of the eyewitness accounts of the English embassy; it was because of this mission that a copy was conveyed to England, influencing dramatists including Shakespeare.
Drawing extensively on previously unknown and unpublished archival materials, Hutchings and Cano-Echevarría have produced scholarly editions of texts compiled by the Spanish ambassador relating to the earliest extant Stuart masque (output 1) and James I and VI’s royal entry into London (output 2). The two occasions discussed in outputs 1 and 2 were instrumental in smoothing the way for the Anglo-Spanish peace negotiations of 1603-5. The episode of 1605 was a key component of a project supported by a Leverhulme Trust grant awarded to Hutchings in 2012. While much has been written on the Treaty of London, much less has been unearthed about the ratification of the treaty, when, in the following year, the English embassy travelled to Valladolid, the seat of the Spanish Court. Through his research, Hutchings has been able to reconstruct the embassy’s visit to Valladolid and to trace the deteriorating relations between the two countries towards the end of the Jacobean era (output 3).
Hutchings focused on contemporary English, Spanish and Portuguese accounts of the embassy’s visit and the entertainments that formed part of the diplomatic ceremonial in 1605, to trace the route that the English embassy took south from La Coruña to Valladolid. This has enabled him to reconstruct the ceremonial entry into the city and identify the places of public and private festivities (outputs 4, 5 and 6). The Leverhulme Study Abroad Fellowship (2012) was a pivotal research collaboration which provided the foundation for subsequent events held in Valladolid to develop and disseminate the research: the Spanish and Portuguese Society for English Renaissance Studies ‘Cervantes and Shakespeare’ conference (2016) and the ‘Gondomar Remains’ symposium (2018). At each of these events the ratification of the treaty in 1605 and its ramifications were key components; this research has informed production of a map of La Ruta de los Ingleses (2016 revised 2019).
3. References to the research
This research draws principally on little-known English, Spanish, and Portuguese printed and manuscript documents; three articles in peer-reviewed journals provide transcriptions and translations of materials held in the Archivo General de Simancas, and include two new, previously unknown texts in Spanish, the Spanish ambassador’s versions of Samuel Daniel’s Hampton Court masque, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, and James I & VI’s entry into London. This research has been published in leading, peer-reviewed journals, meeting or exceeding the threshold for 2*.
Cano-Echevarría, Berta and Mark Hutchings, ‘The Spanish Ambassador and Samuel Daniel’s Vision of the Twelve Goddesses: A New Document [with text]’, English Literary Renaissance 42.2 (Spring 2012), 223-57. ISSN 0268-117X doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6757.2012.01105.x
Hutchings, Mark and Berta Cano-Echevarría, ‘The Spanish Ambassador’s Account of James I’s Entry into London, 1604’, The Seventeenth Century (2018), 1-23. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/0268117X.2017.1335611
Hutchings, Mark, ‘The Spectre of Gondomar in the Wake of A Game at Chess’, The Seventeenth Century 27:4 (2012), 435-53. doi: https://doi.org/10.7227/TSC.27.4.3
Hutchings, Mark, ‘Diplomacy Narratives as Documents of Performance’ in Ana Saez-Hidalgo & Berta Cano-Echevarría eds., Exile, Diplomacy and Texts: Exchanges between Iberia and the British Isles, 1500-1767, Intersections: Interdisciplinary Studies in Early Modern Culture Series 74 (Brill, 2020), pp. 208-227. ISBN 9789004273658
Hutchings, Mark and Berta Cano-Echevarría, ‘Between Courts: Female Masquers and Anglo-Spanish Diplomacy, 1603-05’ Early Theatre, 15:1 (2012), 93-110. ISSN 1206-9078 doi: https://doi.org/10.12745/et.15.1.899 (special Issue: 'Women and Performance')
Cano-Echevarría , Berta and Mark Hutchings, ‘Valladolid 1605: A Theatre for Peace’, in J. R. Mulryne, Krista deJong, R.L.M. Morris & Pieter Martens, eds., Occasions of State: Early Modern European Festivals and the Negotiation of Power European Festivals Studies 1450-1700 Series 6 (Routledge, 2019), 93-108. ISBN 9781472431974
4. Details of the impact
Valladolid has much it can offer to the cultural tourist but until Hutchings’ interventions, borne out of collaboration between the University of Reading and the University of Valladolid, most of the city’s inhabitants were unaware of the important role the city played in Spanish history as a former capital city. Hutchings’ research, and subsequent development of La Ruta, has had a significant impact on the culture and education in the city of Valladolid and its surrounding region. La Ruta is based on a historical map of Valladolid dating from the eighteenth century, onto which has been projected the embassy’s route into the city and the principal sites of activity associated with its visit. The map is accessible to various audiences, from tourists with little knowledge of the area to local teachers and students and is available in English and Spanish. It explores the continued historical and cultural presence of the events of 1605 through the tracing of these events on the map, which serves as both historical palimpsest and practical navigational aid to the modern city. This detailed map is now being used by tour guides; the secondary educational system has adopted both the map and supporting materials, enabling public audiences to experience the modern cityscape and familiar places in new ways.
- Enhancing Valladolid’s Cultural Tourism Offer
Valladolid City Hall’s initial interest in the La Ruta project developed because Cervantes’ house in Valladolid is the only property associated with him known to survive, and the importance of the author throughout Spain makes Valladolid an important place of pilgrimage. The Shakespeare link adds an international dimension, which has the potential for the City Hall to promote Valladolid beyond Spain. Following several years of negotiation with senior figures in the City Hall, La Ruta was launched in 2019 as part of the Tourist Office’s offerings with designated guides. After delegates of the Cervantes and Shakespeare conference in 2016 experienced La Ruta, discussions began with the Valladolid City Hall Minister for Culture and Head of the Tourist Office to embed the map and tour into the cultural offering of the city’s Tourism Office, and a Memorandum of Understanding was agreed between the City Hall, the University of Reading, and the University of Valladolid. After a series of workshops, the Tourism Office agreed to produce high-quality, well-designed copies of the map and organise regular guided tours (E1). Training for the tour guides was provided by Hutchings and Cano-Echevarría in collaboration with the Tourism Office (E2).
The Tourist Office offers the La Ruta tour weekly, with 20 people per group, and extra guides are assigned when it is oversubscribed. The cost of the tour is 6€ per person. In total 450 people took part in the tour over the initial season (October to December 2019). A further 200 people requested the tour and additional tours were put on to meet this demand (E3). Participants were invited to provide feedback on the tours, commenting on how informative and interesting the tour was, even for those who had lived in the city for many years (E4).
The tour guides are now able to tell the story of Valladolid from a new perspective. They have had an opportunity to develop their knowledge of the city they already know well and have responded positively to the new offering (E2). For the city this has unlocked potential for their inhabitants to find new value in their familiar surroundings but also for new and returning visitors to develop an enhanced understanding of the city’s past and present (E5). The next wave of tours was due to commence at the start of the tourism season in spring 2020, but the Spanish lockdown response to the Coronavirus pandemic meant that this could not go ahead, however they will resume as soon as it is safe to do so. The project’s importance to Valladolid and the region is underpinned by the media interest it has gained in regional newspaper and television coverage (E6).
- Educational Impact
A tour of La Ruta specifically for teachers was requested following the success of the 2016 conference. The tour was taken by a group of c.25-30 secondary school teachers from Castile and León, who provided feedback in the form of questionnaires (E7). The teachers, who had no prior knowledge of this historical event, commented that ‘everything I have learned today has certainly changed my perspective and helped me to see the city under [sic] a new light’ and ‘it will make me think more about Valladolid as a place where important events of our country happened’. The teachers were keen to incorporate La Ruta to support their teaching in a number of subject areas, not just literature and history (E7).
Hutchings was subsequently approached by the Centro de Formación del Profesorado en Idiomas de Castilla y León to assist them in embedding La Ruta and the supporting research into their curriculum (E8). In two workshops with 40 teachers in October 2019 Hutchings and Cano-Echevarría shared the concept of La Ruta and its context, enabling them to develop their own teaching resources for various subjects, including languages (Spanish, English, French, Italian, Latin, Greek); mathematics; social sciences; physics and chemistry; music; geography and history; physical education; information technology; art. All 40 teachers in these subject areas have created lesson plans using La Ruta, presented at a further workshop with Hutchings and Cano-Echevarría in November 2019. The teachers are extremely enthusiastic both about this project and how it can be adapted for teaching purposes. La Ruta has been adopted as a pilot by six secondary schools in the region, incorporating the research into the curriculum for 2019-2020 onwards (E9).
Since the final workshop in November 2019 the schools have prepared their teaching on La Ruta with the intention to implement their pedagogical plans for the tour during the current academic year. As a result of the Coronavirus lockdown in early 2020 the schools have had to adapt to online teaching and have continued in their decision to incorporate La Ruta lesson plans into their virtual teaching (E9).
La Ruta has highlighted a significant but overlooked period in the city’s history, which has been embraced by the City Hall and its Tourism Office as a key part of the cultural and historical programme it presents to local residents and visitors. It has also been seen as a powerful tool for teachers to use to unlock a significant past event to their students and has had a significant impact on the development of the region’s directorate of schools’ curriculum for 13-to-15-year olds. As a result, it has reached a broad audience in the city and the region, from teenage schoolchildren to senior officials in the City Hall and has been embedded into the culture and development of the city’s local, national and international identity.
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
E1. La Ruta map
E2. Testimonial from Tour Guides
E3. Booking numbers for La Ruta
E4. Questionnaires completed by tourists and citizens on La Ruta
E5. Testimonials from Head of Tourism and Deputy Minister for Universities and Research
E6. Media coverage for La Ruta
E7. Teacher questionnaires
E8. Statement by senior Castilla y León Schools officials about how La Ruta has influenced regional government policy in education
E9. Examples of school projects and La Ruta being used as part of blended learning in 2020.
Additional contextual information
Grant funding
| Grant number | Value of grant |
|---|---|
| H&C12 | £20,872 |