Flemish and Walloon exile communities in sixteenth-century Norwich: a case study of local and national responses to large-scale migration from the Low Countries

In 1565, the Mayor of Norwich, Thomas Sotherton, proposed to his fellow aldermen that the city invite thirty master textile workers from the Low Countries and their households to Norwich to revive its flagging economy. Letters patent were issued by Queen Elizabeth and on 1 June 1566, Sotherton put his seal on an order naming the thirty masters. They would form the basis of two exile communities in Norwich, one Flemish and one Walloon. This article aims to analyse what the birth of these exile communities tells us about local and national positions and practices adopted in response to migration from the Low Countries in the mid-sixteenth century. Furthermore, it examines the role of specific individuals and groups of individuals in the establishment of these communities. These include not only civic and national leaders in England, but also members of the English and exile clergy, members of exile communities in other towns, and English and Flemish nobles. Moreover, the article analyses the prosopographies of the thirty masters, providing previously unpublished details on several masters, and allowing an evaluation of the success of Sotherton’s policy. Finally, the article places the case of Norwich in a broader context by comparing it with attempts to establish exile communities in other English towns.