England’s ‘Natural Frontier’

The purpose of this chapter is to examine Marvell’s attitude to the Low Countries, with a special interest in his Dutch connections. The Low Countries included the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands, two political and religious entities usually analysed separately in the historiography on the 1660s and 1670s. Marvell’s understanding of the condition of Flanders was based on his personal experience of international politics as well as a wide array of sources, ranging from Protestant and Catholic polemics to parliamentary debates. A combined knowledge of Dutch and Spanish sources is particularly useful in shedding light on the porous border that existed between Protestant and Catholic propaganda when it came to the designation of Louis XIV as Europe’s arch-enemy and aspiring universal monarchy. This article comes as the first attempt to reflect on the existence of a ‘Hapsburg connection’ in Marvell’s work.