Expelled Spanish Moriscos settled only in southern France, mainly near Bordeaux and Saint-Jean-de-Luz.

Evidence

Both England and Holland were countries that had some contact by way of trade and diplomacy with Moriscos from the 1580s onward. Moriscos in Moroccan service came to London on official or private business, but there is no indication that refugees ever arrived to settle there, nor in Holland, in spite of al-Hajari’s visit to the Hague mentioned in the last chapter. In France, and especially in the region of Bordeaux, it is clear that Pesciolini did meet a not inconsiderable number of refugees. Of France, what he tells us coincides with what we can learn from numerous sources, that some did settle, especially in the south. Al-Hajari and his traveling companions were given a friendly enough reception in the capital, Paris, and elsewhere in the north, but the only settlements of Moriscos to which he refers, long-term or temporary, were near places like Bordeaux and Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Henry IV, it will be remembered, had given orders in February 1610 for preparations to be made for the Moriscos’ arrival. And those willing to accept conversion to Catholicism were to be permitted to settle beyond the Garonne and Dordogne. Others were to be transported on to North Africa. — L. P. Harvey, Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, 1635

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader corpus theme of migration resettlement patterns and how receiving states filter arrivals by trade value vs. burden.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: why did England and Holland, both Protestant trading rivals of Spain, reject Morisco settlement while Catholic France accepted some?