The Spanish Tragedy

Over the course of the 16th century, the rise of Protestantism caused serious ideological divisions and religious conflicts throughout Europe. In England, Henry VIII (r. 1509-1547) broke with the Catholic Church in 1534, declaring himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England, which eventually became known as the Anglican Church. The conflict between Catholic and Protestant countries intensified under the later reign of Henry VIII’s daughter Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603), who was declared a heretic by Pope Pius V in 1570 for her Protestantism and persecution of her Catholic English subjects. 

During Elizabeth’s reign, England regarded Spain as its greatest threat, due to both Spain’s powerful empire and firm Catholic orthodoxy. As religious and xenophobic sentiment reached its height, English cultural discourse embraced what later became known as the “Black Legend of Spain,” a term coined by Emilia Pardo Bazan in 1889 to describe the negative propaganda that portrayed Spain as especially brutal and oppressive during the 16th and 17th centuries. The “Black Legend” depicted Spain as cruel, greedy, and religiously intolerant, drawing upon the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition to depict Spaniards as morally corrupt and excessively violent. 

While Kyd’s play is set in a fictionalized version of Spain, its themes and portrayals of Spanish characters subtly echo elements of this legend, reflecting the anxieties and prejudices of Elizabethan England.