Werner Thomas

Werner Thomas is Professor of Spanish and Spanish American history and senior researcher of the Early Modern History Research Group at the University of Leuven. He has published on the repression of Protestantism in Spain (1517-1648), the Habsburg court of the Archdukes Albert and Isabella Clara Eugenia in Brussels (1598-1621), the Siege of Ostend (1601-1604), and the political and cultural relations between the (Southern) Netherlands and the Spanish empire (1500-1700). His current research projects include the contribution of Flemish prints and engravings to the construction of the Spanish empire in America, focusing on New Spain, Peru, and New Granada (1520-1800), the Southern Netherlands as a center of accumulation and translation within the Spanish monarchy (1520-1700), the role of Hispano-Flemish elites and mixed identities in the continuation of Flemish loyalty to the House of Habsburg (1659-1708), and the production and consumption of early modern descriptions of the New World’s indigenous languages (ca. 1500 – ca. 1800).