Hispanophiles and history buffs among our readership have likely heard of la leyenda negra – the so-called ‘black legend’ used to undermine the Spanish empire and demonise Spain, Catholicism and Spaniards more generally.

This was essentially an early form of fake news or propaganda (some historians call it a ‘hoax’) pushed by Spain’s imperial rivals in order to downplay its achievements and damage its reputation abroad.

But what you might not have known is that Spain had its own propaganda tool in response – la leyenda blanca (the white legend).

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La leyenda negra

Firstly, a bit about the black legend. Most historians believe La leyenda negra dates back to the 16th century and is rooted in imperial rivalry, although some history books suggest animosity against Iberian people began even earlier, with different versions of the black legend conjured up by Italians, Germans and Jews (the latter having been kicked out by the Catholic Kings in 1492). 

During the 1500s, it was mostly pushed by the English (as well as Spain’s other European rivals such as Holland) and it was designed to portray the Spanish as particularly evil or dangerous, downplay its culture, civilisation, and imperial discoveries, and generally to try and undermine Spain’s power and reputation abroad.

Of course, this was mainly done due to competition, but it also speaks to the fierce anti-Catholicism in parts of northern Europe in the early-modern period.

Using disinformation to demonise or discredit your political opponents is nothing new, of course. Nor is manipulating public opinion. But whereas today ‘fake news’ is done through algorithms and artificial intelligence, back then it was done with the technology of the day – namely the printing press and pamphlets.

According to an article by the University of Valladolid: “Exaggerating the facts, if not inventing them, was one of the tactics used by the English to spread the ‘black legend’ of Spain, with which they were at war (1585-1604), and with which they were competing in the American expansionist race.

“To this end, they had the support of English pamphleteers who waged a war of propaganda, anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic, to manipulate English public opinion.”

Historians usually note that the black legend was based on Spanish atrocities in Latin America (of which there were certainly many) but exaggerated by the English in order to stir up anti-Catholicism and portray the Spanish as a bloodthirsty people.

Another example is the Spanish Inquisition. They’re immediately associated with religious lunacy and carrying out torturous atrocities over the slightest hint of heresy and blasphemy, an image which has since been largely debunked (they were no angels, but they didn’t kill as many people in Spain and America as has been claimed).

La leyenda negra is well established in historiography. What’s less known is Spain’s response – la leyenda blanca (the white legend).

La leyenda blanca

Research from Berta Cano Echevarría, Professor of English Philology at the University of Valladolid, suggests that rather than creating a retaliatory black legend, the Spanish instead built a ‘white legend’ around the English, a type of propaganda that was more subtle but effective.

The thing that allowed the Spanish to do this, Echevarría says, was the lack of knowledge about the English in Spain at the time.

“If we search the literary works for the image of the English at the time, we find a frustrating gap. There are very few characters of this nationality in fiction, and those that do appear have no distinctive features of national character, especially in comparison with the French, Portuguese and Moors, who were portrayed according to stereotypes of the time,” she says.

England was considered remote and largely irrelevant by Spaniards until the Spanish-English War (1585–1604) began.

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Interestingly, in what goes against the cultural stereotypes of the 21st century, in the 16th century it was the English who made an effort to learn Spanish and to translate the works of Spanish writers, whereas in Spain, Echevarría says, “there are hardly any translations from English and no one was interested in learning the enemy’s language.”

As such, the main source of information about England were exiled English Catholics themselves, many of whom were refugees in Spain due to religious persecution. They were also the authors of the very few translations from English into Spanish that existed at the time.

Why is that important? Well, Echevarría says, “the English colleges in Spain became not only centres of education but also important transmitters and conveyors of secret information between the two countries”.

Joseph Creswell, a Jesuit in charge of the Valladolid college, was widely respected as a man with intimate knowledge of the inner-workings of the English court, and he was kept up to date by the endless letters he received daily from England.

Some of these letters were translated (exaggerated and manipulated) and then published in Spanish. Many had descriptions of persecuted Catholics in England.

Echevarría gives the examples of “nuns persecuted and dispossessed of their property, families separated and forced to flee to France and, above all, priests captured, tortured and cruelly executed.”

Interestingly, these sorts of letters and pamphlets were designed not to suggest that the English were an evil Protestant people, but rather the opposite: to give the impression that the English were a Catholic people suffering the tyranny of Protestant rulers.

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As such, portraying England as a Catholic country victimised by Protestant politicians was designed to win popular support for then King Felipe II’s supposed plan to invade and ‘return’ it to Catholicism. According to the propaganda, Spain would have, in this case, been a liberating force.

But it never came to fruition. The black and white legends, and propaganda wars more broadly, died off when Spain and England signed for peace in 1604-1605.

Bizarrely, Echevarría notes, the Spaniards then started pumping out pro-English propaganda: “In order to convince people that the peace was beneficial, a curious pro-English propaganda campaign was promoted in which even Miguel de Cervantes took part.”