Georg Merckel, Jr.

Early on in the religious wars in France (of which there were eight I

think, one right after another), the Spanish Inquisition was invited into

northern France (and what used to be Flanders) at the time Calais fell out

of English hands and back into the French. Immediately the group of French

Calvinists (Protestants) who were Walloons (actually people of the part of

Flanders that had been taken over by France in a marriage contract

arrangement in about 1390) and were French speaking as well as speaking

Vlaems a language they called romans came to the attention of the

Inquisition and many were sentenced to permanent exile - the executions

andtorture hadn't started yet, although it quickly picked up pace.

These people were of Celtic descent and are believed now to be the

remnants? of the ancient Belgae, the tribes Caesar considered so fierce

when he was trying to get a platform on the northern coast of Gaul from

which to launch his invasion of Britain.

Because a lot of these Walloons were exiled early on, they were allowed to

take their wealth with them and some of their movable possessions.

The ones with money went north, into the Netherlands, just as Spain was

beginning its war there (hence the Inquisition being in the neighborhood),

and the warriors of the group went into the German Palatinate, they say,

as they didn't want to be with the weavers and silk merchants, wool

merchants, and trades people and the land reclaimers/drainers who were

going north intoHolland and the Netherlands - and I suppose they didn't want

to get into the war between the Netherlands and Spain.

Marriage:  20 Nov 1642 

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