Jonathan Spangler
My DPhil focused on the family of the Lorraine-Guise, as exemplars of foreign princes at the court of Louis XIV, with emphasis on the family's finances, marriage contracts, wills, roles for women, and roles at court, in the French provinces, and on the wider European stage.
More recently I have been researching and writing about frontier identities in an early modern, pre-nationalistic context. This work focuses on the border regions between France, Germany and the Low Countries. Within this context, I am embarking on a new study of the court and nobles of the Duchy of Lorraine (16th to 18th centuries).
Other side projects I continue to pursue include a more in-depth examination of same-sex relationships between princes at the French court; the political and cultural roles of kings' brothers ('Monsieur'); and further exploration of the position in noble society of 'women alone'--widows and spinsters--in early modern France.
More recently I have been researching and writing about frontier identities in an early modern, pre-nationalistic context. This work focuses on the border regions between France, Germany and the Low Countries. Within this context, I am embarking on a new study of the court and nobles of the Duchy of Lorraine (16th to 18th centuries).
Other side projects I continue to pursue include a more in-depth examination of same-sex relationships between princes at the French court; the political and cultural roles of kings' brothers ('Monsieur'); and further exploration of the position in noble society of 'women alone'--widows and spinsters--in early modern France.
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Ranging from the Wars of Religion to the French Revolution, this comparative study examines the frustrations of four royal princes whose proximity to their older brothers gave them vast privileges and great prestige, but also placed severe limitations on their activities and aspirations. Each chapter analyses a different aspect of the lives of François, duke of Alençon, Gaston, duke of Orléans, Philippe, duke of Orléans and Louis-Stanislas, count of Provence, starting with their birth and education, their marriages and political careers, and their search for alternative expressions of power through the patronage of the arts, architecture and learning. By comparing these four lives, a powerful image emerges of a key development in the institution of modern monarchy: the transformation of the rebellious, politically ambitious prince into the loyal defender – even in disagreement – of the Crown and of the older brother who wore it.
This volume is the perfect resource for all students and scholars interested in the history of France, monarchy, early modern state building and court studies.
Bringing together political and art historical approaches to the study of power, this book reveals how ceremonies and rituals - far from simply being ostentatious displays of wealth - served as a primary means of communication between different participants in political and courtly life. It explores how ceremonial culture changed over time and in different regions to provide readers with a nuanced comparative understanding of rituals and ceremonies since the middle ages, showing how such performances were integral to the evolution of the state in Europe.
This collection of essays is of immense value to both historians and art historians interested in representations of power and the political culture of Europe from 1450 onwards.
Both public and nominally private spaces were subject to the important influence of significant others, such as women, ethno-religious minorities, and marginalized and/or difficult-to-categorize men. From their positions within and ties to court cultures, these diverse outsiders - ‘others’ - played crucial roles in maintaining a fluidity essential for the successful sustaining of territorial monarchies and polities, challenging our understanding of the more narrowly defined elite behaviours that shaped premodern dynasties, rulers, societies, and cultures of the past. By exploring a variety of case studies from history and literature, such as Moroccan Jews as dhimmis (‘protected persons’), to bastards, mistresses, and sodomites in ancien régime France, to the transformative role of magic in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, this volume makes use of empirical and contextually informed research to respond to theoretical questions posed by recent historiography.
With a cross-disciplinary approach, this collection of essays will be a valuable resource for all students and scholars interested in the diverse aspects and contexts of premodern ‘others’.
Taking a broadly comparative approach, Dynastic Change explores the mechanisms employed as well as theoretical and practical approaches to monarchical legitimisation. The book answers the question of how monarchical families reacted, adjusted or strategised when faced with dynastic crises of various kinds, such as a lack of a male heir or unfitness of a reigning monarch for rule, through the consideration of such themes as the role of royal women, the uses of the arts for representational and propaganda purposes and the impact of religion or popular will. Broad in both chronological and geographical scope, chapters discuss examples from the 9th to the 18th centuries across such places as Morocco, Byzantium, Portugal, Russia and Western Europe, showing readers how cultural, religious and political differences across countries and time periods affected dynastic relations.
Bringing together gender, monarchy and dynasticism, the book highlights parallels across time and place, encouraging a new approach to monarchy studies. It is the perfect collection for students and researchers of medieval and early modern monarchy and gender.
The essays in this collection approach Guise aims, ambitions and self-fashioning using this ‘trans-national’ dimension as context: their desire for increased royal (rather than merely princely) power and prestige, and the use of representation (visual and literary) in order to achieve it. Guise claims to thrones and territories from Jerusalem to Naples are explored, alongside the Guise ‘dream of Italy’, with in-depth studies of Henry of Lorraine, fifth Duke of Guise, and his attempts in the mid-seventeenth century to gain a throne in Naples. The combination of the violence and drama of their lives at the centres of European power and their adroit use of publicity ensured that versions of their strongly delineated images were appropriated by chroniclers, playwrights and artists, in which they sometimes featured as they would have wished, as heroes and heroines, frequently as villains, and ultimately as characters in the narratives of national heritage.
Early Modern Court Culture moves from political structures and political players to architectural forms and spatial geographies; ceremonial and ritual observances; visual and material culture; entertainment and knowledge. With 35 contributions on subjects including gardens, dress, scent, dance and tapestries, this volume is a necessary resource for all students and scholars interested in the court in early modern Europe.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Erin Griffey
Part I: People and political structures: Connecting power
1. Monarchs: Kings and queens regnant, sovereign princes and popes
Ronald G. Asch
2. Consorts and court ladies
Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly
3. Wider kinship networks
Jonathan Spangler
4. Courtiers, ministers and favourites
R. Malcolm Smuts
5. Confessors
Nicole Reinhardt
6. Aristocrats and nobles
Hamish Scott
7. Diplomats
Tracey A. Sowerby
Part II: Place and space: Negotiating the court
8. Access
Dries Raeymaekers
9. Princely residences
Elisabeth Narkin
10. Gardens
Paula Henderson
Part III: Ceremonial and ritual: Observing tradition
11. Religious rituals and the liturgical calendar
Paolo Cozzo
12. Childbirth
Erin Griffey
13. Marriages
Joan-Lluís Palos
14. Coronations
Paul Monod
15. Receptions: Triumphal entries, ambassadorial receptions and banquets
R.L.M. Morris
16. Funerals
Jill Bepler
Part IV: Visual and material culture: Furnishing the palace
17. Metalwork
Sean Roberts
18. Tapestries
Guy Delmarcel
19. Upholstered furnishings, cabinet work and gilt furniture
Olivia Fryman
20. Portraiture
Lisa Mansfield
21. Display
Andrea Bubenik
22. Porcelain rooms
Meredith Martin
Part 5: Material culture: Dressing the body
23. Jewellery
Natasha Awais-Dean
24. Male dress
Timothy McCall
25. Female dress
Jemma Field
26. Beauty
Erin Griffey
27. Scent
Holly Dugan
Part VI: Entertainment and knowledge: Performing authority
28. Science
Alisha Rankin
29. Theatre and opera
Sophie Tomlinson
30. Dance
Jennifer Nevile
31. Literature
Tom Bishop
32. Music
Andrew H. Weaver
33. Tournaments and hunting
Glenn Richardson
34. Food and dining
Ken Albala
35. Games and jokes
Johan Verberckmoes
Ranging from the Wars of Religion to the French Revolution, this comparative study examines the frustrations of four royal princes whose proximity to their older brothers gave them vast privileges and great prestige, but also placed severe limitations on their activities and aspirations. Each chapter analyses a different aspect of the lives of François, duke of Alençon, Gaston, duke of Orléans, Philippe, duke of Orléans and Louis-Stanislas, count of Provence, starting with their birth and education, their marriages and political careers, and their search for alternative expressions of power through the patronage of the arts, architecture and learning. By comparing these four lives, a powerful image emerges of a key development in the institution of modern monarchy: the transformation of the rebellious, politically ambitious prince into the loyal defender – even in disagreement – of the Crown and of the older brother who wore it.
This volume is the perfect resource for all students and scholars interested in the history of France, monarchy, early modern state building and court studies.
Bringing together political and art historical approaches to the study of power, this book reveals how ceremonies and rituals - far from simply being ostentatious displays of wealth - served as a primary means of communication between different participants in political and courtly life. It explores how ceremonial culture changed over time and in different regions to provide readers with a nuanced comparative understanding of rituals and ceremonies since the middle ages, showing how such performances were integral to the evolution of the state in Europe.
This collection of essays is of immense value to both historians and art historians interested in representations of power and the political culture of Europe from 1450 onwards.
Both public and nominally private spaces were subject to the important influence of significant others, such as women, ethno-religious minorities, and marginalized and/or difficult-to-categorize men. From their positions within and ties to court cultures, these diverse outsiders - ‘others’ - played crucial roles in maintaining a fluidity essential for the successful sustaining of territorial monarchies and polities, challenging our understanding of the more narrowly defined elite behaviours that shaped premodern dynasties, rulers, societies, and cultures of the past. By exploring a variety of case studies from history and literature, such as Moroccan Jews as dhimmis (‘protected persons’), to bastards, mistresses, and sodomites in ancien régime France, to the transformative role of magic in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, this volume makes use of empirical and contextually informed research to respond to theoretical questions posed by recent historiography.
With a cross-disciplinary approach, this collection of essays will be a valuable resource for all students and scholars interested in the diverse aspects and contexts of premodern ‘others’.
Taking a broadly comparative approach, Dynastic Change explores the mechanisms employed as well as theoretical and practical approaches to monarchical legitimisation. The book answers the question of how monarchical families reacted, adjusted or strategised when faced with dynastic crises of various kinds, such as a lack of a male heir or unfitness of a reigning monarch for rule, through the consideration of such themes as the role of royal women, the uses of the arts for representational and propaganda purposes and the impact of religion or popular will. Broad in both chronological and geographical scope, chapters discuss examples from the 9th to the 18th centuries across such places as Morocco, Byzantium, Portugal, Russia and Western Europe, showing readers how cultural, religious and political differences across countries and time periods affected dynastic relations.
Bringing together gender, monarchy and dynasticism, the book highlights parallels across time and place, encouraging a new approach to monarchy studies. It is the perfect collection for students and researchers of medieval and early modern monarchy and gender.
The essays in this collection approach Guise aims, ambitions and self-fashioning using this ‘trans-national’ dimension as context: their desire for increased royal (rather than merely princely) power and prestige, and the use of representation (visual and literary) in order to achieve it. Guise claims to thrones and territories from Jerusalem to Naples are explored, alongside the Guise ‘dream of Italy’, with in-depth studies of Henry of Lorraine, fifth Duke of Guise, and his attempts in the mid-seventeenth century to gain a throne in Naples. The combination of the violence and drama of their lives at the centres of European power and their adroit use of publicity ensured that versions of their strongly delineated images were appropriated by chroniclers, playwrights and artists, in which they sometimes featured as they would have wished, as heroes and heroines, frequently as villains, and ultimately as characters in the narratives of national heritage.
Early Modern Court Culture moves from political structures and political players to architectural forms and spatial geographies; ceremonial and ritual observances; visual and material culture; entertainment and knowledge. With 35 contributions on subjects including gardens, dress, scent, dance and tapestries, this volume is a necessary resource for all students and scholars interested in the court in early modern Europe.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Erin Griffey
Part I: People and political structures: Connecting power
1. Monarchs: Kings and queens regnant, sovereign princes and popes
Ronald G. Asch
2. Consorts and court ladies
Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly
3. Wider kinship networks
Jonathan Spangler
4. Courtiers, ministers and favourites
R. Malcolm Smuts
5. Confessors
Nicole Reinhardt
6. Aristocrats and nobles
Hamish Scott
7. Diplomats
Tracey A. Sowerby
Part II: Place and space: Negotiating the court
8. Access
Dries Raeymaekers
9. Princely residences
Elisabeth Narkin
10. Gardens
Paula Henderson
Part III: Ceremonial and ritual: Observing tradition
11. Religious rituals and the liturgical calendar
Paolo Cozzo
12. Childbirth
Erin Griffey
13. Marriages
Joan-Lluís Palos
14. Coronations
Paul Monod
15. Receptions: Triumphal entries, ambassadorial receptions and banquets
R.L.M. Morris
16. Funerals
Jill Bepler
Part IV: Visual and material culture: Furnishing the palace
17. Metalwork
Sean Roberts
18. Tapestries
Guy Delmarcel
19. Upholstered furnishings, cabinet work and gilt furniture
Olivia Fryman
20. Portraiture
Lisa Mansfield
21. Display
Andrea Bubenik
22. Porcelain rooms
Meredith Martin
Part 5: Material culture: Dressing the body
23. Jewellery
Natasha Awais-Dean
24. Male dress
Timothy McCall
25. Female dress
Jemma Field
26. Beauty
Erin Griffey
27. Scent
Holly Dugan
Part VI: Entertainment and knowledge: Performing authority
28. Science
Alisha Rankin
29. Theatre and opera
Sophie Tomlinson
30. Dance
Jennifer Nevile
31. Literature
Tom Bishop
32. Music
Andrew H. Weaver
33. Tournaments and hunting
Glenn Richardson
34. Food and dining
Ken Albala
35. Games and jokes
Johan Verberckmoes
This symposium is organised by the Society for Court Studies and the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid (URJC), with support from Purdue University (Indiana), and will be held 25-26 May 2023, on the campus of URJC near the Palace of Aranjuez.
Proposals, in English, of about 500 words, must include the title and a summary of the paper, and be accompanied by a short biography (200 words) and the applicant’s contact details. Presentations should be given in English, as we are planning to produce a follow-up publication. Proposals can be sent to the team organisers at [email protected] no later than Friday 16 September 2022. Applicants will be notified of acceptance by 18 December 2022.