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This chapter examines the changing role of the younger brother of the king in the monarchy of France, from the Wars of Religion to the Revolution. It traces the evolution of the relationship between these princely siblings, from one of... more
This chapter examines the changing role of the younger brother of the king in the monarchy of France, from the Wars of Religion to the Revolution. It traces the evolution of the relationship between these princely siblings, from one of competition and a desire for independence to a tighter bond of loyalty and an understanding that the needs of the dynasty must always proceed individual desires. Like other major grandees in this period, they recognised that cooperation with the Crown as an embodiment of the state was usually more beneficial for their personal and dynastic success than competing with it. This was not always a smooth transition, and the first two princes examined here, François, duke of Alençon, and Gaston, duke of Orléans, spent much of their lives in rebellion against royal authority of their elder brothers. The second pair, Philippe, duke of Orléans, and Louis-Stanislas, count of Provence, learned to express independent authority in different, less threatening, ways...
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This article examines the visual strategies employed in the early modern period by a dynasty ruling a smaller state, the Duchy of Lorraine, to survive in the face of expansion by larger neighbours (notably France). The central argument... more
This article examines the visual strategies employed in the early modern period by a dynasty ruling a smaller state, the Duchy of Lorraine, to survive in the face of expansion by larger neighbours (notably France). The central argument posits that in order to be treated as fully royal (and therefore with inherent rights to exist independently, as full members of the society of princes), princes like the dukes of Lorraine had to appear as royal in their visual representation. The article therefore looks at different examples of selfrepresentation produced by the dynasty over time, including genealogical treatises, coins, portraits, and printed material, in order to see how this was achieved and what symbols were used. What emerges is a sense that this strategy was more closely tied to dynasticism, not necessarily state-building, and while it can be said to have failed for the Duchy of Lorraine as a state, it proved successful, even beyond what had been imagined, for the dynasty itsel...
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In order to take a fresh look at the subject, this volume provides a broad discussion on the formation of dynastic identities in relationship to the lineage's own history, other families within the social elite, and the ruling dynasty.
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While the current discussion of ethnic, trade, and commercial diasporas, global networks, and transnational communities constantly makes reference to the importance of families and kinship groups for understanding the dynamics of... more
While the current discussion of ethnic, trade, and commercial diasporas, global networks, and transnational communities constantly makes reference to the importance of families and kinship groups for understanding the dynamics of dispersion, few studies examine the nature of these families in any detail. This book, centered largely on the European experience of families scattered geographically, challenges the dominant narratives of modernization by offering a long-term perspective from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century. Paradoxically, “transnational families” are to be found long before the nation-state was in place..
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Abstract The deepening study of courts and courtly societies in the early modern world has provided political, social, and cultural historians with new insights into how (and why) such societies functioned, but have too often focused... more
Abstract The deepening study of courts and courtly societies in the early modern world has provided political, social, and cultural historians with new insights into how (and why) such societies functioned, but have too often focused exclusively on the singularity of a monarch, or at best, his immediate family. This essay explores similar themes of the functionalities of patronage, dynasticism and piety in the context of the high court aristocracy, represented here by the House of Guise, and in particular by its women, caretakers of family image. Using inventories from two periods in the seventeenth century, and, more specifically, key pieces of material culture representative of familial pride and piety, it demonstrates how court families shifted their behaviour in a climate of increased centralization and royal domination. In line with current revisionism of notions of ‘absolutism’, this study also reinforces the more nuanced vision of a courtly society driven by crownnoble co-operation and competition rather than control.
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AbstractRevisionist historians have come to recognize that the most signiWcant marker of Louis XIV's success as a monarch was not to be found in absolutist domination, but in his ability to balance factions, both at his court, in... more
AbstractRevisionist historians have come to recognize that the most signiWcant marker of Louis XIV's success as a monarch was not to be found in absolutist domination, but in his ability to balance factions, both at his court, in the army and in the administration of France. This ...
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In contrast to the “unexpected heir,” the French monarchy in the seventeenth century provides two interesting examples of “expected heirs,” second sons who were heirs to their elder brothers, but then were ultimately pushed aside once a... more
In contrast to the “unexpected heir,” the French monarchy in the seventeenth century provides two interesting examples of “expected heirs,” second sons who were heirs to their elder brothers, but then were ultimately pushed aside once a dauphin arrived on the scene. The careers of Gaston, Duke of Orleans (1608–1660) and his nephew Philippe, Duke of Orleans (1640–1701) are useful to study in the context of royal second sons both because of these expectations, but also as indicators of change within the French monarchy itself, which in this period was centralizing, and junior princes were finding their roles increasingly under-defined. Whereas Gaston expressed frustration through rebellion against his older brother, Philippe transformed his role into one of loyal support, and focused his energies away from politics and instead towards patronage of the arts, a model for princes in succeeding centuries.
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Adel und Nation passen nicht unbedingt zusammen. Hier die soziale Elite, dort die umfassende Gemeinschaft. Dieses Spannungsverhaltnis, das sich vielfach im Laufe des 19.
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In the era of centralisation of the great powers in Europe, dynasties rul- ing smaller states on the margins between France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire developed strategies for survival. One of these was to establish a presence at... more
In the era of centralisation of the great powers in Europe, dynasties rul- ing smaller states on the margins between France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire developed strategies for survival. One of these was to establish a presence at the courts of these larger states, by sending members of the ruling dynasty itself. This article looks in particular at the court of France, where such princely emissaries established lineages known to historians as the «foreign princes», the princes etrangers. The French monarchy desired the presence of these princes as well, for various political and ceremonial reasons. The successes and failures of the foreign princes sent to the French court can be measured at the individual level and the wider dynastic level, and are examined by scrutinising activities of secular princes (male and female) as well as prelates. The results are varied, and depended on a variety of ever-shifting factors, notably the establishment of kinship ties with the royal dynast...
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The death of Henri IV in 1610 abruptly reopened a key political debate for the Guise and their social peers: would they continue to support the new Bourbon monarchy, or take up once more their role as defenders of aristocratic privilege... more
The death of Henri IV in 1610 abruptly reopened a key political debate for the Guise and their social peers: would they continue to support the new Bourbon monarchy, or take up once more their role as defenders of aristocratic privilege against royal absolutism? What strategies were required to secure lasting social pre-eminence of the Grandees in an increasingly centralising state? In this chapter, Jonathan Spangler examines this issue specifically through the case study of Henriette-Catherine de Joyeuse, Duchess of Guise, as a ‘regent’ of the Guise family, by looking at her relationships with the two Queens-Regent of France in the seventeenth century, and her relationship with her son, Duke Henri II. This chapter focuses on how Guisard women like the Duchess Henriette-Catherine de Joyeuse made use of an international reputation and the ambiguous roles afforded to aristocratic widows to ensure their family’s survival and its pre-eminent reputation in the changing political environm...
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... laughter and computer parts in Oxford, 1 thank Polly Jones, Tanvi Rai, John Appleby-Alis, Gavin Kelly, Milan Bharadia, Sebastian Kalhat ... de France, demonstrated in this case by great expenditures made recently to restore two of the... more
... laughter and computer parts in Oxford, 1 thank Polly Jones, Tanvi Rai, John Appleby-Alis, Gavin Kelly, Milan Bharadia, Sebastian Kalhat ... de France, demonstrated in this case by great expenditures made recently to restore two of the Guises' greatest architectural monuments, the ...