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In state formation research, princely houses have been a blind spot. The development of states has been discussed from many perspectives, like interstate competition, internal social conflicts, fiscal-military developments, etc., but at the centre of most European states, there was a princely house. These ruling houses have been overlooked in studies about state formation. What's more, when discussing such dynasties, the vertical chronological perspective (grandfather-father-son) is all dominating, for instance in the focus on dynastic continuity, dynastic culture and representation, and the like. This collection of essays highlights the horizontal perspective (ruler, all children, siblings, cousins), in asking how the members of a princely family acted as a power network. The quest is to develop an understanding how this family network interplayed with other factors in the state formation process. This volume brings together existing knowledge of the topic with the aim of exchanging insights and furthering knowledge.
Providing a novel research methodology for students and scholars with an interest in dynasties, at all levels, this book explores the Spanish Habsburg dynasty that ruled the Spanish monarchy between c. 1515 and 1700. Instead of focusing on the reigns of successive kings, the book focuses on the Habsburgs as a family group that was constructed in various ways: as a community of heirs, a genealogical narrative, a community of the dead and a ruling family group. These constructions reflect the fact that dynasties do not only exist in the present, as kings, queens or governors, but also in the past, in genealogies, and in the future, as a group of hypothetical heirs. This book analyses how dynas...
"Until the 1960s, it was widely assumed that in Western Europe the 'New Monarchy' propelled kingdoms and principalities onto a modern nation-state trajectory. John I of Portugal (1358-1433), Charles VII (1403-1461) and Louis XI (1423-1483) of France, Henry VII and Henry VIII of England (1457-1509, 1509-1553), Isabella of Castile (1474-1504) and Ferdinand of Aragon (1479-1516) were, by improving royal administration, by bringing more continuity to communication with their estates and by introducing more regular taxation, all seen to have served that goal. In this view, princes were assigned to the role of developing and implementing the sinews of state as a sovereign entity characterized by the coherence of its territorial borders and its central administration and government. They shed medieval traditions of counsel and instead enforced relations of obedience toward the emerging 'state'."--Provided by publisher.
A key duty of the Renaissance monarchy was the defence of its subjects. This volume looks at what happened when the crown had to rely on local landowners for defence and border rule in the shires of Meath and Northumberland, and the differences in outcome between the two areas.
The history of the British Isles is the story of four peoples linked together by a process of state building that was as much about far-sighted planning and vision as coincidence, accident and failure. It is a history of revolts and reversal, familial bonds and enmity, the study of which does much to explain the underlying tension between the nations of modern day Britain. The Making of the British Islesrecounts the development of the nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland from the time of the Anglo-French dual monarchy under Henry VI through the Wars of the Roses, the Reformation crisis, the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, the Anglo-Scottish dynastic union, the British multiple monarchy and the Cromwellian Republic, ending with the acts of British Union and the Restoration of the Monarchy.
This collection of writings explores European borders from the 15th century to the present. The territorial scope ranges from the Arctic Ocean and Scandinavia to Central Europe. In these papers, borders are understood not only as separating lines in the terrain, but also as socially constructed divisions in people's choices, speeches, actions, and memories. Borders are not only drawn: they are imagined, negotiated, and remembered. (Series: Studies on Middle and Eastern Europe / Mittel- und Ostmitteleuropastudien - Vol. 11)
From West Indian sugar and bottles of Southeast Asian arrack to French red wines, English felt cloth, and Mediterranean lemons, many global wares ended up in the Scandinavian borderlands during the late eighteenth century. This book explores how and why these goods came to be there and analyses what smuggling can reveal about the emergence of global trade, the formation of the nation state, and the development of consumer society in Europe’s northernmost outskirts. This book shows that the global underground was ubiquitous in the Nordic countries and fundamentally altered them, politically, economically, socially, and culturally. Through re-evaluating the role of smuggling the book complem...
"The Rise of Little Big Norway" explores the unlikely rise of Norway from peripherality to today’s global steward with an enviable work-life balance, influential oil fund and Arctic front-row seat. Drawing on wide-ranging source material, John Ross’s original approach combines astute observation, thoughtful analysis and a flowing essay style, leavened with the comparative insight that only a seasoned observer of the region can bring. The book examines the settings, histories and niche elements that lend Norway its distinctiveness and differentiate it from its Nordic neighbors. It gives special attention to the northern and Arctic dimensions of Norwegian life and elaborates a connecting thematic thread, the mobility that once took Vikings across the Atlantic in open boats and makes today’s Norwegians the most-traveled people on the planet. The result is a carefully crafted general study of Norway, a country long overlooked in favor of its Nordic neighbors but now a quiet force in its own right and a touchstone for twenty-first century issues ranging from identity politics to the Arctic melt. This book fills a major gap in the literature on Norway and the Nordic region.
Periodicals were an essential medium during eighteenth-century Enlightenment. The era’s growing number of newspapers and journals made possible a fast and vast dissemination of ideas and debates. Journals were a particularly important means of transmitting ideas, genres, texts, and pieces of information from country to country, from centre to periphery, and from press to subscribers. These journals became agents of change by mediating the increasingly profound and widespread urge to write and read and to engage in political debate. This volume, edited by Ellen Krefting, Aina Nøding and Mona Ringvej, presents contributions that explore this media revolution from a Northern perspective. The chapters throw new light on the reception of Enlightenment ideas and practices in Denmark–Norway, Sweden–Finland, and beyond. Taken together, they make a strong case for the transnational and revolutionary character of the Enlightenment as a whole.
12 A Visual Empire: Seeing the British Atlantic World from a Global British Perspective -- 13 ""Of the Old Stock"": Quakerism and Transatlantic Genealogies in Colonial British America -- Notes -- List of Contributors -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y