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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.
Aristocratic dynasties have long been regarded as fundamental to
the development of early modern society and government. Yet recent
work by political historians has increasingly questioned the
dominant role of ruling families in state formation, underlining
instead the continued importance and independence of individuals.
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. Individual chapters
consider the dynastic identity of a wide range of European
aristocratic families including the CroAs, Arenbergs and Nassaus
from the Netherlands; the Guises-Lorraine of France; the
Sandoval-Lerma in Spain; the Farnese in Italy; together with other
lineages from Ireland, Sweden and the Austrian Habsburg monarchy.
Tied in with this broad international focus, the volume addressed a
variety of related themes, including the expression of ambitions
and aspirations through family history; the social and cultural
means employed to enhance status; the legal, religious and
political attitude toward sovereigns; the role of women in the
formation and reproduction of (composite) dynastic identities; and
the transition of aristocratic dynasties to royal dynasties. In so
doing the collection provides a platform for looking again at
dynastic identity in early modern Europe, and reveals how it was a
compound of political, religious, social, cultural, historical and
individual attitudes.
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