Power and Ceremony in European History: Rituals, Practices and Representative Bodies since the Late Middle Ages

Description

From oaths and hand-kissing to coronations and baptisms, Power and Ceremony in European History considers the governing practices, courtly rituals, and expressions of power prevalent in Europe and the Ottoman Empire from the medieval age to the modern era. 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. Cover Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Contents Illustrations Contributors Introduction Notes Part One Coronation and Enthronement 1 Where exactly is the throne? Locating sovereignty in sixteenth-century ottoman succession rituals Generic concept of enthronement The succession of 1566 Happily commencing a new reign? Conclusion Notes 2 Proclamations and coronations in Palermo (1700–1735): Performing kingship and celebrating civic power Four kings for one kingdom A Deo coronatus? A monarchic celebration or a civic festival? Conclusion Notes 3 The evolution of the British coronation rite, 1761–1953 Protestant Reformation Anglo-Catholic restoration Conclusion Notes Part Two Ceremonial of Royal Courts 4 The daily court ceremonial of the French queen in the reign of Henry III Salic Law and the limitation of the power of the queen The ceremonial of the court of the queen: tradition and infl uence Queenship in the regulations of Henry III, 1570s–1580s Conclusion Notes 5 Courtly and ceremonial spaces in Spanish royal sites: An evolution from the renaissance to the baroque Court space in the Spanish Monarchy during the Early Modern period Ceremonial customs and etiquette in the Spanish Monarchy: from Renaissance to Baroque Ceremonies and the transformation of court space in Spanish Royal Sites Conclusion Notes 6 Royal baptism in the Spanish court: Art and ritual from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century The establishment of an etiquette for royal baptism The centuries of Grandee pre-eminence: The participation of the nobles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries A change towards royal intimacy: Bourbon baptism ceremonies The magnificence of a royal baptism: The display of silver and opulent cloth from the royal collections Conclusion Notes 7 From marshal to monarch: State ceremonies and Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte in post-napoleonic Sweden A prince The entry The Oaths of Allegiance A king The coronation The homage A dynasty The funeral The king is dead, long live the king! Notes Part Three Ceremonial of Institutions and Representative Bodies 8 Not the ruler, but the land: Estates and ceremonial order at the diet of besztercebánya, 1620 The conflict The context The arguments The stakes No escape? Notes 9 Oath-taking and Hand-Kissing: Ceremonies of sovereignty in a ‘Monarchia composita’, the states of the house of savoy from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries Conclusion Notes Part Four Tangible and Intangible Elements in Staging Ceremonies 10 Jagiellonians and habsburgs: Heraldic dynastic representation in Central Europe from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century Habsburg and Jagiellonian heraldic representation in late medieval Central Europe Heraldic representation in the funerals of Habsburg emperors Territorial flags during Hungarian coronations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Evolution and errors in heraldic dynastic representation Conclusion Notes 11 Operas and masquerades: Court rituals and entertainments under Ernest Augustus and George I of Brunswick-L ü neburg (1660–1727) in the electorate of Hanover and Great Britain England Conclusion Notes 12 Public staging, visualization and performance of eighteenth-century danish absolutism: Queen Caroline Mathilde’s journey across funen as ritual A tragic history The retinue in 1766 Middelfart Odense Nyborg and beyond The meaning of it all Ridiculous observation of etiquette? Unnecessary troubling of the population? Conclusion Notes Select Bibliography Index