The Spanish Habsburgs and Dynastic Rule, 1500–1700

The Spanish Habsburgs and Dynastic Rule, 1500–1700
Author: Elisabeth Geevers
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2023-06-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000909360

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 dynasties were ‘made’ by the people belonging to them. It uses a social institutionalist framework to analyse how family dynamics gave rise to practices and roles. The kings of Spain only had limited power to control the construction of their dynasty, since births and deaths, processes of dynastic centralisation, pressure from subjects, relatives’ individual agency, rivalry among relatives and the institutionalisation of roles limited their power. Including several genealogical tables to support students new to the Spanish Habsburgs, this book is essential reading for all students of early modern Europe and the history of monarchy. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

A History of the Habsburg Empire 1273-1700

A History of the Habsburg Empire 1273-1700
Author: Jean Berenger
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2014-07-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 131789569X

The first part of a two-volume history of the Habsburg Empire from its medieval origins to its dismemberment in the First World War. This important volume (which is self-contained) meets a long-felt need for a systematic survey in English of the Habsburgs and their lands in the late medieval and early modern periods. It is primarily concerned with the Habsburg territories in central and northern Europe, but the history of the Spanish Habsburgs in Spain and the Netherlands is also covered. The book, like the Habsburgs themselves, deals with an immense range of lands and peoples: clear, balanced, and authoritative, it is a remarkable feat of synthethis and exposition.

The Habsburgs

The Habsburgs
Author: Benjamin Curtis
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2013-07-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1441100539

The Habsburgs rank among the most celebrated ruling dynasties in history. At one point, their territories stretched not only across Europe but across the globe, into Asia, Africa and the Americas. By virtue of their long pre-eminence, the family made an indelible mark on European affairs, shaping the course of international politics and diplomacy, and knitting together the diverse peoples of Central Europe. The story of the Habsburgs is theatrical and compelling, but it is also vital for understanding how kings ruled, nations rose, and societies changed as modern Europe came into being. In this book, Benjamin Curtis explores both the Spanish and Austrian branches of the dynasty, providing a concise, comprehensive picture of the dynasty's development. This study clearly demonstrates why the Habsburgs are considered the most consistently accomplished practitioners of European dynasticism.

The Habsburg Empire 1700-1918

The Habsburg Empire 1700-1918
Author: Jean Berenger
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2014-09-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317895738

This is the eagerly awaited second volume of Jean Bérenger's history of the Habsburgs. It covers the last two centuries of their rule and provides a compelling account of the fluctuations of Habsburg dynastic power and its disintegration after World War One. Bérenger gives a rich portrait of Habsburg greatness under Maria Theresa and Joseph II and shows how their successors proved more adroit at riding the tide of nationalism in their multi-ethnic empire than is often recognised.

The Resilience of the Spanish Monarchy 1665-1700

The Resilience of the Spanish Monarchy 1665-1700
Author: Christopher Storrs
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2006-10-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191514322

Christopher Storrs presents a fresh new appraisal of the reasons for the survival of Spain and its European and overseas empire under the last Spanish Habsburg, Carlos II (1665-1700). Hitherto it has been largely assumed that in the 'Age of Louis XIV' Spain collapsed as a military, naval and imperial power, and only retained its empire because states which had hitherto opposed Spanish hegemony came to Carlos's aid. However, this view seriously underestimates the efforts of Carlos II and his ministers to raise men to fight in Spain's various armies - above all in Flanders, Lombardy, and Catalonia - and to ensure that Spain continued to have galleons in the Atlantic and galleys in the Mediterranean. These commitments were expensive, so that the fiscal pressures on Carlos' subjects to fund the empire continued to be considerable. Not surprisingly, these demands added to the political tensions in a reign in which the succession problem already generated difficulties. They also put pressure on an administrative structure which revealed some weaknesses but which also proved its worth in time of need. The burden of empire was still largely carried in Spain by Castile (assisted by the silver of the Indies), but Spain's ability to hang onto empire was also helped by a greater integration of centre and periphery, and by the contribution of the non-Castilian territories, notably Aragon in Spain and Naples in Spanish Italy. This book radically revises our understanding of the last decades of Habsburg Spain. As Storrs demonstrates, it was a state and society more clearly committed to the retention of empire - and more successful in achieving this - than historians have hitherto acknowledged.

Early Modern Habsburg Women

Early Modern Habsburg Women
Author: Anne J. Cruz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2016-05-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317146921

As the first comprehensive volume devoted entirely to women of both the Spanish and Austrian Habsburg royal dynasties spanning the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, this interdisciplinary collection illuminates their complex and often contradictory political functions and their interrelations across early modern national borders. The essays in this volume investigate the lives of six Habsburg women who, as queens consort and queen regent, duchesses, a vicereine, and a nun, left an indelible mark on the diplomatic and cultural map of early modern Europe. Contributors examine the national and transnational impact of these notable women through their biographies, and explore how they transferred their cultural, religious, and political traditions as the women moved from one court to another. Early Modern Habsburg Women investigates the complex lives of Philip II’s daughter, the Infanta Catalina Micaela (1567-1597); her daughter, Margherita of Savoy, Vicereine of Portugal (1589-1655); and Maria Maddalena of Austria, Grand Duchess of Florence (1589-1631). The second generation of Habsburg women that the volume addresses includes Philip IV’s first wife, Isabel of Borbón (1602-1644), who became a Habsburg by marriage; Rudolph II’s daughter, Sor Ana Dorotea (1611-1694), the only Habsburg nun in the collection; and Philip IV’s second wife, Mariana of Austria (1634-1696), queen regent and mother to the last Spanish Habsburg. Through archival documents, pictorial and historical accounts, literature, and correspondence, as well as cultural artifacts such as paintings, jewelry, and garments, this volume brings to light the impact of Habsburg women in the broader historical, political, and cultural contexts. The essays fill a scholarly need by covering various phases of the lives of early modern royal women, who often struggled to sustain their family loyalty while at the service of a foreign court, even when protecting and preparing their heirs for rule a

Prince, Pen, and Sword: Eurasian Perspectives

Prince, Pen, and Sword: Eurasian Perspectives
Author: Maaike van Berkel
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 668
Release: 2018-01-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004315713

Prince, Pen, and Sword offers a synoptic interpretation of rulers and elites in Eurasia from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. Four core chapters zoom in on the tensions and connections at court, on the nexus between rulers and religious authority, on the status, function, and self-perceptions of military and administrative elites respectively. Two additional concise chapters provide a focused analysis of the construction of specific dynasties (the Golden Horde and the Habsburgs) and narratives of kingship found in fiction throughout Eurasia. The contributors and editors, authorities in their fields, systematically bring together specialised literature on numerous Eurasian kingdoms and empires. This book is a careful and thought-provoking experiment in the global, comparative and connected history of rulers and elites.

The Habsburgs

The Habsburgs
Author: Martyn Rady
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2020-08-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1541644492

The definitive history of a powerful family dynasty who dominated Europe for centuries -- from their rise to power to their eventual downfall. In The Habsburgs, Martyn Rady tells the epic story of a dynasty and the world it built -- and then lost -- over nearly a millennium. From modest origins, the Habsburgs gained control of the Holy Roman Empire in the fifteenth century. Then, in just a few decades, their possessions rapidly expanded to take in a large part of Europe, stretching from Hungary to Spain, and parts of the New World and the Far East. The Habsburgs continued to dominate Central Europe through the First World War. Historians often depict the Habsburgs as leaders of a ramshackle empire. But Rady reveals their enduring power, driven by the belief that they were destined to rule the world as defenders of the Roman Catholic Church, guarantors of peace, and patrons of learning. The Habsburgs is the definitive history of a remarkable dynasty that forever changed Europe and the world.

Eagles Looking East and West

Eagles Looking East and West
Author: Tibor Martí
Publisher:
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2021-07-22
Genre:
ISBN: 9782503581330

Symbolised by the 'double-headed eagle' looking East and West, the Habsburg dynasty constituted a universal power structure in the early modern era. The dynasty's Spanish and Austrian branches created a code of shared identity, one which also encompassed their religious piety and their ability to pitch the Austriacum Imperium against multiple enemies worldwide. The present volume investigates the construction of the dynasty's political image in two spheres, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Spanish monarchy, between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Fifteen Hungarian, Czech and Spanish specialists offer comparative perspectives on the Habsburg era during this convulsive period of European history, addressing topics including diplomatic links, dynastic ritual and representation, and the Order of the Golden Fleece. In covering a wide range of themes, their contributions aim towards a better understanding of the emergence of new political attitudes in the Western world prior to the Enlightenment. Contributors to the volume include Cristina Bravo Lozano, Vaclav Buzek, Nora G. Etenyi, Alfredo Floristan Imizcoz, Ruben Gonzalez Cuerva, Borbala Gulyas, Fanni Hende, Janos Kalmar, Zsolt Kokenyesi, Zoltan Korpas, Pavel Marek, Tibor Monostori, and Geza Palffy.