The subject undertaken in my dissertation work is the gallery painting collection from the aristocratic family 'Kolowrat', which is located within the family's palace in Rychnov nad Kněžnou. The Kolowrats established their gallery in the 16th century, the foundation of which was made to contain family member portraits. During this time portrait paintings comprised the main element and went on to create the portrait collection. The collection contains the oldest Bohemian aristocratic portraits from the Renaissance with portraits influenced by artists from the court of Emperor Rudolf II. It includes portraits from important artists as Karel Škréta, David Schultz or Philip Ch. Bentum and more. The portraits of family members document the history of the Kolowrat clan through the ages. At first this dissertation describes the history of the gallery and goes on to present select portraits from the beginning of the gallery until the 18th century. Keywords Aristocracy, the Rychnov nad Kněžnou palace, the Kolowrat family gallery, portrait collection, aristocracy portrait.

An understanding of the nature and role of the parlements is essential to effective study of the French old régime, and of the origins of the Revolution. Much light can be thrown on this question by the study of the magistrates of these courts, their interests, and the conditions under which they passed their lives. The results of such enquiries have the added use of illustrating aspects of aristocratic life not directly connected with the parlements. The study of parlementaires, therefore, has relevance to political, institutional, social, economic, and intellectual history. Too often, studies have been too narrowly tied to their political or social and economic aspects, with no attempts other than the crudest to link them, and the result has tended to produce an unbalanced picture. In this thesis an attempt has been nade to bind together all the aspects of the lives of one group of parlementaires, to relate then one to another, and to to present a total view which will make the ways of parlementaires more understandable.

This study explores the marketability of Isak Dinesen's Seven Gothic Tales, published in the US in 1934. The term marketability is used to refer to the book as a potentially desirable object for sale on the market, successfully promoted by the Book-of-the-Month-Club whose members were intent on educating themselves and refining their taste. The set-up and marketing strategies of the Book-of-the-Month-Club are considered in relation to the role of advertising as a discourse teaching social and personal values in a developing consumer culture where identity and personality were represented as never-ending, imperative projects.  The consuming self is an individual freed from the restraints of tradition and communal values, making her free choice of whom to be on an increasingly diverse market, endlessly reinventing her identity. But this self is also a commodity on an increasingly complex and impersonal market where appearance is destiny. A historically contextualized reading of Seven Gothic Tales makes it possible to use the term marketability to refer to the work itself as a literary investigation of the conditions of identity-construction in a culture dominated by market-mediated relationships. In this reading, the Great Depression figures as a moment that reveals the degree to which consumerist ideology and logic had come to determine the possibilities of imagining being and identity, a condition that Seven Gothic Tales both reflects and resists. The effect of globalized transformation of production and consumption were felt in the two places that went into the making of Seven Gothic Tales: the US where it was first published and colonial Kenya where the author lived between 1914 and 1931 and where the book was begun. This study argues that the success of Seven Gothic Tales in the US depended on the way in which Blixen/Dinesen's experience of colonial Kenya was an experience of commercial modernity that reverberated with the experience of the American readers. Central to this argument is the ideal of feudalism as an explicit and decisive element in the creation of colonial Kenya. The aristocratic theme that permeates Seven Gothic Tales must be understood in relation to a colonial socioeconomic context that reinvented the feudal ideal as a marketable commodity at a time when social status and identity had become negotiable on a consumer market.

Ce mémoire traite de l’histoire politique et dynastique de l’empire byzantin du Xe au début du XIIe siècle, et propose de réinterpréter certaines querelles de succession et la stratégie, matrimoniale et politique, des grandes familles aristocratiques. Partant de la querelle de 1118 qui opposa Jean II à sa soeur Anne pour la succession d’Alexis Ier, l’analyse montre que ce conflit recouvrait l’opposition entre deux sources de légitimité, les Comnènes et les Doukai, et de deux principes, primogéniture masculine et primogéniture « absolue ». Cette hypothèse est confirmée par une analyse des relations avant et après le couronnement d’Alexis Ier : la campagne d’Alexis contre Roussel de Bailleul, le contexte des fiançailles d’Alexis Comnène et d’Irène Doukaina, ou la prise de Constantinople sont particulièrement revisités. Ayant dû accorder des garanties à sa belle-famille Doukas, Alexis Ier va utiliser les interdictions de mariage et les circonstances diplomatiques pour annuler les fiançailles de sa fille et de Constantin Doukas, le fils de Michel VII. L’analyse se poursuit par une étude de la révolte de 1057 et met en évidence que Constantin (X) Doukas et Isaac (Ier) Comnène étaient alors les défenseurs des héritières de Constantin Dalassènos, qui était, avec Romain (III) Argyros, le chef d’une des deux familles apparentées par mariage avec les Lécapènes et les Macédoniens. Après avoir vu la stratégie matrimoniale de Romain Ier Lécapène, l’étude montre que Constantin VIII maria sa fille Zôè tardivement afin de réserver le pouvoir à ses lointains cousins et ainsi établir par la pratique un règle de succession à Byzance. / This study deals with the political and dynastic history of the Byzantine empire from the 10th to the early 12th centuries. It offers a reinterpretation of some succession crises and of the matrimonial and political strategy of great aristocratic families. About the conflict which opposed John II and his sister Anna on the succession of Alexius I in 1118, the analysis shows that this conflict was also the opposition of two sources of legitimacy: the Doukas and Comnenus families, and of two principles: masculine and absolute primogeniture. This hypothesis is confirmed by an analysis of the relations between both families before and after Alexis I’s accession: Alexius’ campaign against Roussel, the context of his betrothal with Irene Doukaina, of the taking of Constantinople are particularly revisited. Having reluctantly given warrants to his step-family, Alexius I uses marriage prohibitions to cancel his sister’s betrothal with Constantine Doukas, Michael VII’s son. The study then deals with the revolt of 1057, and shows that Constantine (X) Doukas and Isaac (I) Comnenus were the defenders of the female heirs of Constantine Dalassenos, who was, along with Romanos (III) Argyros, the head of one of the two families related to the Lecapenus and Macedonian dynasties. After an analysis of Romanus I’s matrimonial strategy, the study shows that Constantine VIII married his daughter Zoe so late because he wanted to reserve the power to his distant relatives and thus to establish, through practice, a succession rule in Byzantium.

The focus of this study is aristocratic fathers and sons in the middle and late Roman Republic (264 – 27 B.C.). By considering legal, literary, and material evidence, it addresses the behaviour of elite families throughout this period. Although there is a great deal of important research conducted on family relations in the ancient world more generally, there is no extensive study which analyses the bonds of duty, obligation, and affection between fathers and sons in republican Rome. It is this gap in the scholarship which is addressed in my thesis. The key aspects of this relationship are considered through several interconnected chapters. Each reflects the social nature of this analysis, and demonstrates that traditional values, dynastic considerations, and social ideals promoted a sense of common identity and unity within the household. Although the hierarchical nature of Roman family life also provided opportunities for conflict between father and son, ultimately the relationship between the two was governed by these three concerns, as well as the close correlation between public and private in the lives of the republican elite. The discussion begins by considering the high valuation of fatherhood at Rome, evidenced by the use of terms derived from pater, and argues that the qualities expected of this individual were similar to those associated with the ideal statesman (Ch. I). From there, depictions of the Roman father by Greek and Roman authors are analysed to show that the former often emphasised the morality of the episode in question, while the latter stressed the conflict between the well-being of the family and the safety of the state (Ch. II). The argument then moves on to explore social expectations. Cicero’s Pro Roscio Amerino provides an example in which the ideals for father and son relationships are manipulated in order to persuade an audience (Ch. III). This shows that pietas, duty, companionship, and support towards one another were recognised as norms for these individuals. The discussion of the paterfamilias in the following chapter demonstrates that he was expected to act as a role model for future generations, and to provide education and protection to his dependants (Ch. IV). The reputation and continuity of the family line were also important considerations for the aristocratic head of household. From there, traditional values, dynastic considerations, and social ideals are explored through the family life-cycle (Ch. V). This section establishes that these three areas fostered a sense of common identity and unity within the household, and exerted significant pressure upon fathers and sons to maintain relatively harmonious relationships. The final chapter considers literary portrayals of Rome’s founders in order to reiterate the close correlation between the ideal of the father and the ideal of the statesman (Ch. VI). It concludes that the use of the father-figure by Augustus and later emperors to legitimise their position in the state develops from the ideological significance of fatherhood in the Republic.

The topic of the dissertation is the Theresian Institute for Noblewomen at Prague Castle, which from its founding by Maria Theresa in 1755 served as an institute for unmarried women of the old noble families. The dissertation maps out the development of the institution from its founding until its complete dissolution at the beginning of the 1950s, both within the broader historical context as well as in comparison with other such institutes for the care of ladies, particularly in Brno, Innsbruck, Graz and Vienna. It analyses the character of the foundation, its internal structure and the form of its economic provision while also focusing on the practical functioning of the institute, its significance in society and the everyday lives of its members. The dissertation represents a contribution to better understanding the social role of unmarried noblewomen in Habsburg society. In a broader context it illustrates the transformation of noble society in the second half of the 18th century and in the "long 19th century" as well as its fate in the confrontation with the changing relations in Czechoslovakia's first republic and finally with the totalitarian regimes in the first half of the 20th century.

A fim de investigar a relação entre processo social e forma literária nOs Maias, de Eça de Queirós, o presente trabalho propõe a análise das afinidades entre a composição de classe representada no romance (sobretudo no embate entre uma aristocracia resiliente e uma burguesia ascendente) e o tema do incesto, a partir do conceito de figuração tal qual desenvolvido por Norbert Elias. / Aiming to investigate the relationship between social process and literary form in Os Maias [The Maias], by Eça de Queirós, this work purpose is to analyze the affinities between the class composition represented in the novel (mainly in the clash concerning a resilient aristocracy and an ascendant bourgeoisie) and the theme of the incest, taking into account the concept of figuration as developed by Norbert Elias.

A fim de investigar a relação entre processo social e forma literária nOs Maias, de Eça de Queirós, o presente trabalho propõe a análise das afinidades entre a composição de classe representada no romance (sobretudo no embate entre uma aristocracia resiliente e uma burguesia ascendente) e o tema do incesto, a partir do conceito de figuração tal qual desenvolvido por Norbert Elias. / Aiming to investigate the relationship between social process and literary form in Os Maias [The Maias], by Eça de Queirós, this work purpose is to analyze the affinities between the class composition represented in the novel (mainly in the clash concerning a resilient aristocracy and an ascendant bourgeoisie) and the theme of the incest, taking into account the concept of figuration as developed by Norbert Elias.

Através deste trabalho, pretendemos analisar o poema Beowulf e sua importância na sociedade da Inglaterra anglo-saxônica, em especial no que se refere às imagens aristocráticas e régias. Estabelecemos paralelos das personagens encontradas no poema e demais referencias do corpo poético anglo-saxão, com o quadro sócio-cultural do momento tendo por foco o período chamado em nossa pesquisa por período alfrediano. Segundo nossa hipótese, teria sido dentro deste período (final do século VIII e início do século XI) que provavelmente Beowulf teria sido composto, assim como outras obras de cunho heróico. A idéia central seria de que tais obras teriam uma finalidade modelar para a aristocracia guerreira durante o momento da reconquista dos territórios ocupados pelos escandinavos desde o início das primeiras invasões. Assim, as imagens encontradas nessas obras e em especial Beowulf, estariam espelhando um ideal aristocrático germânico, mas profundamente influenciado pela tradição cristã. Desta forma, o que teremos será uma produção poética incentivada pela ascensão da Casa de Wessex (iniciada pelo rei Alfred, o Grande) que irá refletir o ideário germânico de glória e honra unido a elementos cristão, principalmente do Velho Testamento. Ao reforçar tais elementos, o período alfrediano estabeleceria um modelo aristocrático e régio, tendo o poema Beowulf como um reflexo desta retomada cultural numa Inglaterra pré-conquista normanda / With this work, we intend to study the Beowulf poem and its importance on Anglo-Saxon society, mainly about the kingship and aristocratic images. We established some parallels of what could be found in the poem and other references of the Anglo-Saxon poetic staff, with the socio-cultural scenario of the age keeping on focus the moment that we call alfredian period. Following our hypothesis, it would have been on this period (end of 8th century and early 11th century) that Beowulf would have been composed, as other works of heroic style. The central idea is that such works had the purpose to be a role model to the warrior-aristocracy in a moment of reconquering of the territories occupied by the Scandinavians since the beginning of the invasions. So, the images found on this kind of work, and specially Beowulf, would have been a resemblance of a Germanic aristocratic ideal, but deeply influenced by the Christian tradition. With this in mind, what we have are a poetic enterprise supported by the ascension of the House of Wessex (started by king Alfred, the Great) which will reflect the Germanic ideal of glory and honor joined with Christian elements, mainly from the Old Testament. With the stressing of this elements, the Alfredian period would established an aristocratic and kingly model, having the Beowulf poem as a sign of this cultural renascence on an England before the Norman conquest.

De la fin du IXe au milieu du XIe siècle, la Lotharingie, ancien cœur de l’empire carolingien, devint une marge du royaume de Francie occidentale, d’abord, puis de Francie orientale, ensuite, sans que ne se développe pour autant une identité lotharingienne. Cette recherche, qui porte sur la Lotharingie méridionale, s’intéresse tout d’abord aux structures de parenté aristocratiques, qui demeurent résolument horizontales et cognatiques. L’interrogation principale porte ensuite sur l’évolution du rapport des aristocrates à leurs espaces de domination. Ce travail montre que l’exercice de la potestas des comtes se fit, jusqu’à la réforme grégorienne, selon des logiques davantage sociales que spatiales : pagus et comitatus ne furent pas des circonscriptions territorialisées. Le territoire ne constituait pas le pouvoir comtal : il en découlait. À l’inverse, les seigneurs furent les premiers à s’ancrer spatialement en fondant des centres castraux dont ils adoptèrent le nom comme cognomen toponymique. Pour ce faire, cette thèse étudie dans le détail les fonctions, la morphologie et la chronologie de l’apparition des différents centres, aussi bien ecclésiastiques que laïques, en s’interrogeant également sur l’existence de « modèles spatiaux ». Une double approche textuelle et archéologique permet de déconstruire l’image d’aristocrates prédateurs et de montrer que si les abbayes et les sièges épiscopaux furent, pour les laïcs, l’objet d’enjeux nombreux, ceux-ci n’étaient pas d’ordre territorial. Elle amène également à reconsidérer l’aimantation castrale, en se détachant notamment d’une compréhension légaliste de ce phénomène et en analysant la coexistence de fortifications d’architectures très différentes. La multipolarisation de l’aristocratie lotharingienne ne peut se comprendre qu’en considérant pleinement les différents acteurs politiques – notamment les évêques –, afin de saisir les rapports de force changeants et la « coopétition » permanente entre ces différentes parties qui expliquent le rythme de cet ancrage spatial à tâtons. Celui-ci est à la fois différent de ce que l’on rencontre en Francie occidentale et en Francie orientale, confirmant le statut singulier de cet espace de l’entre-deux. / From the end of the ninth to the middle of the eleventh century, the Southern part of Lotharingia – the former heart of the Carolingian empire – first became a periphery of the West Frankish kingdom, and then a march of Eastern Francia. However, that does not mean that a Lotharingian identity emerged. To start with, our research indicates that aristocratic kinship patterns remained definitely horizontal and cognatic. The main research problem focuses on the aristocrats’ relations to their spaces of power, and their evolutions. This work shows that, until the Gregorian reform, counts performed their potestas according to a logic which was more social than spatial: pagus and comitatus were not territorialized divisions. Territory was not the core of the counts’ power: it was a consequence of it. Even so, lords were the first to found fortified places thus establishing manifestations of spatial power by assuming the castles’ names as a toponymic cognomen. This dissertation examines the functions, morphologies and chronologies of the emergence of such centers, either ecclesiastical or secular. It also raises questions about the existence of « spatial models ». Evidence from texts and archaeology allows us to deconstruct the image of predatory aristocrats. It also proves that although nobles competed for abbeys and episcopal sees, this rivalry was not territorial; our findings have also brought us to reconsider the growing function of castles by moving away from a legalistic approach to the process of polarization and rather analyzing the coexistence of the quite different fortification styles. One can understand the multipolarization of Lotharingian aristocracy only by fully taking into account the different political protagonists – especially bishops – in order to better grasp the changing power balances and constant « coopetition » between different parties. Those dynamics can explain the uncertain pace of the manifestation of spatial power, the modalities of which were different from both West and East Francia and thus confirm the unique status of this in-between space.