Economy of three generations of aristocrats from Pernstejn during the 16th century In my work I focus on the management of aristocrats from Pernstejn during the 16th century. On an example of three generations I am trying to show traditional forms of noble business, as well as new attempts for financial gain. I built my work on the data from sixteen urbary of Pernstejn manors reflecting the view of major aristocratic family on their own proactive approach to economic events in estates. Throughout the study I cover the history of aristocrats from Pernstejn from the beginnings to the end of the 16th century. Further I focus on the traditional forms of feudal profits also via more modern ways that started to be used during late medieval and early modern period. After that I describe the urbary and development of their studies. Furthermore, using an extant urbary I describe the economic situation in eight Pernstejn estates. In the final apendix I record all locations that are monitored in the urbary. Overall, I summarize the estates as outdated and not very profitable. According to me the self-interest of Pernstejn family in this area is minimal. Both facts led to financial bankruptcy of the family that during a certain period belonged to a political and property elite of the early modern Czech aristocracy. Key...

This thesis compares afterwar fates of three noblemen from the foothills of the Šumava mountains - prince Joseph Windischgrätz, Otomar von Pelikan and Georg Heintschel von Heinegg. These noblemen share a few characteristics. Except being members of the royalty, their mother tongue was German and they all had similarly huge property in a size of a few hundreds hectares. These estates were situated in the not so fertile area of the Šumava foothills. Since all three men were noblemen, after 1918, they felt as being strangers in their own country. This impression was even stronger on their Šumava manor farm estates which were situated in predominantly Czech areas with German minority. Each of the men reacted differently to his uprootedness - Georg Heintschel was involved in the Austrian Fatherland Front and he later entered NSDAP and was a dedicated Nazi member. After the war, he was for this sentenced to death. Pelikan pinned his hopes on Sudeten German movement and entered SdP and during the so-called second republic also into NSDAP. However, already in the beginning of the war he started to temper his opinions and at the end he used his position in the Nazi hierarchy for helping people. Pelikan represents an example of an equivocal collaboration in this thesis. Pelikan's afterwar trial lacks verdict because...

Indiana University-Purdue University (IUPUI)

The aim of this master’s thesis is to examine portraits of married couples from the Italian Renaissance. It is a study of how, and why, men and women are portrayed differently even though they are married to each other and painted by the same artist.The chosen portraits that will be examined and analyzed are:  Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza by Piero della Francesca, Francesco Maria della Rovere and Eleonora Gonzaga della Rovere by Titian, Febo da Brescia and Laura da Pola by Lotto,Cosimo I de’ Medici and Eleonora Toledo Medici by Bronzino.  A historical theoretical perspective is used throughout with focus on Michael Baxandall’s theories of how visual identity was shaped by the society they were created in. How did they experience the paintings and is it different from how we see them today?Previous research has shown that the significance of many details in Renaissance portraits have become unknown for the modern viewer. This master’s thesis expresses that to unlock the entire meaning of Renaissance portraits, the viewer needs to acquire a considerable amount of information regarding the context the paintings were created in since we do not have the same cultural references today as the viewers of the artwork did during the Renaissance.  My analysis shows that when placing these portrait pairs in their socio-historical context it is possible to gather information hidden in the details and therefor understand the paintings more completely. The underlying meaning of fashion, jewelry, poses and gestures become evident when we study the portraits with the same perspective as during the Italian Renaissance.  By visually reuniting these pairs in art and marriage, it is possible to see the similarities in how they chose to portray themselves. The historical perspective gives clues as to why they have chosen all the details.

Historians regularly conceive of “gentlemen” (shi 士) in 7th–14th century China as men belonging to an elite social stratum, defined by their study of the classical and literary canons, participation in the civil service examinations, officeholding in the imperial bureaucracy, engagement in various literary or intellectual undertakings, hereditary status from a patriline, or connection to certain marriage, kinship, or friendship networks. This dissertation seeks to expand as well as complicate this perception of “gentlemen” as a social category, by understanding the label as referring not to an elite social stratum but to an identity, internalized and enacted in a variety of ways by men in low and high social positions alike. Using this framework to analyze the construction of “gentlemanly” identities in various arts and activities that served as leisure for some and livelihoods for others, this dissertation reveals a significant expansion in the repertory of signals and strategies used to create and perform “gentlemanly” identities in these fields, reshaping what it meant to be a “gentleman” in middle period China. Each chapter draws upon extensive source material from libraries, digital databases, and museums, to examine processes of identity construction and presentation in a series of different arts or activities in which both the “gentlemanly” and “non-gentlemanly” participated: painting, music making, practicing medicine, divining, farming and gardening, fishing and woodcutting, and playing the board game weiqi 圍棋 (also known as go). In each of these fields, between the 7th and 14th centuries, new “gentlemanly” identity signals were constructed to distinguish the “gentlemanly” sort from social categories like “artisan” (gong 工) that they viewed as inferior. New kinds of “gentlemen” like the “qin-zither gentleman” (qinshi 琴士), “painting gentleman” (huashi 畫士), and “classicist physician” (ruyi 儒醫) emerged; older labels like “recluse” (yinshi 隱士) expanded to encompass a wider variety of ways of living. New offices and titles at court were created that could signal membership in “gentlemanly” communities despite a close connection with arts like medicine or painting. And beyond these labels, men developed new “gentlemanly” identities through distinct modes of engagement in the respective field: the way one divined others’ fates, the strategies one used to win a board game, the metaphysical elements and ideals expressed in one’s art and discursive artistic judgments, the tools one didn’t use when fishing, and so on. These identity signals were situational, and each chapter draws upon examples of disagreement or doubt over the inclusion or exclusion of certain men as “gentlemen” to explore instances in which such signals were performed with varying degrees of efficacy. In my conclusion, I discuss the connection between many of these “gentlemanly” identity signals and an emerging form of social snobbery that I call the “discourse of ‘gentlemanly’ expertise.” In the 7th century and earlier, if the “gentlemanly” sort compared themselves to “artisans,” it would almost certainly be based on what they did. However, around the 9th–13th centuries, the “gentlemanly” sort became more actively involved (or vocal about their involvement) in the arts, and started to contrast their own practice and appreciation of these arts more actively with the (ostensibly inferior) practice and appreciation of “non-gentlemanly” sorts. In doing so, they began to define and distinguish themselves not by what they did, but by how they did it. They did not stop with simply articulating “gentlemanly” practices as different but equally good; they asserted that their practices and products were superior, claiming expertise in these fields on the basis of their ethical values, cultural norms, aesthetic preferences, and abstract knowledge of the cosmos and the ineffable “Way” (Dao 道). I argue that, ironically, this snobbish discourse of social distinction actually made it increasingly possible for people earning a livelihood in various arts to enact “gentlemanly” identities, by associating symbolic capital with the demonstration or depiction of “gentlemanly” modes of engagement. By focusing on the increasing number of ways in which “gentlemanly” identities were constructed and performed in 7th–14th century China, this dissertation offers insight into how individuals and groups made decisions of inclusion or exclusion, offered or obtained access to resources, and developed a sense of self and place in society. In doing so, it enriches our understandings of both the social forces shaping the middle period Chinese social world, and the individuals and groups who inhabited it.

The Tudor Reformation period represents an era fraught with religious and political controversy. It is my goal to present the crucial role the nobility played in the success of the Henrician Reformation as well as to provide a reasonable explanation for the nobility's reaction to religious and political reform. I will also seek to quantify the significance of the nobility as a social group and prove the importance of their reaction to the success of the Henrician Reformation. The nobles because of patronage, self-interest, piety, apathy, fear, or practicality were motivated to support the king's efforts. Their response was the key to the success or failure of the Henrician Reformation. Although Henry VIII started the process of reform, the Henrician Reformation would never have been successful without the enforcement, collaboration, and backing of the nobility.

During the rule of the house of Vasa 1523-1654, Sweden saw a vastly increased output of new government heraldry and official symbols. This thesis investigates the political motives behind the creation of these symbols and their use as propaganda tools as part of the formation of the Swedish state.  Heraldry is a well-covered topic in academia in many European countries, but in Sweden it has yet to be properly integrated into historical research. This thesis covers the bigger picture by investigating the Vasa dynasty’s heraldry in its entirety in order to follow its use over time.  The thesis analyses all grants of arms to cities and nobles, as well as new royal and provincial arms. It carries out an analysis of the arms’ composition and motif, as well as charting the political context in which they were created and their role in the formation of the modern state.  The question the thesis seeks to answer is if the Vasa dynasty used heraldry as a political propaganda tool, and if so — for what purpose. The thesis uses Jaques Ellul’s categories of propaganda as a theoretical framework.  Among the key findings is the discovery that the Vasa monarchs did treat official heraldry as an integrated part of their propaganda efforts, both in conflicts with the outside world and with each other. However, the heraldic motifs of most cities and nobles, making up the vast majority of new coats of arms, were not part of those efforts.  There was also a clear shift from the agitation propaganda during the early Vasa era, to propaganda of integration as the institutions of state took form and Sweden became a regional power.

No description available.

La noblesse du Sarladais avait la réputation d'être pléthorique et désargentée, mais ce point de vue traditionnel doit être nuancé : les nobles n'étaient nombreux que dans les villes de Sarlat, de Monpazier, et dans les vallées. Ils étaient effectivement pauvres, mais leurs lignées étaient anciennes : un partage favorable à l'aîné et l'exercice d'activités sans dérogeance pour les cadets permettaient aux uns et aux autres de se distinguer de leur environnement social. Leurs relations avec l'Etat évoluèrent : aux XVI ° et XVII ° siècles, la noblesse lutta pour son indépendance, encouragée par les La Tour d'Auvergne, dont la vicomté de Turenne était souveraine. Vers 1740, avec le déclin de cette lignée, le second ordre se soumit au monarque : il s'intégra dans ses clientèles pour le servir, et il renforça ses liens avec lui, par des unions avec de vieilles lignées d'officiers, qui faisaient de l'ancienneté un élément essentiel de l'identité nobiliaire. Bien que vaincus, les nobles envisagèrent de réformer l'Etat absolutiste, car la noblesse voulait rester maîtresse chez elle en se protégeant de la domination parisienne et bordelaise. Mais, la réforme n'était pas sans risques, car la noblesse était isolée : d'une attitude ambivalente avec la bourgeoisie, elle se heurtait à des paysans hostiles aux droits féodaux, qu'un noble pauvre ne pouvait abandonner sans perdre sa supériorité dans la paroisse. / The nobility of Sarlat region was know to be overed and penniless, but this reputation needs to be qualified : the noblemen were numerous only in Sarlat, Monpazier and the valleys. They were poor indeed, but their lineage was ancient : the sharing out was in favor of the eldest and the activities reserved to the nobility of the younger brothers allowed them to distinguish themselves from their social environment. The relationships between the nobility and the State also deserve a closer investigation : throughout the 16 th and the 17 th centuries, the nobility fought for its independence, and it's supported by La Tour d'Auvergne whose the viscountey of Turenne was sovereign. Around 1740, with the decline of this lineage, the members of the "second ordre" submitted themselves to the Monarch and joined as it's followers to serve him. Trough this, they also strengthened bonds with him through the unions of old officer lineages for whom length of service was the fundamental element of the identity nobility. Although they had been defeated, the noblemen considered that it was a necessity to reform the absolutistic State, for the nobility wanted to remain in control protecting itself from the domination of Paris and Bordeaux. Yet, the reforme included risks, for the nobility was isolated : its ties with the "bourgeoisie" were ambivalents, but they faced farmers hostile to the feudals rights which a poor nobleman could not give up on, without losing superiority within the parish.

The focus of this thesis is the life of the family of the Austrian state chancelor Clemens Metternich as evidenced in letters addressed to him by his son Viktor. The thesis also provides an overview of the life of the family of Franz Georg Metternich, father of Klemens Metternich, and a comparison of the two families. An outline of the lineage is included as well. The centerpoint of the work is a thorough analysis of the aforementioned correspondence and a subsequent assembly of Viktor Metternich's biography and portfolio. This man proves to be an interesting historical figure, despite having been so far mostly overlooked in scientific works.