The major purpose of this study is to analyze principles of the multiconfessional society in the early modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. I focus mainly on conflicts between elites of the different religion which I analyze through the concept of collective identities. The main target group of the analysis is the highest political elite of the Commonwealth. Through examples of the leading magnates from Lithuania and Ukraine I show the relation between different collective identities, loyalties and political pragmatism in the time of political crisis after the year 1648. My question is, how far different religion influenced formation of the political camps and behaviour of magnates in this age. I conclude that religion was an important factor in forming of the opposition groups and conflicts but one can not see the magnate society strictly devided between confessional groups. The different religion played an important role if it merged with other collective identities such as class, regional or national identity. This was the case of the conflict in Ukraine.

This thesis concerns the Strakonice league, an association of largely Catholic estates of 1449. It tries to conceive the topic in another way, than the older literature did, which did not pay attention to the Strakonice league not specially, but dealed with it mostly in the frame of the description of Bohemian political and military history. The thesis tries to bring new pieces of knowledge of the Strakonice league by means of analyse of correspondence of the lords of Rosenberg (Rožmberk) and of another sources. Concerning the course of the military and diplomatic struggle with the Poděbrady league itself, the emphasis is put on selected, less known aspects. The relation of the Strakonice league to the lands adjoining the Czech crown and to foreign countries, where the league was looking for allies, is elaborated separately. The last big section of the thesis concerns the league members. This section is based on collecting of data about individual persons or towns that entered the Strakonice league. There are studied their political career, motivation for their entrance into the league, possesion and their relations to each other. It all gives evidence about the rate of force and compactness of the league. The results of league's activity and the next assertion of the members in public life are...

Les débats entre historiens qui étudient l’époque féodale, Xe-XIIe siècle, portent sur la seigneurie castrale, son apparition, son développement, mais avec un présupposé : l’apparition des châteaux traduit la crise de l’autorité publique, son éparpillement entre les mains de l’aristocratie pour laquelle les châteaux deviennent des instruments de domination, l’an Mil marquant une étape décisive de ce processus. Cette thèse tente d’apporter des éléments de discussion par l’étude du phénomène castral : la formation des châteaux, les autres formes de fortifications, leur rôle, leur évolution. Leur implantation et leurs fonctions permettent d’apporter un nouvel éclairage sur ce qu’est une châtellenie, et sa mise en perspective sur le long terme, depuis le premier millénaire. L’évolution de la villa en seigneurie rurale constitue un chapitre qui tente de comprendre ce qu’est une seigneurie, ses droits et ses fonctions, et les divers acteurs de la création des seigneuries. Dans une deuxième partie, l’étude des familles gravitant dans les châteaux et dans leurs ressorts permet d’apporter des éléments nouveaux sur l’origine des nouveaux comtes, des seigneurs de châteaux et des garnisons castrales. Elle s’intègre directement dans le débat sur la chevalerie : hommes nouveaux, soldats de fortune, ou héritiers de l’aristocratie carolingienne. Les comportements familiaux sont aussi étudiés, et les évolutions entre cousinages et lignages. Ils sont impactés par l’extension des liens féodo-vassaliques qui concernent de plus en plus tous les aspects de la vie, les héritages et les biens allodiaux. L’étude de l’évolution de la société « féodale » tente d’éclairer le passage du château, détenteur de la puissance publique, au château, résidence d’une aristocratie et point de crispation de la part des populations rurales dès le XIVe siècle. Elle cherche à établir s’il y a bien eu une « mutation » féodale à la veille de l’an Mil, ou s’il s’agit d’un processus évolutif sur le long terme. / The debates between historians who study the feudal period,10th-12thc., relate on the seigneurie castrale, its appearance, its development, but with one presupposition: the appearance of the castles translates the crisis of public authority, its scattering in the hands of the aristocracy for which the castles become instruments of domination, the year 1000 marking a decisive stage in this process. The thesis tries to bring elements of discussion by the study of the castle phenomenon formation of the castles, the shapes of the fortifications, their role, their evolution. Their establishment and their functions make it possible to bring a new light on what is a châtellenie, and its setting in prospect in the long term, since the first millenium. The evolution of the villa to seigneurie rurale constitutes a chapter which tries to understand what is a seigneurie, its rights and its functions, and the various actors of the creation of the seigneuries. In a second part, the study of the families evolving in the castles and their resorts makes it possible to bring new elements on the origin of the new counts, the lords of castles and the garrisons of the castles. It is integrated firmly in the debate on knighthood : new men, soldiers of fortune, or heirs to the Carolingian aristocracy. The behavior of the families is also studied, and the evolutions between kinships. They are impacted by the extension of the feodo-vassalic links which relate more and more to every aspect of life, inheritances and freehold possessions. The study of the evolution of the “feudal” society tries to clarify the passage from the castle, holder of the public power, to the castle, residence of an aristocracy and locus of tenseness by the rural populations as soon as the14th century. It seeks to establish if there were actually a feudal “change” on the eve of the year 1000, or if it was an evolutionary process on the long term.

Les Valerii Messallae appartiennent à une des plus anciennes et prestigieuses familles de Rome, la gens Valeria. L'étude porte sur l'époque tardo-républicaine, jusqu'à la fin de la dynastie julio-Claudienne. C'est une époque essentielle, durant laquelle s'effondre le régime républicain, puis se constitue le Principat. Les Valerii ont contribué à l'émergence d'un régime politique nouveau, auquel ils ont partiellement apporté leur adhésion. La thèse envisage les définitions et les formes nouvelles que prennent les indices de l'appartenance à la nobilitas : carrière politique, culte des ancêtres, évergétisme, fabrique de l'histoire familiale, héritage politique, marqueurs de la richesse et de la supériorité sociale, patronat judiciaire, port des cognomina héroïques et ethniques, privilèges juridiques .... Il s'agit d'identifier les permanences et les ruptures dans la définition d'une triple identité (patricienne, nobiliaire et gentilice) des Messallae et comprendre comment ils ont justifié leur supériorité en remodelant leur passé et en réinventant l'histoire de leurs ancêtres. / The Valerii Messallae belong to one of the oldest and most prestigious families of Rome, the gens Valeria. The study focuses on the late-Republican era to the Julio-Claudian dynasty. This is a critical time in which the republican regime collapses and where the Principate is being formed. The thesis focuses on the definitions and new forms that take the indices belonging to the nobilitas : political career, ancestor worship, family history, political legacy, markers of wealth and social superiority, cognomina, legal privileges ... It aims to identify the permanence and ruptures in the definition of a triple identity (patrician, noble and family) of Messallae and how they justified their superiority by reshaping their past and by reinventing the history of their ancestors.

Le jardin constitue un angle d'approche des complexes habitables et des paysages, autant que de la société d'Ancien Régime. Durant le Grand Siècle, trois générations de la famille d'Espinose et de leurs alliés, qu'elles soient issues de la bourgeoisie ou de la noblesse, ont occupé et investi, dans la moitié orientale de l'ancienne province bretonne, des jardins de ville et de campagne. Ces enclaves ont cherché à répondre au mieux aux logiques du milieu dans lequel elles prenaient place. Urbaine ou rurale, leur implantation au sein du domaine répondait à des exigences esthétiques, sociales, économiques et techniques. Une des pierres angulaires du domaine foncier et de sa gestion, les jardins sont également le reflet d'une évolution des goûts et, à ce titre, sujets à des transformations. Les marques du temps et la situation des propriétaires s'y dessinent, offrant des signes visibles du prestige d'une famille, comme de ses difficultés. Ainsi, le jardin, lieu de promenade et de cultures horticoles, s'impose autant comme l'expression d'un savoir que d'un statut social. / The garden enables one to approach dwelling places and landscapes as well as society of the Ancient Régime. During the Grand Siècle, three generations of the Espinose family and their relations, whether the latter are descended from the bourgeoisie or the nobility, have put their stamp on gardens in town or in the countryside in the eastern part of ancient Brittany. These enclosed areas have tried to meet at best the logical requirements of their environment. Whether in town or in the countryside, the garden of the estate met aesthetic, social, economic and technical requirements. And as the cornerstone of the landed property and its management, the garden also reflects an evolution in tastes, and therefore is liable to mutations. The marks of time and the status of the owners are apparent, with obvious signs of the prestige and/or the difficulties of the family. Thus the garden as a place where to take walks or grow flowers and plants is the expression of a knowledge as well as of a social status.

De manière contradictoire, les maîtresses royales ont fait l’objet de nombreuses productions (historiques, littéraires, audiovisuelles et même musicales), mais dont la portée scientifique s’avère le plus souvent limitée. Ce travail se propose de remédier à cette lacune, en se focalisant sur une période politique charnière : les règnes des premiers rois Bourbons, d’Henri IV à Louis XIV. L’objectif est de comprendre comment, autant dans le fonctionnement de la machine monarchique qu’à travers les dynamiques inhérentes à la société nobiliaire, se construit et se déploie la faveur lorsqu’elle s’applique aux femmes et implique, donc, à la fois des limites et des ouvertures propres à cette dimension genrée. Pour mener à bien ce projet, plusieurs échelles d’analyse, sociales et chronologiques, seront adoptées. Il sera d’abord question de la maîtresse elle-même, et donc de la période de la faveur, de l’inclination à la distinction, pour saisir comment évoluent position sociale et fortune. Ensuite, sera considérée une temporalité plus longue, allant jusqu’au décès de ces dames, afin d’explorer leur action sur les différentes composantes sociales auxquelles elles se rattachent : parents, enfants, protégés et établissements religieux (entre autres). Enfin, sera prise en compte une chronologie plus vaste, correspondant au temps généalogique des maisons nobles, pour observer l’articulation entre passé familial, faveur féminine ponctuelle et devenir sur le long terme. / Contradictorily, royal mistresses are at the heart of many productions (history, literature, films and even music), but few of them have a real scientific significance. This thesis tries to fill this gap, focusing on a transition period in French history: the reigns of first Bourbon kings, Henri IV, Louis XIII and Louis XIV. The aim is to understand how, within the royal machine as much as within the aristocratic society, favour works and spreads out, especially when it concerns women and implies both limits and openings, proper to this gender dimension.To do so, social and chronological analysis scales have been chosen. First, I will focus on the royal mistress herself – and thus on the favour time, from attraction to distinction –, in order to grasp how social position and fortune develop. Then, I will study a longer temporality, going until the death of the protagonists, to examine their action on groups and individuals to who they are closely linked: kin, descendants, protégés and convents, in particular. Finally, I will look at an extensive chronology, that fits genealogical time of nobility, with the aim of observing the links between family past, temporary favour and long-term future.

Submitted by Cássia Santos (cassia.bcufg@gmail.com) on 2017-08-03T12:35:58Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Lara Fernanda Portilho dos Santos Misquilin - 2016.pdf: 2159575 bytes, checksum: a4f10b15def1c49b6cba2587d5a8a5b5 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2017-08-07T15:29:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Lara Fernanda Portilho dos Santos Misquilin - 2016.pdf: 2159575 bytes, checksum: a4f10b15def1c49b6cba2587d5a8a5b5 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-07T15:29:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Lara Fernanda Portilho dos Santos Misquilin - 2016.pdf: 2159575 bytes, checksum: a4f10b15def1c49b6cba2587d5a8a5b5 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-10-20 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / The present paper aims to discuss the royal-nobility relations during the reign of Alfonso XI of Castile (1311-1350), with a view to his copacetic relationship with the noble Sevillian Leonor de Guzmán (1310-1351). This research investigates the relationships built between Alfonso XI and his concubine’s family as a feasible means of their royal governance in interchange with the fourteenth-century context marked by the crusades mission against Moors and Muslims, which was installed in the Iberian Peninsula; the internal political situation in Castile; and diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Portugal during the reign of the monarch. So, in this work we examine the strategies of matrimonial agreements adopted during the rule of Alfonso XI and the analysis of his non-marital relationship with Leonor de Guzmán. And in addition, its political developments as a strategy to empower a royal supremacy as the political instability was established (the purpose of this research) as dialogue of medieval royalty and nobility spheres acting like political forces that complement each other, sometimes by disputes and conflicts, or by solidarity and mutual support. That way, it seems unsatisfactory to support the relationship of Alfonso XI with Leonor de Guzmán in emotional matters in a society that had affection in second plan. There for, we stress the importance and convenience for the regal in maintaining close relations with the noble alignment of the family. / Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo discutir as relações régio-nobiliárquicas no reinado de Alfonso XI de Castela (1311-1350), tendo em vista a relação de concubinato com a nobre sevilhana D. Leonor de Guzmán (1310-1351). Nesta dissertação investigamos as relações construídas entre Alfonso XI e a família de sua concubina como meio viabilizador de sua governança régia em diálogo com contexto quatrocentista,marcado pela missão cruzadística contraos muçulmanos instalados na Península Ibérica; a conjuntura política interna em Castela; e as relações de diplomacia com o reino de Portugal durante o reinado do monarca. Para tanto,neste trabalho, as estratégias dos acordos matrimoniais adotados durante o reinado de Alfonso XI ea analiseda relação concubinária com D. Leonor de Guzmán e seus desdobramentos políticos, enquantouma estratégia de poder à instabilidade política instaurada está no escopo desta pesquisa, enquanto diálogo das esferas da realeza e nobreza medievaiscomo forças políticas atuantes, que se complementam, ora por disputas e conflitos, ora por solidariedade e apoio mútuo. Dito isto, parece-nos insuficiente respaldar a relação de Alfonso XI com D. Leonor de Guzmán em questões afetivas numa sociedade que secundarizava os afetos, e assim sendo, sublinhamos a importância e conveniência régia em manter estreitas relações com o eixo familiar da referida nobre.

Durant des siècles, la noblesse britannique a défendu une hiérarchie fondée sur la lignée et la généalogie, qui s’inscrivait dans la tradition occidentale de l'ordre universel. En 1735, cependant, l'Homo sapiens de Linné marque le début d'un nouveau discours sur les hiérarchies humaines, désormais fondées sur la « variété » physique. Cette étude veut cerner l’influence de la tradition noble sur les conceptions de la race, en Grande-Bretagne et en Irlande, au cours du long XVIIIe siècle. Nous examinons un ensemble de textes de nature diverse, dans l'espoir de mettre en lumière la continuité des hiérarchies généalogiques à travers plusieurs disciplines et sur plusieurs centaines d'années. La première partie retrace l'histoire du privilège héréditaire comme « identité généalogique » à partir d’œuvres comme A British Compendium, or, Rudiments of Honour (1725-7) de Francis Nichols et l’Essay on Man (1734) d’Alexander Pope. La seconde partie réexamine ces mêmes traditions sous l'angle de la théorie de la race au XVIIIe siècle. Elle s'intéresse aux idées de la race et du breeding dans le roman anonyme, The Lady’s Drawing Room (1744), et à la rhétorique de la variété humaine dans plusieurs ouvrages d’histoire naturelle, dont A History of the Earth and Animated Nature (1774) d’Oliver Goldsmith. La troisième partie étudie l'influence des Lumières et de la Révolution française sur l’idée de « race noble » telle qu'elle apparaît dans les Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) d'Edmund Burke, ainsi que le rôle de la « noblesse naturelle » dans des œuvres abolitionnistes, notamment Slavery, or, the Times (1792) d’Anna Maria Mackenzie. Ainsi, cette étude entend démontrer que la tradition de la « race » noble a été, et demeure, une composante fondamentale dans la construction d'un concept de « race » humaine, qui fait de la pureté du sang, de la supériorité des mœurs et de l’anatomie des principes définitoires de la hiérarchie humaine. / For centuries, British nobility promoted an elite hierarchy based on genealogical precedence within the greater Western tradition of universal order. In 1735, however, Carolus Linnaeus’s Homo sapiens signalled the beginning of an entirely new discourse of human hierarchy based on physical ‘variety’. This study aims to identify how noble tradition influenced conceptions of race in Great Britain and Ireland during the long eighteenth century. Tracing the persistence of a ‘pureblood’ model of human superiority in the West, it traverses a vast range of historical material in order to highlight the continuity of genealogical hierarchies across multiple disciplines and over hundreds of years. The first section reviews the history of hereditary privilege as a backdrop to noble culture in eighteenth-century Britain: examining works such as Francis Nichols’s British Compendium, or, Rudiments of Honour (1727-7) and Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man (1734), it considers how nobility as a genealogical identity was accommodated in the ‘Great Chain of Being’ understanding of human hierarchy. The second section considers these same traditions in terms of the eighteenth-century ‘race’ construct: it considers the notion of ‘breeding’ in works such as the anonymous The Lady’s Drawing Room (1744) and the rhetoric of human variety in naturalist texts such as Oliver Goldsmith’s History of the Earth and Animated Nature (1774). The third and last section considers the influences of Enlightenment and the French Revolution on ideas of noble race in Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), and the role of ‘natural’ nobility in abolitionist texts such as Anna Maria Mackenzie’s Slavery; or, the Times (1792). In short, this study demonstrates that the tradition of noble ‘race’ was, and is, a fundamental component of the human ‘race’ construct, asserting blood purity, anatomical superiority, and inimitable excellence as defining principles of human hierarchy.

Thesis (doctoral)--Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster, 1999.

Markéta Novotná Abstract - The Feudo-vassal System on Royal Estates in Early Modern Bohemia The study is devoted to the topic of feudo-vassal relations in early modern Bohemia presented on a sample of specific royal and chamber domains at the castle Karlštejn. The first part of the thesis describes how the feudo-vassal tenures were treated in Czech and European historical studies, using impulses from the philosophy and sociology. The others chapters are dedicated to the main object of this analysis - to the Karlštejn vassal system - a group of small-sized estates connected to castle Karlštejn through feudo-vassal bonds. The second chapter of the thesis deals with the problem of historical consciousness, where the castle Karlštejn is imagined as the site of "the national memory", which strongly effected the interpretation of the Karlštejn vassal system. The third (main) part of the thesis presents the factual analysis of the Karlštejn vassal system from the last third of sixteenth century to the turn of the seventies and the eighties of the next century. At the end of the study the analysis of four chosen vassal estates is added. Key words: Karlštejn, historiography, vassals, feudal system, domain, chamber, lower nobility