The purpose of this study was to provide data concerning Distributive Justice system use and perceived fairness by citizens who have participated in a Distributive Justice based society over a long period of time. This data filled a hole in academic studies which had previously focused on datasets from citizens in non-Distributive Justice based societies or participants in short-term experiments. Using a questionnaire, players of the online game Final Fantasy XIV were asked a series of questions concerning their perceptions of fairness and use of varying Distributive models, as well as questions on their perceived relationships to one another and time spent within Final Fantasy XIV. There were four main results of the study. Firstly, Utilitarian and Need based distribution systems were seen as the most fair and used. Secondly, perceived relationships between participants did not majorly affect perceived fairness of Distribution systems. Thirdly, more time spent in Final Fantasy XIV did affect perceived fairness of varying types of Distribution systems. And, finally, the results indicated a Sufficiency based reasoning for using Utilitarian and Need based resource distribution to individuals until groups hit a sufficiency level, at which point the Distribution systems changed to meet new criteria.

El comercio medieval valenciano es un ámbito de estudio que ha conocido un extraordinario auge en las dos últimas décadas, aunque centrado básicamente en el siglo XV (véanse principalmente, entre otros, los trabajos de J. Hinojosa, J. Guiral, P. Iradiel, E. Cruselles y D. Igual, de una nómina más extensa). La centuria anterior, marco temporal de nuestro proyecto de tesis doctoral, sin embargo apenas ha suscitado el interés por parte de los investigadores, con la excepción de las aproximaciones realizadas hace más de tres décadas por Guy Romestan, sobre todo en un trabajo que abarcaba únicamente la actividad de los mercaderes languedocinos en la capital del reino; y el análisis puntual de R. Ferrer sobre las "coses vedades"; productos no exportables por orden real, centrándose sobre todo en las dos últimas décadas. Es por ello que el estado actual de nuestros conocimientos acerca de la temática sea el establecido en los manuales y obras de generales de referencia, muy posiblemente imagen adaptada de otras realidades regionales peninsulares y mediterráneas. El análisis de diferentes ámbitos de política económica estructurada por la Corona y/o los munícipes de Valencia en las redes de abastecimiento y mercado, de configuración política de la costa y franja marítima y la organización económica de un espacio de nueva conquista para su dominio político, como son las tierras de la procuración/gobernación de Orihuela, comprende el Bloque I. La relación entre política y economía en el comercio bajomedieval: política económica, regulación normativa o institucionalización de los espacios mercantiles valencianos. Las redes de transporte marítimo en Valencia durante la primera mitad del siglo XIV obedece ineludiblemente al interés por proporcionar un primer y provisional balance de conjunto de las actividades marítimas de la ciudad en relación a su propio desarrollo económico interno, sus vínculos con otras ciudades que también estaban plenamente inmiscuidas en el proceso de expansión mediterránea (como las ciudades de Barcelona y Mallorca) y los intereses por abastecerse de mercancías que no se hallan en su mercado y que precisan de unas inversiones de capital, organización del transporte y estrategias económicas determinadas engloban el Bloque II: Las redes comerciales: rutas mercantiles ibéricas y mediterráneas, y contactos atlánticos desde el espacio valenciano. Asimismo, interesa profundizar en la formación de los métodos comerciales e instituciones y grupos mercantiles sobre los que se asientan las bases de una primera expansión mercantil. El tercer Bloque del estudio se vertebra en Los protagonistas humanos: instituciones-técnicas y grupos mercantiles en el espacio económico valenciano en el que se analizan las técnicas comerciales desarrolladas, incidiendo en los aspectos meramente técnicos y sociales, insertando su grado desarrollo en consonancia a otras investigaciones de la Corona de Aragón en un momento determinado, la primera mitad del siglo XIV en el que escasean los estudios de esta índole, y que, asimismo resulta difícil comparar estas instituciones y técnicas con otros espacios euromediterráneos, como los italianos, al conocer un grado de perfección, u otros ámbitos en los que apenas la historiografía ha trabajado en ello. El examen de los grupos mercantiles, precisamente a través de instituciones como sociedades/compañías comerciales de mercaderes y otros agentes valencianos, y la presentación de un caso inicial de estudio, como son los patrones de nave constituyen un primer acercamiento desde el prisma de historia social, aún por profundizar para nuestro estudio, sobre lo que se ha considerado la primera burguesía mercantil, o simplemente el origen de un grupo de mercaderes autóctonos. Finalmente este bloque se completa sobre otros grupos sociales, muy heterodoxos, esto es las minorías étnico-religiosas, mudéjares y judíos, que, además de reclamo historiográfico permanente, conviene insertar su función económica en el entramado de mercado y relaciones comerciales articuladas desde el espacio valenciano.

L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi és estudiar el funcionament real de la servitud catalana medieval. Per això s'estudien els homenatges i els cobraments dels mals usos rebuts i aplicats per l'Almoina del Pa de la Seu de Girona sobre els seus remences al llarg dels segles XIV i XV i, més concretament, entre 1331 i 1458. Aquestes dates han estat determinades per la documentació generada per l'esmentada institució benèfica. El primer llibre de comptes conservat és de l'any 1331. En aquests llibres de comptes els pabordes encarregats de gestionar l'Almoina hi consignaven tots els seus ingressos i totes les despeses. La data final també ha estat fixada per la documentació, perquè a partir d'aquest moment deixem de trobar constància escrita del pagament dels mals usos i de la prestació d'homenatges.La importància dels mals usos, és a dir, aquells pagaments que gravaven als serfs pel fet de ser-ho, a la Catalunya de la baixa edat mitjana és una qüestió fora de discussió. Bona part dels historiadors -Hinojosa, Vicens Vives, Freedman, etc.- atribueixen als mals usos, als homenatges i a la seva continuada exigència els dos alçaments remences contra les senyories feudals a partir de l'any 1462. Segons aquestes hipòtesis, la lluita per suprimir els mals usos i aconseguir la llibertat individual és la raó de les guerres remences de finals del segle XV. Com és sabut van quedar resoltes amb la Sentència Arbitral de Guadalupe, dictada pel rei Ferran II, que va suprimir definitivament la servitud de les terres catalanes.Malgrat la importància que els historiadors han concedit a l'existència dels mals usos i, sobretot, a la manca de llibertat dels remences, no hi ha estudis sistemàtics sobre la seva aplicació a la pràctica. Per això, l'objectiu d'aquesta tesi és estudiar tots els mals usos i tots els homenatges aplicats i rebuts per una sola senyoria -l'Almoina del Pa de la Seu de Girona-, els remences de la qual van participar activament en ambdues guerres i que és representativa, sense cap mena de dubte, del que succeïa en la diòcesi gironina. A més a més, cal assenyalar que l'estudi comprèn un període de temps que inclou circumstàncies tan cabdals com la pesta negra i la resta de catàstrofes del segle XIV i el segle XV fins a la primera guerra remença.Com és sabut, els remences catalans estaven sotmesos a sis mals usos: la redempció de persones (mitjançant la qual aconseguien la seva llibertat), les firmes d'espoli forçades (que havien de pagar quan es casaven en determinades circumstàncies), la intèstia i l'eixòrquia (que gravaven la mort intestada i sense descendents), l'àrsia (que penalitzava la crema accidental del mas o la masada) i la cugúcia (exigida a les dones considerades adúlteres). Els remences confirmaven la seva dependència d'una senyoria en els corresponents homenatges o reconeixements de domini que havien de prestar quan n'eren requerits.Aquesta tesi consta de deu capítols a més d'una introducció (o primer capítol) i d'unes conclusions. El segon capítol és dedicat a la descripció de les fonts utilitzades, entre les que destaquen els llibres de comptes dels pabordes, i on queda prou palesa la importància del fet d'haver pogut disposar d'una excepcional font seriada, a més a més de pergamins. El tercer correspon a l'estudi de la institució tractada, que tenia terres a les actuals comarques del Gironès, La Selva, l'Alt i el Baix Empordà i el Pla de l'Estany. En el quart capítol hi analitzo els problemes generats a l'hora d' intentar conèixer el nombre de persones que eren pròpies de l'Almoina i saber de quins masos provenien.A continuació segueixen els quatre capítols que constitueixen el cos central de la tesi. Al seu torn, la seva anàlisi va ocasionar l'elaboració dels tres darrers. En el capítol cinquè s'estudien tots els homenatges rebuts per l'Almoina entre els anys 1300 i 1457, tant els que figuren en els manuals de comptes com els conservats en pergamí. En total, tenim documentats 1258 dels homenatges o reconeixements de domini rebuts per la institució. El capítol següent és dedicat a l'estudi de les firmes d'espoli forçades i als 424 cobraments fets per l'Almoina per aquest concepte, entre els anys 1331 i 1452. En els capítols setè i vuitè, s'analitzen els mals usos que gravaven les sortides del domini, tant les voluntàries com les involuntàries. El resultat obtingut és que entre 1331 i 1458, la institució va concedir la llibertat a 557 persones bona part de les quals van tornar a adscriure's de nou a una altra senyoria. El nombre d'aquests sortides contrasta amb el cobrament per part de l'Almoina, entre aquestes mateixes dates, de només 105 intèsties i eixòrquies; dit d'una altra manera, fins l'any 1445 va ingressar diners en concepte de 23 intèsties, fins el 1458 per 68 eixòrquies i fins el 1406 per 14 intèsties i/o eixòrquies. Els capítols 9 i 10 tracten del significat i les limitacions que comportaven els mals usos, com a trets definitoris de la pertinença a la servitud, sobre les persones que hi estaven sotmeses. Finalment, el darrer capítol analitza el compliment de la sentència dictada pel rei Alfons el Magnànim l'any 1457 en la que suspenia la servitud al Principat de Catalunya. Queda fora de dubte que pocs anys abans de la primera guerra remença els homenatges i els mals usos havien deixat d'aplicar-se. / The aim of ths thesis is to study the real functioning of the mediaeval Catalan servitude. To accomplish this purpose, the servile homages and the bad customs' payments received and applied by the Almoina of the Cathedral of Girona from his remences (servile persons) are studied in depth. Theses homages had place along XIV and XV centuries and, more precisely, among 1331 and 1458, dates fixed by the documentation generated by that charitable institution, as the first account book preserved is from 1331. In these accounts books the Almoina's provosts consigned all its incomes and all its expenses. The final date has also been fixed by the documentation, because from that year on we don't have any more written evidences of bad customs' payments and of homages. The importance of the bad customs -that is to say, those payments that the remences had to pay just because they were serfs- in the mediaeval Catalonia is a question out of argument. Most historians - such as Hinojosa, Vicens Vives, Freedman, etc.- attribute to the bad customs, to the servile homage and to its continued demand both remença uprisings against the feudal lordships from 1462 on. According to these hypotheses, the fight to suppress the bad customs and to achieve the individual freedom is the reason of the remença wars at the end of the 15th century. How it is well known, the Sentència Arbitral de Guadalupe, pronounced by the king Ferran II, suppressed definitively the servitude in Catalonia. In spite of the importance that historians have granted to the bad customs and, especially, to the lack of freedom of the remences, there are not studies about its real application. That's why it was so important to study -not theoretically but with real data- all the bad customs and all the servile homages applied and received by one only lordship: the Almoina of the Cathedral of Girona, whose remences participated actively in both wars and that is representative, with no doubt, of what happened in the diocese of Gerona. Besides, it is necessary to point out that the study includes a period of time that contains circumstances such important as the Black Death and the rest of 14th and 15th centuries' catastrophes until the first remença war.How it is known, the Catalan remences were subjected to six bad customs: the redemption of persons (through which they achieved their personal freedom), the firma d'espoli forçada (payment in return for the lord's guarantee of nuptial agreements over dowry and marriage portion), the intèstia (the lord's right to a substantial part of the movables left by a peasant householder who died intestate), the eixòrquia (a levy in the event of death without direct legitimate heirs), the àrsia (a fine resulting from the deliberate or accidental burning of a peasant's house or other property) and the cugúcia (the confiscation of a portion of a peasant's property by reason of his wife's adultery). The remences confirmed their lordship' dependence in a servile homage or dominium recognitionis that they had to do when were required.This thesis is organized in ten chapters, an introduction (or first chapter) and the conclusions. The second chapter is devoted to the description of the sources used, among those highlight the annual accounts books of the provosts besides the parchments. The third chapter studies the Almoina institution, which had properties in the current regions of Gironès, Selva, Alt and Baix Empordà and Pla de l'Estany. In the fourth chapter, data problems are analyzed; problems that came when trying to know the exact amount of people, or the exact number of persons bounded to the Almoina and from which manses they came.The next four chapters constitute the main part of the thesis. In turn, its analysis brought the need of writing the three last ones. In the fifth chapter I study all the servile homages received by the Almoina between 1300 and 1457, those that appear in the account books as well as the ones preserved in parchment. In total, we have data of 1258 homages or dominium recognitionis received by the institution. The following chapter is devoted to the study of the firmes d'espoli forçades and to the 424 payments collected by the Almoina by this concept, between 1331 and 1452. In the seventh and eighth chapters , I analyze the bad customs required to the exits of the lordship, the volunteers as well as the involuntary ones. The obtained result is that among 1331 and 1458, the institution granted the freedom to 557 persons; surprisingly, most of them bounded again to another lordship. The amount of these exits contrasts with the payment to the same lordship during these same dates, for only 105 intèsties and eixòrquies. In other words, until 1445 the provost charged by 23 intèsties, until 1458 by 68 eixòrquies and until 1406 by 14 intèsties and/or eixòrquies Chapters 9 and 10 are about the meaning and the limitations that entailed the bad customs, as features of the belonging to the servitude, over the persons who were bounded to a lordship. Finally, the last chapter analyzes the fulfillment of the sentence dictated by the king Alfons el Magnànim in 1457, where suspended the servitude in Catalonia. There is no doubt that few years before the first remença war the servile homages and the bad customs were not required any more.

Aquesta tesi doctoral com diu el seu títol es centra en analitzar la construcció de l'església de Sant Feliu de Girona al segle XIV a través de l'anàlisi dels llibres d'obra conservats a l'Arxiu Diòcesa de Girona.Aquesta tesi doctoral esta dividida en quatre parts. En la primera part s'analitza la historiografia de l'església de Sant Feliu de Girona des del segle XVII fins a l'actualitat. Dins d'aquest apartat s'analitzen les notícies que aporten els diferents autors i es situa el context historiogràfic de cadascun dels segles. S'ha realitzat un estudi molt exhaustiu en les darreres publicacions del segle XX i inicis del segle XXI. Un cop analitzades aquestes fonts - secundàries -, dins d'aquesta primera part del treball s'ha passat a analitzar els llibres d'obra del segle XIV. S'analitzaràn els aspectes formals i els diferents escrivans encarregats de realitzar aquests llibres d'obra. Aquesta serà la documentació bàsica per realitzar aquesta tesi doctoral.En la segona part del treball es procedirà a analitzar la gestió i el finançament de l'Obra. Es tracta d'una anàlisi, bàsicament dels ingressos, per veure quines són les estratègies que es duen a terme per aconseguir el màxim de recursos per la construcció i per les necessitats "litúrgiques" de l'església de Sant Feliu de Girona. En aquest apartat s'ha analitzat l'Obra com a entitat amb les persones que formen part d'ella i el paper que correspon a cadascuna d'elles (l'obrer, l'escrivà, el mestre d'obres, el questor). També s'han analitzat els promotors i aquells ingressos que, pel seu volum, subministren el nombre més gran de diners a l'Obra ("annates", bacins, etc.).La tercera part ha consistit en l'elaboració de la cronologia constructiva de l'església de Sant Feliu de Girona partint de la informació obtinguda en els llibres d'obra corresponent a les despeses. S'han analitzat totes aquelles obres, tant pel que fa a la construcció de l'edifici com pel que fa a reparacions i manteniment, que tenen lloc entre l'any 1349 (data del primer llibre d'obra de despeses) i l'any 1391. En aquesta part no s'ha entrat a analitzar de forma exhaustiva les figures que fan possible la construcció de l'església al segle XIV ja que això pertany al contingut de la darrera part del nostre treball.La darrera part del treball correspon a l'execució de les obres. En aquesta part trobem quatre grans capítols: els mestres d'obra, la mà d'obra, els materials i els mitjans auxiliars. En cadascun d'aquests capítols s'ha incidit sobre el rol dels diferents treballadors durant la construcció del temple, els materials utilitzats i les seves característiques (pedra, fusta, aglomerants, etc.) i els mitjans auxiliars utilitzats per col.locar aquests materials en obra. S'han separat els mestres d'obres de la resta de treballadors ja que els primers juguen un rol diferenciat dels segons. S'ha intentat analitzar en ambdós casos els seus sous i les tasques de cadascun d'ells. Pel que fa als materials també s'ha procedit a analitzar d'on s'extreuen, com han arribat a peu d'obra i on s'emmagatzemen i manipulen o transformen abans d'ésser col.locats en obra. Dels mitjans auxiliars s'ha intentat analitzar les funcions per la qual es fan servir les eines (apareixen totes les de l'ofici de pedrer), els enginys (elevar pesos), les bastides (poder treballar en alçada) i el encofrats (garantir la resistència inicial dels elements constructius).Evidentment s'han establert unes conclusions de cadascuna de les parts i unes conclusions finals. La tesi també inclou els agraïments corresponents, el prefaci i la bibliografia. / This doctoral thesis how it says their title focuses on analyzing the construction of the church of Saint Feliu of Girona in the 14th century through the analysis of the books of work preserved on the Archive Diòcesa of Girona.This doctoral thesis esta divided into four deliveries. In the first part the historiography of the church of Saint Feliu de Girona since the 17th century until the present is analyzed. In this section the news that the different authors bring is analyzed and the historiogràfic context of each of the centuries is placed. A very exhaustive study has been carried out in the last publications of the 20th century and beginnings of the 21st century. Once analyzed these fountains|sources? secondary?, in this first part of the work has been gone|passed to analyzing the books of work of the 14th century. The formal aspects and the different court clerks been of carrying out these books of work in charge will be analyzed. This will be the basic documentation to carry out this doctoral thesis.In the second part of the work people will proceed to analyzing the formality and the funding of the Work. It is about an analysis, in a basic way of the admissions, to see which they are the strategies that they are carried out to achieve the maximum of resources for the construction and from the "liturgical" needs of the church of Saint Feliu de Girona. In this section the Work as an entity with the persons who are part of her and the paper|role that corresponds to each of them (the worker, the court clerk, the master builder, the questor) have been analyzed. The promoters and those admissions|incomes that, for its volume, supply the Work ("annates", bowls, etc) with the greatest number of money have also been analyzed.The third part has consisted of the elaboration of the constructive chronology of the church of Saint Feliu de Girona following the obtained information in the books of work corresponding to the expenses. All those works, regarding the construction of the building as well as regarding repairs and maintenance, that have place among year 1349, (it dates from the first book of expenses work) and in year 1391 have been analyzed. In this part people have not entered to analyze in an exhaustive way the people that make the construction of the church in the 14th century possible since this belongs to the contents of the last part of our work.The last part of the work corresponds to the execution of the works. In this part we find four big chapters: the teachers of work, the labor, the materials and the auxiliary means. In each of these chapters the role of the different workers during the construction of the temple, the used materials and its characteristics (stone, wood, binders, etc) has been fallen upon and the auxiliary means used for placing these materials in work. The master builders of the rest of workers have been sorted out since the first play a role differentiated from the seconds. It has been attempted to analyze their salaries and the tasks of each of them in both cases. Regarding the materials has also been proceeded to analyzing from where they are extracted, how they have arrived on foot of work and where they are stored and where they manipulate or where they transform before being placed in work. Of the auxiliary means has been attempted to analyze the functions for which the tools (they turn up all the ones of the profession of gizzard) are used, the wits (to elevate weights), the scaffolds (to be able to work in height) and the framework (to guarantee the initial resistance of the constructive elements).Obviously some conclusions of each of the parts and some final conclusions have been established. The thesis also includes the corresponding gratitude, the preface and the bibliography.

Les fêtes et les cérémonies, de Cour, publiques ou privées, firent partie des grandes heures du règne de Louis XIV. Charles Le Brun, le Premier peintre du roi, magnifia quelques-unes de ces brillantes célébrations, associant apparat, musique, danse ou feux d’artifice. Les peintures, sculptures, tapisseries ou grandes structures, telles que des arcs de triomphe, étaient conçues ou disposées afin de s’adapter aux divertissements ou aux cérémonies, métamorphosant pendant quelques heures les édifices ou les jardins. Détruites à la fin des événements qu’elles accompagnaient, ces œuvres ont reçu peu d’attention jusqu’à présent. L’analyse des sources contemporaines et des images des décors permet de restituer ces ouvrages, mais également de les replacer dans leur contexte. La genèse de ces œuvres, leur conception et leur fabrication sont étudiées, redessinant les liens que Le Brun avait tissés avec les hommes d’État (le roi, Séguier, Fouquet et Colbert), avec les hommes de lettres, ainsi qu’avec ses principaux collaborateurs, notamment à la Manufacture des Gobelins. L’une des particularités de Le Brun dans ce domaine fut d’ordonner lui-même des fêtes et des cérémonies, ce qui constitue peut-être un cas unique pour un peintre à cette période. Ces œuvres oubliées complètent donc le portrait d’un des plus grands artistes français du XVIIe siècle. Plus que tout autre ouvrage, les décorations ordonnées par Le Brun donnent l’image la plus juste de ses recherches et de ses goûts. Enfin, l’étude de ces fêtes et de leur réception offre une meilleure compréhension de ces moments éphémères, tout en leur conférant la pérennité qu’ils méritent. / Religious ceremonies and festivals, courtly, public or private, constituted the most glorious moments of the reign of Louis XIV. Charles Le Brun, the King’s First Painter, enhanced some of these brilliant celebrations, involving pageantry, music, dance or fireworks. The paintings, sculptures, tapestries or great structures, such as triumphal arches, were designed or arranged to adapt to entertainment or ceremonies, transforming for a few hours gardens or buildings. Destroyed at the end of the events that required them, these works have received little attention until now. In this study, contemporary descriptions and reproductions of Le Bruns decorations are analyzed and brought to light to set them in the context of their day. The origin of these works, their conception and their making are studied, showing Le Bruns connections with statesmen (the King, Seguier, Fouquet and Colbert), with men of letters, and with other artists and workers, in particular those at the Gobelins Manufactory. One of the particularities of Le Brun in this domain was to commission himself festivals and ceremonies, which was perhaps a unique case for an artist at that time. These forgotten works round out the portrait of one of France’s greatest XVIIth Century artists. More than any other work, the decorations commissioned by Le Brun give the most accurate image of his research and taste. Finally, the study of these festivals and their reception offers a better understanding of these ephemeral moments, while giving them a permanence they deserve.

Le XVIe siècle est souvent perçu comme un temps de massacres motivés par les haines confessionnelles, une litanie de carnages et d’exactions à laquelle succéderait, à partir des années 1650 une culture de la reddition honorable, une guerre réglée et limitée caractérisée par une nette amélioration du sort des vaincus. Une humanisation de la guerre se donnerait à lire au travers d’une codification des procédures de capitulation et de reddition des places. Ce travail, suivant les pistes ouvertes par l’anthropologie historique, questionne cette vision caractéristique d’une déréalisation de la guerre pour montrer que la reddition honorable émerge précocement et ne constitue jamais qu’un idéal toujours soumis aux intérêts des belligérants. Mobile de la clémence, l’intérêt est également celui de la rigueur. Tout au long des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, la reddition reste un risque pour l’honneur et la vie des vaincus. Cette histoire de la reddition entend déconstruire le mythe déréalisant de la «guerre en dentelles» pour rappeler que les guerres du règne de Louis XIV ne sont pas le théâtre d’une limitation de la violence. / The XVIth century is often perceived as an era of religious driven massacres, a litany of carnage and exactions directly followed, from 1650 onward, by reversing habits of honourable capitulation, a closely regulated and restricted warfare characterized by a great improvement in the fate of the defeated. A humanization of the war would show through a codification of the surrending procedures and the transfer of forteresses. This essay investigates this derealizing vision of warfare, based on historical anthropology’s theoretical leads. It shows that honourable capitulation come about earlier on as an ideal led by the interest of belligerent parties. These interests appear as a major motive for both leniency and rigorousness. All along the XVIth and XVIIth cent., capitulation stands as a risk for the honor and life of the losers. This history of capitulation intends to deconstruct the derealizing myth of chivalrous and limited warfare, to recall the fact that wars under the reign of Louis XIV often led to repeated acts of unleashed violence.

Between 1659 and 1689, northern Italy was generally at peace, having endured almost three decades of continuous war from the 1620s. The Peace of the Pyrenees of November 1659, between the French and Spanish crowns, seemed to offer the young Louis XIV an opportunity to gradually subvert Spanish influence over the small princely families of the Po valley. The Houses of Farnese, Este, and Gonzaga-Nevers, respective rulers of Parma, Modena, and Mantua-Monferrato, had all been allies of France at various points in the Franco-Spanish War (1635-1659), but had gained scant reward for their willingness to jeopardise their own relationships with the king of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor, despite the promises of material and diplomatic support which Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin had extended to them. As a consequence, they were reluctant to agree to again participate in alliances with France. This thesis examines how Louis XIV gradually came to lose the friendship of these three ruling families, through his arrogant disregard of their interests and their ambitions, and also by his contempt for their capabilities and usefulness. This disregard was frequently born out of the French monarch's unwillingness to jeopardise or to undermine his own interests in Italy – in particular, the permanent retention of the fortress of Pinerolo, in Piedmont, as a porte onto the Po plain. But although the principi padani comprehended the reasons for Louis's unwillingness to act as a benevolent patron, they resented his all-too-palpable distrust of them; his entrenched belief that they were unreliable; and his obvious love of war. The rulers and élites of the Italian states believed that Louis would undoubtedly seek, at some point in his reign, to attack Spain's possessions in Italy, and dwelt in perpetual dread of that day. This thesis provides the account of French policy towards the small Italian states after 1659 which is still absent from the historiography of Louis XIV's foreign policies.

- The thesis is focused on relations between Sweden and Brandenburg in the years 1660 - 1701. Although Sweden is considered as an empire practically all over the 17th century, a new, important power rises in its neighbourhood, namely Brandenburg-Prussia, and this rise is finished by the Royal coronation of Fredrick I in 1701. Main part of the thesis is dedicated to the political and military relations, less to the cultural relations. Even other countries, following and protecting their interests in the Baltic region, are taken into account, especially Denmark and France. The aim of the thesis is to analyse relations between Sweden and Brandenburg and to try to find an answer on the question, if Sweden's focus on its internal problems and reforms contributed to the rise of Prussia or if there is no direct connection between these two tendencies. Key terms - Swedish Imperial Period, regency, Charles XI, Charles XII, Louis XIV, Elector Fredrick William, Elector Fredrick III, Scanian War, foreign policy, Baltic Sea hegemony

Lorraine and Savoie were both occupied twice by French armies during the personal rule of Louis XIV. Lorraine was initially invaded and occupied in 1670 to support the French strategic and logistic position in the Dutch War, yet due to political expediency this developed into a policy of outright annexation. The French relinquished Lorraine due to international pressures in 1697, but partially reoccupied it from 1702 to 1714, again as a result of strategic and logistical necessity. Savoie was occupied from 1690 to 1696 and again from 1703 to 1713 as a response to successive breakdowns in Franco-Savoyard relations, and to guarantee the south-eastern frontier of the kingdom. There was no pre-conceived or uniform policy practiced by the French when it came to the occupations of these territories, and these instead developed on the basis of events and pressures that were often beyond the control of the French government. In essence, the principal French approach to occupied territories was paternalistic, their main priority being to uphold Louis’s newly-asserted sovereignty and pay the costs of the occupation while impressing upon the local elites the benefits of collaboration and the pitfalls of continued loyalty to their old ruler. The French became more sophisticated generally towards occupied territories as the reign progressed, at least as far as circumstances allowed. In sum, the key variables that influenced how the French handled these lands, other than time and place, were security issues, local loyalties, and the expectation of either retention by France or restitution to the original sovereign.

The present work is a theoretical ab initio study of silicon (mainly) and silicon-based or “silicon-like” Nanocrystals and nanostructures, such as core/shell quantum dots and ultra-thin nanowires of Si, Ge, and Sn. The main focus is on the quantum confinement of Si quantum dots and the description of their structural, cohesive, electronic, and optical properties in terms of size, growth pattern and surface conditions. An important outcome of such study, besides the very satisfactory agreement with experimental measurements for nanocrystals (up to 32 Å in diameter), is the judicious extrapolation of the nanoscale results all the way to infinite silicon crystal, and the successful comparison with experiment (for both the energy gap and the cohesive energy of crystalline silicon). This is an additional verification for the essential correctness of our approach. Our present results, which are based on earlier findings of prof. Zdetsis’ group for spherical Si quantum dots, are in full agreement with those results and predictions. We have expanded our study to selective cases of pure C, Ge, Sn and their mixed nanocrystals and nanowires. Thus, the classes of systems studied here include: a) Silicon quantum dots terminated by hydrogen of three different growth models (spherical, elongated, and reconstructed) without and with oxygen “contamination” of four different modes (double bonds, bridging single bonds, hydroxyl formation and mixed modes). b) Analogous quantum dots, pure and mixed (core/shell) of C, Si, Ge, and Sn. c) Ultrafine silicon and germanium nanowires of various growth patterns. The majority of this work is based in density functional theory (DFT), both ground state and time-depended, using in most cases the hybrid functional of Becke, Lee, Parr and Yang (B3LYP), and in several places the PBE and PBE0 functionals. A limited number of calculations was performed with post SCF methods, such as many-body perturbation theory (MP2) or Coupled cluster CCSD(T), for comparison. For the study of Si and Ge nanowires we have also used properly selected (and tested) semiempirical methods and calculations. These theoretical methods and techniques are reviewed in considerable detail in the first three chapters (Part I) of the present thesis. The results of the calculations are discussed in Part II, divided in three Chapters (4-6). Chapter 4 is devoted to the structural, electronic, cohesive and elastic properties of ultrafine hydrogenated silicon and germanium nanowires. Chapter 5 describes the influence of the growth patterns and surface conditions on structural, cohesive, and electronic properties of silicon nanocrystals, as well as their size dependence all the way to infinity. This (very successful) size dependence, in full accord with quantum confinement, is also compared with the (poor) predictions of the BOLS correlation scheme. Finally, Chapter 6 deals with carbon, silicon, germanium, tin and their mixed core/shell quantum dots. / --