This dissertation investigates how the category of gender difference was mobilised as a practice of power at the early modern court. It argues that gender was not simply a relational category affecting who could participate in early modern politics in what ways, but that it constituted a crucial and active resource of dynastic power. This subject of study is opened up through a case study of the court of Württemberg in the subsequent reigns of Dukes Friedrich I and his son Johann Friedrich, which span the period of time from 1593 to 1628. The reign of Duke Friedrich I was a time of political reform, which saw the influence of the local estates curtailed and an extroverted foreign policy pursued, whilst the duke concurrently entertained several extramarital affairs in contention with Lutheranism’s prescriptions. His son Johann Friedrich clearly took exception to his father's lifestyle, since, at Friedrich's premature death in 1608, he imprisoned a number of his father's mistresses and procuresses. He was forced to let the majority of these women go again quite quickly, keeping only one suspected procuress in custody, whose case was to drag on until 1618. Johann Friedrich's mother Duchess Sibylla, who had borne fifteen children to Friedrich and thus became the Stammesmutter of a new Württemberg dynastic line, was involved in these dealings. The contrast of these two differently structured approaches to rulership allows for the investigation of the power dynamics of monogamy and polygamy in one coherent case study. Württemberg is an interesting location for this research since it was a large and important territory of southern Germany, which came to be deeply involved in Protestant resistance in the worsening religious strife leading up to the Thirty Years’ War. Documents ranging from court ordinances, festival descriptions and servants registers, to courtly correspondences, juridical supplications and declarations have been consulted. This broad range of primary sources facilitates the investigation of the salience of gender difference both in the context of a courtly system heading a polity, as well as on the level of individual actors whose personhood was intricately entwined with their gendered identities. It is argued here that it is imperative to avoid a fragmentation within court studies into gender and women’s history on the one side and political approaches on the other, in order to maximise our understanding of the practice of power located at early modern courts. Gender difference complicated and further differentiated courtly status hierarchies and lent flexibility to increasingly rigid sets of dynastic rules about reproduction, succession, and etiquette, which had a beneficial impact on the longevity of the dynastic system.

This thesis reassesses the importance of Sant'Elisabetta delle Convertite, a monastery for repentant prostitutes, in Florence from its foundation in 1329 to 1627 after the Grand Duke became the monastery's protector. Although it was one of the oldest and most populous female houses in the city, historians have tended to underestimate its importance to municipal authorities. This thesis reframes the monastery as a civic institution with a key role in changing municipal responses to prostitution. The thesis makes extensive use of primary source material from the monastery itself, including ricordi (record books), accounts, and contracts, as well as from civic magistrates, particularly the Ufficiali dell'Onestà. Legislative sources from the late thirteenth to the early seventeenth centuries also show how the funding of Sant'Elisabetta reflected the city's changing responses to the regulation of prostitution, and the funding of Sant'Elisabetta. This thesis argues that the monastery of repentant prostitutes was an important civic institution in late medieval and early modern Florence and became so as a result of civic funding provided in consequence of changing municipal strategies to control prostitution. Successive Florentine municipal administrations acted to ensure the monastery's survival and stability in response to petitions from the Convertite claiming poverty. The priors' solutions varied between ad hoc direct funding, portions of the fines and penalties levied by magistrates, and a quarter of prostitutes' estates, redirected to Sant'Elisabetta until ultimately, the monastery would be brought under the direct control of the Grand Ducal administration in 1620. They also restricted admissions to the monastery, which had the effect of ensuring its longevity by preserving its unique place among the city's welfare institutions. By tracing municipal interest and intervention in Sant'Elisabetta delle Convertite, this study contributes to knowledge of the significance of the civic role played by the monastery.

abstract: This dissertation explores the claims, put forth by William Bradford in his journal Of Plimoth Plantation, that persecution was the primary motivation for removal from England to Holland by the Scrooby Puritans in 1608, and challenges the historiographical acceptance of those claims. The dissertation examines monarchical, ecclesiastical and historical records from 1590-1620 to determine if there was any evidence to support Bradford’s claims of persecution. Finding scant evidence of physical persecution at the hands of royal, civil, or ecclesiastical authorities, the dissertation turns to the socioeconomic factors which may have contributed to the Scrooby Puritans decision to leave England and take up residence in Holland for twelve years. Finding no significant socioeconomic push factors, attention is then turned to the theological underpinnings of the group to determine if theology may have driven their persecution narrative. It concludes that the Scrooby Puritans may not have been fleeing from authorities trying to confine them for their religious beliefs, but from the corruption of their very souls, had they remained in England and under the theological influences of the Church of England. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation History 2015

Although it is generally accepted that the Morality Plays greatly influenced Elizabethan drama, this statement is often followed by the rider that they are dull and lifeless and that their chief legacy is a sense of moral earnestness which also characterises the best Elizabethan drama. The aim of this thesis has been to read the Morality Plays closely and in an appreciative spirit in order to find out what significant contribution they do make to the techniques of Elizabethan drama and to a proper understanding of it. Chapter I discusses the earliest complete Morality, The Castle of Perseverance, which is the longest and most comprehensive of all the Moralities. The chapter tries to show what a Morality is about and how it differs from the great mediaeval cyclus, the Mystery Plays. It is also an attempt to relate the early Morality Play to other mediaeval literature and to show that it is closely linked to the homeletic literature of the period. Chapter II is a study of three Moralities of the period 1500- 1520. There are fewer Moralities in this period and the plays chosen show a marked similarity to The Castle of Perserverance in their structure, although they differ from the earlier Moralities in their attitude to their subject matter and in their portrayal of the different allegorical characters. The plays under discussion are Nature, Mundus et Infans and Magnyfycence Chapter III; the period after 1535 was a period of great political and religious upheaval and this chapter discusses the plays written for propaganda purposes in the strife between Catholic and Protestant. John Bale's Three Laws, an anti-Catholic play, was chosen because Bale is a startlingly original dramatist who makes use of techniques derived from the liturgy and from emblematic devices, and because he tries to mould the Mystery Plays and the History Plays into a Morality framework. The other plays The Conflict of Conscience was chosen because of its affinity to Dr Faustus and also because it tries to show the psychomachia in psychological, personal terms rather than in a general allegorical manner. Chapter IV discusses three later Moralities, Cambyses, Horestes and Appius Virginia, which portray historical or fictional characters in situations of conflict. They were chosen because they seem to show that the Morality Plays laid the bases for the Elizabethan tragic situation and the Elizabethan tragic hero. With such diverse material, it is difficult to trace a clear line of development from one play to the next, but each group of plays has its own contribution to make to our understanding of Elizabethan drama.

The idea for this thesis originated in a seminar concerned with short forms of epic literature. It is meant to throw some light on the development of rudimentary narrative technique, especially on the influence a particular motif can exert on a writer's mind and the final form of his work. Preface, p. 7.

In this thesis I have made a study of certain aspects of pastoralism and the pastoral genre in late Elizabethan literature. I have done this because I felt that Elizabethan pastoral writing was, at its best, far more than just a literary exercise undertaken, as was much Continental pastoral writing, to furnish the vernacular with a genre approved by Classical precedent. The strength of Elizabethan pastoral derived from the combination of certain indigenous factors present during Elizabeth's reign, with the current interest in imitating the Classics and introducing a famous genre into the vernacular. There had always been in English literature a strong response to the natural world and this response revealed itself in pastoral writing in which the traditional naturalistic details derived from Classical sources were infused with the grace and strength of direct observation. More importantly, Elizabethan England had a monarch who was not only ideally suited through her sex and celibacy to play the leading role in a pastoral world, but who also actively encouraged and enjoyed the eulogistic sentiments native to the Renaissance pastoral. In the English attempt to imitate a favourite Renaissance version of the pastoral - the use of a pastoral framework to comment on ecclesiastical or political affairs - there was, in Tudor Protestantism, with all its internal conflicts and its vital struggle against the political and spiritual forces of the Roman church, an ideal source of material for eclogues in the style of Mantuan. Such factors ensured that Elizabethan pastoral had a significance and relevance largely lacking in the more academic products of Continental pastoralists. Preface, p. i

Summary: Consilia played an important role in medieval but also early modern professional health literature. Literary "consilium" contained a written statement of one particular case, the patient's condition and disease as well as advice on a medical procedure where a doctor in accordance with the contemporary discourse analyzed symptoms, determined the diagnosis, prognosis and recommended its pharmacological treatment including possible technical interventions (venesection etc.). In the 16th century, the Consilia Literature was a common part of many eminent physicians' practice whereas nowadays it is unjustly neglected source of history of medicine, pharmacology, dietetics and so on. The first part of the dissertation is devoted to the definition of genre, the initial stages of its development and description of the specifics of the Middle Ages. However the results of fifteen eminent physicians of Italy (B. Vettori, G. B. Da Monte, V. Trincavelli, A. M. Venusti, G. Capodivaccio, C. Guarinoni), France (J. Fernel, G. de Baillou) and of the German-speaking areas of Central Europe (J. Crato, R. Solenander, L. Scholz, D. Cornarius, J. Wittich, T. Mermann, J. Matthaeus), became the main theme of work of early modern consultative collections. On examination of nearly seven thousand consilia from twenty two...

The body and the sin. One of a woman{\crq}s image in the moralist literature in the early modern period Annotation The diploma work is aimed at an early modern woman seen from the moralist authors´view. The work ranks among the contributions connected with gender roles research in the society of the studied period. The sources that it takes on come from the 16th and 17th centuries and they are aimed against woman{\crq}s wickedness which were connected with woman{\crq}s carnality. The body as a tool of a trespass is represented as a connecting unit through the individual chapters and at the same time it work as the main symbol of the woman{\crq}s trespass. In connexion with the carnality the most feared sins are mentioned, such as pride, adultery or fornication. In additoin to these particular trespasses the moralist authors also pointed out possible snares or potential ways leading to the trespass, such as dance or a pure and simple woman{\crq}s glimpse. Even these opinions show it was very important to keep out women of ill fame because even a simple slander could raise doubts of everyone{\crq}s probity. The aim of the diploma work is an elucidation of images of women dominated in the society in the early modern period. The work should outline a certain bipolarity that is, in connexion wiht a women, evident in the moralist authors` writings. In this a woman of the early modern period was conceived either as a redeemer or on the other hand as a wicked woman whereas the main thought of the work elucidation of period opinions of a woman as a sinner is.

The thesis focuses on the problems of Early Modern Period duels concentrating on aristocratic milieu in Bohemia. The thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 outlines the problems based on up to now findings especially foreign historical science. A necessary part is the evaluation of the existing literature on up-to-date subject, brief introduction of the methodological approach and an outline of the possible thematic areas. In association with the thematic areas, it is possible to pay attention to the problems of duels. In this Chapter is also a detailed introduction to the chosen methodological solution {--} historical-anthropological draft of honour in the Early Modern Period. The Early Modern Period is based on many categories as e.g. inward and outward honour, honour of a male and a female or individual and collective honour. Chapter 2 puts the Early Modern Period in a spatiotemporal context and tries to introduce not only the predecessor in the way of medieval court duels, aristocratic hate perhaps even knightly tournaments but also his successors in the way of strictly ritualistic duels of the long 19th century. A special attention is paid to an analysis of duel books of references of the 19th century, which is supposed to serve as a solution for the third chapter. Chapter 3 is a personal analysis of the Early Modern Period considering all possible aspects which are possible to be discovered in the context. Attention is paid to all possible reasons of the beginning of the Early Modern Period duels, direct and indirect participants, circumstances which accompanied the Early Modern Period as well as potential results for all parties concerned. The Early Modern duel should be roughly outlined as an original development in the history of duels in terms of untold references in the source of personal nature and personal research. The same emphasis is put in the involvement of a duel as a indivisible part of the intellectual world of the Early Modern period of a human being with a special consideration to the milieu of the noble people. The aim of the thesis is to prove the peculiarity of the Early Modern Period duel and to refer to the characteristic place in the inward world of the then noble rank as well as other ranks of the society.

Consagrado pela doutrina de que o nosso mundo é o melhor dos mundos possíveise por seu otimismo em relação à humanidade, o filósofo alemão G. W. Leibniz (1646-1716) não poderia deixar de tecer considerações sobre o problema da felicidade humana.Mas, em face das inúmeras mazelas que afligem a humanidade, e sendoo leibnizianismo um otimismo teísta, fundado naconvicçãoa respeitodo governo soberanode um Deusbom, segundo oqual se admite a existência de uma ordem moral e divina no Universo, apresentam-se para o pensador algumas dificuldades no que tange àdefesa da tese do melhor dos mundos, se quisermos admitir que este melhor consiste de um plano divino que diz respeito de alguma forma à humanidade e a seu bem estar, demandando-se, assim, a justificaçãodesua posiçãoà luz da experiência humana observável e dos aspectos metafísicos, teológicos e moraisde seu pensamento. O presente trabalho visa, assim, tratardo problema da felicidade humana no melhor dos mundos possíveis, partindo-se da exploração da concepção leibniziana de felicidade, elucidando-se o sentido da tese do melhor dos mundos possíveis, e culminando com a defesa da tese de que, a despeito das aparências em sentido contrário, neste melhor mundo, a felicidade dos espíritos é o principal embora não o único desígnio de Deus, considerando-se também o papel de uma solução escatológicae levando-se em contaque a felicidade, para o autor, não é um atributo estáticodo mundo, mas parte de um progresso perpétuo em perfeição e na direção de novos prazeres. / Establishedby his doctrine that our world is the best of the possible worldsand by his optimism about humanity, the german philosopher G. W. Leibniz (1646-1716) could not depart himself from considering the problem of human happiness. But, in face of the numerous ills that afflict humanity, and since leibnizianism is a theisticoptimism, founded on the conviction aboutthe sovereigngovernment of a goodGod, according to which the existence of a moral and divine order in the universe is admitted, some difficulties arise for the thinker in defending the thesis of the best of the possible worlds, if we want to admit that this \"best\" consists of a divine plan that somehow concerns humanity and its welfare, demandingthe justificationof his position in the light of observable human experience and the metaphysical, theological, and moral aspects of his thought. The present work, therefore, proposesdealing with the problem of human happiness in the best of possible worlds, starting from the exploration of the leibnizian conception of happiness, elucidating the meaning of the thesis of the best of possible worlds, culminating in the defense of the thesis that, in spite of appearances incontrary, in this \"best world\" the happiness of the spirits is the principal -though not the only of God\'s designs,andalso considering the role of an eschatological solution,and taking into account that happiness, for the author, is not a staticattribute of the world, but part of a perpetual progress in perfection and in the direction of new pleasures.