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Court Festivals of the Holy Roman Empire, 1555–1619
European Festival Studies: 1450–1700 Founding Editor J. R. Mulryne, University of Warwick, UK Series Editors Margaret Shewring, University of Warwick, UK Margaret M. McGowan, CBE, FBA, University of Sussex, UK Marie-Claude Canova-Green, University of London (Goldsmiths), UK Publications Advisory Board Maria Ines Aliverti, University of Pisa, Italy; Sydney Anglo, FBA, FSA, University of Wales, UK; Richard Cooper, University of Oxford, UK; Noel Fallows, FSA, University of Georgia, USA; Iain Fenlon, University of Cambridge, UK; Bernardo J. García García, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain; Maartje van Gelder, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands; Pieter Martens, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium; R. L. M. Morris, University of Cambridge, UK; Elaine Tierney, Research Institute, Victoria & Albert Museum, UK This Series, in association with the Society for European Festivals Research, builds on the current surge of interest in the circumstances of European Festivals, including their political, religious, social, economic, and cultural influences and implications. Contributors to the series explore these influences and implications, as well as the detailed analysis of their performance (including ephemeral architecture, scenography, scripts, music and soundscape, dance, costumes, processions and fireworks) in both indoor and outdoor locations. Festivals were interdisciplinary and, on occasion, international in scope. They drew on a rich classical heritage and developed a shared pan-European iconography as well as highlighting regional and site-specific features. They played an important part in local politics and the local economy, as well as international negotiations and the conscious presentation of power, sophistication, and national identity, in both a European and a global context. The Series, including both essay collections and monographs, analyses the characteristics of individual festivals as well as exploring generic themes. It draws on a wealth of documentary evidence from historic archives, alongside the rich resources of galleries and museums, to study the historical, literary, performance, and material culture of these extravagant occasions of state.
Court Festivals of the Holy Roman Empire, 1555–1619 Performing German Identity
by R. L. M. Morris
F
Cover image: Image of a ‘Foot Tournament’ with knights riding artificial horses inside the Residenz at the festival for the wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, at Munich in 1568, from Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung (1568), inserted between pp. 55v and 56r.
© 2020, Brepols Publishers n. v., Turnhout, Belgium. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. D/2020/0095/33 ISBN 978-2-503-58329-7 eISBN 978-2-503-58330-3 10.1484/M.EFS-EB.5.116514 Printed in the EU on acid-free paper.
For Ronnie
Table of Contents List of Illustrations
9
Preface
11
Acknowledgements
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Introduction. Festivals and Identity in the Late-Sixteenthand Early-Seventeenth-Century Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation Festivals, Nobility, and Virtue Approaching Identity through Festivals The Complex Issue of ‘German’ Identity The Rise of the Festival Book and Sources for Studying Festivals in the Early Modern Holy Roman Empire Performing German Identity: The Court Festivals of the Holy Roman Empire, 1555–1619
15 18 21 33 37 41
Chapter I. Lineage, Legitimacy, and History
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Chapter II. Mortality, Masculinity, Femininity, and Mutability
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Chapter III. Nature and the German Land
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Chapter IV. Religion, Piety, and Confessional Difference
143
Chapter V. Festival Encounters and the Shifting Borders of German Identity
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Conclusion. Virtue, Identity, and the Politics of Access to Festival The People & the Politics of Access to Festival The Holy Roman Empire, Festival, and Identity
199 207 221
Bibliography Primary Manuscript Sources Primary Printed Sources Secondary Sources
225 225 225 232
Index
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List of Illustrations
Colour Plates Plate I.
Plate II.
Plate III.
Plate IV
View of the Tournament Arena at the festival for the wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, at Munich in 1568, from Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung (1568), inserted between pp. 40v and 41r. A dance at the festival for the wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, at Munich in 1568, from Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung (1568), inserted between pp. 37v and 38r. Scene inside the church at the wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, in Munich in 1568, from Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung (1568), inserted between pp. 33v and 34r. (and cover). Image of a ‘Foot Tournament’ with knights riding artificial horses inside the Residenz at the festival for the wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, at Munich in 1568, from Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung (1568), inserted between pp. 55v and 56r.
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Figures Figure 1. Figure 2. Figure 3. Figure 4.
Figure 5.
Fortitudo and Gloria in Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 8. A typical image of a Ritterspiel taken from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 92. Image of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 6. A scene depicting wild men, animals, and mythical creatures as part of a festival procession in Stuttgart for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard, and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen, in 1617, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 32. German Trumpeters and a ‘Moor’ at the festival for the return of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, with his new wife, Elizabeth Stuart of England, to Heidelberg in 1613, from D. Jocquet, Les triomphes, entrees, cartels, tovrnois, ceremonies, et avltres magnificences (1613), p. 145.
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l i s t of i l lustr ation s Figure 6.
Figure 7.
Figure 8.
Figure 9.
Figure 10. Figure 11.
Figure 12.
Figure 13.
Fireworks at the coronation of Matthias I as Holy Roman Emperor in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1612, from Gotard Arthus, Electio et coronatio sereniss. potentiss. et invictiss. principis […] Matthiae I. electi rom. imperat. semper augusti etc. eiusq. sereniss. coniugis Annae Austriacae etc. (1612), plate 14. A pair of horse-masters depicted at the festival in Stuttgart for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard, and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen, in 1617, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 10. A nobleman depicted as a hunter at the festival in Stuttgart for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard, and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen, in 1617, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 58. A cardinal as Hypocrisy at the festival for the return of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, with his new wife, Elizabeth Stuart of England, to Heidelberg in 1613, from D. Jocquet, Les triomphes, entrees, cartels, tovrnois, ceremonies, et avltres magnificences (1613), p. 149. An image contrasting religious truth with (Catholic) heresy, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 51. An image showing two musicians with violins in a procession at the festival in Stuttgart for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard, and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen, in 1617, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 74. Image of ‘Moors’ engaged in ‘combat’ at the festival in Stuttgart for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard, and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen, in 1617, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 91. A scene depicting ‘fauns’ performing tricks as part of a festival procession in Stuttgart for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard, and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen, in 1617, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 33.
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Preface
Court festivals provided a crucial means by which the nobility of early modern Europe could not only represent but also assert and construct their power and legitimacy to rule. In response to the religious, economic, social, and intellectual challenges they faced, German princes of this period employed a form of charismatic rule, with festival at its heart, which displayed their legitimacy through virtue and claims to ‘German’ values, a place in ‘German’ history, and appeals to ‘German’ heroes, as well as their role within the framework of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. While lineage, and invented lineages, retained an importance, ideals of virtue were pushed to the fore in this historical moment, before hierarchies of nobility across Europe, largely based on lineage, began to solidify and be codified more rigidly across territories for the purposes of international diplomacy during the eighteenth century. As the religious conflict of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) loomed, Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist princes within the Empire all used court festivals to make distinctive appeals to legitimacy, yet the similarity of the underlying rhetoric of noble and German identity is striking. To be German could simply be to possess German virtues, or to be able to claim to. The availability of this shared rhetoric of identity, even when who legitimately possessed this identity was contested, enabled the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation to have relevance. Indeed, this was the heart of state formation in early modern Europe — while ‘nation states’ did not exist, identity claims, even if they eluded solid definitions, did. This monograph explores identity as it was portrayed and upheld through court festivals of the period between the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 and the coronation of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, as King of Bohemia in 1619 by examining it through five interrelated chapters, organized thematically. These are: Lineage, Legitimacy, and History; Mortality, Masculinity, Femininity, and Mutability; Nature and the German Land; Religion, Piety, and Confessional Difference; and, finally, Festival Encounters and the Shifting Borders of German Identity. Note on Translations All translations are the author’s own unless otherwise indicated. The author’s English translation appears in the body of the text, while the original language appears at the beginning of the relevant footnote. Some contemporary terms have been retained, such as Frawenzimmer (in its most common contemporary spelling) and Minne, with their meanings explained in the body of the text itself.
Acknowledgements
Firstly, I must thank my doctoral supervisor, William O’Reilly (Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge), for the support and patience which he showed towards me, as well as the extraordinary breadth of scholarly knowledge which he shared with me, in bringing this research to fruition. I must also express my thanks to those scholars in the field who gave me guidance at an early stage in my research, particularly Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (University of Oxford) and Andrea Sommer-Mathis (University of Vienna). I am thankful to the following libraries and collections in particular for allowing me access to their holdings: the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, the British Library, and, of course, Cambridge University Library. My thanks, too, to the Herzog August Bibliothek and to the British Library Board for permission to use images from their collections, to Guy Carney, publishing manager at Brepols, and to Katharine Bartlett for her detailed work as copyeditor as the volume has gone through its final stages. I am indebted to the Society for European Festivals Research (SEFR), for the guidance and feedback which its members have offered to me, for inviting me to speak at the Society’s conferences, and for the opportunities to publish this work and others which it has given to me. I am also grateful to the Society for appointing me as a member of its Advisory Board. I would especially like to thank the Convenors of the Society: Dr Margaret Shewring, Professor Margaret M. McGowan, and Professor Marie-Claude Canova-Green. Finally, I must acknowledge the guidance and encouragement given to me by the late Professor J. R. (Ronnie) Mulryne, to whom I dedicate this monograph. Ronnie was unfailingly supportive of my academic endeavours and afforded opportunities to me whenever possible, as he did for many young researchers. I am honoured to have co-edited two volumes, including the last of his many publications, alongside him. Ronnie was a formidable scholar in festivals research and in other fields besides, including those of English literature and theatre history. He was central to the foundation of SEFR as one of the original Convenors of the Society. He did so much to encourage interdisciplinary research and had a genuine passion for promoting the next generation of scholars. He will be deeply missed but his legacy will surely continue. R. L. M. (Richard) Morris September 2019
Introduction
Festivals and Identity in the LateSixteenth- and Early-Seventeenth-Century Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
The Holy Roman Empire stood at the heart of Europe and its history from the imperial coronation of Charlemagne in Rome in the year 800 until the dissolution of the Empire by Francis II in 1806 in the face of Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaigns. Notionally at least, the Emperor stood as the secular sword and protector of Christendom while the Papacy performed the role of its spiritual head. From the thirteenth century, the heartland of this Empire came to be referred to by the German term Reich.1 While the physical demarcations of this Empire or Reich fluctuated substantially throughout its existence and ruling houses changed, the essential model of the Empire remained — as a patchwork of territories, with their various princes, as well as Imperial Free Cities, owing allegiance to the Empire, which guaranteed their privileges and freedoms, and to the Emperor who was elected by the prince electors. As such it was not a hereditary dynastic territory, though by the period under discussion here the imperial title had come to be dominated by the Austrian Habsburg dynasty, the members of which, combining their position as Holy Roman Emperors with the Habsburg family’s own hereditary possessions, ruled over lands stretching from the Netherlands in the north to contested Italian territories in the south and from the border with French territory in the west to the advancing Ottoman Empire in the east. It was in the late-fifteenth century, in around 1474, that the words ‘of the German Nation’ were first added to the title of the Holy Roman Empire. During the reign of the Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I, at the Reichstag at Worms in 1495 and at Augsburg in 1500, the impulse towards reform which had been strengthening through the century, and particularly in the light of military threats to the Reich and to the Habsburg lands in the 1470s, reached at least a temporary culmination. As Joachim Whaley has persuasively argued, what was established was a series of principles on which the imperial constitution rested until the end: the cooperative decision-making process of the Reichstag with its implicit system of checks and balances; the idea of the Reich as a defensive alliance
1 See Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe’s History (London: Allen Lane, 2017), p. 4.
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of the Estates against external aggression; and the Reich as a Rechts- und Friedensordnung, a legal system for the maintenance of public peace.2 What was also introduced into a prominent place within political discourse was an emphasis on the ‘German nation’. At the heart of this new rhetoric lay the uneasy division between Habsburg ambitions, the Hausmacht of the dynasty, and the interests of the Estates of the Holy Roman Empire. The dynasty and the Reich were clearly in need of one another. The fifteenth century had seen the emergence of several threats: the Hussite Wars of 1419–1436, the advancing Ottoman Empire following the fall of Constantinople into its possession in 1453, and, from the 1470s, growing conflict of the Habsburgs with Burgundy and France, including the attack by Charles the Bold of Burgundy on Neuss in 1475. The Habsburgs were in need of the Estates to provide the money and military support to protect their territory and to sustain their dynastic ambitions. The Estates, in turn, appreciated the need to defend the Reich from the Ottomans and other external threats, as well as the necessity of the role of the Emperor in this, but saw it as distinct from other Habsburg dynastic ambitions outside of the core territories of the Reich, and thus ‘it was during this period that the Reichstag for the first time gained a sense of its identity as a constitutional organ of a specifically German Reich’.3 The Emperor, meanwhile, gave patronage to German humanists such as Conrad Celtis so that they would align him and his ambitions with their notions of the German nation. For these reasons, on all sides, ‘a “national” dimension became increasingly important around 1500’ within the Holy Roman Empire, as a result of which ‘terms such as “German nation” […] gained a new currency […] in the context of a new preoccupation with the German past and with the question of the identity of the Germans’.4 Peter Wilson has recently argued that the importance of the emergence of the term ‘German nation’ has been exaggerated, observing that references simply to ‘the Empire’ were still more prevalent and that only one in nine official documents issued after 1560 made reference to the ‘German nation’.5 Yet outside of legal and official texts — in culture, literature, and festival — references to notions of being ‘German’ did become pervasive. This did not, of course, constitute any solid consensus as to what such terms meant in practice or who possessed an identity aligning with that of the ‘German nation’ — it was an idea born of conflicting interests and one which was contested from the outset. Even on a superficial level, it is easy to see how potential sources of division within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation were only exacerbated during the course of the sixteenth century and on into the seventeenth. The Empire was at the epicentre of the Reformations sparked by Martin Luther in 2 Joachim Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), vol. 1, p. 38. 3 Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, vol. 1, p. 37. 4 Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, vol. 1, p. 51. 5 Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire, p. 255.
F estivals an d Iden tity in the Holy Roma n Empire
Wittenberg in 1517. While many of the territories within the Empire converted to Lutheranism or Calvinism, the Habsburg dynasty remained committed to Catholicism and, later, to the Counter-Reformation. Jonathan Zophy forcefully asserts that the new religious divisions of the sixteenth century made the Holy Roman Empire, with its already diverse territories, ‘even more variegated’.6 The potentially destructive effects of this were seen through the German Peasants’ War in 1524–1525 in which the new religious rhetoric of the Reformations was deployed alongside existing peasant concerns. Then, in 1546–1547, the Schmalkaldic War saw conflict between Emperor Charles V and the Lutheran German princes of the Schmalkaldic League. The Peace of Augsburg in 1555, which recognized Lutheranism in the form of the Confessio Augustana and established the principle of ‘Cuius regio, eius religio’ (by which rulers could establish the religions of their own territories within the Empire), was no long-term solution. In its failure to recognize Calvinism, together with the ongoing misalignment of interests between princes of the Empire and those of the Habsburg dynasty, the preconditions remained for the conflicts of the following century. The early years of the seventeenth century saw the emergence of the Protestant Union around the figure of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, who was to be crowned King of Bohemia in 1619. This act of sedition came early in the series of interrelated conflicts, based in large part if not entirely on religion, known as the Thirty Years War, which ran from 1618 until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. These very obvious sources of division within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, and between the Estates and the Emperor, raise numerous questions, particularly in relation to the representation of identity. How was the geographical, linguistic, and religious diversity of the Empire’s territories addressed in spectacle? To what extent was there any overt hostility towards opponents in the rhetoric of ceremonial occasions? How could an ideology of Empire and of imperial rule be propagated and disseminated in this context? What could it mean to be ‘German’ in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation? Does it make sense to speak of a ‘German nation’? Who could lay claim to being ‘German’ and how could this be articulated, mutated, and contested? How could claims to legitimacy and right be maintained on both sides during periods of conflict? How does all of this fit in with notions of the ‘confessional state’ or of the ‘nation state’? Is it possible instead to think in terms of a ‘cultural state’, or ‘cultural nation’ (‘Kulturnation’) as Georg Schmidt would have it, of which one is a member as long as one can claim its heritage — in this case as long as one can claim to be ‘Germanic’ through culture, imagery, and history?7
6 Jonathan W. Zophy, ‘Holy Roman Empire’, in Hans J. Hillerbrand (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, 4 vols (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), vol. 2, pp. 244-48 (p. 245). 7 Georg Schmidt, ‘Das Reich und die deutsche Kulturnation’, in Heinz Schilling, Werner Heun and Jutta Götzmann (eds), Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation 962 bis 1806: Altes Reich und neue Staaten 1495 bis 1806 (Dresden: Sandstein, 2006), pp. 105-16.
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Did the Holy Roman Empire endure across so many centuries merely through expediency and inertia, or was there something more; perhaps senses of identity, of belonging, of commitment to the imperial ideal or to a ‘German’ cultural state? Were appeals to ‘German’ identities simply a convenient mechanism by which to unite religious and political alliances among the territories of the Empire as ‘Protestantism’ remained divided within itself and Catholicism was refashioned in the process of the Counter-Reformation, or to paper over the cracks of religious division within the Habsburg-ruled lands? The work which follows will explore these questions through a focus on the court festivals of the late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Holy Roman Empire. Festivals, Nobility, and Virtue The early modern Holy Roman Empire presents a fascinating context within which to study identity as it was fashioned, represented, and upheld by court festivals. This is partly because of the relative complexity of the Empire’s political structure of diverse territories and vast geographical scope. Yet it is also because of the challenges to identity posed by the period’s social, economic, cultural, and political events. Sociological literature is pervaded by the notion that identity becomes more prominent in response to challenges. Harold Garfinkel shows how rules and norms are seen most clearly when they are breached and so normative forms of identity are revealed by occasions when identity is seen to be questioned or in trouble.8 Similarly, Steph Lawler declares that in popular culture identity ‘becomes visible when it is seen to be missing’, and that ‘it is perhaps when identity is seen to “fail” that we see most clearly the social values that dictate how an identity ought to be’.9 The historian of the medieval Holy Roman Empire, Len Scales, too, has argued for the importance of ‘the formative role of crisis, doubt, insecurity and perceived decline as early nation-making elements’.10 He contends that in ‘debate and controversy, and not in bland consensus, lay (and lies) the troubled heart of the nation’ and thus ‘not only confident self-assertion but also crisis, and currents of doubt and anxiety, could be powerful motors of common identity’.11 The nobility of the Holy Roman Empire faced a crisis of nobility in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Their identity was brought into question by the religious upheaval of the Reformations, the various political conflicts including the Schmalkaldic War, the Thirty Years War, and the ever-present Ottoman threat, the socio-economic changes induced by New World trade and banking raising the status and power
8 Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology (Cambridge: Polity, 2004). 9 Steph Lawler, Identity: Sociological Perspectives (Cambridge: 2008), 2nd edn (Cambridge: Polity, 2014), p. 181. 10 Len Scales, The Shaping of German Identity: Authority and Crisis, 1245–1414 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 5. 11 Scales, The Shaping of German Identity, pp. 531, 537.
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wielded by merchant families outside of the established hereditary nobility, and the humanist intellectual challenge that virtue is true nobility as opposed to lineage. In the face of such doubt, it was vital for the nobility of the Empire to re-establish their legitimacy through appeals to identity — this lay at the heart of their court festivals. Indeed, one might characterize the type of rule formulated, amongst other things, in response to this crisis of nobility and centred on festivals as charismatic rule reminiscent of the principles of Greek kingship. Lynette Mitchell, in her work on archaic and classical Greece, discusses claims to legitimacy made through courage, heroic virtue, demonstrations of excellence and competitive skill, and even almost divine virtue.12 She cites an example of Dorieus attempting to claim rule over his older half-brother because he had ‘manly courage’ (andragathia) and was the ‘first’ (protos) among his peers.13 Monarchs were to have more heroic virtues (aretē) than anyone else — which they could prove by founding cities, innovation, or participation in the crown games either in person or through a champion.14 These virtues could then elevate the ruler to quasi-divine status. Mitchell observes that by 324 bc ‘Alexander the Great was openly recognized not just as a hero, but as a god […] his virtue was enough to make him not just a hero but also divine’.15 These ideas of nobility echo in our period and, particularly through innovation and skill, necessarily supported by learning, feed into humanist ideas of virtue being true nobility.16 Quattrocento Italian humanists expounded on the Ciceronian concept of virtus in particular, their thinking underpinned by the idea that it was possible for man to attain this, the highest kind of excellence, but that this was only possible through education and learning. It was a notion which was developed through the humanist writing of the early modern period and which was present in the works of northern humanists as much as in those of their Italian predecessors. The ‘mirror for princes’ literature, comprising treatises written by humanist authors, often dedicated to specific princes in the hope of patronage, stressed the need for political leaders to conform to the ideal of the vir virtutis, the man of virtue. As part of this, humanists dissolved any distinction between different types of education — military or intellectual — and instead held up the image of the Uomo universale, the man who possessed universal excellence.
12 Lynette G. Mitchell, ‘The Women of Ruling Families in Archaic and Classical Greece’, Classical Quarterly, 62 (1) (2012), 1-21. 13 Mitchell, ‘The Women of Ruling Families’, 8. 14 Mitchell, ‘The Women of Ruling Families’, 16. 15 Mitchell, ‘The Women of Ruling Families’, 19. 16 See, for instance, Albert Rabil Jr. (ed. and trans.), Knowledge, Goodness, and Power: The Debate over Nobility among Quattrocento Italian Humanists (Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1991); Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, 2 vols (Cambridge: 1978), 7th edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), vol. 1, pp. 88-101, 228-36; Brendan Bradshaw, ‘Transalpine Humanism’, in J. H. Burns (ed.), The Cambridge History of Political Thought 1450–1700 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 95-131.
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This can be seen, as Quentin Skinner observes, in the writing of Pier Paolo Vergerio in his On Good Manners of 1402 which opens with a dedication to Umbertino of Ferrara, in which the young signore is accorded the highest praise because ‘you had before you the choice of training in Arms or in Letters’ and ‘to your great credit you elected to become proficient in both alike’.17 Northern humanists went on to write at length on the virtues which could be obtained through education. These were the four ‘cardinal’ virtues of justice, fortitude, temperance, and wisdom, as well as the ‘princely’ virtues of liberality, clemency, and fidelity to one’s word. They also emphasized, to a greater degree even than the early Italian humanists had done, the importance of godliness. Crucially, the northern humanists echoed the Italian humanist ‘claim that virtue constitutes the only true nobility, and that true nobility, vera nobilitas, constitutes the only valid title to rule’ as opposed to ‘lineage and wealth’.18 Although this was, for the most part, not deployed by humanists themselves in a radically subversive manner, Erasmus in The [Education of a] Christian Prince [1516] […] accepts that when nobility is ‘derived from virtue’ this is so much more impressive than the kind of nobility which is based on ‘genealogy or wealth’ that ‘in the strictest judgement’ only the first can be counted as true nobility at all.19 Indeed, as Brendan Bradshaw has noted, the prominent German humanist Conrad Celtis was among a group of northern humanists who urged reform of the political elites from warlike chivalric culture towards a civil, educated ethos, as seen particularly in his Inaugural Oration of 1492.20 Court festivals could perform traditional claims to nobility through lineage and demonstrate the extent of legal power through dominion and privileges, but they could also provide a means of claiming and acting out legitimacy through virtue and skill. Of course, various forms of ceremonial ritual had been central to the functioning of courts from ancient times and there were medieval court festivals, often focusing on tournaments and jousting which had become extremely popular among the nobility of Europe by the fourteenth century. However, court festivals reached new heights in terms of their scale and lavishness in the early modern period and this was accompanied, significantly, by the nascent genre of the festival book as well as pamphlet literature which was dependent on the mid-fifteenth-century invention of the printing press (as will be discussed further below). While there had been, and continued to be, some (though very few) manuscript accounts of festivals, print allowed the events of court festivals to
17 Skinner, Foundations of Modern Political Thought, vol. 1, p. 91. 18 Skinner, Foundations of Modern Political Thought, vol. 1, p. 236. 19 Skinner, Foundations of Modern Political Thought, vol. 1, p. 237. 20 Bradshaw, ‘Transalpine Humanism’, p. 100.
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become visible to a much wider audience, including at other European courts, and thus gave these events a heightened significance. Festivals and the associated tournaments and entertainments provided platforms for rulers to demonstrate their skill, manly courage, and heroism, be it by their own participation or that of their champions or representatives, while there were also plenty of opportunities to demonstrate innovation as well as learning through the fireworks, machines, elaborate fountains and so forth (as well as classical allusions), and to have these noble virtues proclaimed and lauded publicly at the events and in the festival books commemorating them.21 Moreover, Tamar Herzog’s recent study of disputes over possession and boundaries in Europe and the Americas provides an idea which illuminates the importance of actively asserting and claiming this identity. In discussing the role of civil and canon law in structuring disputes over territory and rights, Herzog shows the way in which Roman law tenets permeated society’s thought processes, and especially the notion that silence was considered to imply consent, that rights must be vocalized in order to be claimed.22 This is what happens in festivals, especially triumphal entries, whereby a ruler ceremoniously enters a city but only after having been greeted and invited to enter by the local civic elite who would often take the opportunity to remind rulers of the city’s various privileges and freedoms which had been granted by previous rulers. They are a performance of legal possession by the entering noble, and a vocalization of the city’s rights as well. More than that though, they are also a performance of, and an active claim to, an identity and its associated legitimacy in a context where silence forfeits such claims — thus giving a vital role to festival and the identity embodied within it. Approaching Identity through Festivals Using court festivals as a means of reconstructing early modern identities and of framing our understandings of early modern societies requires the adoption of a new approach which departs from much of the existing historiography.23 Festival books have, to date, mostly been studied for the details they can reveal about how court festivals were staged, the logistics of transforming a city to construct the ephemeral triumphal arches and other structures along the routes 21 On fireworks see, for instance, Simon Werrett, Fireworks: Pyrotechnic Arts and Sciences in European History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010). On fountains and the use of technology as evidence of beneficent rule in early modern Europe see, for instance, Luciano Berti, Il Principe dello studiolo: Francesco I dei Medici e la fine del Renascimento fiorentino (Florence: Edam, 1967); J. R. Hale, Florence and the Medici: The Pattern of Control (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977). 22 Tamar Herzog, Frontiers of Possession: Spain and Portugal in Europe and the Americas (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2015), pp. 7-8. 23 Some of the ideas in this section are set out in R. L. M. Morris, ‘The Identity of the State: A Fresh Approach to Festivals in the Early Modern Holy Roman Empire’, in J. R. Mulryne, Krista De Jonge, R. L. M. Morris and Pieter Martens (eds), Occasions of State: Early Modern European Festivals and the Negotiation of Power (Abingdon: Routledge, 2019), pp. 21-40.
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of joyous entries, the choreography of those processions and performances of masques, ballets, and so on. Much has been learned about the form festivals took. This has been highly instructive in providing a descriptive and narrative framework of a range of festivals. It is an approach to festival books which could be characterized, within the English tradition, as being in the mould of Skinner’s methodology regarding historical texts, which built on the theories of the Annales School and was at the forefront of the emerging discipline of the history of political thought — a methodology which centred on the paradigm that texts could, and should, be placed and read within their historical contexts and their relationships to other texts.24 However, it is possible to push the argument even further. Anthropologists such as Clifford Geertz have ascribed a formative role to ceremonies, rituals, and festivals — these occasions of interaction were not merely reflective of identities and social hierarchies but played an active part in creating, reinforcing, and maintaining them.25 Rather than simply placing accounts of festivals into a corpus of related materials and imposing onto them a preconceived historical context, festivals can be studied in order to enrich and inform our understanding of that historical context — to contribute to and reshape our knowledge of the political and social history of the place and time in which they occurred. If texts recording these occasions can be analysed in the light of historical contexts, historical contexts can also be analysed in the light of these texts. The equation is balanced. A similar approach has been adopted in theoretical writing on material culture. Religion has been an obvious lens through which to analyse and assess material culture, the writing on which attempts to better understand past societies through the material artefacts they produced and used. It has been argued that ‘material culture is as much a part of religion as language, thought, or ritual’ and that religion must be understood as ‘clusters of ideas and practices expressed and embedded within material objects, lived as stimuli to the senses, prompting memory and securing identity’.26 Stated more broadly, many recent theorists hold that, in the words of Jules David Prown, ‘the study of material culture is the study of material to understand culture, to discover the beliefs — the values, ideas, attitudes, and assumptions — of a particular community or society at a given time’.27 On an even more theoretical level, Arjun Appadurai contended that 24 This can be seen in Skinner, Foundations of Modern Political Thought. For an overview of the Annales School of historiography, see Peter Burke, The French Historical Revolution: the Annales School, 1929–89 (Cambridge: Polity, 1990); Jean-Pierre V. M. Hérubel, Annales Historiography and Theory (London: Greenwood, 1994). 25 Clifford Geertz, Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980). 26 John Kieschnick, The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003), p. 23; Miri Rubin, ‘Religion’, in Ulinka Rublack (ed.), A Concise Companion to History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 317-30 (p. 330). 27 Jules David Prown, ‘The Truth of Material Culture: History or Fiction?’, in Steven Lubar and W. David Kingery (eds), History from Things: Essays on Material Culture (Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993), pp. 1-19 (p. 1).
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‘even though from a theoretical point of view human actors encode things with significance, from a methodological point of view it is the things-in-motion that illuminate their human and social context’.28 So it is with festival as with material culture — the performance of the festival, its imagery, its form, content, and choreography can inform a broader understanding of the society in question. It is possible to study notions of identity through court festivals because these events were not merely a spectacular form of elite behaviour or even staged cultural performances of the existing identities and social orders — they had agency. Sociological methodologies, too, can inform an analysis of identity as it is revealed through court festivals. The majority of recent sociological research has adopted the ‘social constructivist’ position — namely that identity is ‘produced through social relations’.29 Following the mid-twentieth-century works of scholars such as George Herbert Mead, Norbert Elias, and Erving Goffman, many sociologists now talk about identity as a ‘process’, as something constantly formed and reformed through social interactions and cultural influences.30 Of course, the transitory and illusory nature of the lived experience of identity on the individual level does pose a challenge to those who would study it, as many sociologists have observed. Craig Calhoun, for instance, speaks of ‘the tension inherent in the fact that we all have multiple, incomplete and/or fragmented identities’ and notes that ‘there are always internal tensions and inconsistencies among the various identities and group memberships of individuals’.31 If anything, these problems appear even more evidently in attempts to recapture such experiences of self-identity in historical contexts. Yet Lawler has questioned whether this is ‘how identities are necessarily experienced’, stating that ‘as well as fluidity, we see very powerful expressions of fixity around identity’, and continuing ‘I am not arguing that identity really is fixed and stable […] but […] we cannot simply overlook attempts on the part of social actors to make it seem so, to suppress and cover over cracks and instabilities’.32 Surely such attempts at fixity, to ‘cover over cracks’ and to present a rhetoric of unified identity is precisely what we see in early modern festivals. Another contribution from this school of sociology which is pertinent to festival is the concept of ‘habitus’ and its relationship with identity. Stephen Mennell, drawing on Pierre Bourdieu, employs ‘habitus’ to mean ‘the modes of conduct, taste, and feeling which predominate among members of particular groups’, continuing that it ‘can refer to shared traits of which the people who
28 Arjun Appadurai, ‘Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value’, in Arjun Appadurai (ed.), The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 3-63 (p. 5). For further, more recent, examples of this theoretical approach to material culture, see, for instance, Tara Hamling and Catherine Richardson (eds), Everyday Objects: Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture and its Meanings (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010). 29 For example, see Lawler, Identity: Sociological Perspectives, p. 3. 30 Lawler, Identity: Sociological Perspectives, p. 5. 31 Craig Calhoun, ‘Social Theory and the Politics of Identity’, in Craig Calhoun (ed.), Social Theory and the Politics of Identity (Cambridge, MA and Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 9-36 (pp. 24, 27). 32 Lawler, Identity: Sociological Perspectives, pp. 4, 5, 7.
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share them may be largely unconscious’ such that ‘the components of the habitus of one’s own group seem to be inherent, innate, “natural”, and their absence or difference in the habitus of other groups seems correspondingly “unnatural” and reprehensible’.33 The difference between this habitus and the closely related notion of ‘identity’, according to Mennell, ‘is perhaps that “identity” implies a higher level of conscious awareness by members of a group, some degree of reflection and articulation’.34 We then, as scholars of festival, may be able to borrow these ideas by seeing the generic courtly festival behaviour, the values of conduct, the type of clothing, and so on as representing a habitus which fed into a noble identity articulated by the conscious choices of representation on particular occasions. As already alluded to above, this habitus and associated identity necessarily has an oppositional element. Lawler is not alone in declaring that ‘All identities are relational in this sense: all rely on not being something else’.35 Stuart Hall uses the term ‘constitutive outside’ to identity, arguing ‘identities can function as points of identification and attachment only because of their capacity to exclude […] So the “unities” which identities proclaim are, in fact, constructed within the play of power and exclusion’.36 This, of course, raises the issue of identity and ethnicity. Thomas Scheff talks of ‘ethnic conflict’ based on identity including ‘violence between groups with different cultures, including differences based on language, religion, race, and class’.37 As Chapter V of this work will show, this definition of ‘ethnic conflict’ would certainly encompass the divisions drawn, and represented in festival culture, between the inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire and the various non-Christian cultures of the Turks, the Moors, and the inhabitants of the New World. Another useful distinction within the sociological literature is between ‘subjectivity’ and ‘identity’. This is a delineation made by writers such as Venn, whereby ‘identity’ implies associations with normative and ideological social categories such as gender or the nation, while the process of a self being produced by unique formulations which cut across categories in complex ways, through a transient lived experience, is referred to as ‘subjectivity’.38 Margaret Wetherell says ‘it is “subjectivity” that makes it possible for any particular social identity to be lived either thoroughly or ambivalently, while “identity” helps specify what there is to be lived’.39 While there are sources which could enable
33 Stephen Mennell, ‘The Formation of We-Images: A Process Theory’, in Craig Calhoun (ed.), Social Theory and the Politics of Identity, pp. 175-97 (p. 177). 34 Mennell, ‘The Formation of We-Images’, p. 177. 35 Lawler, Identity: Sociological Perspectives, p. 12. 36 Stuart Hall, ‘Who Needs Identity?’, in Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay (eds), Questions of Cultural Identity (London: Sage, 1996), pp. 1-17 (p. 5). 37 Thomas J. Scheff, ‘Emotions and Identity: A Theory of Ethnic Nationalism’, in Craig Calhoun (ed.), Social Theory and the Politics of Identity, pp. 277-303 (p. 277). 38 C. Venn, The Postcolonial Challenge: Towards Alternative Worlds (London: Sage, 2006). 39 Margaret Wetherell, ‘Subjectivity or Psycho-Discursive Practices? Investigating Complex Intersectional Identities’, Subjectivity, 22 (1) (2008), 73-81 (75).
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us to begin to reconstruct this subjective personal experience of individuals through their encounters with the identities embodied in festival occasions such as ambassadors’ reports, diaries, and so on, these sources are sparse and not without significant limitations. However, the study of identity — of what categories were established to be navigated by individuals within a territory — is possible through a close study of festival books and other relevant materials. It is worth noting at this point that the analysis of ‘identity’ in this work is organized around categories, including gender and religion. The use of categories has been a topic of debate within the most recent sociological literature. Lawler states that ‘I […] avoid reducing identity to categories of gender, race, nation, class, sexuality, etc.’ since ‘[w]hile, clearly, such categories are important both individually and collectively, they cannot in any way account for the complexity of identity as it is lived’.40 This is an important caveat of such an approach, however this work does not seek to study an individual lived experience — its analysis focuses on what Wetherell would term ‘identity’ as opposed to ‘subjectivity’ — and such categorization is necessary for this type of historical analysis on this scale. Moreover, Calhoun argues that ‘it may not be helpful to allow the critique of essentialism to become a prohibition against the use of all general categories of identity’ since ‘[w]e cannot really stop thinking at least partially in categories — and therefore in at least something rather like an essentialist manner […] our task must be to remain seriously self-critical about our invocations of essence and identity’.41 The categories by which this work is organized and the analysis offered is driven by the questions generated and not by the categories themselves — the work does not seek to describe a phenomenon but to interrogate it with historically pertinent questions. Beyond this conceptual discussion of the broad-ranging scholarly literature which informs the approach to the study of identity which is to follow in this work, this research did not set out with, nor does it now seek to produce, a fixed definition of ‘identity’ as a term. Such a definition would be self-defeating, as the point of this research was to attempt to discover some broad ways in which people within the Holy Roman Empire might have constructed ideas of belonging and affiliation which might constitute something we might think of as identity. In a sense, the entire process of researching and writing this monograph was an attempt to thematically conceptualize identity in the early modern period and to investigate which facets were most pertinent to it within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. The term ‘identity’ has become very much a part of the parlance of historians both of early modern Europe and more generally. To take just one example, Carter Vaughn Findley states in The Turks in World History that ‘People throughout history have struggled to assert their identity’ and that the history of Turkish ‘expansion across Eurasia may shed a valuable light on the processes by which
40 Lawler, Identity: Sociological Perspectives, p. 7. 41 Calhoun, Social Theory and the Politics of Identity, pp. 18-19.
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a large and diverse group of people established, transformed, and projected its identity across space and time’.42 The study of this projection of identity is possible despite the acknowledgement that ‘each civilization, however much binds it together, is a site of contestation, difference, and inequality of access to its refinements’ and that, while the notion of identity is inherently oppositional, ‘Diversity and contestation within civilizations […] stand in the way of their clashing as coherent blocs’.43 A significant amount of scholarship now exists on the notion of cultural identity and of how it was shaped and expressed through not just the passive acceptance but also the rejection, adaptation, and subversion of images and cultural ideas. One major recent work on cultural identity and its performance is that of Ulinka Rublack, whose focus is on clothes.44 The notion of the intellectual and artistic ideas associated with the Renaissance creating a uniform culture across Europe in which Italian art, literature, architecture, and so on were absorbed by other regions has been heavily challenged and in its place a model has arisen in which the ideas of the Renaissance were received differently by different national cultures and accepted, rejected, or adapted in different ways.45 Images, far from being passively received, could even be subverted to carry meanings which were the exact opposite of their original intention in order to foster oppositional identities. Kristin Zapalac, for instance, has shown how Protestant iconography subverted images of Papal authority in sixteenth-century Regensburg by endowing existing symbols with new and very different meanings.46 Thus, while culture was essential to the formation and preservation of identities, the imagery it employed must be interpreted with caution and with sensitivity to its historical context in order to unlock its often transitory meanings. It may well be true that contemporary ‘Germans’ and the audiences at court festivals did not consciously engage with their identity. Equally, the term ‘Identität’ does not feature in primary source material from this time. However, this does not preclude the presence of notions of identity. For instance, at the festival in Stuttgart in 1609 celebrating the wedding of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and Barbara Sophia, the sister of the Elector of Brandenburg, a pair of ‘Teutsche Singer’ (‘German singers’) could appeal in song to the ‘Teutsche Nation’ (‘German nation’), ‘Edles Teutsches Blut’ (‘noble German blood’), ‘Teutsche 42 Carter Vaughn Findley, The Turks in World History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 4. For further examples in recent early modern and broader historiography, see Ulinka Rublack, Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010); Alexandra Walsham, The Reformation of the Landscape: Religion, Identity, & Memory in Early Modern Britain & Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011); Scales, Shaping of German Identity. A slightly older example relating to a later period is Harold James, A German Identity 1770–1990 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989). 43 Findley, Turks in World History, p. 4. 44 Rublack, Dressing Up. 45 See Roy Porter and Mikuláš Teich (eds), The Renaissance in National Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992). 46 Kristin Eldyss Sorensen Zapalac, In His Image and Likeness: Political Iconography and Religious Change in Regensburg, 1500–1600 (London: Cornell University Press, 1990).
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werde Macht’ (‘worthy German might’), and ‘Teutsch Hertz’ (‘German heart’).47 At the same festival, ‘virtues’ rode as part of the bridegroom’s procession, including ‘GERMANAFIDES’ — meaning loyalty and faith.48 The attribution of ‘Teutsche’ is indicative of a sense of ‘Germanness’, and the idea of ‘Germanafides’ suggests that certain characteristics could be considered as ‘German’. Such notions are a foundation of concepts of identity. Moreover, in the study of history more broadly, words are often used which are not contemporary and processes and phenomena of which contemporaries were not necessarily aware are described and analysed. Yet this does not, in and of itself, make such studies inherently anachronistic — the sensitive imposition of thematic categories of understanding should be at the heart of good historical analysis, allowing for the idiosyncrasies, conflicts, and contradictions inherent in past societies to be recognized yet rendered intelligible within an interpretive framework. Complex notions of what it was to be ‘German’, of who was ‘German’, and of who legitimately held authority within the ‘German’ lands were contested, at times blurred, and even potentially contradictory, but were both present in and created and propagated by court festivals. Another branch of historiography which has inspired this work is diplomatic history. Diplomatic historians have debated how central the state should be in historical research. Thomas Zeiler’s assessment of ‘The Diplomatic History Bandwagon’, in which he proclaimed an ‘era of innovation’ and stated that ‘diplomatic history is in the driver’s seat when it comes to the study of America and the world’, gave the state central importance, arguing that diplomatic history is identifiable by ‘an abiding concern with power — a power that emanates as much from the highest political echelons as it does from contact zones’ and that ‘maintaining the state […] is essential to good research’.49 In response to this article, Jessica Gienow-Hecht disagreed with this focus on the state, as she
47 Johann Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung Der Fürstlichen Hochzeit und des Hochansehnlichen Beylagers So Der Durchleuchtig Hochgeborn Fürst und Herr Herr Johann Friderich Hertzog zu Würtemberg und Teck Grave zu Mümpelgart Herr zu Haydenhaim etc. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin unnd Frewlin Frewlin Barbara Sophia Marggrävin zu Brandenburg in Preussen zu Stettin Pomern der Cassuben unnd Wenden auch zu Crossen und Jägerndorff in Schlesien, Hertzogin Burggrävin zu Nürnberg und Fürstin zu Rügen etc. In der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgardten Anno 1609. den 6. Novembris und etliche hernach volgende Tag Celebriert und gehalten hat: Darinnen alle Fürsten Fürstine und Frewlin: Graven Herren und vom Adel: Auch der abwesenden König: Chur: Fürsten unnd Stände Abgesandte so dieser Hochzeit beygewohnt verzeichnet: Darzu alle darbey gehaltene Ritterspihl Ring-rennen Turnier Auffzüg Fewerwerck und alle andere kurtzweil in dreyen underschiedlichen Büchern eigentlich und gründlich beschriben und mit lustigen Kupfferstücken Abgebildet werden. Durch M. Johann Oettingern Fürstl. Würtembergischen Geographum und Renovatorem. Gedruckt in der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgart. Anno 1610 (Stuttgart: G. Grieb, 1610), pp. 109-10, trans. by Anna Linton, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 58-73 (pp. 62-65). 48 Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 108, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 60-61. 49 Thomas W. Zeiler, ‘The Diplomatic History Bandwagon: A State of the Field’, Journal of American History, 95 (4) (2009), 1053-73 (1053, 1055, 1056, 1072).
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declared that she remained ‘less convinced than Zeiler that the state and power constitute the keys to “good research” in diplomatic or any other history’.50 In recent decades, diplomatic historians have begun to broaden their methodological approach. Karina Urbach claims that ‘Diplomatic historians have adopted new methods for their work by amalgamating cultural, semiotic, and anthropological ideas as well as by going global through multiarchival research’.51 John Watkins, too, emphasizes the need for diplomatic historians to engage with international relations theory, gender, and material culture in the form of gift-giving.52 Anthony Cutler has also highlighted the role of material culture in diplomatic exchanges, arguing that there is a false distinction between court ritual and the imagined ‘real substance of negotiations’.53 This move away from an exclusive focus on state institutions and acknowledgement of the importance of culture in all of its varied forms has been evident in the development of historiography relating to early modern state formation in recent decades. The concept of ‘absolutism’ in the sense of a monarch wielding virtually unlimited power through direct, central control has been eroded — this does not necessarily mean that the term must be discarded, but it should be understood in a more nuanced manner.54 Indeed, understandings of ‘absolutism’ which equate it with despotism are arguably due to distortion by early modern and subsequent political commentators.55 The narrative of the rise of the ‘nation state’ in early modern Europe has also been the subject of revisionist critiques.56 More recently, these notions have been replaced by understandings of state formation which do not see the differences between localities within a state as necessarily undermining that state as an entity. For instance, Sahlins’s work on the borders of France and Spain has argued that ‘local society was a motive force in the formation and consolidation of nationhood and the territorial state’.57 Historians of state formation also accord a greater role to culture and 50 Jessica C. E. Gienow-Hecht, ‘What Bandwagon? Diplomatic History Today’, Journal of American History, 95 (4) (2009), 1083-86 (1084). 51 Karina Urbach, ‘Diplomatic History since the Cultural Turn’, Historical Journal, 46 (4) (2003), 991-97 (991). 52 John Watkins, ‘Toward a New Diplomatic History of Medieval and Early Modern Europe’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 38 (1) (2008), 1-14. 53 Anthony Cutler, ‘Significant Gifts: Patterns of Exchange in Late Antique, Byzantine, and Early Islamic Diplomacy’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 38 (1) (2008), 79-101. 54 For the classic rejection of this notion of ‘absolutism’, see Nicholas Henshall, The Myth of Absolutism: Change and Continuity in Early Modern European Monarchy (London and New York: Longman, 1992). 55 In the English tradition of political thought, Miller observes that Hobbes, in particular, gave the term its negative connotations. See John Miller, ‘Introduction’, in John Miller (ed.), Absolutism in Seventeenth-Century Europe (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1990), pp. 1-20 (p. 1). Meanwhile, Burns has noted that in French, the term only entered political language in the decade following the revolution of 1789, either as the hated object of oppression which had been removed, or as an idealized period of order to which France ought to return. See J. H. Burns, ‘The Idea of Absolutism’, in Miller (ed.), Absolutism in Seventeenth-Century Europe, pp. 21-42 (p. 21). 56 See J. H. Elliott, ‘A Europe of Composite Monarchies’, Past and Present, 137 (1992), 48-71. 57 Peter Sahlins, Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley, LA, and Oxford: University of California Press, 1989), p. 8.
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the representation of monarchical power as essential to maintaining the illusion of absolute authority where it did not exist in reality.58 In the case of the Reich, Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger’s work attempts to answer ‘the question, of how a society could be held under the spell of a collective fiction’.59 Harriet Rudolf, too, has written of ‘the Reich as an event’.60 Henry Kamen has argued more generally for this period that nations were created on the basis of ‘a series of shared linkages’ which could be ‘imagined’ and which integrated local identities into a greater sense of ‘belonging’.61 These ideas tie in with the approach adopted by the medievalist Gerd Althoff — Königsherrschaft ohne Staat — that is to say side-lining a narrative of administrative and legal institutional development in favour of a more cultural approach to early modern rule.62 This is an approach which is influential in the conceptual framework of this book. Questions concerning the state will not be ignored, far from it — the issue of state formation and understanding the nature of the Holy Roman Empire lies at the heart of this work — yet they will not be tackled from a directly institutional perspective. This book will place culture at the centre of the political history of the Holy Roman Empire, acknowledging that the two are inextricably interlinked. Festivals, ceremonial, and joyous entries were essential to early modern states. Developments in historiography relating to the court are of course vital as a context for this study. Norbert Elias’s seminal work on the ‘civilizing process’, itself building on the theories of Max Weber, has been hugely influential in this field and in demarcating the early modern period as one in which the court society was of great significance.63 The model is one whereby nobles were tamed by their adoption of court etiquette and by rulers playing on rivalries between them in appointments to positions within the royal household in order to divide and conquer — to keep the nobility dependent on the ruler’s own patronage. Jeroen Duindam has given a detailed critique of this model.64 In brief, though, Duindam sites a few ‘fundamental shortcomings’ in this approach. The first of
58 See for example, Roy C. Strong, Art and Power: Renaissance Festivals 1450–1650 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1984); Peter Burke, The Fabrication of Louis XIV (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992); or, focused on a slightly later period but with relevant ideas, T. C. W. Blanning, The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture: Old Regime Europe, 1660–1789 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). 59 ‘die Frage, wie eine Gesellschaft im Bann einer kollektiven Fiktion gehalten wird’, Barbara StollbergRilinger, Des Kaisers alte Kleider: Verfassungsgeschichte und Symbolsprache des Alten Reiches (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2008), p. 8. 60 ‘Das Reich als Ereignis’, see Harriet Rudolph, Das Reich als Ereignis. Formen und Funktionen der Herrschaftsinszenierung bei Kaisereinzügen (1558–1618) (Cologne: Böhlau, 2011). 61 Henry Kamen, Early Modern European Society (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), esp. pp. 6-7. 62 Gerd Althoff, Die Ottonen: Königsherrschaft ohne Staat (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2000); see also Gerd Althoff, Spielregeln der Politik im Mittelalter: Kommunikation in Frieden und Fehde (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1997). 63 See Norbert Elias, The Civilising Process [1939], trans. by E. Jephcott (Oxford: Blackwell, 1939); Max Weber, Economy and Society [1922], ed. by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978). 64 Jeroen Duindam, Myths of Power: Norbert Elias and the Early Modern Court (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1994).
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these is that Elias’s view separates ‘the household’ from ‘the machinery of “actual” power’, whereas for Duindam the two are inseparable, with the household, at the centre of which was the dynasty, defining power within the early modern state. Another is that this idea is too secular in nature — highlighting secular rivalries when ‘religion played a major role at most if not all pre-modern courts’. His final major critique is simply that this model ‘demands a level of social intelligence as well as strength of mind not usually found among hereditary rulers’.65 Instead of the venue for the monarch to manipulate his nobility, Ronald Asch, like Duindam, sees ‘the court more as a space which left room for a process of constant negotiation about status and power between the ruler and his courtiers’.66 Such historians are eager not to overstate the manipulative powers of individual rulers. Duindam cites Geertz’s famous assertion that ‘power served pomp, not pomp power’, although he adds the caveat that this ‘may be an overstatement’.67 Still, Duindam agrees with the presentation of ‘Balinese kings as immobilized by an extravagant theatre of power’, and this restrictive aspect of ceremonial and court etiquette, limiting a ruler’s own scope for independent action, is something which he has observed in his global study of early modern courts.68 However, Duindam’s work does place the court in a central role in fostering identity, stating that ‘Representatives of regions and groups were drawn towards the symbolic and administrative centre, creating common elite identities while coalescing around the ruler’.69 Asch, too, talks about how the central court could be carried to different localities by courtiers, saying that ‘the growing number of honorary Kämmerer (gentlemen of the Privy Chamber) in Vienna received only symbolic keys in the seventeenth century which they could and did display in their country seats’.70 Such courtiers formed part of what Mark Hengerer has termed a ‘virtual court’, a conceptual political space away from the centre.71 Still, Duindam rightly speaks of the court as the ‘locus of conspicuous hospitality’, and says that ‘It is impossible to picture dynastic power anywhere without the ritual appurtenances that visibly demonstrated its status apart in society’.72 Beyond the institution of the court, Peter Sahlins has forcefully argued that it was the royal presence, illustrating and demonstrating royal jurisdiction, 65 Jeroen Duindam, ‘Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires’, in Jeroen Duindam, Tülay Artan and Metin Kunt (eds), Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires: A Global Perspective (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011), pp. 1-23 (p. 7). 66 Ronald G. Asch, ‘The Princely Court and Political Space in Early Modern Europe’, in Beat Kümin (ed.), Political Space in Pre-Industrial Europe (London: Routledge, 2009), pp. 43-60 (p. 43); see also Jeroen Duindam, Vienna and Versailles: The Courts of Europe’s Dynastic Rivals, 1550–1780 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). 67 Duindam, ‘Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires’, p. 9; see Geertz, Negara, p. 130. 68 Duindam, ‘Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires’, p. 17; see also Jeroen Duindam, Dynasties: A Global History of Power, 1300–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), esp. pp. 4, 76, 202. 69 Duindam, ‘Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires’, p. 2. 70 Asch, ‘The Princely Court and Political Space’, p. 47. 71 Mark Hengerer, Kaiserhof und Adel in der Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts: Eine Kommunikationsgeschichte der Macht in der Vormoderne (Constance: University of Michigan, 2004), pp. 216-42. 72 Duindam, Dynasties, pp. 7, 49.
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which created territorial borders in the early modern period rather than physical demarcations, a theory which applies equally to lesser territorial rulers as to monarchs. Sahlins states that ‘the primary function of kings in the Indo-European conception of royalty was not to govern, to wield power, but to take responsibility for the religious act of tracing boundaries’, and ‘by their presence they created the territorial division’ since ‘in their absence there was nothing to define the precise territorial boundaries of their lands’; ultimately, Sahlins contends, ‘The seventeenth-century state was not, strictly speaking, a territorial state: it was structured instead around “jurisdictions”’.73 Rulers were present and were seen to be present and this was vital to state formation, the delineation of their jurisdiction, and the creation of identities associated with it. Festivals were moments in which the nobility, rulers, were conspicuous and visible. This was particularly important in the German lands. Asch has analysed the ‘politics of access’ within European courts, observing that it was ‘particularly pronounced at those courts which followed the Burgundian-Spanish ceremonial rules — as for example in Vienna and most other German courts’.74 He goes on to explain that: Outside France, in Madrid and Vienna or at many German courts, the ruler’s (and his or her consort’s) apartments normally formed a long sequence of presence, guard, audience and ante-chambers, leading up to the cabinet and the bedchamber. Apart from formal audiences — and often not even then — only very few courtiers could enter the actual living quarters of the monarch, who remained invisible to most of them for long stretches of time.75 Duindam, though, notes the ‘spatial-ceremonial connections’ between courts and their surroundings involving ‘rituals in which outsiders entered the palace, or the ruler and his following left it for outdoor pageantry’.76 This served to heighten the importance of festival occasions at German courts especially — as moments when rulers became visible to each other, both face to face and via the accounts which were circulated to other courts, and even to their own courtiers and people. Festival occasions were moments and it must be remembered that they were distinct from the day-to-day. How people behaved during the festivals and the events which took place during them were conditioned by, but not the same as, court and urban life more broadly. What is often presented at festivals, and particularly in festival books, is an idealized portrayal. However, that it is an ideal being presented is not necessarily an impediment to the study of identity; rather identity is often composed of claims or idealized aspirations to qualities or characteristics. There is, of course, the complex issue of the extent to which the historian can reconstruct the events of festivals as they actually happened, 73 Sahlins, Boundaries, pp. 27-28. 74 Asch, ‘The Princely Court and Political Space’, p. 44. 75 Asch, ‘The Princely Court and Political Space’, p. 47. 76 Duindam, ‘Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires’, p. 19.
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and of whether it is possible to fully appreciate how the images and symbols contained within the festivals and the accounts of them were seen and interpreted by contemporary observers. Art history has been concerned for a number of years with Michael Baxandall’s notion of the ‘period eye’ — the question of whether historians can reconstruct the visual experience of past societies.77 There have also been several attempts made to confront these methodological issues within festival scholarship.78 The festivals, in a sense, had multiple existences: in the planning and conception of them, in the moment in which they were performed, and in their afterlife in the form of the accounts of them. Each of these ‘existences’ had different audiences. In some cases, the surviving accounts are those produced before the festival, written as a guide to events which were intended to take place, but there is of course no guarantee that this is how the occasion actually transpired. There are, indeed, admissions in some accounts that events had not gone according to the original plan. For instance, after the first day of an excursion to the lake at Starnberg, where various festivities took place on the water, during the visit to Munich of Ferdinand II in 1607, ‘A strong wind arose/ unlike any one had known elsewhere’ and so ‘one returned to Munich’ as the water-based entertainments could not continue.79 The limitations imposed on the historian by the sources in terms of reconstructing the festivals in the second of these existences mentioned above, that is to say as they were performed, do not present an insurmountable obstacle. Although historians cannot fully recover the reality of the performance of the events described and depicted in festival books and their associated imagery (even though a clearer idea can often be obtained through synthesizing multiple accounts such as when festival books have been published in a number of languages or when there are ambassadors’ reports), the portrayal of them is perhaps even more revealing than the events themselves. Some accounts, for example, depict feats almost certainly beyond the capabilities of early modern technology; these may be partly or entirely fantastical, but significantly their content indicates that it was attractive to rulers to be portrayed as having a command over nature. It can also be the case 77 This term was coined by Michael Baxandall in his The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1980). 78 See, for example, Henri Zerner, ‘Looking for the Unknowable: The Visual Experience of Renaissance Festivals’, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 1, pp. 75-98; Helen Watanabe O-Kelly, ‘The Early Modern Festival Book: Function and Form’, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 1, pp. 3-17. 79 ‘Ein starcker Wind auffstund/ Daβ man nit weitter kund’, ‘Gen München kam man wider’, Johann Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Das ist/ Kurtzer Bericht/ wie der Durchleuchtigist Fürst vnnd Herr/ Herr Maximilianus/ Pfaltzgraue bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Obern vnd Nidern Bayern/ etc. Ir Fürstlichen Durchl. Ertzhertzog von Grätz vnnd Oesterreich/ sambt seinem Hochgeliebten Gmahel/ vnd Fraw Mutter/ auch andern Geschwistern entgegen gezogen/ vnd in die Fürstl. Hauptstat München den 30. Augusti/ Anno 1607. einbeleitet. Sambt kurtzer Erzehlung der vberauβ grossen Pancket/ darinn 19. Fürstenpersonen bey einander gewesen. Weitter wird angezeigt/ alle Kurtzweil vnd Freudenspiel/ als Tragedi/ Fechtschuelen/ Geiaider/ Vogelschiessen/ so in vnd ausser der Statt seynd gehalten worden. Durch Johan Mayer/ Teutschen Poeten vnd Burgern in München. Gedruckt zu München bey Adam Berg. ANNO M.DC.VII. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1607), Ci r.
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that silences in the surviving material are significant and can carry important meanings; what could not be articulated at festivals can be as telling as what was performed. It is undoubtedly true that the historian can never entirely capture the ‘period eye’, although attempts can, of course, be made; one can read the various accounts of witnesses and study emblem books, for instance. However, this is a limitation which can, perhaps, be overly mourned. The historian also has a privileged vantage point. The possession of the ‘contemporary eye’, as long as its anachronisms to the period in question are acknowledged, can, in some instances, illuminate the past as much as attempts to reconstruct the ‘period eye’. For example, J. R. Mulryne utilizes the knowledge of a modern hydraulics expert, Jonathan Pearson, to highlight the vast scale of the technological challenge involved in flooding the courtyard of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence in order to stage a naumachia (mock naval battle) in which ‘Christians’ were pitted against ‘Turks’ as part of the celebrations for the marriage of Grand Duke Ferdinando of Tuscany and Christine of Lorraine in May 1589.80 According to Pearson, this would present a significant challenge even for modern technology.81 Similarly, Mulryne consulted Nicholas Rodger, an expert on early modern shipping, who informed him that the Christian galleys depicted in the etching made in 1592 were unconvincing even as approximations of sixteenth-century shipping.82 Such insights based on modern knowledge, which was not necessarily available to spectators or to the readers of festival books, could lead the historian to any number of conclusions — that the flooding never happened but was meant to be believed to have happened by those reading the accounts, or, if the accounts are still believed, that enormous expense both of money and of effort was required, or that caution is necessary in interpreting the etching as its rendering of the ships is perhaps unreliable and thus other features may be also.83 Hence, while the ‘period eye’ may be desirable yet ultimately unachievable in its entirety, the historian is not necessarily consigned to despair of his or her vantage point. Often, the imagery and symbolism contained in such accounts is best viewed with both ‘eyes’ open. The Complex Issue of ‘German’ Identity The question of German identity in particular remains a somewhat fraught and problematic one in the historiography. It is bound up with Germany’s
80 J. R. Mulryne, ‘Arbitrary Reality: Fact and Fantasy in the Florentine Naumachia, 1589’, in Margaret Shewring (ed.), Waterborne Pageants and Festivities in the Renaissance (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), pp. 143-75. 81 Mulryne, ‘Arbitrary Reality’, pp. 157-60. 82 Mulryne, ‘Arbitrary Reality’, pp. 161-62. 83 Mulryne concludes that it may have been possible to flood the courtyard, potentially through diverting water from the fountains in the Boboli Gardens and nearby aqueducts via a system of underground pipes, but that one should be cautious as to the reliability of the etching. Mulryne, ‘Arbitrary Reality’, pp. 160-71.
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twentieth-century history and the idea of a German Sonderweg leading inevitably to the First World War, the rise of National Socialism, and the Second World War. In his book, A German Identity 1770–1990, published in 1989 — the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall — Harold James demonstrates this conflation of the history of German identity with modern concerns.84 James admits that his account ‘tries to point a moral rather than to adorn a tale’.85 He outlines a ‘cycle of German national doctrines’ which is ‘not just of historical interest’, declaring that he hopes ‘we can learn something from the first terrifying cycle’ as Germany attempted to re-examine a ‘painful and even traumatic past’ which ‘contains the evils and the horrors of National Socialism’, and concludes ‘We may therefore speak of a cycle of answers to the problem which Germans so insistently posed themselves: what constituted national identity? It moved from cultural, to political, to economic, and then back to a series of cultural claims. This is the peculiar cycle that justifies a German claim to uniqueness’.86 As James also observed, the issue became politicized within post-war Germany; particularly from the 1970s ‘on all parts of the political spectrum, the quest for a substitute of the economic goal — for national identity — became more of a political issue’, and the Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker called ‘for an open confrontation and reckoning with the past as the only possibility to identify ways in which the “new”, post-1945 nation has transcended the social and political limitations of the “old” Germany’.87 Just over a decade after James’s analysis, Heinrich August Winkler’s Der lange Weg nach Westen charted the development of Germany towards a post-classical nation state which could facilitate a non-threatening German identity and declared that the specifically German path had ended with the events of 1989–1990.88 In this account, as in numerous others, the period of the Holy Roman Empire is identified as a crucial element preventing Germany from developing in the same manner as other European nations. As a result of the shadow of more recent times, fuelled by twentieth-century political concerns, it has been difficult for scholars to analyse ‘German’ cultural identities, particularly in relation to a time-period in which the Holy Roman Empire spanned vast swathes of Europe. It is only very recently that it has become possible for historians to begin to view the discussion in different terms and, indeed, for historians to be willing to do so. Still, however, the issue of ‘German’ identity has very rarely been tackled head-on for the early modern period.89
84 James, A German Identity. 85 James, A German Identity, p. 2. 86 James, A German Identity, pp. 3, 4, 217. 87 James, A German Identity, pp. 4-5. 88 Heinrich August Winkler, Der lange Weg nach Westen (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2000). 89 Len Scales has recently attempted to do so for the preceding period. See Scales, Shaping of German Identity. One notable piece relating to the early modern period is Joachim Whaley, ‘A German Nation? National and Confessional Identities before the Thirty Years War’, in R. J. W. Evans, Michael Schaich and Peter H. Wilson (eds), The Holy Roman Empire 1495–1806 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 303-21.
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The issue of German identity and ideas of a German Nation are also complicated by the historiography relating to nationalism. This historiography, too, has been heavily influenced by contemporary concerns. Michael Hechter declared in his analysis of the subject that ‘Nationalism and its close cousin, ethnicity, currently are the most potent political forces in the world’ and that ‘there is a pervasive interest in containing its dark side’, while István Deák wrote in 1990 that ‘today, as we begin to accommodate the idea of a gradual disappearance of nation-states’ the ‘supranational Habsburg dynasty’ could provide lessons to the post-1918 central and east central European nation states.90 Much of this historiography has restricted nationalism, and with it, to an extent, thinking on the concept of nations, to the political sphere and, for the most part, to the modern period. Hechter’s definition of nationalism as ‘collective action designed to render the boundaries of the nation congruent with those of its governance unit’ confines it to the modern period as he sees direct rule where ‘the centre assumes full responsibility for governing the entire polity’ as a necessary precondition and this only became ‘technically possible’ with ‘modern communications technology […] and the other accoutrements of the industrial revolution’.91 Hechter also believes that ‘Nationalism is, above all, political’ and that the ‘literary, musical, and artistic aspects of nationalism may be eminently worthy of study, but they ultimately are not responsible for the growing interest in the subject’.92 Other writers, however, have been less restrictive. Ernest Renan famously declared that ‘The existence of a nation […] is an everyday plebiscite’, Max Weber observed that ‘one may exact from certain groups of men a specific sentiment of solidarity in the face of other groups’ and thus concluded that ‘the concept belongs in the sphere of values’, and Hans Kohn argued that ‘Nationalism is first and foremost a state of mind, an act of consciousness’.93 These definitions are of far greater utility for thinking about early modern proto-nationalism, cultural ‘nations’, and the ‘German’ identities revealed in the court festivals of the early modern Holy Roman Empire. There have been significant changes in the political historiography relating to the Habsburg lands and the Holy Roman Empire, especially since the reunification of Germany. In the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the early modern period was characterized by a nationalist historiography as one of decline and decay for the Empire.94 Indeed, Peter Claus Hartmann has vividly described this characterization of the ‘severely federalist, very militarily weak
90 Michael Hechter, Containing Nationalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 3, 18; István Deák, Beyond Nationalism: A Social & Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps 1848–1918 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 9. 91 Hechter, Containing Nationalism, pp. 7, 28, 29. 92 Hechter, Containing Nationalism, p. 6. 93 Ernest Renan, Qu’est-ce qu’une nation ? (1882), as quoted in John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith (eds), Nationalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 7; Weber, Economy and Society, p. 922; Hans Kohn, The Idea of Nationalism (New York: Macmillan, 1944), p. 11. 94 See Georg Eckert and Gerrit Walther, ‘Die Geschichte der Frühneuzeitforschung in der Historischen Zeitschrift 1859-2009’, Historische Zeitschrift, 289 (2009), 149-97.
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Old Reich with little pronounced central rule as a fragmented, decayed, scarcely viable, anachronistic, outdated and sickly entity’.95 For decades, the dominant view of the Holy Roman Empire in English-language historiography, too, could be summarized by R. J. W. Evans’s memorable description, written at the end of the 1970s, of the lands ruled over by the Habsburgs as a ‘mildly centripetal agglutination of bewilderingly heterogeneous elements’ — a phrase coined for the Habsburg Monarchy but often applied to the Empire itself.96 However, these ideas have begun to be challenged. In the mid-1980s, Peter Moraw argued that the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw the foundation and strengthening of an infrastructure which culminated in the reforms of Maximilian I in around 1500 and established a framework for the following three centuries.97 Furthermore, rather than being depicted as a loose, anachronistic, confusing agglutination of distinct territories, Schmidt has gone so far as to propose that the early modern Reich should be regarded as a state with many similarities, as well as some differences, with other contemporary European states.98 Joachim Whaley has also recently shown that the Holy Roman Empire of this period can be seen in a much more coherent manner, as a ‘dynamically evolving polity’ rather than a stagnating one.99 While acknowledging the distinctive features of the various localities within the Empire, scholars such as Whaley have begun to emphasize the elements which bound them together, too. Whaley suggests the presence of ‘varying levels of identification, from locality to Reich, a multiplicity of interlocking and overlapping “fatherlands” expressed in the contemporary formula of “unity in diversity”’.100 Ultimately, he states that if ‘the history of the German lands in the period is the history of localities and territories, it is also the history of the union of those entities’.101 Similarly, Wilson’s recent work emphasizes that regionally specific corporate identities, based on closely guarded rights and privileges, did not undermine but rather strengthened the Empire’s relevance as a framework through which their perpetuation was guaranteed. Indeed, it would be a misunderstanding to see elements of heterogeneity as a failure of state formation within the imperial context. Wilson asserts that ‘The story of identification within the Empire […]
95 ‘stark föderalistische, militärisch sehr schwache Alte Reich mit wenig ausgeprägter Zentrale als zerrissenes, morsches, kaum lebensfähiges, anachronistisches, veraltetes und schwächliches Gebilde’, Peter Claus Hartmann, Das Heilige Römische Reich deutscher Nation in der Neuzeit 1486–1806 (Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam, 2005), p. 7. 96 R. J. W. Evans, The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1550–1700 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), p. 447. 97 Peter Moraw, Von offener Verfassung zu gestalteter Verdichtung: Das Reich im späten Mittelalter 1250 bis 1490 (Berlin: Propyläen, 1985). 98 Schmidt, ‘Das Reich und die deutsche Kulturnation’. 99 Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, vol. 1, p. 6. 100 Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, vol. 1, p. 14. See also Joachim Whaley, ‘Kulturelle Toleranz – die deutsche Nation im europäischen Vergleich’, in Georg Schmidt (ed.), Die deutsche Nation im frühneuzeitlichen Europa: Politische Ordnung und kulturelle Identität? (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 2010), pp. 201-24. 101 Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, vol. 1, p. 14.
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was always a process through which communities and groups formed their own particular identities through securing a legally recognized autonomous position within the wider imperial framework’; as such, ‘identity came to be expressed through shared rights incorporated in law and anchored in turn through their recognition in other charters or privileges associated with their community’s relationship to the Empire’.102 These more recent conceptions of the Holy Roman Empire, in which locality and the Empire are not antagonistic but symbiotic, are central to this work. The Rise of the Festival Book and Sources for Studying Festivals in the Early Modern Holy Roman Empire The publications recording festival events in this period were varied. Manuscript accounts did continue to be created, such as Lienhart Flexel’s record of the princely shooting contests held at Stuttgart in 1560.103 Yet the invention of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth century greatly changed the ways in which these occasions were commemorated. Pamphlet literature recorded events of interest and significance to its patrician and artisan readership, particularly coronations. Among the oldest surviving printed festival accounts are short pamphlets relating to the German coronation of Emperor Charles V at Aachen in 1520 (which came a decade prior to his eventual coronation by Pope Clement VII at Bologna in 1530). For instance, the collections at the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna include a very small, short, cheaply printed pamphlet of this coronation published in Augsburg by Sigmund Grimm and Marx Wirsung with only one woodcut illustration, which is on the frontispiece.104 Similarly, almost a century later, the coronation of Friedrich V, the Elector Palatine, as King of Bohemia in Prague in 1619 was the subject of pamphlet literature. The Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel possesses an anonymous, small, short pamphlet printed in Prague in 1619 which again is cheaply produced with no colour or decoration and only one crude woodcut illustration on the frontispiece.105 Indeed, this coronation was the subject of international pamphlet literature due to Friedrich’s marriage 102 See Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire, pp. 233-54 (pp. 235, 242). 103 Lienhart Flexel, Ordeliche Beschreibüng deβ Füerstlichen Herren Schiesen mitt dem Stachel deβ gehalten hatt der Dürchleüchtig Hochgeboren Füerst vnd Herr, Herr Christoff vonn Gottes genaden, Hörtzog zue Wüerttemberg vnnd zue Teckh, graff zue Mumppelgartt/ Wass füer Chur vnnd Füersten, Frawen vnnd Herren, Ritterschafft vnnd Adel. Stett vnnd Fenckhen den Drey vnnd zwaintzigisten Septembris Anno inn Sechtzigisten zu Stuettgarten im Lanndt Wüerttemberg gehalten, erkennen vnnd erschÿnnen, alles im Keyeren vnd gedicht verfast dürch Liennhartt Flexel von Augspurg Wie alle fäch darob erganngen ist von Anfang biss zum Endt Wie Hernach Volgett (Augsburg: 1560). 104 Römischer Künigklicher Maies. Krönung zu Ach geschehe (Augsburg: Sigmund Grimm and Marx Wirsung, 1520). 105 Warhafftige Beschreibung/ deβ Einzugs vnd Crönung zu Praag. Hertzog Friederichen/ von Gottes Gnaden/ gekrönter König in Böhmen/ Pfaltz Graff bey Rhein/ des Heiligen Römischen Reichs ErzTruchseβ vnd ChurFürst/ Herzog in Beyern/ MargGraff zu Mähren/ Herzog in Schlesien/ MargGraff zu Ober vnd NiederLauβniβ. Geschehen den 21. vnd 25. Octobris Altes Calenders. Gedruckt zu Praag/ Im JahrChristi M.DC.XIX. (Prague: [n. pub.], 1619).
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to the English princess Elizabeth, with John Harrison also publishing a short pamphlet account but in English.106 The predominant form of festival books to be analysed here, though, are the large, often lavishly illustrated, detailed printed works which began to emerge in the sixteenth century. The nature of the festival book and the images it contained could become part of the expression of majesty associated with the event and the subject of competition between courts, with copies routinely being gifted to, and collected by, the assorted noble households of Europe. Manuscript accounts, particularly those including lavish illustrations using expensive pigments, of course remained costly and impressive works due in large part to the time which went into creating them. However, printed works, which form the vast majority of festival books from the period, could also be made into expensive and impressive objects by displaying innovative techniques of production, particularly when it came to the images contained in them. The German-speaking lands were at the forefront of innovation in terms of printed images. In the late-fifteenth century, Albrecht Dürer was one of the first artists to make use of woodcuts to feed the demand for images in printed books (a method of printing in relief from a wooden block, which had been invented in China but did not reach the west until the fifteenth century and was initially used for printing designs onto textiles). It was in Germany, too, that the chiaroscuro woodcut technique, which enabled the production of woodcut images containing more than one colour through the use of multiple blocks cut accordingly, was developed by artists such as Hans Baldung Grien during the sixteenth century and this technique remained popular into the early-seventeenth century. Intaglio techniques of engraving onto a copper plate and etching through the use of acid biting into a printing plate were also pioneered in the Holy Roman Empire. Engraving was first developed in the fifteenth century, with Dürer once more playing a leading role. The etching of images for printmaking came in the early-sixteenth century, having been adapted from metal-working practices such as etching decorative designs onto suits of armour, with Hans Burgkmair being a prominent artist who used this technique. This work, while it certainly does not provide exhaustive coverage of court festivals within the Holy Roman Empire from the late-sixteenth and into the early-seventeenth century, will attempt to redress the lack of comparative works
106 John Harrison, A SHORT RELATION OF The departure of the high and mightie Prince Frederick King Elect of Bohemia: with his royall & vertuous Ladie Elizabeth; And the thryse hopefull yong Prince Henrie, from Heydelberg towards Prague, to receiue the Crowne of that Kingdome. Whearvnto is annexed the Solempnitie or manner of the Coronation. Translated out of dutch. And now both tigether published (with other reasons, and iustifications) to giue satisfaction to the world, as touching the ground, and truth, of his Ma[ies]ties proceedings, & vndertaking of that Kingdome of Bohemia: lawfully and freelie Elected, by the generall consent of the States, not ambitiouslie aspiring thearvnto. As also to encourage all other noble & heroicall spirits (especiallie our owne nation, whom in honour it first and chieffelie concerneth) by prerogative of that high, and soveraigne Title, hæreditarie to our Kings & Princes: defendees of the faith to the lyke Christian resolution, against Antichrist and his Adhærents. Si Deus nobiscum quis contranos. (Dort: George Waters, 1619).
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within the existing secondary literature by making an integrated set of arguments supported by evidence from different regions across the period. Of course, the selection of territories on which to concentrate this research was informed by the availability and richness of primary sources, as well as by the desire to depart from the existing historiography. Many of the primary sources considered here come from Bavaria and Württemberg. Though close geographically, these courts provide an informative contrast. Bavaria, in the south-east of the German lands, bordered with the Austrian lands, and had been under the rule of the Wittelsbach family since 1180, with Munich becoming its sole capital in 1506. The Wittelsbach family was extremely prominent; indeed, a member of the family, Louis IV, had been elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. It remained a Catholic family and Bavaria became a centre of the Counter-Reformation with a strong Jesuit presence. An especially rich source from this Bavarian material records the wedding in Munich of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria (1548–1626), and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine (1544–1602) in 1568. It is a particularly interesting festival to study as Lorraine, an autonomous duchy within the Holy Roman Empire, was positioned on the western edge of the Reich, bordered French territory, and its inhabitants were not primarily German-speaking (instead using a dialect of Lothringish or Lorraine Franconian). It therefore tests the inclusivity of the rhetoric of German identity seen in these festivals. It was also recorded vividly. The main account of the Munich 1568 wedding festival was written in German by Hans Wagner and was printed in Munich by Adam Berg in the same year as the wedding took place. The account, at over 200 pages, is lengthy for a festival book from this time and includes 14 coloured woodcuts by Nicolaus Solis, making it a particularly expensive publication. It is clearly a lavish, official account printed on behalf of Duke Albrecht, to whom it is dedicated. That it was intended for a noble readership is also indicated by the way in which the tournament that took place at this festival is recorded. Pamphlet literature relating to these occasions tended to focus on aspects such as the costumes worn, the order of the processions, and the coats of arms and titles of those competing — information which was relatively easy to come by and did not require a particularly highly informed observer. However, this account, while it does contain all of these elements, also provides plentiful details of the combat itself, such as recording the number of runs made by each participant and not just the number of lances broken (clearly breaking more lances with fewer runs is indicative of a higher level of skill), suggesting both that the author had more expert knowledge and was writing for a smaller and more experienced readership which would wish to know such details. The festivals of the court of the Duke of Württemberg, meanwhile, provide a rich body of material indicative of the formation of identity in a Protestant territory with an interesting sixteenth-century history which made for an uneasy relationship with the ruling Habsburg dynasty. The festivals are recorded at length, prominently by Georg Rudolf Weckherlin, a well-travelled humanist scholar, and Esaias von Hulsen, whose descriptions are lavishly illustrated. Von
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Hulsen’s account of the joint festival held in 1617 for the christening in Stuttgart of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg and Teck (1582–1628), and Barbara Sophia, Margravine of Brandenburg (1584–1636), together with the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard (1586–1631), and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen (1600–1624), for instance, contains no fewer than 92 images. The territory rose to a new status at the end of the fifteenth century, being elevated from a county to a duchy in 1495. However, only shortly afterwards, in 1519, Duke Ulrich of Württemberg was deposed, with Württemberg being annexed by Austria between 1519 and 1534, before the restoration of Ulrich. Christoph of Württemberg, duke from 1550 until 1568, had grown up at the Catholic court of the junior branch of the Habsburg dynasty at Innsbruck before travelling with Emperor Charles V and spending time at the French court, which was also Catholic. At the end of the 1530s, however, he converted to Protestantism and, having succeeded his father as duke in 1550, he introduced the Lutheran Grosse Kirchenordnung. He was then forced to make large payments to Ferdinand I in order to avoid charges of high treason. During his reign, he reconstructed the Altes Schloss and hosted numerous festivals, initiating a festival tradition which flourished in this period. The Dukes of Württemberg formed part of the early-seventeenth-century Protestant Union, the festivals of which will also feature throughout this work. In 1608, the Protestant Union included the rulers of the Palatinate, Ansbach, Kulmbach, and Baden-Durlach, as well as Württemberg. The following year, they were joined by the rulers of Brandenburg and Hesse-Kassel and the Duke of Pfalz-Zweibrücken. In the period from roughly 1609 until 1619 there was an interrelated series of court festivals involving the members of this Union. In 1609 there were celebrations for the wedding in Stuttgart of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and Barbara Sophia, the sister of the Elector of Brandenburg, and this was followed in June 1610 by the wedding in Jägerndorf of Johann Georg, Margrave of Brandenburg, and Eva Christina, Duchess of Württemberg, the brother and sister of the couple of 1609. The year 1613 saw the marriage of Friedrich V, the Elector Palatine, to Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of James I of England; they were married in London in February and their arrival at Heidelberg was celebrated in June of that year. In October 1614, Sophia Elisabeth, eldest daughter of Johann Georg I, Duke of Anhalt, married Georg Rudolf, Duke of Silesia, Liegnitz and Brieg, in Dessau. March 1616 saw the celebration in Stuttgart of the birth, just before Christmas 1615, of Friedrich, the second son and fourth child of the couple married in 1609 ( Johann Friedrich and Barbara Sophia). This was followed by the joint christening and wedding celebrations in Stuttgart in 1617. Finally, Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague in 1619. These events were attended by many of the same important political figures, and Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly has referred to them as ‘summit conferences’ — thinly veiled opportunities for the political leaders of the Protestant Union to cement their alliance and discuss current affairs without being overtly pugnacious or
F estivals an d Iden tity in the Holy Roma n Empire
antagonistic towards the Emperor.107 A number of other smaller festivities took place around these occasions, for example along the route taken by Friedrich V and Princess Elizabeth to Heidelberg following their wedding in London in 1613, and these, too, will be incorporated into this discussion, as will the festival held for the conferral of the Order of the Garter on Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, in 1605, which was also attended by many prominent future members of the Protestant Union. In addition, material relating to festivals and court culture from elsewhere in the Holy Roman Empire, including Innsbruck, Frankfurt-am-Main, Wittenberg, Dresden, and Vienna, drawn from primary sources as well as existing scholarly literature, will be included where pertinent to the arguments made in this work. Moreover, the chapters will occasionally draw on international, predominantly French, examples by means of comparison and contrast with these court festivals of the Holy Roman Empire in order to elucidate which aspects of these arguments are strongly applicable to the culture of court festivals in early modern Europe as a whole and which features are more specific to the German context as a result of its unique political, cultural, and religious peculiarities. This is an approach particularly inspired by the works of Jeroen Duindam who has compared and contrasted the court institutions of Vienna and Versailles and, more recently, attempted an ambitious comparison of dynastic rule on a global basis across the early modern period.108 Although such comparisons will always be imperfect, they can be highly instructive as a means of bringing out distinctive elements or pointing to different rhetorical strategies which were in existence and could have been employed, but were not. Sources relating to all aspects of the festivals will be considered, including the role of dance, music, and the performance of plays, while art, architecture, material culture, broader literature, ambassadors’ reports, and political correspondence will all be brought into the analysis. Performing German Identity: The Court Festivals of the Holy Roman Empire, 1555–1619 As well as fundamentally departing from the existing scholarship on court festivals by setting a direct engagement with the question of identity at the heart of its analysis, this work also addresses major gaps within the existing historiography relating to festivals within the German-speaking lands. Interest in court festivals and court culture more generally has, at least in part, developed within Germanlanguage historiography from the concern of some Austrian scholars with the social and economic history of the nobility which emerged particularly keenly in the 1970s, especially in connection with the Institute of Economic and Social History in Vienna, with noble life and court culture becoming a focus of this, 107 Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Protestant Union: Festivals, Festival Books, War and Politics’, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 15-34. 108 Duindam, Vienna and Versailles; Duindam, Dynasties.
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particularly from the 1980s.109 These concerns have very much endured and dominated, with Vocelka praising the ‘revolution in historiography’ bringing ‘an orientation towards social and cultural paradigms’.110 This has been the general trend, although it has not gone entirely uncontested — Vocelka notes in the same piece how one of his joint works with his research students on the coronation of Maximilian II was heavily criticized in an anonymous review for its lack of engagement with political history, to the extent that the reviewer questioned whether it was worth publishing at all.111 Clearly, these are two extreme positions. However, the historiography has arguably over-corrected from the blinkered focus solely on political history with the consequence that it has unduly neglected the insights that festival culture can provide into political history and state formation. The political history of the Holy Roman Empire has often been uncritically projected onto festivals as a contextual supplement to information on their staging, within a now outdated historiographical framework. To give one example, a detailed work on festival occasions at Oppenheim and Heidelberg in 1613 speaks, drawing on the prevailing view within English historiography, of the time at which the piece was written, of the Holy Roman Empire as an ‘improbable confederation’ and places the festivals within this unchallenged context.112 This particularly needs to be redressed, given the dramatic recent changes in the political historiography of the Holy Roman Empire mentioned above, to see whether the evidence of court festivals accords with these emergent models. The secondary literature relating to these court festivals has also been dominated by individual case-studies, concerned largely with the logistics and narrative details of a particular festival occasion or of festivals at a particular ruler’s court.113 Beyond this there is a body of material studying coronations specifically, sometimes within a comparative perspective.114 The historiography 109 See, for example, Ernst Bruckmüller, Sozialgeschichte Österreichs (Vienna: Herold Verlag, 1985); Herbert Knittler, Nutzen, Renten, Erträge: Struktur und Entwicklung frühneuzeitlicher Feudaleinkommen in Niederösterreich (Vienna: Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, 1989). 110 Karl Vocelka, ‘Habsburg Festivals in the Early Modern Period’, in Karin Friedrich (ed.), Festive Culture in Germany and Europe from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century (Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2000), pp. 123-35 (pp. 123-24). 111 Vocelka, ‘Habsburg Festivals’, p. 124; Review signed Schz., Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 20 (1991), 144-45. 112 J. R. Mulryne, ‘Marriage Entertainments in the Palatinate for Princess Elizabeth Stuart and the Elector Palatine’, in J. R. Mulryne and Margaret Shewring (eds), Italian Renaissance Festivals and their European Influence (Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992), pp. 173-96 (p. 174). 113 See Elisabeth Scheicher, ‘Ein Fest am Hofe Erzherzog Ferdinands II.’, Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, 77 (1981), 119-53; Mulryne, ‘Marriage Entertainments in the Palatinate for Princess Elizabeth and the Elector Palatine’ which analyses in detail two triumphal arches constructed at Oppenheim and two triumphal cars used at Heidelberg; Nicolette Mout, ‘“Dieser einzige Wiener Hof von Dir hat mehr Gelehrte als ganze Reiche anderer”: Späthumanismus am Kaiserhof in der Zeit Maximilians II.’, in Notker Hammerstein and Gerrit Walther (eds), Späthumanismus: Studien über das Ende einer Kulturhistorischen Epoche (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2000), pp. 46-64. 114 See Heinz Duchhardt, ‘Krönungszüge: Ein Versuch zur negativen Kommunikation’, in Heinz Duchhardt and Gert Melville (eds), Im Spannungsfeld von Recht und Ritual: soziale Kommunikation in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit (Cologne: Böhlau, 1997), pp. 291-304; Mario Kramp, Krönungen:
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is utterly dominated by a focus on the festivals of the Habsburg court itself and, where comparisons have been drawn, this has been done between the courts of different Habsburg emperors. The vast majority of the other courts within the German-speaking lands have, meanwhile, been largely neglected.115 This work will not omit Habsburg court festivals, but will set them within a true comparative framework. This will allow the exploration of a range of questions and is necessary if the festivals are to be understood fully. Indeed, as Roosen declares, ‘in order accurately to assess the significance of ceremonial actions, one must first assess what is normally expected’ — festivals, as ceremonial forms, must be studied in comparative context, not in isolation.116 The chapters of this work will engage with the question of identity thematically, guided by the notions which arise repeatedly from these various primary sources together with the concerns of early modern historians. The first chapter, ‘Lineage, Legitimacy, and History’, will address the enduring importance of lineage, genealogy, and history to noble legitimacy, as well as the threats to this posed by newly rising families taking advantage of the various changing conditions of the period. It explores how history was distorted to make competing claims, but shows how these claims were all made within the framework of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and by attempting to integrate oneself into this German history, as well as raising the importance of the noble quality of virtue in a humanist sense. The second chapter, ‘Mortality, Masculinity, Femininity, and Mutability’, explores the theme of gendered identities as well as the mortality of participants which often came to the fore at these occasions. Elements of masculinity and femininity which might be expected, showing gender segregation, male strength, and female beauty can be seen, but this chapter stresses, in a way which cuts against some of the existing historiography, that there was a fundamental aspect of mutability of these gendered roles which was not necessarily problematic, and once again emphasizes that it was virtue which was important. Virtue and mutability are again essential in the third chapter, ‘Nature and the German Land’, which analyses the representations of identity at these festivals based on nature and the German land. Images relating to, and personifications of, the land of Germania were prevalent at these occasions, and the physical landscape could become integral to the rhetoric employed. This could often carry political or confessional messages, but the overall effect of demonstrations of mastery over nature and of civilisation could also be a unifying one, creating an identity of Christendom’s virtue through learning. Könige in Aachen, Geschichte und Mythos (Mainz: P. von Zabern, 2000); Marion Steinicke and Stefan Weinfurter (eds), Investitur und Krönungsrituale: Herrschaftseinsetzungen im kulturellen Vergleich (Cologne: Böhlau, 2005). 115 An exception to this is the work of Watanabe-O’Kelly on the court at Dresden, but festival is only a part of this work. See Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, Court Culture in Dresden: From Renaissance to Baroque (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave, 2002). 116 William Roosen, ‘Early Modern Diplomatic Ceremonial: A Systems Approach’, Journal of Modern History, 52 (3) (1980), 452-76 (465).
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The fourth chapter, ‘Religion, Piety, and Confessional Difference’, then turns to an aspect of identity in the early modern Holy Roman Empire which one might expect to be divisive — that of religion. This could be a particularly sensitive area as festivals were often attended by nobility from different confessions. Religion and piety pervaded court festivals, Protestant and Catholic, and, especially as religious conflict loomed, there were confessional messages conveyed. Yet overall this rhetoric did not have the same vicious force seen elsewhere in Europe, with controversial aspects often being papered over, and the weight of the material, once more, focused on attempts to create unifying messages of common identity to which all of the participants could ascribe. It certainly did not undermine the legitimacy of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, even in instances in which the legitimacy of its ruling Habsburg dynasty was questioned. The fifth and final chapter, ‘Festival Encounters and the Shifting Borders of German Identity’, explores how the encounters which took place as part of festival occasions, whether real or imagined, with other inhabitants of the Empire, other Europeans, or non-Christians, most prominently in the form of Ottomans, intersected with the concepts of identity being forged. Fashionable elements of courtly culture from elsewhere in Europe permeated festivals at German courts, and highly prized luxuries, gathered through global exchanges of material culture, were prominently displayed by the attending nobility. Yet stylized imagery contrasting the Empire’s inhabitants with uncivilized, non-Christian peoples formed a pervasive narrative. While this imagery could be projected onto political and confessional opponents within the Empire itself, it also provided the framework for less antagonistic and less controversial themes of unity across confessional divisions and, indeed, within confessions. Differences of language and customs among attending courtly retinues, even from within the Empire, could be emphasized or, more commonly, circumvented as demanded by the occasion. Indeed, the use of a visiting retinue’s language by the host could demonstrate the skill, learning, and virtue of the court staging a festival. Ultimately, the borders of who could lay claim to a German identity were shifting and mutable, with court festivals able to find a performed language of identity which could enable the inclusion of disparate participants.
Chapter I
Lineage, Legitimacy, and History
Lineage and the dynasty remained essential components of noble identity in the early modern period and this was reflected in court festivals. Through invented histories and genealogies which were highly politicized and confessionalized, and through the distortion of history within the framework of the festival, competing claims to legitimacy were made. Partially, this was in response to, and can be seen in, the claims to status of rising families such as the Welsers and Fuggers, elevated by the developments of the sixteenth century. These historicized and often legalistic claims, though, set against the backdrop of political and confessional conflict, were made within the context of the Holy Roman Empire and did not undermine it as an entity; indeed, they even reinforced the concept of the Empire of the German Nation. Yet such contestation necessitated other avenues of legitimacy in which festival was vital and other pillars of legitimate noble identity became essential to stand alongside a very mutable conception of lineage, as later chapters within this work will go on to explore. The term ‘lineage’ is deliberately preferred here to alternatives such as ‘family’. Familial relations were, of course, essential to dynastic and hereditary rule, and certainly formed part of the glue which bound networks of patronage, loyalty, and fealty. Some very recent work has moved towards the analysis of noble identities taking as a starting point ‘dynasties or clusters of families’, arguing that ‘dynastic identities were a product of ongoing negotiations between different generations of the family; the rivalries between different branches or with other families’.1 However, lineage has been preferred here as it emphasizes a form of attempted construction of a legitimate identity which went beyond blood relations within and between families into historicized and contested legalistic claims to ancient privileges and invented genealogies. As mentioned in the introduction above, one of the challenges to noble identity in this period, alongside the various forms of political, religious, and intellectual upheaval, was the rise of banking and merchant families such as the Fuggers and Welsers. The Fugger family of Augsburg had been elevated into the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire through Jakob Fugger in May 1511, and in 1514 he gained the title of Reichsgraf, or Imperial Count, of Kirchberg and
1 Liesbeth Geevers and Mirella Marini (eds), Dynastic Identity in Early Modern Europe: Rulers, Aristocrats and the Formation of Identities (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), pp. 1-2.
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Weissenhorn. The financial might of this newly rising family was accompanied by political influence. Their association with the Habsburgs was cemented by their role in raising the loan of 850,000 florins (of which over 60 per cent came from the Fuggers themselves) which was vital in securing the election of Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor. Mining and the spice trade ensured that the family retained wealth and, with it, prominence, through the period under consideration here. The story of the Welser family, also rising from being Augsburg patricians, shares much in common with that of the Fuggers. This family, too, acted as financiers to Charles V, gaining wealth and prominence in the sixteenth century through trade and links with the New World. It was Bartholomäus Welser who provided a large loan for Charles V and, in return, gained the Province of Venezuela in 1528, which he developed as Klein-Venedig, although this did not last for long. In 1532 Bartholomäus was ennobled and in 1557 Philippine Welser had a secret, morganatic marriage to the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand II of Further Austria, through which she gained titles as Baroness of Zinnenburg, Margravine of Burgau, Landgravine of Mellenburg, and Countess of Oberhohenberg and Niederhohenberg. However, her children were barred from inheriting Ferdinand’s title as Archduke given her comparatively lowly background — illustrating how, while wealth could raise a family’s status, there were still some barriers to mobility and entry into the most elite circles of the upper nobility. Representatives of the Fugger and Welser families appear frequently in the court festivals of this period, and, given their newly found noble status and the potential threat this presented to more established families, it is interesting to analyse their representation and treatment. At Munich in 1568, for the wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, ‘Herr Maximilian [Markus] Fugger/ Freyherr’ appears in a list of those who accompanied Archduke Ferdinand of Austria.2 It is then ‘Herr Hanns Jacoben Fugger’ who is tasked with escorting various emissaries on their arrival in Munich.3 Also listed as present is ‘Herr Hanns Georg Welser’.4 Mayer’s account of the visit to Munich of Ferdinand II in 1607, meanwhile, contains a list of the ‘Names of the most serene princes/ and other lords shooting’ in the various contests which formed
2 Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung des Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornnen Fürsten vnnd Herren/ Herren Wilhalmen/ Pfaltzgrauen bey Rhein/ Hertzogen inn Obern vnd Nidern Bairen/ etc. Vnd derselben geliebsten Gemahel/ der Durchleuchtigisten Hochgebornnen Fürstin/ Frewlein Renata gebornne Hertzogin zu Lottringen vnd Parr/ etc. gehalten Hochzeitlichen Ehren Fests. Auch welcher gestalt die darauff geladnen Potentaten vnd Fürsten Personlich/ oder durch ire abgesandte Potschafften erschinen. Vnd dann was für Herrliche Ritterspil/ zu Roβ vnd Fueβ/ mit Thurnieren/ Rennen vnd Stechen. Neben andern vil ehrlichen kurtzweilen mit grossen freuden/ Triumph vnd kostligkait/ in der Fürstlichen Haubtstat München gehalten worden sein/ den zwenvndzwaintzigisten vnd nachuolgende tag Februarij/ Im 1568. Jar. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1568), p. 10v. 3 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 29r. 4 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 8r.
lineag e, leg itimacy, a nd history
part of the festivities.5 Included in this list is ‘Anthoni Fugger’.6 The entry comes late in the list — 47th out of 55 entries — although it is possible to read too much into this as the list does not appear to be in order of status given that ‘Hertzogin Maria Maximiliana in Bayern’ and ‘Hertzog Maximilian in Bayern’ come still further down the list. Perhaps more significantly, he is one of the very few on the list not given a title such as ‘Herr’. Zimmermann’s account of the 1613 wedding in Munich of Wolfgang Wilhelm, Duke of Pfalz-Neuburg (1578–1658), and Magdalena, Duchess of Bavaria (1587–1628), also mentions the presence of a Fugger. At the evening banquet following the first Church ceremony, he mentions that there was ‘to the base of the table Lord Max. Fugger/ as envoy to the Archduke Ferdinand of Graz’ as well as noting that Lord Fugger was a participant in the dance following the meal.7 Here he is only present as an envoy to a greater noble and is relegated to the end of the table. Perhaps the fact that this account was published in Augsburg, a city dominated by the influence of the Fugger family, though, goes some way to explaining why he is one of the few attendees of the banquet mentioned by name and is given a title here. Nor was it only in Munich or at Catholic festivals that Fuggers made an appearance. The account of the festival at Stuttgart in 1617 by Esaias von Hulsen records a completely separate ceremonial entry of Otto Heinrich Fugger, termed as a ‘Wohlgebornen Herren’ and ‘Freÿherren’, and this entry is far from the last of those recorded, being intermixed with those of various dukes and lords.8 There
5 ‘Namen der Durchleuchtigsten Fürsten/ vnd anderer Herrn Schützen’, Johann Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Das ist/ Kurtzer Bericht/ wie der Durchleuchtigist Fürst vnnd Herr/ Herr Maximilianus/ Pfaltzgraue bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Obern vnd Nidern Bayern/ etc. Ir Fürstlichen Durchl. Ertzhertzog von Grätz vnnd Oesterreich/ sambt seinem Hochgeliebten Gmahel/ vnd Fraw Mutter/ auch andern Geschwistern entgegen gezogen/ vnd in die Fürstl. Hauptstat München den 30. Augusti/ Anno 1607. einbeleitet. Sambt kurtzer Erzehlung der vberauβ grossen Pancket/ darinn 19. Fürstenpersonen bey einander gewesen. Weitter wird angezeigt/ alle Kurtzweil vnd Freudenspiel/ als Tragedi/ Fechtschuelen/ Geiaider/ Vogelschiessen/ so in vnd ausser der Statt seynd gehalten worden. Durch Johan Mayer/ Teutschen Poeten vnd Burgern in München. Gedruckt zu München bey Adam Berg. ANNO M.DC.VII. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1607), Civ v-Di v. 6 Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Di v. 7 ‘Zu vnderst an der Taffel Herr Max Fugger/ als Ertzhertzog Ferdinands zu Grätz abgesandter’, Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte entwerffung der Fürstlichen Hochzeit/ So Der Durchleuchtig/ vnd Hochgeborn Fürst vnd Herr/ Herr Wolffgang Wilhelm/ Pfaltzgraff bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Bayrn/ Gülch/ Cleue vnd Berg/ Graf zu Veldentz vnd Sponhaim. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigstin vnd hochgebornen Fürstin Fraw Magdalena/ Pfaltzgräfin bey Rhein/ Hertzogin in Obern vnd Nidern Bayrn. Zu München/ im sechzehenhundert vnd dreyzehenden Jahr/ den zwölfften Nouembris Celebriert vnd gehalten. Ins Werck versetzt/ durch Wilhelm Peter Zimmerman/ ins Kupffer Geradiert zu Augspurg. 1614. (Augsburg: Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, 1614), pp. 3-4. 8 Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō vnnd Abbildung aller Fürstlichen Auffzüg vnd Rütterspilen. Beÿ Deβ Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnnd Herren, Herren Johann Friderichen Hertzogen zü Württemberg vnnd Teck. Graven zü Montpelgart Herren zü Haydenhaim. Iro: F: Jungen Printzen vnd Sohns Hertzog Vlrichen wohlangestellter Fürstlichen Kindtauff: vnd dann beÿ Hochermelt Iro: F: G: geliebten Herren Brüoders. Deβ auch Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnd Herren Herren Ludwigen Friderichen Hertzogen zü Württemberg. Mit der Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin vnd Fräwlin Fraw Magdalena Elisabetha Landtgraffin auβ Hessen. Fürstlichem Beÿlager vnd Hochzeÿtlichem Frewdenfest Celebrirt vnd gehaltten. In der Fürstlichen Haüptstatt Stüetgartt. Den 13.14.15.16. vnnd 17. Iulij Anno 1617. (Stuttgart: Esaias von Hulsen, 1617), plates 54-57.
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is, then, an obvious ambivalence towards such families at these festivals, at some moments being accorded more reverence than at others although never quite gaining complete parity. The very presence of such recently ennobled merchant families which had risen to prominence as a result of wealth, however, presented a threat to established elements of noble identity — it brought into question the possession of wealth and of long illustrious lineages as central elements of this status. This is surely a significant part of why demonstrations of virtue, for which festival occasions offered many opportunities, became vital as performed displays of nobility at this time. That is not to say, of course, that conspicuous displays of wealth did not remain an important element of noble self-representation. One clear demonstration of this comes in the form of the lavish gift-giving at Munich for the wedding in 1613 of Wolfgang Wilhelm and Magdalena. According to the account of the festival, ‘the bride gave the groom a pearl cross set with valuable stones’ on the occasion of the wedding.9 The following morning, ‘the ruling lord’ paid homage with ‘a necklace worth 6000 Ducats’, then ‘The Elector a gem worth 2000’, and ‘Archduke Ferdinand also with a gem worth 3000’.10 Moreover, as the procession left Munich for Augsburg, the gifts ‘were stored in a fine chest with golden doors/ the inside of which was furnished with green lining/ that totally obscured the iron work’.11 Zimmermann is careful to record estimates of the sheer monetary value of the gifts, but with very little physical description of them. The one exception to this is the cross gifted by the bride, yet even this is described as ‘valuable’. The nature of the gifts was not as significant as their worth and thus the wealth of those who gave them (as well, of course, as the implication of the esteem in which the couple and their families were held by those giving these items). The gifts were then stored in a manner which served only to elevate the conspicuous display of wealth, as the example of the ornately lined chest demonstrates. Nor did genealogy become unimportant. As Jeroen Duindam has asserted, ‘Dynastic power throughout history shares some basic features’ one of which is that it ‘retains a powerful connection to family and genealogy’.12 He has shown that this was a strong foundation of nobility in Europe in particular, noting that ‘Full heredity in office, or election and co-optation from a small group of candidates defined by heredity, was common in almost all European polities, from Venice and the Dutch Republic to France and the Holy Roman Empire or England: this presents a striking difference with most Asian dynastic polities’.13
9 ‘hat die Braut dem Bräutigam ein Perlen Crantz mit Steinen versetzt geben’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 3. 10 ‘der Regierende Herr’, ‘ein Halβband auff 6000 […] Ducaten verehrt’, ‘Der Churfürst ein Kleinot auff 2000’, ‘Ertzhertzog Ferdinand auch ein Cleinot auff 3000’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 4. 11 ‘auβ gutem Samet mit guldenen Porten Posamentiert/ inwendig mit grün Toleta gefütert/ daβ Eysenwerck alles verguldt’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 5. 12 Jeroen Duindam, Dynasties: A Global History of Power, 1300–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), p. 4. 13 Duindam, Dynasties, p. 304.
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Assertions of great, long-standing noble lineage flooded festivals and festival books. Indeed, to take just one example, Emperor Ferdinand II, on his visit to Munich in 1607 is described as ‘born of an ancient lineage’.14 Moreover, simply to compete in the tournaments, one had to be of noble birth. The very first article of the Foot Tournament at Munich in 1568 was that ‘nobody/ who is not of noble descent and lineage/ should participate in this tournament’.15 Every aspect of festivals then reinforced hierarchy based on status — where one featured in an entry, where one sat or stood watching (as the vast majority did) at mealtimes, and numerous other signs of deference from lesser towards greater nobles. In Munich in 1568, for instance, the day after the wedding there was a day-long dance at which all but the most prominent members of the assembled nobility were only allowed to participate once ‘the princely persons had partaken of and finished their opening dances’.16 Of course, claims to status based on lineage, history, and ancient privileges granted were made, and contested, forcefully in festivals and their surrounding literature. The entire concept of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation was founded on a historical claim. The Holy Roman Empire was not just a geographical space but occupied a unique temporal space with ideas about its position in history relative to the end of the world. Marie Tanner has analysed at some length the perpetuation of the theory of the translatio imperii — the ‘unalterable scheme for the rotation of empires that prepared the return of the gods to earth’.17 The Holy Roman Empire was cast as the last universal monarchy in the succession of four monarchies prophesied by Daniel. This monarchy was universal as it represented the reunification of Christendom under its spiritual head, the Pope, and its secular sword, the Emperor, just as had been the case under the Christian Roman Emperors. The Empire and its rulers had to be woven into, and shown to have their own family origins in, this ancient history. In theory, the Emperors were to be chosen on their merits by the prince electors. By the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century, however, as Gerhard Herm has observed, ‘the House of Habsburg had contravened all of these fundamental principles [of the Empire] in blatant fashion’ since ‘The Habsburgs for a long time regarded the crown of Charlemagne as their inherited and private possession. From 1440 only men from this family were successfully placed on the imperial throne, and the German people were thereby entirely under their subjugation’.18 A major reason why the Habsburgs needed festival
14 ‘Von Altem Gschlecht geborn’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Aiii r. 15 ‘sol in disem Thurnier kainer/ so nit von adelichem geschlecht vnd herkommen/ zugelassen werden’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 44v. 16 ‘die Fürstenpersonen ire Vortäntz gehabt vnd vollendt’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 37v. 17 Marie Tanner, The Last Descendant of Aeneas: The Hapsburgs and the Mythic Image of the Emperor (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993), p. 17. 18 ‘Gegen alle diese Grundsätze […] hatte das Haus Habsburg auf eklatante Weise verstoβen’, ‘Habsburg betrachtete die Krone Karls des Groβen längst als seinen Erb- und Privatbesitz. Seit 1440 waren nur noch Männer aus dieser Familie auf den Kaiserthron gelangt, und die Deutschen waren dadurch
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was to legitimate their circumvention of the imperial constitution by, often corruptly, turning it into a family inheritance. Rhetoric making assertions of legitimacy was necessary because, as Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger has put it, ‘There was no authoritative and legally binding, written definition of what constituted princely, royal and imperial majesty’.19 In this period, writers both Protestant and Catholic, pro-Habsburg and anti-Habsburg, turned to historicized claims. As Alexandra Kess has argued, ‘Protestantism was faced with an urgent need to create a common identity, a key element of which involved the repossession of the past’; as the Protestants’ opponents argued that they ‘had no past’, ‘it was crucial that the Protestants could place themselves within history’.20 This gave rise to projects such as Johann Philippson von Schleiden’s De statu religionis et republicae, Carolo Quinto, Caesare, Commentarii, the history of which was grounded in the four empires theory, and Matthias Flacius Illyricus’s scheme to portray the ‘idea of a chain of God’s true witnesses throughout the centuries, culminating in the Protestant Church’ which is known as the Magdeburg Centuries.21 On the Catholic side came another large-scale work of history, the Historia Ecclesiastica by Cesare Baronius (1538–1607). Though the project of claiming historical precedents and of rewriting histories was in many cases inspired by political divisions which had confessional differences at their heart, history could also be used as a less antagonistic substitute for sacrality. Carina Johnson has argued that this was the case for the coronation of Maximilian II in Frankfurt, and not Aachen (the traditional site of imperial coronations, associated with ceremonial which was rejected by Protestants), as a connection with Charlemagne as a historical figure was maintained, but Charlemagne’s regalia was no longer described in purely sacral terms and accounts could refer to him as a historical Holy Roman Emperor rather than as a saint.22 Invented genealogies and distorted histories abounded. What resulted was a similar mass of claim and counter-claim to that which Tamar Herzog has observed in her study of how territory was demarcated in this period in the New World. She talks about a ‘paper trail’ of ‘claims rather than entitlements’, saying that ‘the constant invocation of rights framed the debate but did not necessarily disentangle it. Neither did history’.23 This ties in with the recent arguments about the importance of ‘non-knowledge’ and conscious as well as völlig in ihre Abhängigkeit geraten’, Gerhard Herm, Glanz und Niedergang des Hauses Habsburg (Düsseldorf, Vienna, and New York: ECON, 1989), p. 8. 19 Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, ‘Much Ado about Nothing? Rituals of Politics in Early Modern Europe and Today’, Bulletin of the GHI, 48 (2011), 9-24 (18). 20 Alexandra Kess, Johann Sleidan and the Protestant Vision of History (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), pp. 1, 119. 21 Kess, Johann Sleidan, p. 132. 22 Carina L. Johnson, ‘Imperial Authority in an Era of Confessions’, in Carina L. Johnson, Cultural Hierarchy in Sixteenth-Century Europe: The Ottomans and Mexicans (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 197-230 (pp. 215-16). 23 Tamar Herzog, Frontiers of Possession: Spain and Portugal in Europe and the Americas (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2015), p. 246.
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unconscious acts of ‘knowledge-decay’ in historical causation made by William O’Reilly.24 He explains that The concept of knowledge-decay refers to the practices by which different groups and individuals generate, acknowledge, and communicate knowledge and non-knowledge. The term knowledge-decay, like ‘non-knowledge’ indicates the general rejection or absence of knowledge, regardless of its further contextual implications: how knowledge has decayed away, too, as a result of conscious and unconscious acts.25 He then argues that ‘Perhaps now it is time for Historians to turn their attention to the history of Denial — ignorance as a dynamic process of knowledge denial and rejection in the past’.26 All sides in the Holy Roman Empire at this time consciously and unconsciously perpetuated non-knowledge, inaccurate or embellished histories, and these were represented in festivals and their associated literature. Allusions to classical Rome, linked to the claim of the Holy Roman Empire as the successor to it through the translatio imperii, the transfer of imperial power, of course loomed large in festival culture. Ephemeral triumphal arches, for instance, were made in a classical style. The Roman inheritance formed a central pillar of Habsburg imperial rhetoric and so naturally played a large part in the imperial festivals of the Holy Roman Empire. For instance, Mikael Bøgh Rasmussen sees the entry of Maximilian II into Vienna as King of the Romans in 1563 as the beginning of ‘a new era of magnificence in classical style and in the staging of Roman imperial tradition’ within the city, reflected in the ephemeral architecture designed in classical style and depicting classical themes; as part of ‘a dynastic, historical, political and religious manifestation of the claim of the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs to the title of Emperor, and the role of the Habsburgs as defenders of the Catholic faith’.27 Yet Roman imperial references are also clearly visible at Protestant festivals. For example, in Jägerndorf in 1610, in Margrave Johann Georg of Brandenburg’s triumphal procession at the tournament, which was staged to celebrate his wedding, the 24 knights accompanying him were dressed in Roman style.28 This could
24 William O’Reilly, ‘Non-Knowledge and Decision Making: The Challenge for the Historian’, in Cornel Zwierlein (ed.), The Dark Side of Knowledge: Histories of Ignorance, 1400–1800 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2016), pp. 397-419. 25 O’Reilly, ‘Non-Knowledge and Decision Making’, p. 415. 26 O’Reilly, ‘Non-Knowledge and Decision Making’, pp. 416-17. 27 Mikael Bøgh Rasmussen, ‘Vienna, a Habsburg Capital Redecorated in Classical Style: The Entry of Maximilian II as King of the Romans in 1563’, in J. R. Mulryne, Krista De Jonge, Pieter Martens, and R. L. M. Morris (eds), Architectures of Festival in Early Modern Europe: Fashioning and Re-fashioning Urban and Courtly Space (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2018), pp. 53-72 (pp. 69-70). 28 See Aygentliche Beschreibung Aller Frewden unnd Ritterspiell Ringelrennen auch anderer Kurtzweilen unnd gantzen ansehenlichen Apparatus und Pomp so bey Dem Fürstlichen Beylager deβ Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten unnd Herrn Herrn Johans Georgen Marggraffen zu Brandenburg in Preussen zu Stettin Pommern der Cassuben und Wenden Auch in Schlesien zu Cassen und Jägerndorff etc. Hertzogen Burggrafens zu Nürnberg und Fürsten zu Rügen Und Seiner Fürstl: Gn: geliebtester Gespons Der
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represent a claim to authority on behalf of the Protestant cause at this festival attended by leading members of the Protestant Union, or a commitment to the imperial ideal, or classical Rome may also have offered a non-divisive means of creating a unified identity and symbolizing authority (as it may also have done for the Habsburgs) — indeed, the Roman imagery may have served all of these purposes simultaneously. The use, and contested use, of classical precedent was of course vital in claiming ownership of the historical past and of the legitimacy which this afforded. Both Greek and Roman precedents were drawn on, but it is striking how Protestant festivals of this period made far greater use of Greek imagery. As well as simply offering an alternative classical precedent, it also potentially referred to the different conceptions of society between Greek and Roman thought, with the Roman tradition emphasizing legal justifications based on the dictat of law within the limes (‘border’) of a territory and thus of a ruler’s legal authority, while Greek thought placed more emphasis on civilisation and cultural factors of belonging. Protestant festivals certainly did make use of Roman figures to lend historicity and legitimacy. Equally, Greek figures are not absent in Habsburg festivals and imagery. One such instance was Charles V’s use of the Pillars of Hercules which were incorporated into his crest alongside his motto, Plus Ultra, and appeared at his funeral procession in Brussels in 1558. This procession featured a float with a galleon on it, followed by a pair of elephant seals pulling the Pillars of Hercules, bearing the inscription ‘you have rightly assumed the sign of the Pillars of Hercules, conqueror of the monsters of your time’.29 Yet there is a noticeable weighting towards Greek imagery in the Protestant festivals of this period. The Greek imagery was not exclusive, of course. At the (Protestant) festival at Stuttgart in 1602, there was an entry and an address by ‘Julius Caesar’.30 There
Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin und Fr: Fr: Eva Christina, Geborner Hertzogin zu Würtemberg Gräfin zu Mümpelgarth etc. In Seiner Fürstl: Gn: Hofresidentz der Statt Jägerndorff in Schlesien gantz herrlich zierlich und glücklich fürüber gangen und vollendet worden. Gedruckt zu Kempten bey Christoff Krausen. Anno 1610. (Kempten: Christoff Krausen, 1610), Cii r, trans. by Anna Linton, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 74-79 (pp. 76-77). 29 See W. Blockmans, Emperor Charles V: 1500–1558 (London: Arnold, 2002), pp. 3-5. 30 Jakob Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, Königlichen Auffzugs/ Heroischen Ingressus vnd Herrlicher Pomp vnd Solennitet: Mit welcher/ auff gnädige Verordnung Deβ dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnd Herrn/ Herrn Friderichen/ Hertzogen zu Würtenberg vnd Teck/ Grafen zu Mümpelgart/ Herrn zu Heydenheym: Ritter beyder Königlichen Orden in Franckreich vnd Engellandt: In der Faβnacht Mannliche vnnd Ritterliche Thurnier vnnd Ringrennen/ gehalten worden: Sampt einem stattlichen vnd wunderbarlichen Feuwerwerck/ dergleichen zuvor niemals gesehen noch gehöret: In Gegenwart etliche Fürsten/ Grafen/ Herrn/ Ritter vnd vom Adel/ Hochlöblichen/ Fürstlichen/ Adelichen Frauwenzimmer: Auch der Ehrwürdigen/ hoch vnd wolgelehrten Herren Prælaten in Würtenberg/ vnd Versammlung einer Ehrsamen Landischafft/ Mit gnädiger Bewilligung vnd Vorwissen Ihrer F.G. zur ewigen Gedächtnuβ/ der Posteritet publiciert. Durch M. IACOBVM FRISCHLINVM BALINGENSEM: POETAM ET HISTOricum Wirtenbergicum. Gedruckt zu Franckfurt am Mayn/ durch Joachim Brathering/ Im Jahr 1602. (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1602), pp. 69-70, 76-77.
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are even sections of the account by Jakob Frischlin which are written in Latin and the binding of the copy held in the British Library features a plainsong chant complete with Latin verse. This use of Latin could be at least partially explained by this particular account having been published in Frankfurt-am-Main — an Imperial Free City, predominantly Protestant but from 1562 the site of imperial coronations in the Catholic Kaiserdom Sankt Bartholomäus. Yet the Greek mythological and historical figures of Hercules, Pallas, and Alexander the Great all feature prominently in the festival.31 The wedding in 1613 of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, and the English princess Elizabeth Stuart, which took place in London and was followed by a triumphal return journey to Heidelberg along the Rhine, punctuated by further festivities en route, was framed by the recurring motif from Greek mythology of the legend of Jason and the Argonauts on their quest for the Golden Fleece. The extensive German account of the entire journey to and return from the wedding, the Beschreibung der Reiβ, remarks that at the running at the ring which was held as part of the tournament celebrating the couple’s arrival in Heidelberg, Elector Friedrich ‘appeared […] with a magnificent “invention” of the Argonaut triumph, as the valiant and victorious Jason, with his renowned Greek heroes and companions Peleus and Telamon’.32 The entry also included ‘the revered and most sage goddess Pallas in a very beautiful elaborately-carved carriage’ and ‘On the wheels on the right-hand side of this ornate carriage the arrival of the knight Jason and his company of Argonauts in the kingdom of Colchos was painted’.33 Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, too, has observed that the triumphal procession for the christening which took place at Stuttgart in 1616 was based around the theme of Trojans and Greeks with Johann Friedrich of Württemberg appearing as King Priam. Friedrich V of the Palatinate’s retinue, meanwhile, depicted Carthaginians including a representation of Carthago Nova and two elephants, though Friedrich himself appeared as the Roman general Scipio Africanus.34
31 Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, pp. 63, 65, 66. 32 ‘mit einer stattlichen Invention deβ Argonautischen Triumphs/ in der Person deβ Streitbar und Sighaften Iasonis, und seinen Grichischen weitberümbten Helden und gefehrten/ Peleo und Telamone […] ufgezogen’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ: Empfahung deβ Ritterlichen Ordens: Vollbringung des Heyraths: und glücklicher Heimführung: Wie auch der ansehnlichen Einführung: gehaltener Ritterspiel und Frewdenfests: Des Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herrn Herrn Friederichen deβ Fünften Pfaltzgraven bey Rhein deβ Heiligen Römischen Reichs Ertztruchsessen und Churfürsten Hertzogen in Bayern etc. Mit der auch Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürstin und Königlichen Princessin Elisabethen deβ Groβmechtigsten Herrn Hernn IACOBI deβ Ersten Königs in GroβBritannien Einigen Tochter. Mit schönen Kupfferstücken gezieret. In Gotthardt Vögelins Verlag. Anno 1613. ([Heidelberg]: Gotthardt Vögelin, 1613), p. 167, trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, WatanabeO’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 80-91 (pp. 88-89). 33 ‘die hocherleuchte und weiseste Göttin Pallas/ auf einem sehr schönen/ […] und kunstreich auβgeschniztem wagen’, ‘An den Rädern deβ kunstreichen Wagens/ zur rechten/ war abgemahlet die ankunft deβ Ritters Iasonis mit seiner Argonautischen gesellschafft in dem Königreich Colchos’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ, p. 167, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 88-89. 34 Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Protestant Union: Festivals, Festival Books, War and Politics’, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 15-34 (p. 25).
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Georg Rudolf Weckherlin’s account of the court festival held the following year at Stuttgart in 1617 once again makes reference to Julius Caesar, as had been the case in 1602, but there were also entries by ‘Mithridates’ (surely Mithridates VI of Pontus, a successful military commander who was a formidable opponent to some of the most renowned of the Roman Republic’s generals, including Pompey) and Alexander the Great once more.35 Esaias von Hulsen’s depiction of the same joint christening and wedding festival records the entry of Friedrich Achilles, Herzog zu Württemberg (himself of course named after a Greek hero) and shows as part of this entry the figure of ‘PALLAS’ from Greek mythology.36 Although the account itself is composed in Latin, there is a heavy weight of Greek references in the panegyric, written by the professor of biblical languages at the university of Wittenberg, celebrating the entry into Wittenberg of Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Sophie, Duchess of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, on 14 August 1579. Georg Friedrich is first likened to a Greek general with the statement that ‘The most illustrious heroic general of Leucas, who has the name of marquis, entered in noble peace’ — Leucas being an island off the West of Greece.37 The panegyric goes on to wish ‘May he live the years of Nestor with his beautiful bride’, Nestor being the Greek leader at Troy, famous for his great age and wisdom.38 Soon after this the author implores ‘Applaud now oh Muses, the marquis Phoebus who approaches your sacred Lycea with Sophia Phoebe’.39 Phoebus, also known as Apollo, is one of the Greek (and Roman) Olympian deities, most prominently the athletic god of the sun and light. Lycia, meanwhile, is a region of Anatolia which was briefly part of the Athenian Empire and came under the rule of Alexander the Great’s Macedon, following his victories over the Persians, adopting Hellenic culture. Here Latin is used, perhaps to impart a sense of tradition, historicity, and conformity to a precedent of representation, while using Greek examples to depart from the imagery associating the Holy Roman Emperors with their supposed classical forbears. Latin, the language of the Catholic liturgy, is thereby reclaimed from Catholicism and pressed into the service of praising and lending legitimacy to this Protestant couple. A similar use of Latin in order to conform to ritual precedent and to appropriate the imperial pattern of legitimacy, even during the most subversive of 35 Georg Rudolf Weckherlin, Kurtze Beschreibung/ Deβ zu Stutgarten/ bey den Fürstlichen Kindtauf vnd Hochzeit/ Jüngst-gehaltenen Frewden-Fests (Tübingen: Dieterich Werlin, 1618), p. 22. 36 Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō, plate 23. 37 ‘Leucorin ingreditur, Dux Illustrissimus Heros, Marchio qui nomen nobile Pacis habet’, GRATVLATORIA CARMINA AD ILLVSTRISSIMVM ET GENEROSISSIMVM PRINCIPEM ET DOminum D. GEORGIVM FRIDERICVM Marchionem Brandenburgensem, Inclytum Boruβiæ, Stetini, Pomeraniæ, Cassubiorum, Vandalorum & in Iegerndorff, Silesiæ Ducem &c. Burggrauium Noribergensem ac Rugiæ principem &c. Cum Illustriβima Coniuge SOPHIA, Ducissa Lunæburgensi &c. Vrbem Vitebergam feliciter ingressum, debitæ Gratitudinis ergo scripta. Anno 1579. die 14 Augusti. (Wittenberg: Haeredes Johannis Cratonis, 1579), A2r. 38 ‘Viuat dilecta cum coniuge Nestoris annos’, GRATVLATORIA, A2r. 39 ‘Plaudite iam Musae, vester quia MARCHIO Phoebus, Cum SOPHIA Phoebe, sacra Lycea subit’, GRATVLATORIA, A2v.
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acts, can be seen at the coronation of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, as King of Bohemia in Prague in 1619. During Friedrich’s entry into the city, the leading citizens ‘gave praise in the Latin language’ shouting ‘Vivat Rex Fridericus’ (‘long live King Friedrich’).40 A German account records that the choir at the service itself ‘sung the Veni Sancte Spiritus’ (‘Come Holy Spirit’), before they then ‘sung the Litany in Latin’, followed by the ‘Te Deum Laudamus’ (‘We praise you oh God’) which was traditionally sung on all occasions of rejoicing.41 Furthermore, ‘around the crown were these words’, which are given in Latin, ‘DANTE DEO ET ORDINVM CONCORDIA’ and on the other side ‘FRIDERICVS D.G. REX BOHEMIAE COMES PALAT. RHENI’. These are translated into German in this pamphlet, with the meanings ‘God and the estates have given me this crown’ and ‘Friedrich by God’s Grace King of Bohemia, Count Palatine of the Rhine’.42 The only concession to the use of the vernacular in the performance of the service, in this account of it, came in the sermon, with the anonymous author commenting ‘but a priest in a white cassock standing in the pulpit/ sung and preached in the Bohemian language’.43 Despite the Protestant emphasis on worshipping and preaching in the vernacular, and this being the very moment of Protestant triumph with this Calvinist Elector, the figurehead of the Protestant Union, receiving one of the most prized crowns, this service is flooded with Latin. That is because it sits within a tradition of imperial ritual to which it appeals for legitimacy, and the symbolism of which it appropriates to confer it. This is very similar to the arguments made by Kristin Zapalac in relation to political and religious iconography in Regensburg, whereby new meanings were attached to old and well-known symbolism such as the Papal crossed keys, often completely contradicting the rhetoric originally intended to be associated with it.44 That this coronation festival was performed in competition with, but also within the framework of, imperial ritual is made explicit by this German account of Friedrich’s coronation, which states that ‘everything was so magnificently and nobly also all so happily performed/ that it was never equalled by any Roman Emperor’.45
40 ‘in Lateinischer Sprach Gratuliren lassen’, Warhafftige Beschreibung/ deβ Einzugs vnd Crönung zu Praag. Hertzog Friederichen/ von Gottes Gnaden/ gekrönter König in Böhmen/ Pfaltz Graff bey Rhein/ des Heiligen Römischen Reichs ErzTruchseβ vnd ChurFürst/ Herzog in Beyern/ MargGraff zu Mähren/ Herzog in Schlesien/ MargGraff zu Ober vnd NiederLauβniβ. Geschehen den 21. vnd 25. Octobris Altes Calenders. Gedruckt zu Praag/ Im JahrChristi M.DC.XIX. (Prague: [n. pub.], 1619), Aii v. 41 ‘das Veni Sancte Spiritus gesungen’, ‘die Litaney Lateinisch gesungen’, Warhafftige Beschreibung/ deβ Einzugs vnd Crönung zu Praag, Bi r-Bii r. 42 ‘GOTT vnd die Länder haben mir die Cron gegeben’, ‘Friederich von Gottes Gnaden/ König in Böhmen/ PfaltzGraff bey Rhein’, Warhafftige Beschreibung/ deβ Einzugs vnd Crönung zu Praag, Bii r-Bii v. 43 ‘ein Priester aber in einem weissen ChorRock [a]vff den Predigtstuhl gangen/ in Böhmischer Sprach gesungen vnd gepredigt’, Warhafftige Beschreibung/ deβ Einzugs vnd Crönung zu Praag, Bi r. 44 Kristin Eldyss Sorensen Zapalac, In His Image and Likeness: Political Iconography and Religious Change in Regensburg, 1500–1600 (London: Cornell University Press, 1990). 45 ‘alles ist so prächtig vnd herrlich auch alles so glücklich abgangen/ dergleichen nie bey keinem Römischen Keyser geschehen’, Warhafftige Beschreibung/ deβ Einzugs vnd Crönung zu Praag, Aiv r.
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Indeed, this theme of subverting established rhetoric in order to make claims to legitimacy, but still doing so very much within the framework of the Holy Roman Empire rather than in opposition to it, is particularly evident in the festivals of the early-seventeenth-century Protestant Union and in claims surrounding the figure of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, in particular, made in connection to his marriage with Princess Elizabeth Stuart of England in 1613. Tanner has highlighted the importance of the Argonautic legend in imperial rhetoric, saying that the reenactment of the Argonautic quest for the Golden Fleece, the domination of the East, and the founding of a new Troy became stock portents of a divinely willed supersession of empires […] At each decisive point in the transfer of sovereignty these topoi were called upon to validate the pretender’s kingship in the royal blood brought to earth by Jove when he founded the line of kings to last throughout the ages.46 The Order of the Golden Fleece was founded in 1429 by Philip the Good of Burgundy, a direct descendant of Charlemagne. All members of the Habsburg family proudly wore the symbol of the Order of the Golden Fleece, though in early modern Europe the question of who was allowed to award the Golden Fleece came to be contested and, as William O’Reilly has shown, this remained a means of claiming and disputing the imperial dignity through into the eighteenth century when both the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and Philip V, the Bourbon King of Spain, awarded the Order in parallel.47 It is surely significant, then, that, as mentioned above, the quest for the Golden Fleece formed the primary motif for the festivals celebrating the marriage of Friedrich, leader of the Protestant Union, and Elizabeth in 1613. The imperial rhetoric of the Habsburgs was being appropriated to lend legitimacy to Friedrich and his cause and perhaps even to presage another transfer of the imperial dignity away from the Habsburgs. The Argonautic journey also served as a metaphor for Crusade.48 Tanner observes that ‘The Knights of the Golden Fleece, self-proclaimed Argonauts, identified their crusading objectives of defeating the Turk and repossessing the Holy Sepulchre with the capture of the Golden Fleece that had been accomplished by their mythical prototypes’.49 With the looming prospect of religious conflict, and the affiliation of Catholicism with the Turk seen in Protestant rhetoric such as that of the Lutheran Reformer Urbanus Rhegius, who deemed both to be false prophets since neither believed in salvation through Christ or in justification by faith alone, it is not too great a stretch to see this allusion as heralding a
46 Tanner, The Last Descendant of Aeneas, p. 19. 47 William O’Reilly, ‘Lost Chances of the House of Habsburg’, Austrian History Yearbook, 40 (1) (2009), 53-70 (66-67). 48 Tanner, The Last Descendant of Aeneas, p. 56. 49 Tanner, The Last Descendant of Aeneas, p. 57.
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different Crusade.50 As J. R. Mulryne has observed, the imagery relating to the quest for the Golden Fleece and the appearance of the Argo at Heidelberg was reminiscent of the obsequies for Charles V at which the ship of Jason had also appeared, so that ‘in choosing the Golden Fleece, Heidelberg was associating its emergent court not only with so potent a figure as Charles V, but with the rich tradition of Burgundy and its chivalric Order’, transposing imperial imagery for its own rhetorical ends.51 Another prominent aspect of this was the connection of the couple with Charlemagne (742–814) — crowned on Christmas Day 800 as the first Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope, Leo III. James Maxwell penned a number of works drawing this connection. The title of one of these works relating to the wedding refers to Friedrich as ‘first prince of the imperiall bloud, sprung from glorious Charlemaigne’ and Elizabeth as the daughter of not just King James but ‘Charles-Iames’; stressing that the couple were ‘almost in one and the same degree lineall descent from 25 emperours of the east and west, of Romanes, Greekes, and Germans, and from 30 kings of diuers countries’.52 This association with Charlemagne is interesting on a number of levels. Firstly, this figure is, in some ways, a symbol of a unified Christendom as he brought much of Europe together under a single Christian ruler for the first time since the Roman Empire. Far from portraying the leader of the Protestant Union as a figure of faction and discord, therefore, this is arguably a call for Christian unity, or, perhaps, for him to lead a unified Christendom. At the least, it is interesting that two Protestant monarchs are being traced back to Charlemagne, a figure who represented the secular arm of the Catholic Church. Secondly, this is surely in part an attempt to glorify both Friedrich and James by relating them to a great figure of kingship, to give legitimacy to a marriage of two great dynasties tied in history, and to promote conquest (whether this exhortation came from confessional passions or simply from an ideal of kingship) — after all, Charlemagne was the great conqueror of European territories as well as a unifying force. This aspect of the evocation of Charlemagne may be suggested by the fact that, in a conspicuously more Anglo-centric publication, Maxwell 50 See Richard G. Cole, ‘Sixteenth-Century Travel Books as a Source of European Attitudes toward NonWhite and Non-Western Culture’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 116 (1) (1972), 59-67 (61). 51 J. R. Mulryne, ‘Marriage Entertainments in the Palatinate for Princess Elizabeth Stuart and the Elector Palatine’, in J. R. Mulryne and Margaret Shewring (eds), Italian Renaissance Festivals and their European Influence (Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992), pp. 173-96 (p. 191). 52 James Maxwell, A MONVMENT of Remembrance, ERECTED IN ALBION, IN HONOR OF THE MAGNIFICENT DEPARTVRE FROM BRITANNIE, and honorable receiuing in GERMANY, namely at HEIDELBERGE, of the two most Noble Princes FREDERICKE, First Prince of the Imperiall bloud, sprung from glorious Charlemaigne, Count Palatine of Rhine, Duke of Bauier, Elector and Arch-sewer of the holy Romane Empire, and Knight of the Renowned order of the GARTER. & ELIZABETH INFANTA of ALBION, Princesse PALATINE, and Dutchesse of BAVIER, the onely Daughter of our most gratious and Soueraigne Lord CHARLES-IAMES, and of his most Noble and vertuous Wife, Queene ANNE. Both of them being almost in one and the same degree of lineall descent from 25 Emperours of the East and West, of Romanes, Greekes, and Germans, and from 30 Kings of diuers countries. (London: N. Okes for H. Bell, 1613).
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traced their shared lineage instead to Edward III of England — another powerful conqueror of European territory — declaring that Friedrich and Elizabeth were ‘both of them in one and the same degree of lineall descent from Edward the Third, the victorious king of England’.53 Indeed, one poem celebrating the marriage exclaimed ‘And let me liue to see betweene you twaine,/ A Cæsar borne as great as Charlemaine’.54 The attempt to give a glorious lineage to the couple and to embed them within the history of the Holy Roman Empire can be seen clearly in an extraordinary passage of verse with accompanying footnotes in Henry Peacham’s THE PERIOD OF Mourning […] TOGETHER VVith Nuptiall Hymnes.55 The section of verse in question reads, superficially unremarkably perhaps: Young Fredericke borne of Imperiall Ligne,/ Descended from that braue Rolando slaine,/ And worlds great VVorthy, valiant Charle-Maigne:/ This hopefull Impe is stricken with our Bowe,/ VVee haue his Armes, and threefold Shield to show;/ Franconias Lyon, and this of Baueir,/ A potent Heyre deriu’d from Caβimeir./ Another Argent onely, long they bore,/ Till charg’d by Charles the last, late Emperour,/ That as Arch-Sewer, and Elector, this/ Hee beares, saue honor, adding nought of his./ VVhat Coast or Country haue not heard their Fame?/ Or who not lou’d their euer-honour’d Name?/ Yet trembled at from farthest Caspian Sea,/ And Scythian Tanais, to the Danube.56 The accompanying footnotes make it clear how this section of verse once again emphasizes the Elector’s imperial lineage. He was descended from ‘Rolando’, ‘A most valiant Souldier, and Nephew to Charlemaine’ and another footnote adds ‘Pipin King of France, the Father of Charolus Martellus, he begat Pipin the Father of Charlemaigne auncetour to Count FREDERICK’.57 A further note explains that ‘Otto the Sonne of Lewes Duke of Bauaria, or rather Boiaria, marryed Agnes Daughter and Heire of Henry, Count Palatine of the Rhine, in the yeere 1215. (as saith Auentinus) which was the first vniting of these noble Houses’; the note then declares that ‘Out of this Family haue many worthy Emperours descended,
53 James Maxwell, An English-Royall Pedegree: Common to the two most Noble Princes Lately Maried. FRIDERICK, first Prince of the Imperiall, blood sprung from glorious Charle-Magne, Count palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bauier, Elector and Arch-Sewer of the holy Romaine Empire, & knight of the renowned order of the Garter. and ELIZABETH, Infanta of Albion, Princesse Palatine, Dutchesse of Bauier, the onely Daughter of our most gracious King Iames and Qu[e]ene Anne. Being both of them in one, and the same degree of lineall descent from Edward the Third, the victorious King of England. (London: Edward Allde for Henry Gosson, 1613). 54 Henry Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning. Disposed into sixe VISIONS. In Memorie of the late Prince. TOGETHER VVith Nuptiall Hymnes, in Honour of this Happy Marriage between the Great PRINCES, FREDERICK Count Palatine of the RHENE, AND The Most Excellent, and Aboundant President of all VIRTVE and GOODNES ELIZABETH onely Daughter to our Soueraigne, his MAIESTIE. Also the manner of the Solemnization of the Marriage at White-Hall, on the 14. of February, being Sunday, and St Valentines day. (London: T. S. for John Helme, 1613), G3r. 55 Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning. 56 Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning, F3v-F4v. 57 Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning, F4r, n. 1 and n. 2.
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in a manner, by continuall succession, vnto our times’.58 One might go as far as to suggest that these assertions lend legitimacy to the idea of Friedrich as a potential Holy Roman Emperor. At the very least, they illustrate that the leader of the Protestant Union is being given legitimacy, having his nobility buttressed, by reference to a glorious ancestry within the history and framework of the Holy Roman Empire. This was accompanied by claims to privileges associated with this ancestry and heritage. Peacham states that at the same time as the Palatinate of the Rhine came into existence, ‘the seauen Electors were ordained at Quedlingburge’.59 The special constitutional position and privileges of the Elector Palatine are then expounded. The lines of verse ‘Another Argent onely, long they bore,/ Till charg’d by Charles the last, late Emperour’ are revealed to be a reference to the fact that the ‘third and middlemost’ of the ‘three-fold Shield’, which was ‘borne by the Palatinate’, ‘was onely white, till the time of Charles the fift[h], who bestowed the Pall, or Mound, for the charge vpon Frederick the second, Count Palatine, in regard it is his office to deliuer it into his hand at his Coronation’.60 This highlights an aspect of the Elector Palatine’s constitutional role as being involved in bestowing legitimacy upon an emperor. The notes go on to declare that if anyone wishes to see the ‘large priuiledges which haue beene graunted […] let him reade the Golden Bull of Charles the fourth Emperour’ — a reference to the Golden Bull of 1356 issued by the Imperial Diet at Nuremberg and Metz.61 In this Bull, the notes affirm, ‘the senior Electorship is also confirmed to the Palatinate’.62 This could be read as giving constitutional legitimacy to Friedrich’s leadership of the Protestant Union — the Elector Palatine’s role is as a leader of the Electors. That it is the Golden Bull which is cited is also significant as it stands in contrast to the Privilegium Maius, a document forged on behalf of the Habsburg Duke Rudolf IV of Austria, dated to 1358/9, which conferred on Rudolf similar rights to those given to the seven prince electors in the Golden Bull. By this time the Privilegium was widely known to have been forged, thus the grounding of this argument in the Golden Bull carried the subversive overtone that the Elector Palatine’s authority was more legitimate, more firmly grounded in the imperial constitution, than that of the Habsburgs. The most astounding and vital constitutional argument follows soon after in the same note, namely that: By the same Bull the Palatinate may call the Emperour to his tryall (but within the limits of his owne Court) hee may redeeme, and recall, any alienation made vniustly by the Emperour, lands pawned or solde, &c. One goeth farther, and affirmeth that if the Emperour be conuict of any capitall crime,
58 Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning, F4r, n. 4. 59 Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning, F4r, n. 3. 60 Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning, F4r, and F4r, n. 5. 61 Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning, F4v, n. 6. 62 Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning, F4v, n. 7.
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the Palatine himself is to cut off his head with a golden Axe, vpon his Shield: but mine Author worthily condemneth this as an idle and ridiculous iest.63 Despite the somewhat unconvincing back-peddling from this dangerous flirtation with the idea of tyrannicide, undoubtedly influenced by the context of the assassination of Henri IV in 1610 and a desire to avoid censure and arousing King James’s displeasure, the inclusion of this argument here, in its political context, is of huge significance. By this argument, far from being a war for independence, or an illustration of the weakness of the Holy Roman Empire as an entity or as an ideal (as many have assumed the Thirty Years War to be), a civil war waged against an unjust emperor to call him to account would be waged in defence of the Holy Roman Empire and its constitution, not outside of it or in spite of it. Such an idea conspicuously drew on changes in Protestant views on political obedience, and, ultimately, the development of Calvinist resistance theory, which had taken place through the previous century. There was a clearly discernible movement throughout the sixteenth century among Protestant writers from an emphasis on the imperative to obey all figures wielding worldly authority towards, in the most radical cases, an explicit acknowledgement that the removal of a ruler by an individual private citizen can be legitimate. Indeed, as Quentin Skinner writes, even by the mid-sixteenth century radical Calvinist writers were able to assure the people that ‘they will not be damned if they resist the powers that be, but rather that they will be damned if they fail to do so’.64 Luther’s Von Weltlicher Oberkeit (1523) essentially advocated a policy of passive obedience, stating ‘Evil is not to be resisted, but suffered. Of course, you should not approve what is done, or lift a finger or walk a single step to aid and abet them in any way, nor should you obey’.65 Even if a ruler is tyrannical, he must not be actively resisted, for ‘these are God’s hangmen, and his divine wrath makes use of them’.66 Yet Lutherans soon deviated from this position under the pressure of political circumstances in 1530. Following a conference between the jurists and theologians at the Palace of Torgau in 1530, Luther issued a formal capitulation, declaring that ‘we may resist the governing authority’ and that ‘in this instance it is necessary to fight back, even if the Emperor himself attacks us’, the sudden change of heart being justified by ‘the fact that we did not know that the governing authority’s law itself grants the right of armed resistance’.67 This private-law theory was then developed further by Lutherans in the following decades, reaching its apogee in the Magdeburg Confession of 1550, written to justify the city’s resistance to the Imperial troops who were besieging it.
63 Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning, F4v, n. 7. 64 Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought, 2 vols (Cambridge: 1978), 7th edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), vol. 2, p. 238. 65 Martin Luther, Von Weltlicher Oberkeit (1523), in Harro Höpfl (ed. and trans.), Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 3-43 (p. 29). 66 Luther, Von Weltlicher Oberkeit, p. 30. 67 Skinner, Foundations of Modern Political Thought, vol. 2, p. 200.
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As Skinner argues, the development of Calvinist thought in the mid-sixteenth century drew heavily on these Lutheran precedents.68 Yet the Calvinist view of political obedience formulated in the 1550s contributed, in its more extreme guises, the idea that, as Ponet stated, ‘a prince or judge is not always ordained by God’.69 Another vital contribution was the idea that popularly elected magistrates could lawfully resist an idolatrous or tyrannical government. This idea was not new, yet Calvin’s was the most forceful statement of the argument in the sixteenth century. Calvin grants that ‘popular magistrates’ would be ‘acting in accordance with their duty’ by ‘resisting the licentiousness and frenzy of kings’, and failing to do so would be ‘a nefarious betrayal of their oath’.70 Finally, the Calvinist ideology of the covenant was developed by some radicals into a duty of all citizens to resist ungodly rulers. This is pushed to its extreme in the writing of Buchanan. His De Iure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus (1579), extends the right to dispose of a tyrant to all individuals, not just those acting under the inspiration of God, asking ‘What about the tyrant, the public enemy, with whom all good men are constantly at war? Cannot any individual from the whole mass of the human race lawfully exact from him all the penalties of war?’71 This is clearly a step further than the author of this verse in Peacham’s collection is prepared to go, almost certainly due to the fears generated by the assassination of Henri IV in 1610. Nevertheless, the note which accompanies the verse is clearly justifying resistance by the Elector with reference to this body of sixteenth-century Calvinist political thought. Just as Friedrich, at his wedding in London in 1613, was associated with the figure of Charlemagne, references associating the members of the Union to famous heroes of German history (and of German mythology), a mixture of historical and invented precedent, were prominent in the festivals of the Protestant Union more broadly, as well as in the triumphal voyage of the couple of 1613 along the Rhine, punctuated by festivities, as they returned to Heidelberg to continue the marriage celebrations. The nine trumpeters in the bridegroom’s procession at Stuttgart in 1609, mentioned above, ‘were carrying simple, plain trumpets with pennants on them, on which the coats of arms of Brennus, Mannus and Arminius were depicted’.72 Brennus was the leader of the Gauls at the capture of
68 Skinner, Foundations of Modern Political Thought, p. 207. 69 Skinner, Foundations of Modern Political Thought, p. 228. 70 Jean Calvin, Institutio Christianae Religionis (1536–1559), in Höpfl, Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority, pp. 47-86 (p. 83). 71 George Buchanan, De Iure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus (1579), ed. and trans. by Roger A. Mason and Martin S. Smith (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), pp. 153-55. 72 ‘haben schlechte einfache Trommeten mit Fahnen geführt darinn deβ Brenni, Manni und Arminii Wappen gemahlet’, Johann Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung Der Fürstlichen Hochzeit und des Hochansehnlichen Beylagers So Der Durchleuchtig Hochgeborn Fürst und Herr Herr Johann Friderich Hertzog zu Würtemberg und Teck Grave zu Mümpelgart Herr zu Haydenhaim etc. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin unnd Frewlin Frewlin Barbara Sophia Marggrävin zu Brandenburg in Preussen zu Stettin Pomern der Cassuben unnd Wenden auch zu Crossen und Jägerndorff in Schlesien, Hertzogin Burggrävin zu Nürnberg und Fürstin zu Rügen etc. In der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgardten Anno 1609. den 6. Novembris und etliche hernach volgende Tag Celebriert und gehalten hat: Darinnen
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Rome in c. 390 bc, while Mannus was a German mythological figure mentioned by Tacitus in Germania, and Arminius (c. 18/16 bc–ad 19/21) was the ancient German hero who defeated the Roman army under Varus in the Teutoburg forest in ad 9. Later in the procession, these figures themselves entered in magnificent fashion. Oettinger’s account relays that: Then the most renowned German kings, Brennus, Mannus and Arminius, the defenders, came riding in dressed in their ancient splendour, in kingly costumes and armour […] On their heads they wore gilded helmets, each with a crown and adorned with fine tall plumes in yellow, black, red, and white, with ancient German cavalry swords at their sides.73 It is interesting that they are characterized as being the ‘Mantenetores’ (‘defenders’). By association, the rhetoric is that Johann Friedrich, and by extension the Protestant Union, is a defender of Germany, just as these heroes were. There was also a literary precedent for the use of the figure of Arminius in the nationalist literature of Ulrich von Hutten (1488–1523) who, in the words of WatanabeO’Kelly, aligned himself with the Lutheran cause ‘not so much out of theological fervour as because he wished to harness Luther’s anti-Roman propaganda to his own nationalist programme’.74 Hutten decried the wealth, corruption, and unjustified intrusions into secular authority of the papacy. He was ‘driven by a vision of a German empire freed from the chains of the papacy — something he articulates in his Arminius dialogue of 1519/20’.75 Clothing could be important in this visual rhetoric of ‘Germanness’. The first procession of the bridegroom at the wedding of Johann Friedrich and Barbara Sophia in Stuttgart in 1609 contained ‘Six padrini (seconds)’ whose attire is then described thus: ‘On their heads they wore slit berets in the old German manner decorated with plumes’.76 The procession’s military drummer, accompanied by two old courtiers, ‘also processed in ancient German costume’, and the same
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alle Fürsten Fürstine und Frewlin: Graven Herren und vom Adel: Auch der abwesenden König: Chur: Fürsten unnd Stände Abgesandte so dieser Hochzeit beygewohnt verzeichnet: Darzu alle darbey gehaltene Ritterspihl Ring-rennen Turnier Auffzüg Fewerwerck und alle andere kurtzweil in dreyen underschiedlichen Büchern eigentlich und gründlich beschriben und mit lustigen Kupfferstücken Abgebildet werden. Durch M. Johann Oettingern Fürstl. Würtembergischen Geographum und Renovatorem. Gedruckt in der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgart. Ann0 1610 (Stuttgart: G. Grieb, 1610), p. 108, trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 58-73 (pp. 60-61). ‘Demnach sind die drey hochberühmbte alte Teutsche Könige BRENNVS, MANNVS unnd ARMINIVS Mantenetores, in ihrer uhralten Herrligkeit und Königlichem Habit und Rüstung herein geritten […] auff den Häuptern führten sie vergulte Helmen deren jeder mit einer Cron unnd schönen hohen Federbüschen von gelb schwartz roth und weiβ gezieret an den Seitten alte Teutsche Reutschwerd’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 109, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 62-63. Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Early Modern Period (1450–1720)’, in Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (ed.), The Cambridge History of German Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 92-146 (p. 96). Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Early Modern Period (1450–1720)’, p. 96. ‘Sechs Patrini’, ‘Haben alte Teutsche zerschnittene Paret mit Federbüschen geziert auff dem Kopff […] getragen’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 108, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 60-61.
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was true of the nine trumpeters who followed them.77 The presence of people clad in ‘the old German manner’ or ‘ancient German costume’ was all part of the weaving of these figures into the fabric of German history. The marriage of Friedrich and Elizabeth in 1613 was also embedded symbolically into German history through the celebrations in Heidelberg. A triumphal arch had been erected at the end of the market-place for Elizabeth’s entry, which bore the Palatine and English coats of arms. The Beschreibung Der Reiβ says of the English coat of arms that it depicts: three golden leopards or panthers, of which the excellent historian of ancient times Matthew Paris writes around the year 1235 at the time of the nuptials of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa to Isabel, sister of H[enry], King of the English: […] ‘thus the Emperor sent the King in England three live leopards, so that he might bear them on the royal coat of arms, in which three leopards have been painted from that time on’.78 Underneath the English coat of arms on the arch was inscribed in Latin (and translated into German in the festival book) ‘England has three Leopards,/ a gift from the hand of Emperor Friedrich./ No other animal is more similar to the lion;/ no house has greater honour in marriage’.79 The lion is referred to here, as the Palatine arms, displayed on the other side of the arch, depicts a golden crowned lion on a black background. There are at least three significant implications of the association with Friedrich I, known as ‘Barbarossa’ (1122–1190). Firstly, Friedrich Barbarossa was the first Holy Roman Emperor by that name, making the association appeal to those who wished that Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, would also become Emperor. Secondly, the association illustrated that this wedding, although it was to an English princess, was deeply rooted in German history and was a re-intensification of a historic bond between the two houses; there was nothing ‘foreign’ about this match. Thirdly, Friedrich I was associated with crusading, embarking on the Third Crusade at the head of a vast army in 1189. Just like the historic German Emperor, the Protestants too would be prepared to fight and, if necessary, even die in defence of their religion against the ‘infidels’ of their own time. This evocation of crusading may explain the prominence within the visual rhetoric of these festivals of the colours red, white, black, and gold (or yellow).
77 ‘sind ebenmessig auff der alten Teutschen Tracht’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 108, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 60-61. 78 ‘drey güldene Leoparden oder Pantherthier von welchen also schreibet der altte fürtreffliche Historicus Mattheus Paris sub anno MCCXXXV. ubi de nuptiis Friderici Barbarossæ Imp. cum Isabella sorore H[enry] Regis Anglorum: […] Also hatt der Keyser dem König in Engelland geschickhet drey lebendige Leoparden in dem Königlichem schilte zu führen darinnen solche drey Leoparden durchgehend gemalet werden’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ, p. 137, in Mulryne, WatanabeO’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 86-87. 79 ‘Drey Leoparden führt Engelland/ Geschenckht von Keyser Fridrichs Hand./ Kein thier dem Löwen gleichet mehr/ Kein hauβ hatt höher heurats Ehr’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ, p. 138, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 86-87.
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The passage quoted above states that at the Stuttgart wedding of 1609 the characters in the procession representing Brennus, Mannus, and Arminius were wearing helmets adorned with plumes of yellow, black, red, and white. Neither was it only these characters who were dressed in these colours — so too were the six padrini, the drummer with his two courtiers, and the nine trumpeters (all mentioned above). At the running at the quintain in Jägerndorf in 1610 the guests were entertained by ‘four cornet-players, dressed in Roman style in black, yellow, red, and white’.80 As well as being the colours of the House of Austria (red and white) and of the Holy Roman Empire (gold and black), these colours were significant within German history as the colours under which the Holy Roman Empire took part in the Crusades. The army marched under two banners — the Imperial coat of arms (a black eagle on a yellow or gold background) and the Saint George Flag (the inverse of the English Cross of St George, comprising a white cross on a red background); these colours combined of course lead to the combination red, white, black, and gold (or yellow). Equally, in the case of the celebrations of the marriage of Friedrich and Elizabeth in 1613, it was surely not lost on the educated attendees that these colours were also those of the flag of England, the Cross of St George (a red cross on a white background), combined with those of the Palatine arms (a golden lion on a black background). This, then, was another way in which the visual rhetoric of the festivals stitched the Protestant Union into the fabric of German history. The German history portrayed was, of course, to a great extent an imagined history (illustrated, for example, by ancient Romans and the mythological ancient German hero Mannus wearing medieval crusading colours at an early modern festival), constructed to demonstrate the genuinely Germanic nature of the Protestant Union, its members, and its ideals. In addition, these festivals associated the Protestant Union and its members with ‘German’ virtue, and represented their forms of celebration as truly Germanic. As part of the bridegroom’s procession at Stuttgart in 1609 there rode ‘virtues’ including ‘GERMANAFIDES’, meaning loyalty and faith.81 Later in the procession came ‘two German singers’ who exhorted in song: Awake, O German nation! Do not allow the praise (you have received) to decline. Maintain your good name […] Awake, you noble German blood, and demonstrate today your heroic courage: you will succeed […] Awake, O worthy German might […] for if your ancient good name and your German heart remain constant, you will certainly be successful.82 80 ‘4 Zinckenblaser auff Römisch gekleydet schwartz gelb roth unnd weiβ’, Aygentliche Beschreibung, Ci v, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 74-75. 81 Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 108, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 60-61. 82 ‘zween Teutsche Singer’, ‘Frisch auff du Teutsche Nation/ Laβ dein gut Lob nicht undergahn/ Erhalt dein guten Namen […] Frisch auff/ du Edles Teutsches Blut/ Erzeig noch Heut dein Helden Mutt/ Es soll dir wol gelingen […] Frisch auff du Teutsche werde Macht […] Dann wo der alt gut Name dein/ Und dein Teutsch Hertz wird bstendig sein/ So wird dirs gwiβ wol glücken’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, pp. 109-10, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 62-65.
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The theme of what made the German attendees (the leading nobles of the Protestant Union) German was at the very heart of the christening in Stuttgart in 1616. This theme was introduced by a somewhat strange display involving four ‘excessively large shapes formed like human heads’.83 Eventually, after these shapes had moved around the room to music, ‘twelve nations, from the four corners of the world, came out of the mouths, noses, eyes, and ears, in their national costumes and with their customary minstrels, one after another in such a way that they began to dance straightaway, even while their strange birth was still taking place’.84 According to the festival book, this ‘provoked amongst the noble and esteemed, discerning spectators many thoughts and discussions about the various customs of [different] peoples’.85 In the following act, a mirror shop appeared, and the female shop-keeper declared to the nobility in attendance, in front of whom the mobile shop had stopped, in the form of a sonnet: ‘We bring our goods, our mirrors clear and undimmed, with the request that you will not object to seeing yourselves reflected’.86 Building on this, there was a challenge ‘of the ancient German generals to the present Germans, their descendants’ ending with the declaration ‘That we are all good Germans and spring from noble Alemannic blood’ and signed by ‘HARMINIUS’ — meaning Arminius.87 Furthermore, the Margrave of Baden’s entry depicted the theme of ‘Germania’. In the procession, a mounted figure of Germania was followed by ten ladies holding circular objects which, as the accompanying text makes clear, represented the ten ‘Kreise’ or ‘circles’, the administrative units of the Holy Roman Empire. They were ‘the tenne Nymphs of her countries (vvee doe call circles)’.88 These circles are then listed in the account by Weckherlin as ‘1. Th’Electorship Palatine. 2. Elect. of Saxonie. 3. 83 ‘ubergrosse gebildete Menschenköpff ’, Johann-Augustin [Charitinus Philopatris] Assum, Warhaffte Relation und Historischer Politischer Höfflicher Discours Uber Dess Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herren Herren Johann Friderichen Hertzogen zu Würtemberg und Teck […] Jungen Sohns Printz Friderichen angestelter […] Kind Tauff: sampt darbey begangnem […] Ritterlichem Frewden Fest zu Stuttgardten […] (Stuttgart: J. W. Rösslin & J. A. Cellius, 1616), p. 31, trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 96-101 (pp. 96-97). 84 ‘Haben sich zwölfferley und gegen den vier Hauptecken der Welt gelegne Nationes, mit ihren Landtrachten und gebräuchlichen Spihlleuten auβ den Mäulern Nasen Augen und Ohren nacheinander und also herfür gethon daβ sie gleich noch under wehrender ihrer seltzamen Geburt anfangen Tantzen’, Assum, Warhaffte Relation und Historischer Politischer Höfflicher Discours, p. 31, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 96-97. 85 ‘die höchst und hochansehenliche verständige Zuseher zu vilen Gedancken unnd Discours, von so macherley Sitten der Völcker verursacht haben’, Assum, Warhaffte Relation und Historischer Politischer Höfflicher Discours, p. 32, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 98-99. 86 ‘Wir bringen unsern Kram von Spiegeln klar und rein/ Mit bit/ ihr wöllet euch zuspiegeln nicht beschweren’, Assum, Warhaffte Relation und Historischer Politischer Höfflicher Discours, p. 33, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 98-99. 87 ‘Der alten Teutschen Kriegshaüpter an die jetzige Teutsche ihre Nachkommen’, ‘Deβ [sic] wir alle recht gute Teutsche und von dem Edlen Alemannischen Geblüt entsprungen’, Assum, Warhaffte Relation und Historischer Politischer Höfflicher Discours, pp. 45-46, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 100-01. 88 Georg Rudolf Weckherlin, TRIVMPHALL SHEVVS Set forth lately at Stutgart. WRITTEN First in German, and now in English BY G. Rodolfe Weckherlin, Secretarie to the Duke of Wirtemberg. (Stuttgart: John-Wyrich Resslin, 1616), p. 47.
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Austrie. 4. Burgundie. 5. Franconie. 6. Baveere. 7. Suevie. 8. High Palat. of Rhine. 9. Westphalie. 10. Lovv Saxonie’.89 Though it is undoubtedly significant that the first in this list is the Palatine Electorship, symbolically reinforcing Peacham’s written argument that the Electors Palatine were rightfully the leaders of the German prince electors, while ‘Austrie’ is only listed in third place (the Habsburgs were most commonly referred to as the ‘House of Austria’). This form of legitimacy is similar to another of the assertions set forth in Peacham’s work for the marriage of Friedrich in 1613 that the Rhine Palatinate, of which Friedrich was the Elector, fell within the kingdom of ‘Teutonicum’ which was ‘indeede Germany it selfe’.90 Nor was it only at Protestant festivals that legitimacy was asserted and contested based on lineages and established privileges. This can also be seen in Bavarian court festivals where, despite close familial ties with the Habsburg dynasty, including Ferdinand II’s marriage to Maria Anna of Bavaria, the daughter of Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria and Renée of Lorraine, in 1600, there was certainly no over-reverence or undue loyalty on display towards the Habsburgs and it is the status of Bavaria which is asserted. As Joachim Whaley has said, ‘Maximilian of Bavaria was pursuing his own dynastic and territorial interests in supporting the emperor. Later, those same interests led him to oppose the crown’.91 Pointedly, at the wedding festival in Munich in 1568, Maximilian II is referred to as the ‘elected Roman Emperor’ (‘erwölten Römischen Kaisers’) — while this was a correct title for an Emperor who had not received a papal coronation, its repeated use complete with the prefix ‘erwölten’ was deliberate.92 Similarly, in 1607, Ferdinand II is described as ‘the elected Ferdinand’.93 These references may have served as reminders that the Emperor’s position is dependent upon the electors. The Habsburg attendees at Bavarian festivals are continuously referred to as ‘Austrian’, once more a subtle but perhaps significant reference to the family’s position both within and outside of the Reich. During Habsburg visits to Munich of this period, too, the Emperor would stay in the newly constructed Steinzimmer within the Residenz, the ceremonial staircase to which featured a large statue of the Wittelsbach Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV, who became Emperor in 1328, long before the rise of the Habsburg dynasty. Though focusing on the eighteenth century, Ronald Asch has argued that images of the Emperor and the rooms dedicated to the Emperor created in various locations throughout the Holy Roman Empire symbolized ‘the political presence of the absent Emperor and the loyalty of those who built these splendid rooms’, becoming ‘part of the court as a political space’.94 However, it seems clear that 89 Weckherlin, TRIVMPHALL SHEVVS, p. 47. 90 Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning, F4r, n. 3. 91 Joachim Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), vol. 1, p. 568. 92 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 20v. 93 ‘Ferdinandus erwehlt’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Aiv r. 94 Ronald G. Asch, ‘The Princely Court and Political Space in Early Modern Europe’, in Beat Kümin (ed.), Political Space in Pre-Industrial Europe (London: Routledge, 2009), pp. 43-60 (pp. 52-53). See also Jutta Götzmann, ‘Kaiserliche Legitimation im Bildnis’, in Heinz Schilling, Werner Heun and
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the Steinzimmer in Munich were constructed in such a manner as to glorify the heritage of the Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty as much as the Austrian Habsburgs. Yet, even if these assertions of history, lineage, and legitimacy were subject to contestation in various political contexts, the framework of the Empire and of Germania is utterly pervasive across all of the festivals of the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries under consideration here, Protestant and Catholic. As we have seen above, these arguments and assertions, though perhaps subversive towards the ruling Habsburg dynasty, were made with reference to the history and constitution of the Holy Roman Empire. As Kess has argued of Sleidan’s Commentaries, mentioned above, ‘The role of secular authorities was to fulfil God’s will; even the Emperor had his rightful place in the Reformation and his authority is acknowledged throughout the work’.95 This was a continuation of the phenomenon which Len Scales has witnessed in the medieval Holy Roman Empire, that ‘imperial monarchy’ was seen as ‘fundamentally and definingly German’, such that ‘imperialism was itself, in the eyes of many late medieval Germans, a German pattern of rule — indeed the defining German form’.96 The rhetoric of festivals very much upheld this deference to imperial institutions and to Germania. It was possible to be anti-Habsburg but pro-imperial. One could identify with the Holy Roman Empire, or with Germania, while not identifying with the Austrian Habsburgs or their religion. These dynamics have not been duly considered in previous works on German festivals but they offer support to the argument made by Karin MacHardy that ‘it was not long-term constitutional problems as such that caused opposition to Habsburg rule’ and a reason for the observation made by Ronald Asch that ‘none of the warring parties within Germany [on the eve of the Thirty Years War] consistently denied the validity of the existing statutes and fundamental constitutions of the Empire’.97 Respecting the imperial constitution gave validity to the argument, strongly implied in writing in the Protestant literature and festival rhetoric analysed above, that the Protestant Union, and the figure of Friedrich V in particular, had a greater legitimacy within the imperial constitution than the Catholic Habsburgs — if a legalistic claim to legitimacy was to hold water, the legal framework of the Holy Roman Empire had to be respected. As Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger has argued as part of her discussion of investiture rituals, such occasions were moments at which the Empire became visible, and buttressing the strength of the Empire was in the interests of those who held positions within it. She says that ‘It was less the power of the Emperor and more the power of the Empire itself that the ritual’s form made visible’ and ‘Whoever Jutta Götzmann (eds), Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation 962 bis 1806: Altes Reich und Neue Staaten 1495 bis 1806. Essays (Dresden: Sandstein, 2006), pp. 257-71. 95 Kess, Johann Sleidan, p. 180. 96 Len Scales, The Shaping of German Identity: Authority and Crisis, 1245–1414 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp. 534-35. 97 Karin J. MacHardy, War, Religion and Court Patronage in Habsburg Austria: The Social and Cultural Dimensions of Political Interaction, 1521–1622 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2003), p. 5; Ronald G. Asch, The Thirty Years War: The Holy Roman Empire and Europe, 1618–48 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), p. 21.
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received his fief in this way presented himself before the public as a member of the Empire’ so that ‘The fact that the vassal subordinated himself on his knees to the Imperial majesty and received the presentation of his status as a member of the Empire from this body reinforced the entire structure of the Empire pars pro toto’. As such, ‘the investiture ritual revealed the reciprocal character of power in that the great vassals attributed to the Emperor, or respectively the Empire as a whole, a power from which they derived their own power as members of this whole’.98 Tamar Herzog, too, observes that ‘Monarchs were also implicitly involved when actors identified themselves as their vassals and claimed rights as a result’, emphasizing the power of the ‘royal image’.99 This idea that it was the Empire itself that was reinforced through such rituals was built on a distinction which enabled the members of the Protestant Union, and any others within the Empire who were not in favour of the Habsburgs, to challenge the Emperor but not the fundamental legitimacy of the Empire itself. Despite the caveats to deference noted above, at the wedding festival in Munich in 1568 the Austrian Habsburg colours and crest make frequent appearances. For example, in the banqueting hall the crests alternated between the blue and white of Bavaria and the red and white of Austria. The Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand’s entry into the church involved great pomp: ‘then Archduke Ferdinand/ led into the Church with great triumph/ also accompanied by military drummers and trumpeters’.100 The Imperial Eagle of the Holy Roman Empire was also prominently displayed through the course of the events. The Emperor was represented at the wedding through an emissary. The account records the arrival of ‘the emissary bearing tidings from the Roman Imperial Majesty our most gracious lord/ namely the most worthy prince and lord/ Lord Walther Administrator of the most noble affairs in Prussia/ Master of the German Order in German and foreign lands’.101 This relatively new Order, the Hoch-und-Teutschmeister, had been founded in around 1530, at the time of Charles V’s eventual coronation by Pope Clement VII in Bologna. He is treated as though he were the Emperor. Indeed, there is a list of lords and nobles who came ‘with his Roman Imperial Majesty’.102 The groom, meanwhile, entered Munich alongside the Imperial emissary wearing the purpura Austriaca — the imperial purple (in reality closer to deep red) which signified loyalty to the Catholic Holy Roman Emperors, with Wagner recording the entry of ‘the emissary of the Roman Imperial Majesty on the right side/ In the middle Duke Wilhelm of Bavaria/ as the groom/ in a beautiful expensive
98 Stollberg-Rilinger, ‘Much Ado about Nothing?’, 16-17. 99 Herzog, Frontiers of Possession, p. 244. 100 ‘dann Ertzhertzog Ferdinand/ in die Kirchen mit grossem Triumph/ auch Herpaucken vnd Trommeten/ …belait vnd gefürt’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 33v. 101 ‘Der Römischen Kaiserlichen May: vnsers aller genedigisten Herren abgesandter Potschafft/ nemlichen des Hochwürdigen Fürsten vnnd Herrn/ Herrn Walthern Administrator des Hochmaisterthumbs in Preussen/ Maister Teutsch Ordens inn Teutschen vnd Welschen Landen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 20v. 102 ‘mit der Röm: Kay. May’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 20v.
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red scarlet cloak’.103 Furthermore, where the various nobles stood in the church is listed relative to the Emperor’s representative, who is listed first, exalting his position.104 After the wedding itself had taken place, the ‘groom and bride no longer sat at the head/ but the highest place at the table was occupied by/ the Cardinal von Augsburg/ as the Legate of his Papal holiness, with the envoy of his Roman Imperial Majesty the Master of the German Order’ — the couple, and even the hosts, are no longer the focus now that the wedding has taken place, rather it is representatives of the Church and the Reich, the spiritual and secular powers of the Holy Roman Empire. In conclusion, as much as they came to be challenged by the various factors amounting to what might be termed a crisis of nobility in the early modern period, of which not least was the rise of wealthy families such as the Fuggers and the Welsers to positions of nobility as well as political prominence, the assertion of established forms of noble legitimacy in the form of genealogy and historical rights and privileges remained a vital function of court festivals. Indeed, the lack of such an illustrious lineage was what debarred these families from full integration into the true elite, resulting in the ambivalence with which they were treated at festivals. These assertions, though, could be met with counter-assertions, claims with counter-claims. Imagery was subverted; history was distorted and embellished to serve politicized ends. Yet both sides of confessional and political divisions pitched their arguments in ways which did not in any way undermine the legitimacy of the Holy Roman Empire itself. Still, the possession of history and lineage as constituents of noble identity were insufficient to meet the humanist challenge that it was now virtue which was true nobility. Court festivals did, however, provide the platform to demonstrate this virtue and it was central to the identities articulated and created by them, as this work will go on to demonstrate.
103 ‘der Röm: Kay: May: Potschafft auff der rechten seitten/ Im mittel Hertzog Wilhelm inn Bairen/ als Breutigam/ in einem schönen köstlichen roten Scharlachen Mantel’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 30v. 104 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 32r.
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Chapter II
Mortality, Masculinity, Femininity, and Mutability
Festivals were moments at which the human aspect of the identity of rulers and of their courtly retinues came to the fore. This was apparent both in terms of their mortal transience, and thus the importance of dynasty as members of noble families came together and were seen together publicly, and in terms of gendered identities as noble men and noble women. As will be discussed, there are of course methodological and analytical challenges to the use of ‘gender’ as a category, indeed a salient theme of the chapter will be to problematize the entire concept within early modern identities. Despite this, however, a sensitive reading of the material which considers the roles and portrayals of men and women within these occasions yields illuminating insights into the broader questions relating to identity. Gender and gendered identities revealed in, and formed by, early modern German festivals have never been appropriately analysed, yet references to them abound in these court festivals. While some of the aspects other historians have articulated in relation to gender in early modern Germany more broadly can be seen, the evidence of festivals complicates these arguments. Much of the traditional scholarship has stressed the importance of strongly delineated gender roles and ideals to conceptions of identity and has argued that any inversions of, or deviations from, expected patterns were seen as threatening. Of course, separation into male and female did occur in elements of festivals, and traditional tropes of the beautiful Frawenzimmer (the term for female courtly retinues which will be employed here in its contemporary usage, and most common spelling, as it is found in the primary material) and of the valiant, warlike male do appear. However, what is important about the male identity articulated, which fused medieval German ideals of Minne with early modern conceptions of nobility, is actually the centrality of skill and virtue. Moreover, there are numerous ways in which the roles adopted at festivals challenge a simplistic binary vision, suggesting instead both a stronger and more elevated image of women in festivals and a far greater degree of mutability in a way which was not seemingly problematic. Thus the central themes which emerge in this chapter are those of skill, virtue, and mutability. Gender has increasingly become a concern of diplomatic and political historians, as well as cultural historians, in the last two-and-a-half decades as
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playing a role in political interactions.1 It has been seen not as a fixed, intrinsic state but as ‘a social category imposed on a sexed body’, an ‘artificial theoretical construct’, and thus open to historical analysis.2 Barbara Duden, in The Woman Beneath the Skin, has even drawn attention to the historicity of experiences of the body itself.3 It is therefore possible to study gender identities (of which an unlimited number of variations could simultaneously co-exist) within a historical period. Indeed, Joan Scott has argued for the centrality of gender relations in historical causation, stating that ‘gender is a primary way of signifying relationships of power’, that ‘politics constructs gender and gender constructs politics’, and that ‘Hierarchical structures rely on generalized understandings of the so-called natural relationship between male and female’.4 However, Scott’s understanding, alongside much of the older historiography, is based largely on received gender binaries, the subversion of which was supposedly heavily problematic for historical actors. Thus, she asserts, ‘the binary opposition and the social process of gender relationships both become part of the meaning of power itself; to question or alter any aspect threatens the entire system’.5 Her work is guided by ‘understanding’ the historical ‘subjugation’ of women and talks about the ‘exclusion of women’ from high politics. This has involved an often simplistic projection of gendered tropes of masculine strength and feminine submission onto the past. For instance, she emphasizes that ‘Power relations among nations and the status of colonial subjects have been made comprehensible (and thus legitimate) in terms of relations between male and female. The legitimizing of war […] has variously taken the forms of explicit appeals to manhood (to the need to defend otherwise vulnerable women and children), of implicit reliance on belief in the duty of sons to serve their leaders or their (father the) king, and of associations between masculinity and national strength’.6 These ideas have pervaded existing, even very recent, work on gendered identities in early modern Germany. Ulinka Rublack has written of how ‘[w]omen were commonly regarded as the desirous and hence irresponsible sex, because they were ruled by passion rather than reason. They were supposed to live under male control’,7 as well as arguing that the famous Reformation image of the ‘Pope-Ass’ showed the ‘audience’s fear of mixed categories’ and ‘desire for
1 A foundational, though now slightly dated, text is Joan W. Scott, ‘Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis’, American Historical Review, 91 (5) (1986), 1053-75. For an account of more recent developments in the historiography, see Dorothy Ko, ‘Gender’, in Ulinka Rublack (ed.), A Concise Companion to History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 203-25. 2 Scott, ‘Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis’, 1056; Ko, ‘Gender’, p. 207. 3 Barbara Duden, The Woman Beneath the Skin: A Doctor’s Patients in Eighteenth-Century Germany, trans. by Thomas Dunlap (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1991). 4 Scott, ‘Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis’, 1067, 1070, 1073. 5 Scott, ‘Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis’, 1073. 6 Scott, ‘Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis’, 1073. 7 Ulinka Rublack, ‘Meanings of Gender in Early Modern German History’, in Ulinka Rublack (ed.), Gender in Early Modern German History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 1-18 (p. 2).
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clear codes of reliable and civilised “male” and “female” behaviour’.8 Similarly, Bettina Brandt in her study of the representation of the female figure Germania has remarked that ‘the female body represented the integrity of the nation as a whole, but as a precarious commodity demanding male protection’, that ‘the figure of the warlike woman stressed the message of danger by representing a challenge to men’s control of the political order’, and that the ‘warrior Germania was an ambivalent image oscillating between male and female attributes that provoked and mobilized male control, and that needed license to be sayable’.9 Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, meanwhile, has observed that in German drama of this period, the ‘female population is addressed in the many plays on marriage and wifely obedience’ in which the ‘Lutheran vision of the woman’s role is reinforced by the passive female figures represented’.10 It is beyond the scope of the present study to support or dispute these observations within the realms of the literary, visual, and theatrical contexts within which they were made. However, the evidence presented by the court festivals under investigation here does call into question such fixity and presents a more complicated picture surrounding gendered identities. Some recent theorizing has posited a more fluid model of gender relations. For instance, Lisa Lindsay has noted how individuals employ ‘strategic improvisations’ in reaction to given circumstances to ‘work with gender’ in ways which interact with, but do not always follow, ‘existing gender ideologies’.11 It is this manner of thinking about gender which corresponds much more closely with the identities presented in the court festivals of the late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Holy Roman Empire. As well as gendered identities being visible at festivals, the closely connected theme of the participants’ mortality, the stage of their life cycles, and the associated importance of dynasty is prominent. Jeroen Duindam has recently drawn attention to the stage at which the central figures were in their life cycle as an important aspect of court life, which has often been overlooked.12 As he has pointed out, with dynastic rulers ‘it is important to note that they sometimes rose to power as children and ended their lives on the throne as disabled elderly persons’.13 Festivals were a moment when the different stages of the life cycle were displayed by the participants of different generations, and when relations
8 Rublack, ‘Meanings of Gender in Early Modern German History’, p. 5. 9 Bettina Brandt, ‘Germania in Armor: The Female Representation of an Endangered German Nation’, in Sarah Colvin and Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (eds), Women and Death 2: Warlike Women in the German Literary and Cultural Imagination since 1500 (Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2009), pp. 86-126 (pp. 89, 118). 10 Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Early Modern Period (1450–1720)’, in Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (ed.), The Cambridge History of German Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 92-146 (p. 104). 11 See Lisa A. Lindsay, Working with Gender: Wage Labor and Social Change in Southwestern Nigeria (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003). 12 Jeroen Duindam, Dynasties: A Global History of Power, 1300–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), esp. pp. 57-83. 13 Duindam, Dynasties, p. 57.
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and junior branches of the dynasty returned to the central court, when extended families came together and were seen together, and this is not lost in the festival accounts. The mortality of the more elderly members of ruling houses is often particularly evident. At the 1568 wedding in Munich of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, for instance, a central figure is ‘Lady Christina, the old Duchess of Lorraine’ — Renée’s mother. Her physical frailty is stressed and she is treated with special care, with meals in her private chambers, visits to her, and a seat (as opposed to standing) in Church. When the party returned from the initial service in the Church of Our Beloved Lady, ‘they found her princely grace’s Lady Mother somewhat weak in bed. On account of which she did not then take the evening meal this evening with the other princely persons’ and, after the meal, ‘a select few princely persons/ visited the old Duchess of Lorraine a brief while’.14 The following morning, the morning of the wedding, ‘the princely bride […] / […] remained in her princely serene majesty’s room/ in which she also heard Mass/ and ate breakfast/ like the previous evening meal with her beloved lady mother in her sickness’ and the old Duchess was unable to come to the banquet-table for the remainder of the festival.15 Duke Albrecht of Bavaria, on the other hand, defied his physical frailty by participating in the dancing following the banquet on the wedding night, with the account specifically mentioning: ‘especially Duke Albrecht of Bavaria/ (whose princely grace still danced without assistance) himself ’.16 At the 1613 wedding in Munich of Wolfgang Wilhelm, Duke of Pfalz-Neuburg, and Magdalena, Duchess of Bavaria, meanwhile, Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann mentions ‘the old Lord Duke Wilhelm’ — referring to Wilhelm V of Bavaria.17 The account notes the banquet on the first night ‘to which the old Lord Pfaltzgraf ’, 14 ‘ir Fürstliche genaden derselben Fraw Mutter etwas schwach zu Bett gefunden. Derwegen sie dann disen abend bey den andern Fürsten personen das Nachtmal nit’, ‘solchem etliche Fürsten personen/ die alt Hertzogin von Lottringen ein kleine zeit besucht’, Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung des Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornnen Fürsten vnnd Herren/ Herren Wilhalmen/ Pfaltzgrauen bey Rhein/ Hertzogen inn Obern vnd Nidern Bairen/ etc. Vnd derselben geliebsten Gemahel/ der Durchleuchtigisten Hochgebornnen Fürstin/ Frewlein Renata gebornne Hertzogin zu Lottringen vnd Parr/ etc. gehalten Hochzeitlichen Ehren Fests. Auch welcher gestalt die darauff geladnen Potentaten vnd Fürsten Personlich/ oder durch ire abgesandte Potschafften erschinen. Vnd dann was für Herrliche Ritterspil/ zu Roβ vnd Fueβ/ mit Thurnieren/ Rennen vnd Stechen. Neben andern vil ehrlichen kurtzweilen mit grossen freuden/ Triumph vnd kostligkait/ in der Fürstlichen Haubtstat München gehalten worden sein/ den zwenvndzwaintzigisten vnd nachuolgende tag Februarij/ Im 1568. Jar. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1568), p. 33r. 15 ‘Die Fürstlich Braut […] / […] in irer F.D. Zimmer bleiben/ darinnen auch Maβ gehört/ vnd das frü/ wie das Nachtmal daruor mit deren geliebsten Fraw Mutter irer schwacheit halben genommen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 33v. 16 ‘sonderlich Hertzog Albrecht in Bairen/ (wölche Fürst: G. doch sonst zutantzen nit pflegen) selbs’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 36r. 17 ‘der alte Herr Hertzog Wilhelm’, Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte entwerffung der Fürstlichen Hochzeit/ So Der Durchleuchtig/ vnd Hochgeborn Fürst vnd Herr/ Herr Wolffgang Wilhelm/ Pfaltzgraff bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Bayrn/ Gülch/ Cleue vnd Berg/ Graf zu Veldentz vnd Sponhaim. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigstin vnd hochgebornen Fürstin Fraw Magdalena/ Pfaltzgräfin bey Rhein/ Hertzogin in Obern vnd Nidern Bayrn. Zu München/ im sechzehenhundert
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here being Philipp Ludwig, who was to die the following August, ‘and his spouse/ because he found himself somewhat indisposed from the journey and other causes/ did not come/ but remained in their room to dine’.18 Part of his role, as the patriarchal father figure, was, however, to provide hospitality. After the initial Church ceremony, ‘one went directly to the evening meal/ which was held in the great banqueting room/ with the old Lord Pfaltzgraf as a patron’.19 Such roles were expected of men after their own marriage. Though not a nobleman, Wunder has argued from an analysis of Matthäus Schwarz’s Trachtenbuch that ‘it was only his marriage that had turned him into a “proper man”, a responsible citizen and paterfamilias’.20 Dignified though these images usually are, with elderly rulers adopting the role of the patriarch or matriarch, the accounts of court festivals do not deny the frailty of some of the older participants, laying emphasis on the dynastic aspect of identity as succession was vital (of course this was also readily apparent at occasions such as christenings, weddings, and funerals which marked staging posts in the life cycle). This aspect of identity was, naturally, closely interlinked with gendered identities as young or old, married or unmarried, men or women. Equally, the way in which physical frailty is referred to in festival accounts has a gendered dimension, with elderly women requiring additional provisions while elderly men defied their age to perform courageous, knightly acts. As one might expect, the image of the female courtly retinue, the Frawenzimmer, being an object of beauty, gentleness, and modesty is very much present in accounts of court festivals. Hans Wagner records the large female retinues present at the wedding of Wilhelm and Renée in Munich in 1568, noting that the bride was accompanied by a Frawenzimmer of 53 women.21 Johann Mayer’s account of the visit to Munich of Ferdinand II in 1607 mentions that accompanying Ferdinand was ‘His gentle lady mother/ known as Anna Maria’.22 The account of the ceremonial entry into Munich notes ‘the tender Frawenzimmer/ born of
vnd dreyzehenden Jahr/ den zwölfften Nouembris Celebriert vnd gehalten. Ins Werck versetzt/ durch Wilhelm Peter Zimmerman/ ins Kupffer Geradiert zu Augspurg. 1614. (Augsburg: Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, 1614), p. 1. 18 ‘zu welcher der alt Herr Pfaltzgraff ’, ‘vnd sein Gemahl/ weil er sich von der Raiβ vnd anderer vrsachen etwas vnbäβlich befunden/ nicht kommen/ sondern sich in seinem Zimmer speisen lassen’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 2. 19 ‘ist man bald zur Nachtmalzeit gangen/ welche in der grossen Taffelstuben/ beym alten Herrn Pfaltzgrafen gleich ein Kundel/ gehalten worden’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 3. 20 Heide Wunder, ‘What Made a Man a Man? Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Findings’, in Ulinka Rublack (ed.), Gender in Early Modern German History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 21-48 (p. 30). 21 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 12v. 22 ‘Sein Fraw Mutter sanfftmütig/ Anna Maria gnannt’, Johann Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Das ist/ Kurtzer Bericht/ wie der Durchleuchtigist Fürst vnnd Herr/ Herr Maximilianus/ Pfaltzgraue bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Obern vnd Nidern Bayern/ etc. Ir Fürstlichen Durchl. Ertzhertzog von Grätz vnnd Oesterreich/ sambt seinem Hochgeliebten Gmahel/ vnd Fraw Mutter/ auch andern Geschwistern entgegen gezogen/ vnd in die Fürstl. Hauptstat München den 30. Augusti/ Anno 1607. einbeleitet. Sambt kurtzer Erzehlung der vberauβ grossen Pancket/ darinn 19. Fürstenpersonen bey einander gewesen. Weitter wird angezeigt/ alle Kurtzweil
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a higher art’.23 Later, there comes a lengthier and more poetic description of the noble women at the feast, describing: the beautiful Frawenzimmer/ expensively adorned/ Their decorations and beautiful appearance/ were praised greatly/ They all appeared adorned/ with pearls/ gold trinkets/ They all appeared from afar/ like the Morningstar/ completely modestly in the hall/ they were adorned over all/ As when in the spring time/ the little flowers bring joy.24 At the 1613 wedding in Munich of Wolfgang Wilhelm and Magdalena, the theme is repeated, with the addition of a competitive element incorporating the beauty of the women of the court into the broader display of magnificence and majesty. Among many references to the glamour of the Frawenzimmer, the account states that: On the days of celebrations of the wedding the wife of the ruling prince especially wore an extremely expensive array of necklaces and gems in her hair/ seen about her neck and jewellery/ which was intricately fashioned. Duke Albrecht’s wife also wore many beautiful gems/ her golden hair glistened/ almost as though made of diamond/ the bride also had beautiful gems/ but the ruling princess surpassed all others.25 Indeed, the fine clothing of noble women is frequently described in festival accounts. A lengthy description of Renée’s appearance at her wedding in Munich in 1568 boasts: The wedding costume/ which the princely bride wore that day/ was covered with blue silver and gold flowers/ decorated with expensive precious stones/ pearls/ and other jewels/ and was valued as worth more than one hundred thousand crowns […] Wherefore I have also heard from many praiseworthy honest Lords/ having attended various such courts/ that to their knowledge/ they had never seen a princess adorned in such a lavish manner, continuing that: At the same time the princely bride’s Frawenzimmer was that day also dressed in bright gold items […] Thus anyone of intelligence can well reckon for vnd Freudenspiel/ als Tragedi/ Fechtschuelen/ Geiaider/ Vogelschiessen/ so in vnd ausser der Statt seynd gehalten worden. Durch Johan Mayer/ Teutschen Poeten vnd Burgern in München. Gedruckt zu München bey Adam Berg. ANNO M.DC.VII. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1607), Aiii v. 23 ‘Das Frawenzimmer zart/ Geborn von hoher Art’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Bi v. 24 ‘Das Frawenzimmer schon/ War köstlich angethon/ Ihr Zier vnd schöne Gstalt/ War zloben manigfalt/ Sie theten sich all schmucken/ Mit Perlin/ Gulden Stucken/ Sie schienen all von ferrn/ Gleich wie der Morgenstern/ Gantz zuchtig in dem Saal/ Der war ziert vberal/ Gleich wie ins Meyens zeit/ Die Blümlein bringen Freudt’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Bii r. 25 ‘Die Hochzeit täg vber hat man sonderlichen deβ Regierenden Fürsten Gemahlin ein vberauβ grosse Kostlichkeit von Halβbändern vnd Kleinotern im Haar/ am Halβ vnnd Kleinotern gesehen/ welche sie immer abgewixelt. Es hat auch Hertzog Albrechts Gemahl vil schöne Kleinoter getragen/ Ihr Haar funcklete/ ihr gelbes Haar von Diemant gar sehr/ Die Braut hat auch schöne Kleinoter obgehabt/ Die Regierende Fürstin aber hat alle andere vbertroffen’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 5.
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themselves/ what tremendous splendour of clothing/ jewels/ and other adornments would be present at such a princely wedding.26 This was only curbed when such lavish displays were not seemly, such as at the 1613 wedding, at which ‘The wife of Duke Albrecht only went about three days decorated in gems/ thereafter all in black/ with a black veil over her head/ as she mourned her noble father’.27 This example again illustrates how festivals provided a consciousness of stages of the life cycle, mortality, and dynasty. Whilst the clothing of the noble men in attendance is also referred to in accounts, as shall be discussed later, the incorporation of references to physical features is almost exclusively reserved for women. Similarly, while Wagner makes a point of the bride of 1568 taking hours in her preparations there is no mention of the groom’s.28 As one would expect, it was not just in the court festivals of the Holy Roman Empire that the beauty of the attending women was hailed, or that particularly prominent women were said to surpass the others in their appearance. At La Rochelle in 1632, for instance, it is said that: Above the multitude shone forth Erato, Countess de Marennes, the young Alcante, the Lady de Parabere, Lycoris the marvellous, the modest Omphale, the blond Ilys and several other of these shining angels who set on fire Aunis and the adjacent coastland and islands. You would have said to look at them that these women were magnificent crown imperials — assorted tulips and white narcissi which, with their straight and polished stems, grew above the verdure of a large meadow.29 There are instances in the accounts when the women wait patiently for the male nobles to arrive. At the Munich wedding of Wilhelm and Renée in 1568, 26 ‘Das Breutklaid/ wölches die Fürstlich Braut denselben tag angehabt/ ist von blaw silber vnd gulden blumen gestickt/ mit köstlichem Edelgestain/ Perlen/ vnnd andern klainatern geziert gewesen/ vnnd mehr dann auff hundert tausent Cronen wert geschetzt worden […] Ich hab auch derhalben von vilen glaubwürdigen erlichen Herren vernommen/ so mancherlay Höf durchzogen sein/ das sie bekent/ an ainer Fürstin haben sie solchen köstlichen geschmuck niemalen gesehen’, ‘Dergleichen ist der Fürstlichen Braut Frawenzimmer denselben tag auch in lauter gulden stucken gangen […] Doch ain jedlicher verstendiger kan bey im selbst wol erachten/ was gewaltiger pracht von klaidern/ klainater/ vnnd anderm geschmuck auff solcher Fürstlichen hochzeit werde gewesen sein’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 37r. 27 ‘Deβ Hertzog Albrechts Gemahl ist auch nur drey tag also in Kleinotern geziert gangen/ sonsten gantz schwartz/ mit schwartzen Velo vber das Haupt/ weil sie noch ihren Herrn Vatter klagt’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 5. 28 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 33v. 29 ‘Esclatoient au dessus de la multitude Eratò Comtesse de Marennes, la jeune Alcante Damoiselle de Parabere, Lycoris la merveilleuse, la modeste Omphale, la blonde Ilys, et quelques autres de ces Anges-Blancs qui mettent le feu dans l’Aulnix, Costes et Isles adjacentes. Vous eussiez dit en les considerant que ces Dames estoient des Couronnes Imperiales, des Tulippes variées, et des Narcisses Blanchissans, qui surmontoient, de leur tige droitte et polie l’herbage d’un grand pré’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne en la Ville de la Rochelle. Au mois de Novembre mil six cens trente-deux (La Rochelle: Mathurin Charruyer, 1633), pp. 47-48, trans. by Marie-Claude Canova-Green, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 186-231 (pp. 210-11).
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‘all of the princely persons […] processed out to the Munich city dance-hall/ in which the Bavarian ladies of the nobility/ young ladies/ and those from the notable houses of the city of Munich/ were gathered and waiting’.30 Similarly, in Munich in 1613, Zimmermann records that ‘When one arrived in the Church/ through the whole Church were the invited guests and the aforementioned Frawenzimmer/ placed in the most beautiful way/ standing and waiting’.31 Another potential example of inequity comes in the form of the material exchange which is described between the bride and groom at the 1568 wedding. At the service, ‘firstly a ring was offered and taken from the groom/ but from the princely bride a very expensive crown or wreath [Krantz] in a beautiful gold box/ and the princely bride’s ring was slipped on to her hand’.32 The groom is gifted a sign of power, of the titles he will gain, by the bride in a lavishly expensive box while the bride receives a ring, a symbol of her marriage. Equally, the duties of women to faithfulness, devotion, and childbearing are emphasized. As part of the greeting to the bride, Renée, at Munich in 1568, she is given the exhortation ‘Your princely grace also bestow henceforth on the most renowned groom/ with your faithful company all sincerity/ love/ devotion and friendship’.33 The language of the greeting, at least as the account has it translated from the French in which it was delivered into German, also plays with the duty to bear children. The speech declares that ‘His princely grace has waited with all eagerness’.34 The word ‘sament’, translated here as ‘eagerness’, is surely a deliberate choice as ‘samen’ also means ‘seed’, or even ‘semen’ — the purpose of the union is to secure the future of the dynasty. This was also seen as the noble attendees often accompanied the new couple together to their chambers. Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann’s account of the 1613 wedding in Munich of Wolfgang Wilhelm and Magdalena records that, after the wedding and subsequent banqueting had taken place, ‘Then all the princely persons accompanied the lord groom and the bride to their chamber’ and ‘remained with them for a while’ before retiring.35 Watanabe-O’Kelly’s survey of early modern German literature highlights that Martin Luther’s work on marriage domesticated women. She observes that His writings on marriage (Vom ehelichen Leben (On married life, 1522), Eine Predigt vom Ehestand (A sermon on the married state, 1525)) upgraded 30 ‘all Fürstenpersonen […] hinauβ auff der Statt München Tantzhauβ gezogen/ dahin die Bairischen Frawen vom Adel/ Junckfrawen/ vnd die von den geschlechten berürter Statt München/ auch berüfft vnd geladen gewest sein’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 37v. 31 ‘Als man in die Kirchen kommen/ ist durch die gantze Kirchen das eingeladne vnnd beschribne Frawenzimmer/ auff das schönst gebutzt/ gestanden vnd auffgewartet’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 2. 32 ‘erstlichen von dem Breutigam ainen Ring/ von der Fürstlichen Braut aber ainen sehr köstlichen Krantz in ainer schönen vergolten schalen/ begert vnd genommen/ vnd den Ring der Fürstlichen Braut vor menigklichen angesteckt’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, pp. 33v-34r. 33 ‘Ewren F. G. preten auch hiemit hochernanter Breutigam/ sampt seiner ehrlichen Freundschafft alle ehr/ lieb/ trew vnd freundschafft an’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 31r. 34 ‘Es het auch iren F. G. allen sament […] gewart’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 31r. 35 ‘Darnach haben alle Fürstenpersonen den Herrn Bräutigam vnd die Braut in ihr Zimmer begleitet’, ‘ein weil bey ihnen gebliben’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 4.
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marriage as a vocation, but by emphasizing the role of wife and mother as the only female destiny, he reduced women’s sphere to the home and made them prisoners of their own biology.36 In the realm of Protestant drama, The female population is addressed in the many plays on marriage and wifely obedience, for instance […] Brunner’s Isaac (1569), the many Tobias plays (e.g. by Rollenhagen, 1576) and Frischlin’s Latin Rebecca (1576) […] The Lutheran vision of the women’s role is reinforced by the passive female figures represented in these dramas.37 This could be said to be hinted at in the verse account of the entry into Wittenberg of Georg Friedrich, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and Sophie, Duchess of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, following their wedding in 1579. This poem, composed by a scholar of biblical languages from the University of Wittenberg, emphasizes Georg Friedrich’s heroic martial prowess while referring to Sophie only as his ‘beautiful bride’, and hoping that together they will be ‘bearing the dear tokens of the impure bed’, as well as wishing ‘May the strong line of the house of Brandenburg see great children and mighty grandchildren’.38 Of course, as Duindam has observed, marriage and childbirth, the continuation of the dynasty, including through dynastic marriage alliances, was the central role of women at courts on a global basis.39 This was certainly no innovation particular to the early modern period. Lynette Mitchell, in her work on ‘The Women of Ruling Families in Archaic and Classical Greece’, mentions central elements of the role of women which hold true for this period as well. She talks about their role in securing the succession, their part in the negotiations of power, and their share in the heroic heritage of rulers.40 As with the early modern Habsburgs, whose dynastic territories were grown through strategic marriage alliances, Mitchell says ‘As a result of close intrafamilial marriage, many communities were effectively ruled by closed oligarchies based on family connections […] so that basilea, or rule, becomes the shared responsibility of the whole family, including the women’.41 It is unsurprising, therefore, that this role for women was stressed at court festivals across early modern Europe, not just in the German-speaking lands.
36 Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Early Modern Period’, p. 98. 37 Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Early Modern Period’, p. 104. 38 ‘dilecta […] coniuge’, ‘Faecundi gignens pignora chara thori’, ‘Magnanimos videat natos, ferosque nepotes Brandenburgiacae fortia fulcra domus’, GRATVLATORIA CARMINA AD ILLVSTRISSIMVM ET GENEROSISSIMVM PRINCIPEM ET DOminum D. GEORGIVM FRIDERICVM Marchionem Brandenburgensem, Inclytum Boruβiæ, Stetini, Pomeraniæ, Cassubiorum, Vandalorum & in Iegerndorff, Silesiæ Ducem &c. Burggrauium Noribergensem ac Rugiæ principem &c. Cum Illustriβima Coniuge SOPHIA, Ducissa Lunæburgensi &c. Vrbem Vitebergam feliciter ingressum, debitæ Gratitudinis ergo scripta. Anno 1579. die 14 Augusti. (Wittenberg: Haeredes Johannis Cratonis, 1579), A2r. 39 Duindam, Dynasties, pp. 59, 100. 40 Lynette G. Mitchell, ‘The Women of Ruling Families in Archaic and Classical Greece’, Classical Quarterly, 62 (1) (2012), 1-21 (5). 41 Mitchell, ‘The Women of Ruling Families’, 7.
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This can be seen, for instance, at the entry of the French Queen, Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII, into La Rochelle in 1632. On the bridge leading to the Queen’s accommodation was a ‘festoon’ saying ‘DAUGHTER OF GODS AND FUTURE MOTHER OF GODS’ since, as the account explains, there was nothing lacking at the height of France’s bliss under a just and triumphant King […] except the arrival of an heir in the lap of the Queen — something we wait for day by day, with all the more reason since he [the King] is a human being in whom so many blessings come together, heroic and divine.42 Women of noble households also had an important role as intercessors. This too, can be seen explicitly at La Rochelle in 1632, as the account recalls that there were images of the city’s suffering during the recent siege ‘to stamp on the Queen’s heart the terrible nature of our punishment, to pour pity into her generous disposition and to gain, by her intercession, the full forgiveness of the Monarch who had sent her to us’, and the Queen was later reminded by a festoon against the dressed stone of her building, that: ‘YOU ARE HIS SPOUSE: IT IS YOUR SACRED DUTY TO TRY HIS MIND WITH PRAYER’.43 Naturally, given the dynastic and political importance of women, they are treated as precious persons to be protected at festivals. This can be seen in part in the women at festivals being transported in ornate carriages as opposed to riding. Once she had been received by the groom in a ceremony outside Munich, Renée, the bride of 1568, having ridden to that encounter, continued: in the bridal-carriage/ which her princely grace was sent from her beloved bride-groom/ which was drawn by six beautiful white stallions/ in bright red-velvet costume/ decorated with gold and silver fray/ also finished with gold clasps/ with two drivers also dressed in red velvet/ the carriage was covered in precious gold/ and decorated with beautiful foliage/ the handles gold/ on the four corners stood four golden lions/ with the arms of Bavaria/ Lorraine/ Austria and Baden/ but inwardly the carriage was entirely decorated with red crimson satin/ meanwhile on the handles as well as the clasps of the horses/ were displayed in gold the initials W R as the names of the princely groom and bride/ Wilhelm and Renée.44 42 ‘feston’, ‘DIIS GENITA ET GENITURA DEOS’, ‘Ne manquant rien au comble de la felicité Françoise, sous un Roy Juste et triumphant […] Sinon de verser un Dauphin au giron de la Reyne. Ouvrage que nous attendons de jour en jour, avec d’autant plus de raison, qu’il est humain, ou tant de graces concourantes en luy sont Heroïques et Divines’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne, p. 46, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 208-09. 43 ‘d’imprimer au cœur de la Reyne, l’espece espouventable de nos chastimens, verser de la pitié dans son bon naturel, gagner par son intercession la pleine grace du Monarque qui l’avoit conviee chez nous’, ‘TU CONJUNX TIBI FAS ANIMUM TENTARE PRECANDO’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne, pp. 20, 47, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 198-99, 208-09. 44 ‘inn den Breütwagen/ wölcher ihren Fürst: G. von deren geliebtem Breutigam entgegen geschickt was/ […] darinnen sechs schöner schneweisser Hengst gezogen/ in lauter Rotsametem zeug/ mit Gulden vnd Silberen Fransen verprämbt/ auch vergulten Spangen vberschlagen/ sampt zwaien Fuerleuten auch inn Rotsamet geklaidt/ der Wagen war mit guldem thuech vberzogen/ vnnd von
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The carriage was then protected in transit by a rear-guard.45 After this, when travelling between the church and the court during the festival, the men rode ‘But the princely bride and other princesses/ with their entire Frawenzimmer/ travelled to the Church/ in their princely well-adorned/ […] most elegant carriages’.46 The gift of an ornate carriage was not an unusual feature of wedding festivals and symbolized the bride coming under the protection of the groom as well as the transition from being a girl into a mature, stately, maternal figure. At the 1613 wedding in Munich, Zimmermann also remarks that, when walking, the bride was led by the groom ‘under the arm’.47 Equally, at the conclusion of the festival, ‘the bridegroom helped his dearly beloved up onto the carriage’ to set out for Augsburg.48 There were obviously practical incentives as well for fragile attendees at festivals to travel by carriage as this allowed them to retain an outward appearance of dignity in their frailty. It was not only in transport that this was important; as Tobias Capwell has observed, the invention of garniture armour, which provided far greater flexibility and the ability to adjust the armour to the task at hand, enabled the preservation of a dignified appearance through graceful movements for the knights on the tournament field itself.49 Yet feminine beauty and the role of women in the dynasty are not the only light in which femininity is cast at these festivals. Indeed, there are some much stronger female images. One way in which this manifests itself is in the representation of the ‘virtues’ as female, but in some ways manly, figures. The entire concept of depicting ‘virtues’ in this way is arguably an inversion, given that the Latin ‘vir’ means man. Such images form a recurring theme in Esaias von Hulsen’s highly illustrated account of the festival at Stuttgart in 1617. These virtues, all represented in female guise, include Victoria, Constantia, Fortitudo, Gloria, Fidelitas, Tranquilitas, Fides, and Prudentia. Constantia and Victoria, both female figures, feature alongside each other early in the account.50 Both are schönem Laubwerch auβgestickt/ die Knöpff vergult/ an den vier orten stunden vier vergulte Löwen/ mit dem Bairischen/ Lottringischen/ Osterreichischen vnd Badischen wappen/ innwendig aber war der wagen durchauβ mit rotem Carmesin Atlas geziert/ an den Knöpffen auch Spangen der Pferd/ sein die Buchstaben vergolt gestanden W R als Fürstlichen Breutigams vnnd Braut namen/ Vvilhelmus vnd Renata’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 31r. 45 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 31v. 46 ‘Die Fürstlich Braut aber vnd andere Fürstin/ sampt derselben gantzen Frawenzimmer/ sein auff iren Fürstlichen wolbedeckten/ […] gantz zierlichen Wägen/ biβ zur Kirchen gefaren’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 33v. 47 ‘vnder dem Arm’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 2. 48 ‘der Präutigam hat seiner allerliebsten zuuor auf die Gutschen geholffen’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 5. 49 Tobias Capwell, ‘Armour, Weapons, and Combat as Theatre at the Festivals of Binche’, in Margaret M. McGowan and Margaret Shewring (eds), Charles V, Prince Philip and the Politics of Succession: Festivities in Mons and Hainault, 1549 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2020). 50 Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō vnnd Abbildung aller Fürstlichen Auffzüg vnd Rütterspilen. Beÿ Deβ Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnnd Herren, Herren Johann Friderichen Hertzogen zü Württemberg vnnd Teck. Graven zü Montpelgart Herren zü Haydenhaim. Iro: F: Jungen Printzen vnd Sohns Hertzog Vlrichen wohlangestellter Fürstlichen Kindtauff: vnd dann beÿ Hochermelt Iro: F: G: geliebten Herren Brüoders. Deβ auch Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnd Herren Herren Ludwigen Friderichen Hertzogen zü Württemberg. Mit der Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen
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Figure 1. Fortitudo and Gloria in Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 8. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: 36.17.4 Geom. 2° (1).
mounted on horseback, their horses both on their hind legs leaping forwards, adorned with elaborate tackle and plumes of feathers. Likewise, Fortitudo and Gloria are depicted together, as can be seen in Figure 1, above.51 Fortitudo is on a rearing horse, leaping forwards, with huge feathers on its head. In one hand she holds a long, thick lance — the instrument of jousting, an
Fürstin vnd Fräwlin Fraw Magdalena Elisabetha Landtgraffin auβ Hessen. Fürstlichem Beÿlager vnd Hochzeÿtlichem Frewdenfest Celebrirt vnd gehaltten. In der Fürstlichen Haüptstatt Stüetgartt. Den 13.14.15.16. vnnd 17. Iulij Anno 1617. (Stuttgart: Esaias von Hulsen, 1617), plate 6. 51 Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō, plate 8.
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exclusively male sport — in the other a large shield with a spur on her heel. She is looking at Gloria with a stern expression. She is wearing a flowing dress, and a silk top but her slender midriff is exposed. She is a feminine yet powerful figure holding the implement used in a sport only for men. Gloria is also mounted — on a horse which is stepping out proudly, also with large plumes at the head and tail. She is holding a laurel branch in her left hand and a trumpet in her right. She, too, is wearing a spur and a matching long, flowing dress to that of Fortitudo on her lower half, but the top half is cut to resemble a classical cuirass, though loose around her breasts, which are allowed to protrude. She is wearing cloth around her midriff billowing behind her. She, too, is a martial yet feminine figure. The frontispiece for the entry of Friedrich Achilles, Herzog zu Württemberg, meanwhile, shows Pallas and Nobilitas.52 Both Pallas and Nobilitas are clearly female figures with prominent breasts, nipples, and exposed midriffs, yet both are holding military standards. Pallas Athena was the goddess of wisdom, the arts, crafts and skill, inspiration, civilisation, law and justice, as well as courage, strategic warfare, mathematics, strength, and, importantly, the patron goddess of heroic endeavour. In a spectacular elaboration on this theme of female heroism as an example to noble men, the arena for the tournament or knightly contest, ‘Ritterspiel’, which took place to mark the wedding of Wilhelm and Renée at Munich in 1568, featured two triumphal arches (see Plate I), one of which was dedicated to the Frawenzimmer; this arch depicted strong female figures, warriors, and leaders, as an inspiration to the male knights competing. Wagner’s account explains that ‘this gate was/ constructed/ to the praise of the princely bride and the Frawenzimmer/ to give thanks’.53 He describes how below the Victory with her wreath/ were set on the arch/ depicted several splendid deeds/ performed by several women/ from ancient times/ brought together here/ such as namely the story of the Amazons, how their queen Penthefilea came to the help of Troy with a great heroism, as well as more recent examples such as ‘the story of the young woman/ who at Orleans with her wisdom and audacity repelled the English out of France’, and concludes that ‘These and similar stories were to honour the Frawenzimmer/ also painted around there/ so that the knights may reflect these deeds/ and should more boldly joust and compete’.54 Far from a threatening inversion of the natural order to be stamped out, these military heroines are held up as examples to the
52 Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō, plate 23. 53 ‘dises Thor zu lob der Fürstlichen Braut vnnd dem Frauwenzimmer/ so die dänck auβgeben/ auffgericht’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 39r. 54 ‘derhalben die Victoria mit dem Krantz/ darauff gesetzt worden ist/ hat man etliche fürtrefliche thaten/ so durch etliche weiber/ vor alten zeiten geschehen sein/ hinzu gemalt/ als nemlichen die Historien der Amazonum wie derselben Königin Penthefilea mit ainem grossen heer den Troianern zu hilff kompt’, ‘die Historia der Junckfrawen/ so bey Orlienz mit irem rath vnd khünheit die Engellender auβ Franckreich geschlagen’, ‘Dise vnd dergleichen Historien waren dem Frawenzimmer zu ehren/ auch darumben gemalt/ damit sich die Ritter darinnen spiglen/ vnd desto khüner Rennen vnd kempffen solten’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 39r.
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male knights and there is nothing in the account to suggest that this was in any way troubling or problematic. The ultimate trope of the matriarchal, heroic, inspiring female figure is undoubtedly that of Germania. In German literature more broadly, Germania could be depicted as an elderly lady in frail condition, representing the German Nation as in need of rejuvenation and requiring the protection of its sons. In an oration delivered to Maximilian I in 1501, Heinrich Bebel announced that he had seen in a dream ‘Mother Germany’ with a ‘pitiful appearance’ and in a ‘feeble state’, afflicted by ‘pains that racked her body’; she had ‘greying hair’ and ‘threadbare garments’ as she was ‘wasted by poverty and privation’. She told Bebel, as he relayed it, that Maximilian was ‘his grieving mother’s only refuge and consolation’ as ‘His strength and vigor will restore the health of those of my children who now lie ill’. Even in this image, though, for all of this ‘a golden radiance’ shone ‘from her fine head’ and she ‘bore a laurel wreath in her hair’.55 Bettina Brandt has written of Germania as ‘often connected to war and narratives of a […] threatened German nation’ and argued that ‘The image of the female body represented the integrity of the nation as a whole, but as a precarious entity demanding male protection’.56 However, this is not the image of Germania which appears in court festivals. Here it is replaced by a woman in imperial splendour. For instance, Oettinger’s account of the Stuttgart wedding of 1609 introduces the figure of Germania as follows: ‘Then the most acclaimed noble queen, Germania, came riding in on a fine, well-adorned triumphal carriage drawn by six snow-white oxen’.57 Queen Germania is further described as ‘a handsome, radiant female figure wearing her imperial regalia […] holding an orb in her right hand and a sceptre in her left’.58
55 Heinrich Bebel, ‘Oration in Praise of Germany, Given before Maximilian I (1501)’, trans. by Gerald Strauss, in Gerald Strauss, Manifestations of Discontent in Germany on the Eve of the Reformation (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971), pp. 64-72 (p. 66). 56 Brandt, ‘Germania in Armor’, p. 89. 57 ‘Alsdann ist die hochberühmbte Edle Königin GERMANIA herein gefahren in einem wolgezierten schönen Triumphwagen welchen sechs schneeweisse Ochsen gezogen’, Johann Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung Der Fürstlichen Hochzeit und des Hochansehnlichen Beylagers So Der Durchleuchtig Hochgeborn Fürst und Herr Herr Johann Friderich Hertzog zu Würtemberg und Teck Grave zu Mümpelgart Herr zu Haydenhaim etc. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin unnd Frewlin Frewlin Barbara Sophia Marggrävin zu Brandenburg in Preussen zu Stettin Pomern der Cassuben unnd Wenden auch zu Crossen und Jägerndorff in Schlesien, Hertzogin Burggrävin zu Nürnberg und Fürstin zu Rügen etc. In der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgardten Anno 1609. den 6. Novembris und etliche hernach volgende Tag Celebriert und gehalten hat: Darinnen alle Fürsten Fürstine und Frewlin: Graven Herren und vom Adel: Auch der abwesenden König: Chur: Fürsten unnd Stände Abgesandte so dieser Hochzeit beygewohnt verzeichnet: Darzu alle darbey gehaltene Ritterspihl Ring-rennen Turnier Auffzüg Fewerwerck und alle andere kurtzweil in dreyen underschiedlichen Büchern eigentlich und gründlich beschriben und mit lustigen Kupfferstücken Abgebildet werden. Durch M. Johann Oettingern Fürstl. Würtembergischen Geographum und Renovatorem. Gedruckt in der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgart. Anno 1610 (Stuttgart: G. Grieb, 1610), p. 110, trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, WatanabeO’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 58-73 (pp. 64-65). 58 ‘ein ansehenlich leuchtend Frawenbild in ihrem Keyserlichen Geschmuck […] hat in der rechten Hand eine Weltkugel und in der Lincken ein Scepter gehalten’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 111, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 64-65.
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Furthermore, women were often major protagonists at festivals and were treated as such. Widows present one example of this, as they could make lavish entries in their own right, assuming the status of their deceased husbands and being accorded the same respect. At Munich in 1568, there was ‘The arrival/ greeting/ and entry of the most serene princess and lady, Lady Dorothea/ Pfaltzgravine by Rhine. Duchess of Bavaria of the Kingdom of Denmark/ Sweden and Norway/ Princess and heiress/ widow’, and there is a list of her accompanying ladies, young ladies, and courtly retinue.59 Of course, her status as an heiress did much to make such treatment pragmatic. The bride, Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, too, is, perhaps unsurprisingly, another female figure to make an entry in their own right.60 Finally, Wagner records ‘The arrival in Munich of the serene Princess and Lady/ Lady Christina Duchess of Lottringen [Lorraine] and Parr’, the mother of the bride, and notes her as a ‘widow’.61 Although the latter’s entry is not as ceremonious as the previous ones, this is explained by her late arrival which apparently meant that Lady Christina was weary (her physical frailty has already been mentioned) and so wished for a simpler reception, and her arrival, in her own right, along with a 23-woman Frawenzimmer, is recorded.62 Indeed, the status of the widow Lady Christina, Duchess of Lorraine, at this festival is worthy of closer analysis as she is able to assume the role of a male ruler and is accorded that respect, being portrayed as a matriarchal figure. As well as having her own entry, she is the first to be consulted in every instance as the senior member and head of her noble family. At the initial meeting at Ingolstadt, she is the one who comes forth to meet the party from Munich first, at which point she is greeted with a cannon salute.63 She was then accorded the dignity of being allowed to sit for the rest of the occasion, usually a symbol of possessing superior status to those standing, with Wagner noting that ‘the Duchess of Lorraine on account of her fragility/ sat in a chair wearing coverings of black velvet’ from which she greeted Duke Ferdinand as he disembarked.64 Duke Wilhelm also first met with the dowager Duchess of Lorraine, before being able to meet his bride.65 Later in the festival, despite her no longer being able to be present at meals, it was essential for Lady Christina to be physically present to witness the marriage, with special arrangements being made to enable her to reach the church — ‘the old Duchess of Lorraine’, according to Wagner, travelled seated ‘in a black velvet
59 ‘Der Durchleuchtigisten Fürstin vnnd Frawen/ Frawen Dorothea/ Pfaltzgräum bey Rhein. Hertzogin in Bairen der Königreich Denmarckt/ Schweden vnd Nortwegen/ Princessin vnnd Erbin/ Witfrawen/ ankunfft/ empfahung/ Einbelaitung’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 21v. 60 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 30r. 61 ‘Der Durchleuchtigen Fürstin vnd Frauwen/ Frawen Christiana Hertzogin zu Lottringen vnd Parr/ ankonfft in München’, ‘Witfraw’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 26r. 62 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 26r. 63 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 7r. 64 ‘die Hertzogin von Lottringen auβ solchem Schiff ihrer schwachait halben/ in ainem Sessel mit schwartzem Samat verdeckht getragen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 7v. 65 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 7v.
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chair/ also pulled by two small oxen’.66 While Duindam has pointed out that Salic Law prevented women from ascending to the throne in both France and the Holy Roman Empire, and that women only ever ‘held full sovereign power’ as ‘an interim solution safeguarding dynastic continuity’, clearly it was entirely possible for a woman, a matriarchal figure, to fulfil the role of the territorial ruler and to be treated as such within the symbolism of court festivals.67 The symbolic parity of the retinues (and territories) associated with the bride and groom at wedding festivals was highly important. In 1568, when Renée’s party from Lorraine was approaching the walls of Munich and stopped just short to join with the Bavarian nobility, as was customary in the adventus format of triumphal and joyous entries, there followed a carefully choreographed display of equality between the two tents which had been erected — the one bearing the crest of Lorraine, the other of Bavaria. The account describes how: the princely persons/ on the groom’s side being/ Duke Albrecht of Bavaria/ Archduke Ferdinand/ Archduke Charles/ the master of the German Order/ Graf Charles von Zollern the Elder/ also more other assorted lords/ went out of his tent/ to half way/ towards the other tent. At the same time the princely bride with her companions the Duke von Wademont, and others/ so her princely grace in this manner/ began to proceed. And between the tents/ under the open heavens/ the groom first/ and then the other gathered princes/ greeted the princely bride with great joy.68 This is very similar to the symbolic respect and parity between two sovereign territories, established by the choreography of space, which Peter Sahlins has analysed in relation to the presentation of the Spanish Infanta to Louis XIV of France on the ‘Isle of Pheasants’, located in the midst of a river between France and Spain, in 1659 as part of the Treaty of the Pyrenees.69 The display and acknowledgement of equality of status as representatives of sovereign territories was often crucial to the performance of festival encounters. Women were also treated with reverence in the tournament arena. When Archduke Ferdinand entered the arena in Munich in 1568, ‘he made courtly reverence towards the Frawenzimmer/ going down on the knee’.70 This observance
66 ‘die alt Hertzogin von Lottringen’, ‘in ainem schwartzen samaten Sessel/ von zwaien klainen Eselen auch tragen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 33v. 67 Duindam, Dynasties, pp. 94-95. 68 ‘sein die Fürsten personen/ als auff des Breutigams seitten/ Hertzog Albrecht inn Bairen/ Ertzhertzog Ferdinand/ Ertzhertzog Carl/ der TeutschMaister/ Graue Carl von Zollern der elter/ auch andere mehr anschliche Herren/ auβ derselben Zelten/ biβ auff halben weg/ gegen der andern Zelt vber. Gleichfals die Fürstlich Braut auch mit derselben beistenden dem Hertzogen von V vademont [sic] vnd andern/ so ir F. G. zugeordnet worden/ entgegen gangen. Vnd zwischen den Zelten/ vnder dem freien Himel/ der Breutigam erstlich/ vnd darnach andere vorermelte Fürsten/ die Fürstlich Braut mit grossem frolocken empfangen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 30v. 69 Peter Sahlins, Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley, LA and Oxford: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 25-28. 70 ‘gegen dem Frawenzimmer höfliche Reuerentz gethon/ sich auff die Knie nidergelassen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 40r.
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was then repeated each time a new group of knights entered the arena. Equally, on the second day of the tournament there was a running at the tilt held ‘Especially because without doubt many handsome members of the Frawenzimmer would be present’.71 Moreover, the noble women could actually act as judges of the proceedings, as informed spectators, assessing the skill of the knights involved who would compete for their approval. The first prize for the Foot Tournament was to go ‘to whom appears most gracefully on the course […] the judges being able to consult with the Frawenzimmer’ including on ‘which various honours are deserved for other worthy reasons’.72 Far from being excluded from knightly activities, or from any image of female inferiority, the male knights taking part in the tournament displayed respect towards the women for whom they competed and by whom their skills were judged. Many of these themes are reflected in the dances which frequently punctuated proceedings at court festivals. In some ways these dances can be challenging to analyse as, for the most part, there are relatively few details given in the primary sources since, as Margaret McGowan has remarked, prior knowledge of choreography, practice, and performance styles on the part of the audience is assumed.73 Still, Sara Smart has argued for the importance of the court at Stuttgart in particular as the foremost centre for dance patronage in early German court ballet, highlighting the building of the neues Lusthaus in 1593, as well as the role of Georg Rudolf Weckherlin who was well-travelled and influential in the design of the Württemberg court’s entertainments, but dancing was a ubiquitous element of festivals throughout the German-speaking lands in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries, with formalized ballet (heavily influenced by French styles) beginning to come into fashion only in the late-sixteenth century.74 Smart observes that in the case of choreographed ballets, unlike in France in the ballet de cour, or the English masque, in Stuttgart the performers were exclusively male. However, Smart argues that the glorification of the ladies of the court was a central theme in Stuttgart and other courts of the Protestant Union. Her interpretation of the 1616 ballet, in which the men dance and a mirror-shop appears, is that ‘The distinguished gods have come to honour the ladies of the court, themselves mirrors of honour. The brightness of their gaze surpasses the brilliance of any mirror and is endowed with moral force, inspiring both gods and men to virtuous behaviour. The ladies of the court are thus depicted as superior beings whose dazzling glances are an external expression of an inner nobility’.75
71 ‘Sonderlich weil one zweiffel vil adelichen ansehlichen Frawenzimmers dar bey vorhanden sein wird’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 50v. 72 ‘wölcher am zierlichsten auff der Pan erscheinen wird […] mögen sich die Richter bey dem Frawenzimmer befragen’, ‘wölcher ermelts dancks für andern würdig’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 45r. 73 Margaret M. McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance: European Fashion, French Obsession (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008), p. xvii. 74 Sara Smart, ‘The Württemberg Court and the Introduction of Ballet in the Empire’, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 35-45. 75 Smart, ‘The Württemberg Court and the Introduction of Ballet’, p. 41.
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Of course, as McGowan has noted, just like the rest of the festival ‘Without an audience, it had no real existence’.76 This audience was largely made up of women. Plate II, from Wagner’s account of the wedding festival at Munich in 1568 shows, on close examination, a group of the Frawenzimmer standing in the far left corner of the image, identifiable by their brightly coloured dresses in contrast to the black of the male nobles, and women sat watching along the right-hand side. As McGowan has argued, ‘The spirit of competition was significantly enhanced by the presence of ladies, whose approval had an increasing influence’ — just as we have seen in the tournament itself where the women would judge.77 Though, as she concedes, ‘decorum was more constraining for women’ as a woman was expected to dance with greater modesty, she asserts that while ‘[s]ome critics have […] interpreted dance treatises and masques as demonstrating feminine dependency and male agency’, in reality ‘Modesty, meekness and humble demeanour did not necessarily also imply dancing without skill or knowledge’ as was appreciated by contemporary spectators and, as such, McGowan persuasively shows that dancing involved a great deal of female agency.78 So far, then, we have seen that while some of the expected gendered imagery is present, the role of women at festivals was far more complex than one may assume from the existing secondary literature, that women were central to many aspects of festivals, and that images of female strength were plentiful. A closer examination of the male identities revealed through these festivals offers similarly nuanced results. Duindam has emphasized the importance of the ‘noble quality of valour’ across many of the dynasties he has studied in different parts of the globe in the early modern period and argued that ‘A good king was not only devout and just, he was also a valiant knight and war leader’.79 A particularly striking example of this which Duindam highlights is the Ottoman Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent painting his face and needing support to ride his horse on campaign in 1566 before resorting to riding in a carriage and eventually dying — showing a desperate attempt to portray strength and military leadership right to the last.80 He particularly mentions hunting as ‘ubiquitous in the history of dynasty as a recreation and as a show of martial capabilities’, rightly observing that it became stylized and incorporated into ceremonial, as I shall discuss further in the following chapter.81 Of course festivals, punctuated by tournaments and knightly exercises, as Figure 2 from von Hulsen’s account of the festival held in Stuttgart in 1617 spectacularly illustrates, provided many opportunities for noblemen to demonstrate strength and martial skill which could be equated with manliness and German identity.
76 McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance, p. 28. 77 McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance, p. 18. 78 McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance, pp. 23-25. 79 Duindam, Dynasties, p. 26. 80 Duindam, Dynasties, p. 80. 81 Duindam, Dynasties, p. 76.
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That the tournaments and knightly games were violent, dangerous affairs, despite the fine armour worn and rules in place, and thus could provide true demonstrations of strength and courage, can readily be seen in the accounts. Revealingly, Wagner’s account of the Free Tournament at Munich in 1568 states that Archduke Charles of Austria, clearly an extremely important attendee who would have been clad in the finest armour and given all possible protection, rode in with his second, present to compete on his behalf. Wagner explains that: This was on account of the fact that his princely serene highness having been injured on the hand in the above-described running at the tilt/ was not personally able to partake in this Free Tournament. Though still his princely serene highness must remain with great outward serenity thereupon.82 This passage highlights not only the danger of competing, but also that the image of the courageous knight, unmoved by danger and undaunted by injury, was paramount and could not be surrendered. Indeed, it was expected that the prominent nobles present would compete in the various knightly games. Mayer declares in his report of the shoot which occurred during the 1607 visit to Munich of Ferdinand II that ‘His serene highly honoured/ Maximilian competed/ as he greatly rules Bavaria/ he fired the shots/ to the great pleasure/ of all the competing princes/ from Austrian lines/ of kingly names’.83 Zimmermann also records that, at the wedding of Wolfgang Wilhelm and Magdalena in 1613, on one of the days ‘after lunch a running at the Quintaine […] was held/ in which Duke Albrecht won the prize’.84 At Munich in 1568, Archduke Ferdinand defied his alleged physical frailty with skill as one of ‘two old noble knights’ who had ‘contested many tournaments/ and tried their luck in many ways through knightly deeds and exercises’ and ‘no longer possessed now/ the strength and sinews/ their now long-ago youth had brought them’ but ‘they could yet apply their sincere knightly skills modestly brought here/ not having deserted them’ and so ‘they wished to compete against their own frail skin and strain themselves’.85 This both raises the theme of skill, to be discussed further below, and once again illustrates the importance of being seen to compete.
82 ‘Dann dieweil ir F. D. in vorgeschribnem Rennen vber die Palien an der hand verletzt worden/ haben dieselben sich in disem freien Thurnier nit brauchen können. Wiewol doch ir F. D. mit grossem nachgedencken daruon aussen bleiben müssen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 59r. 83 ‘Ihr Durchl. Hochgeehrt/ Maximilianus wehrt/ So Bayern groβ regiert/ Das Schiessen er anfiehrt/ Zu grossem Wolgefallen/ Den wehrten Fürsten allen/ Von Oesterreichischen Stamen/ Von Königklichem Namen’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Civ r. 84 ‘hat man nach der Malzeit ein Quintana rennen […] gehalten/ in welchem Hertzog Albrecht das beste gewunnen’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 4. 85 ‘zwen alte edle Ritter’, ‘vil Ritterspiel getriben/ vnd ir glück in mancherlay weg durch ritterliche thaten vnnd vbvngen versucht’, ‘nun die sterck vnd kreffte/ ihrer nun lengst zugebrachten jugent/ nit mehr bey sich befinden’, ‘kondten sie doch ihrem ehrlichen Ritter messigem her gebrachtem gebrauch nach/ nit vnderlassen’, ‘wöllen sie darin gegen denselben ire alte haut auch daran strecken’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 39v.
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Figure 2. A typical image of a Ritterspiel from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 92. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: 36.17.4 Geom. 2° (1).
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The rhetoric of these court festivals very much attempted to portray the martial skill and prowess demonstrated in knightly games as part of German identity. As Wagner asserts in his account of the tournament held in Munich in 1568, this was the proper German way to mark the occasion: ‘the same [wedding], according to the ancient German praiseworthy tradition,/ should not pass cheaply without knightly entertainments and exercises’.86 Furthermore, that the German noble identity portrayed through tournaments was gendered by concepts of manly virtue is made explicitly clear in a festival book describing the tournament and ballet for the wedding of Sophia Elisabeth, Princess of Anhalt-Dessau, daughter of Johann Georg, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, and Georg Rudolf, Duke of Silesia in Liegnitz, held at Dessau in 1614.87 The account contains a description of a ‘Cartell of the ancient noble German heroes’.88 In the challenge from these ‘German heroes’ they refer to themselves as ‘an ancient noble knightly company which, in our usual simple clothing and adornment, is more concerned with venerable, patriarchal virtue, inner manliness and honesty than with external richly-adorned magnificence and appearance’.89 This challenge clearly displays a link between Germanic heritage and manliness. Moreover, the tournament forms themselves could demonstrate manliness and this could become part of confessionalized and politicized claims to legitimacy and German identity. Certain forms of tournament were argued to be ‘more manly’ or ‘more German’. The joust over the tilt, for instance, which was arguably one of the safer forms of joust as the presence of the tilt made it less chaotic (with knights only facing each other one-to-one and head-on), was also called the Welsches Gestech, the foreign joust. All of the elements of the German tournaments could be hailed as being manly. Indeed, at Munich in 1568, at the end of the first day of the tournament, all of the participants joined 86 ‘dieselben altem teutschen löblichem herkommen nach/ billich one Ritterliche kurtzweilen vnd vbvngen nit abgehn sollen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 50v. 87 See Abbildung und Repræsentation Der Fürstlichen Inventionen, Auffzüge Ritter-Spiel auch Ballet, So in des Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herren Herren Johann Georgen Fürsten zu Anhalt Grafen zu Ascanien Herrn zu Zerbst und Bernburg etc. Fürstlichem Hofflager zu Dessa Bey des auch Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herren Herrn GEORG RUDOLPH Hertzogen in Schlesien zur Liegnitz und zum Brieg Mit der Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin unnd Fraw Fraw SOPHIA ELISABETH Hertzogin in Schlesien zur Lignitz und zum Brieg Gebornen Fürstin zu Anhalt Gräfin zu Ascanien etc. Hochzeitlichem Frewdenfest und Fürstlichem Beylager den 27. und drauff folgende Tage Octobris Anno 1614. mit Fürstlicher Magnificentz und Herrligkeit seyn gebracht und gehalten worden. Sambt den dazu gehörigen Cartellen Impresen versen und Kupfferstücken. Zu Leiptzig In Henning Grosen des ältern Buchh. Druckerey und auff seinen Vorlag vorfertiget. Anno M. DC. XV. (Leipzig: Henning Grosse, 1615), trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 92-95. 88 ‘Cartell der alten Adelichen Teutzschen Heldenn’, Abbildung und Repræsentation Der Fürstlichen Inventionen, p. 42, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 92-93. 89 ‘einer alten Adelichen Rittergeselschafft die wier vielmehr in schlechter uns gewöhnlicher Kleidung und zierde auff die Altvätterliche Tugent innerliche Manheit und redligkeit als auff den euβerliche[n] reich auβgeputzten Pracht und schein sehen’, Abbildung und Repræsentation Der Fürstlichen Inventionen, p. 42, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 94-95.
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in a procession ‘which was beautiful and entertaining to see/ as the knights conducted themselves manfully’ (‘mannlich’).90 More pointedly, in context, the challenge cited above from the wedding at Dessau in 1614 continues that ‘our ancient knightly military exercises and deeds are more sincere, more manly, more valiant, and more akin to virtue, also more responsible, than these which are today performed merely for show or to steal someone’s advantage’.91 This is not just significant for its description of the tournament form as ‘Manlicher’, ‘more manly’, but also because it suggests a confessional aspect to this gendered identity of German manliness displayed at a Protestant festival. This is because this tournament, as Watanabe-O’Kelly has observed, was only the second ever example of this type of martial exercise — the first example having been at another festival of the Protestant Union, the arrival of Friedrich V and his new wife at Heidelberg in 1613.92 Thus this challenge declared that this new Protestant form of tournament was simultaneously manlier and more akin with ancient German virtue than its Catholic predecessors. However, masculinity was more complex than even this would suggest, and rested on more than martial prowess. Rublack’s study of gender in early modern Germany demonstrates how multiple codes of masculinity existed — the ‘dominant one instructed that their honour depended on fearlessness and combativeness as well as the withdrawn (eingezogenes) behaviour befitting a bourgeois Biedermann’ (a term associated with ‘respectability and honesty’), but there were also codes playing with the limits of self-control through heavy drinking as well as a ‘more exuberant vision’ of ‘emotional openness and generosity’.93 Whilst one would be right to be cautious of too readily identifying Norbert Elias’s ‘civilizing process’ in the everyday lives of members of the early modern nobility, whereby they abandoned their warlike tendencies in favour of courtly etiquette, the idealized images of masculinity, of male noble identity, portrayed at festivals do incorporate ‘softer’, more genteel visions, and sometimes even comical, farcical images which nevertheless are specifically stated not to undermine the manliness of those involved.94 Ultimately, the most prized aspect of male identity, comprising both courageous acts of strength and valour and the projection of civility, even playfulness, is repeatedly shown to be virtue and skill, as we shall see. Clothing could, of course, reinforce the heroic military might of male participants. At Munich in 1607, Mayer notes how the ‘Obrister’, acclaimed as 90 ‘wölches schön vnd lustig zusehen gewest/ wie mannlich sich die Ritter gehalten haben’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 49v. 91 ‘unsere alte und Ritterliche Kriegsubung und Thaten Adelicher auffrichtiger Manlicher tapferrer und der Tugent naher auch vorantwortlicher seind als die so heute zu tage nurr zum Schauspiel oder einem andern denn Vortheil abzujagen geübet werden’, Abbildung und Repræsentation Der Fürstlichen Inventionen, p. 43, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 94-95. 92 Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Protestant Union: Festivals, Festival Books, War and Politics’, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 15-34 (p. 33). 93 Rublack, ‘Meanings of Gender in Early Modern German History’, pp. 5-6. 94 See the critique of Norbert Elias’s arguments by Jeroen Duindam discussed in the Introduction above, pp. 29-30. See also Conclusion, below, pp. 214-15.
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a ‘hero proven in battle’ rode as part of a procession wearing the black cuirass associated with German cavalry and the red sash of imperial commanders: ‘All in black cuirasses/ they rode towards the banquet room/ Their cuirasses covered in beautiful red French cloth’.95 As shown in Chapter I, tournament participants would also dress in the fashion of ancient German heroes. For instance, as part of a tournament procession at the festival in Stuttgart in 1609 for the wedding of Johann Friedrich and Barbara Sophia, ‘Six padrini (seconds)’ wore on their heads ‘slit berets in the old German manner decorated with plumes’.96 Likewise, two old courtiers and the military drummer ‘also processed in ancient German costume’, and the same was true of the nine trumpeters following them.97 Yet, this did not preclude a more courtly vision of masculinity. The groom of 1568, Duke Wilhelm of Bavaria, to complement the beautiful clothing and jewellery of his bride, wore an outfit predominantly made of black velvet with precious stones ‘likewise decorated lavishly with gold buttons and pearls’.98 Similarly, just as Zimmermann notes the lavish clothing of the ladies in attendance at the Munich wedding of Wolfgang Wilhelm and Magdalena in 1613, so too he observes that: On the day of the wedding/ which was the 12th November/ the ruling Lord had a three-tier string of pearls on his hat of large round pearls of a great diameter/ between which were placed 4 extremely large diamonds/ and next to them a beautiful gem/ which was worth several thousand Gulden. The 13th November he had a chain of diamonds on his hat/ and a feather-like tuft of diamonds/ placed high on the hat/ which all glistened.99 This softer, courtly image is even continued into the armour worn during entries. The retinue of the Duke of Württemberg which entered Munich in 1568, said in the account to have been dressed in the same colours and fashion as the Bavarian nobles, contained mounted knights whose armour was covered with velvet and further ornamentation was added ‘with velvet-covered helmets/ full of feathers’.100 Equally, there is no apparent contradiction between displays of military prowess and exaggerated displays of love. The tradition of Minnesänger, medieval
95 ‘In schwartzem Kühris al/ Sie ritten nach der zal/ In Frantzösischen Röckn/ Schön roht die Kühriβ decken’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, p. Bi r. 96 ‘Sechs Patrini’, ‘alte Teutsche zerschnittene Paret mit Federbüschen geziert’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 108, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 60-61. 97 ‘sind ebenmessig auff der alten Teutschen Tracht’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 108, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 60-61. 98 ‘gulden knöpffen vnd Perlen gleichermassen auffs köstliche geschmuckt’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 37r. 99 ‘Am Hochzeit tag/ das ist den 12. Nouember gewesen/ hat der Regierende Herr ein dreysache Berlenschnur vmb den Hut gehabt von grossen runden Perlein einer Erbiβ groβ/ Darzwischen 4. mächtige grosse Diemant/ vnnd ein schön Kleinot darbey/ welchs vil tausent Gulden werth. Den 13. Dito hat er ein Schnur von Diemant vmb den Hut gehabt/ vnnd ein Federbuschen von Diemant/ so hoch als der Hut gewesen ist/ alles ein auβbundt’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 5. 100 ‘Samat vberzognen Sturmhauben/ voller Federn’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 30r.
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German poets who wrote in Mittelhochdeutsch about idealized courtly, knightly love, or Minne, had provided the platform for this as a central aspect of noble virtue within the German literary tradition. Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170–c. 1230) was one of the most prominent contributors to this genre. He addressed the theme of what constitutes Minne in his poetry, writing that ‘Minne is the abundance of all virtuous characteristics,/ without Minne a heart can never be truly joyful’.101 In another poem he mused: If I am rightly able to advise what Minne is, then all cry out ‘Yes!’ Minne is the fortune of two hearts: the two supported by each other, then Minne is there. But they should not be divided, as one heart alone cannot rightly contain it.102 This courtly ideal of love was combined with early modern conceptions of noble virtue through the imagery of court festivals. In Esaias von Hulsen’s spectacularly illustrated account of the 1617 joint christening and wedding festival in Stuttgart, containing no fewer than 92 plates, there is an image of a love-heart which folds up to reveal ‘IOHANN FRIEDERICH HERZOG ZU WÜRTEMBERG’ (Figure 3, below). The love-heart featuring three smaller hearts interlinked by a pair of arms is reminiscent of the design popular in Roman material culture, such as rings, to depict faithfulness, fide. Johann Friedrich is depicted in military attire on a horse dressed for the tournament. He has a full beard, muscular lower arms, and a sword at his side. Yet the image is softened by the large plumes emanating from his horse’s ears and tail, and the flowing cloth streaming behind his neck. His horse and armour are covered in love hearts and there is a further one on the sceptre he is carrying in his right hand. The sheath of his sword, too, is decorated with hearts, celebrating the marriage occasion. He appears martial and manly yet is covered in love hearts in a way which does not seem to contradict this. Indeed, the importance of love to manly knightly virtue is repeatedly stressed. At the 1568 Munich wedding, the introduction to the Free Tournament talks of the importance to ‘noble manly knights and manly heroes’ of ‘the right honourable and steadfast love for their beloved maidens’.103 The text highlights the difficulty of this love, but asserts that it will drive the knight on to great deeds, saying that ‘Their great love also knows no rest from trials and tribulations/ work nor peril/ neither is anything too great or difficult’ and it speaks of a knight ‘who on account of his most beloved serene/ most honourable and virtuous young woman is impassioned with such fervent proper pure-hearted honourable love/ 101 ‘Minne ist aller tugende ein hort:/ âne minne wirdet niemer herze rehte frô’, Peter Wapnewski, Walther von der Vogelweide: Gedichte (Frankfurt-am-Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1991), p. 10. 102 ‘Obe ich rehte râten künne/ waz diu minne sî, sô sprechet denne “jâ”!/ Minne ist zweier herzen wünne: teilent sie gelîche, sost diu minne dâ./ Sol abe ungeteilet sîn,/ sô enkans ein herze alleine niht enthalten.’, Wapnewski, Walther von der Vogelweide: Gedichte, p. 46. 103 ‘adelichen dapffern Rittern vnnd mannlichen helden’, ‘die rechte ehrliche vnd bestendige lieb gegen iren geliebten Junckfrawen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 56r.
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Figure 3. Image of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 6. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: 36.17.4 Geom. 2° (1).
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that he cannot keep concealed these burning fierce flames in his inner soul and heart’, as a result of which ‘he will/ willingly and eagerly/ set aside all wenches on this earth/ and will bestow upon her his love and honour for his entire life (if fate and chance also allow)’.104 This passage also stresses the importance of fidelity and constancy, which was the theme of Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria’s cuirass which depicted an anvil/ on which was placed a diamond/ above which an arm came forth from a cloud/ holding in the hand a hammer/ as it wished to strike the diamond/ yet thus it would not be moved thereby/ similarly once it had been struck it only gave fiery flames from it/ and emblazoned above it in silk embroidery the following motto: Constancy is always victorious.105 This particular knightly virtue also, of course, took on other meanings at a time of religious change and uncertainty, as fidelity and constancy, as virtues, were often deployed as exhortations to the true faith. The relationship between love and knightly virtue is again exemplified by a remarkable episode at the wedding in Munich in 1568 involving a young, foreign woman appealing to the judges of the tournament. The description begins: ‘there came a prisoner in black velvet/ with a long gold chain on his arm/ into which he had been placed by a beautiful young woman/ leading on horseback/ and above the Lord Judges (of the tournament) was placed the notice described below’.106 The notice read: I, a young woman, come from afar out of India [America], am so highly afflicted/ by an unfaithful knight/ […] wherefore I have taken this noble knight captive/ and lead him around all lands/ to seek the unfaithful knight/ and to contend with him. I have also likewise come to this most praiseworthy wedding celebration and knightly contest/ and if my fate allows […] / I might find his scent. I entrust myself entirely to the Lord Judges/ that they in such their chivalry might intend towards me and the present knight as foreigners and unknown/ no misfortune to befall us.107 104 ‘Inen auch auβ treibung vnd vberwindung derselben grossen lieb kainerlay muhe/ arbait noch gefahr/ nie zu groβ noch schwer sein lassen’, ‘der gegen seiner allergeliebsten durchleuchtigen/ hochadelichen ehren vnnd tugentreichen Junckfrawen mit solcher inbrünstiger recht treuhertziger ehrlicher lieb entzint ist/ das er derselben brinnende starcke flammen inn seinem innerlichen gemüt vnd hertzen nit verborgen halten kan’, ‘vnder allen weibsbildern auff diser erden […] /vnd vmb irer lieb vnd ehren willen (da es die notturfft vnd gelegenhait also erforderte) sein aigens lebens darzu setzen/ begirig vnd berait were’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 56r. 105 ‘ainen Ambos/ darauff warde gesatzt ain Diamant/ oben auβ ainer wolcken brach herfür ain arm/ hette inn der hand ainen Hamer/ als wolt sie auff den Diamant schlagen/ so doch derselb nicht dardurch bewegt wurde/ gab allain gleich als nach dem straich fewer flammen von sich/ vnd stunden darob von Seidensticker arbait nachfolgende wort: Semper constantia victrix’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 59r. 106 ‘ainer in schwartzem samat/ mit ainer langen güldenen Ketten an dem arm/ daran ihnen ain Junckfraw auffs schönest geputzt/ zu Roβ gefangen gefüert/ vnnd den Herrn Richtern nachfolgende geschribne Zettel vbergeben’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 52r. 107 ‘Ich von weitem herkomne Junckfraw auβ India, bin von ainem vngetrewen Ritter/ so hoch belaidigt worden/ […] darumben ich disen ehrlichen Ritter gefangen/ vnd in alle Land herumb fier/ den vngetrewen Ritter zusuchen/ vnd mit ime zukempffen. Bin also auch gleich zu disem hochlöblichen
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What is clear from this account is that love and fidelity are central to knightly virtue. A faithful knight is performing his duty by helping the woman to avenge the betrayal of an unfaithful one. The remainder of this passage’s meaning, in relation to gender at least, is less clear. The chain referred to could be an allegory for his knightly duty to offer such assistance, or of the knight being ensnared by her as Adam was ensnared by Eve, or even a warning of the sinful seductions of beautiful young women which can lead men ‘in chains’. The gender dynamics of this episode are also unclear. Initially the young woman seems completely in control as the knight is subservient to her whim, but by the end of the account it becomes apparent that she has had to enlist a knight’s help and has come to appeal to German knights for further assistance. Still, the unclear gender dynamics of this passage, reflecting the knightly duty to love and to protect women in need, together with the imagery of women as rulers, virtues, and heroines discussed above, are a far cry from the scenes of strong, heroic knights saving powerless, weeping maidens which are often seen in French festivals. A fireworks display held on the Seine in front of the Louvre in Paris in 1628 depicted the story of Andromeda (who was representing the rebellious and recently re-captured La Rochelle). Here, Horace Morel’s account, written in advance of the event, describes how the King will see the ‘figure of Andromeda tied to a rock and harshly exposed, for the vanity of her parents, to the most fearsome of sea monsters’ and then ‘from the top of the Tour de Nesle, will come this valiant child of the gods, this brave and magnanimous Perseus’, here representing the King, ‘who, carried on the wings of Pegasus, will appear before her as the only man who will feel worthy enough to triumph over her chastity; throwing himself at the monster, he will fight it valiantly, mortally wounding it, and will push it back into the depths from whence it came’, and then ‘Finally, he will make himself the rightful possessor of the beautiful, weeping woman’.108 What was essential to the masculinity displayed in the various knightly exercises was the demonstration of virtue through skill. The descriptions of the tournaments and the deeds of the most prominent actors within them bear this out. In the running at the ring at Munich in 1568, which lasted for six hours, Ferdinand of Austria and his fellow lord defender were ‘so well accomplished/
hochzeit fest vnnd Ritterspil herkommen/ vnd wil mein glück alda durch inen versuchen […] vnnd ich gerochen werden möcht. Versich mich gentzlich zu den Herrn Richtern/ sie werden mir vnd disem gegenwürtigen ehrlichen Ritter/ als frembden vnd vnbekanten inn solchem Ritterlichen vorhaben kain vnbilligkait widerfaren lassen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 52r. 108 ‘la figure d’une Andromede attacchee contre un Rocher, et rigoureusement exposee pour la vanité de ses parens aux plus redoutables monstres de la mer’, ‘Aussi-tost du haut de la Tour de Nesle paroistra ce digne enfant des Dieux, ce brave et genereux Persee’, ‘qui porté sur les aisles de Pegaze, se presentera devant elle, comme celuy seul de tous les hommes, qui se sentira digne de triompher de sa chasteté, et fondant d’abord sur le Monstre, il le combatra vaillamment, luy donnera des atteintes mortelles, le repoussera jusques dans les abysmes dont il sera sorty’, ‘et en fin se rendra juste possesseur de la belle toute esploree’, Horace Morel, Sujet du Feu d’Artifice, sur la Prise de la Rochelle que Morel doit faire pour l’arrivée du Roy sur la Seine, devant le Louvre (Paris: C. Son et P. Bail, 1628), pp. 5-7, trans. by Marie-Claude Canova-Green, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 182-85 (pp. 182-83).
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so often encountered/ their lances so elegantly wielded/ also so well seated on their steeds/ that many were in awe of it’.109 In the Free Tournament, it is said that Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria ‘elegantly/ powerfully and ably performed with his strikes’.110 Elegance was paramount, with honours going ‘to whom appears most gracefully on the course’.111 The link between prowess as a knight and virtue was made explicit in the rhetoric surrounding the appearance of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, as the ‘valiant and victorious Jason’, the heroic figure of Greek mythology, at Heidelberg in 1613.112 As part of this entry, there is a description of ‘the revered and most sage goddess Pallas in a very beautiful elaborately-carved carriage’ and ‘On the wheels on the right-hand side of this ornate carriage the arrival of the knight Jason and his company of Argonauts in the kingdom of Colchos was painted’, as has been alluded to above in another context.113 As the scene depicted ‘A terrible fiery dragon and dreadful, wild, fire-spitting, bronze-footed oxen wanted to prevent their landing and disembarkation’, and, in order to elucidate the central message, ‘Over this picture was the inscription: Invia virtuti nulla est via; that is, “No path is barred to virtue”’.114 Meanwhile, The wheel on the left-hand side of the carriage bore a painting of the valiant knight Jason walking freely and without hindrance between the defeated dragon and the oxen, who were now yoked, to fetch the Golden Fleece which he had earned by his victorious knightly might and virtue.115 109 ‘so wol gehalten/ so offt getroffen/ ire Spieβ so zierlich gefiert/ auch so fest zu Pferd gesessen/ das sich derwegen menigklich verwundert’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 43r. 110 ‘mit schlagen zierlich/ starck vnnd wol gehalten’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 59v. 111 ‘wölcher am zierlichsten auff der Pan erscheinen wird’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 45r. 112 ‘Sreitbar und Sighaften Iasonis’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ: Empfahung deβ Ritterlichen Ordens: Vollbringung des Heyraths: und glücklicher Heimführung: Wie auch der ansehnlichen Einführung: gehaltener Ritterspiel und Frewdenfests: Des Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herrn Herrn Friederichen deβ Fünften Pfaltzgraven bey Rhein deβ Heiligen Römischen Reichs Ertztruchsessen und Churfürsten Hertzogen in Bayern etc. Mit der auch Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürstin und Königlichen Princessin Elisabethen deβ Groβmechtigsten Herrn Hernn IACOBI deβ Ersten Königs in GroβBritannien Einigen Tochter. Mit schönen Kupfferstücken gezieret. In Gotthardt Vögelins Verlag. Anno 1613. ([Heidelberg]: Gotthardt Vögelin, 1613), p. 167, trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 80-91 (pp. 88-89). 113 ‘die hocherleuchte und weiseste Göttin Pallas/ auf einem sehr schönen […] und kunstreich auβgeschnitztem wagen’, ‘An den Rädern deβ kunstreichen Wagens/ zur rechten/ war abgemahlet die ankunft deβ Ritters Iasonis mit seiner Argonautischen gesellschafft in dem Königreich Colchos’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ, p. 167, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 88-89. See also above, Chapter I, pp. 53-57. 114 ‘Darüber war geschrieben: INVIA. VIRTVTI. NVLLA. EST. VIA: Das ist: Der Tugend ist kein weg verlegt’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ, p. 167, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 88-89. 115 ‘Auf der lincken seiten deβ Wagens/ war an dem rad gemahlet der streitbare Ritter Iason, der zwischen dem überwundenen Drachen/ und under das joch gebrachten wilden Ochssen/ ohn fernere hindernüβ/ frey herbey tratte/ das güldene Flüβ (so Er durch seine Ritterliche sigreiche Faust und Tugend erworben hat)’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ, pp. 167-68, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 88-89.
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This connection between virtue and prowess as a knight is further reinforced by the inscription below this image: ‘Pretium non vile laborum; that is, “virtue and chivalric deeds have earned the noble treasure”’.116 Finally, behind the carriage came not only the beasts but also the vices which this hero had overcome through his knightly virtue. The account records that: as it is customary amongst triumphant victors to display the defeated enemy as a spectacle, there followed firstly the six defeated oxen with feet of bronze, who had all been harnessed to the plough and brought under the golden yoke […] Then there followed the nine deadly vices, which had sprung from the sown serpent’s teeth, and these were also led all bound in chains, and thus [shown to be] conquered.117 This notion of the virtuous display of martial skill was remarkably similar to the display of prowess at court dances. McGowan’s analysis shows how rivalry was expressed through either ‘a crude display of stamina’, as we have seen in relation to jousting with descriptions of how knights competed for hours on end, or, more importantly, by ‘a demonstration of superior talent’.118 This was somewhat conditioned by the caveat that ‘Even if possessed of extraordinary dancing talent’ a courtier ‘should not display that power in public, for that smelt of the professional, the man in the trade’, but this meant that one needed ‘to perform so prodigiously well that the skill involved and the long hours of training were not obvious’ so that one should appear above all ‘gracefully’.119 Martial skill and its connection to masculinity was only one component of the performance of virtue, which the festival as a whole offered a great many more avenues to display, as shall be addressed further throughout this book. Meanwhile, the physical, spatial segregation of men and women at court is something which has often been observed by historians studying the everyday life of early modern courts. Duindam, for instance, has drawn attention to the separation of men and women as a feature of diverse early modern courts within a global context, although he also notes how The Book of the Courtier ‘explicitly discussed the place of women at court and the ideal of the female courtier: wholly male households increasingly saw their interaction with the women in princesses’ establishments as a necessary aspect of civility’.120 Division of space between genders, and the role of space in structuring gender relations, is 116 ‘PRETIVM NON VILE LABORVM: Das ist: Tugend und Ritterliche that den Edlen Schatz erworben hat’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ, p. 168, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 88-89. 117 ‘weil bey den triumphirenden breuchlich/ die uberwundene Feind zu einem spektackel aufzuführen/ Als folgeten erstlich die überwundene Sechs Ochssen/ die füsse von Erz hatten/ so alle in die Pflüge eingespant/ und under das güldene Joch gebracht worden […] Darauff folgten die auβ den gesäeten schlangen zähnen erwachsene Neun erschreckliche Laster/ welche gleichwol alle in ketten gefesselt/ und also überwunden geführet worden’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ, pp. 169-70, in Mulryne, WatanabeO’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 90-91. 118 McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance, p. 18. 119 McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance, pp. 22-23. 120 Duindam, Dynasties, pp. 61-68, pp. 235-36.
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something which has attracted much attention from historians, sociologists, and anthropologists.121 Henrietta Moore and Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, known as feminist anthropologists, were early exponents of the impact of built space on gendered power relations, with Moore coining the term ‘spatial texts’ which she claimed were not fixed but changed over time, and Rosaldo seeking to analyse the exclusion of women from certain spaces and the effects of this.122 Equally, Daphne Spain’s sociological investigations regarding schools and workplaces in the modern period made similar arguments relating to the maintenance of gender hierarchies by the inability of women to access ‘masculine space’.123 One can see physical, spatial separation of the male and female noble attendees at some points in the course of festivals. Other than the obvious separation of noble women not competing in person in the joust or tournaments involving direct physical combat (though they would be present in other forms at these events), this came mostly in processions or in church, and can be seen predominantly in Bavarian, Catholic festivals. Wagner describes the scene inside the Church in Munich in 1568, saying that ‘the whole Frawenzimmer/ waited to greet/ the princely bride/ like the other princely persons/ with great joy and jubilation’.124 This can be seen in the accompanying illustration (see Plate III). Here the Frawenzimmer is shown on the bride’s side, easily identifiable as the only members of the congregation in colourful clothing, with two prominent women wearing black positioned behind the bride, one of whom is seated (presumably her mother, as has been mentioned above). Meanwhile the male nobles stand on the opposite side, which is that of the groom, uniformly dressed in their dark robes. Zimmerman’s account of the festival at Munich in 1613 also notes that, in the Church, ‘Taking up places in the pews to the right-hand side/ were the princes/ on the other side stood the princesses’.125 This was mirrored in the evening banquet following this service, with Zimmermann describing how the men and women sat on opposite sides.126 Yet, there are other instances in which the boundaries, spatially and figuratively, in terms of gendered ideas and roles, become blurred — when the mutability of any such categories to the convenience, desires, and whims of rulers comes to the fore. We have already seen how widows could adopt the roles and symbolism
121 For an accessible introduction to this literature, see Beat Kümin and Cornelie Usborne, ‘At Home and in the Workplace: A Historical Introduction to the “Spatial Turn”’, History and Theory, 52 (October 2013), 305-18. 122 Henrietta Moore, Feminism and Anthropology (Cambridge: Polity, 1988); Henrietta Moore, Space, Text and Gender (New York and London: Guilford, 1996); Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, ‘Women, Culture, and Society: A Theoretical Overview’, in Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (eds), Women, Culture, and Society (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), pp. 17-42. 123 Daphne Spain, Gendered Spaces (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), esp. pp. 137-49. 124 ‘dem gantzen Frawenzimmer/ die Fürstlich Braut/ wie ander Fürsten personen/ mit grossen freuden vnnd frolocken zuempfahen verwart’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 32r. 125 ‘In den Stülen zur rechten Seiten am hinauff gehen/ seynd die Fürsten/ gegen vber die Fürstinen gestanden’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 2. 126 Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 3.
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of their deceased husbands, how stronger, martial images of women as virtues were portrayed, with female heroines even being held up as examples to valour for male knights, as well as how women could act as judges. The theme extends even further than this, though. Women could become actively involved in ‘masculine’ elements of festivals, while men could also play with the mutability of categories within festivals, crossing into ‘feminine’ environments. This, too, has classical precedent. Lynette Mitchell has observed that, in archaic and classical Greece, women, like men, could also display ‘aretē’, heroic virtues, as heroines, through their deeds, and particularly through participation in games. She points to ‘Cynisca, the sister of the Spartan kings Agis II and Agesilaus, who was the first woman to win an Olympic victory’ and notes how ‘she became a paradigm for royal women in the wider Greek world who were trying to express personal power through participation in the games’, as well as remarking that ‘Cynisca also seems to have been an exemplum for young men’.127 Of course, this provides a precedent for the triumphal arch at Munich in 1568 which held up heroines as examples to the knights, but it also provides a precedent for noble women displaying their virtue through participation in contests. Indirect participation, through champions competing on behalf of ladies or simply through competitors being listed below the banner of a noble woman, was commonplace at tournaments. For instance, in the manuscript account of a shooting match held at Stuttgart in 1560, separate crests are given for the Herzog and Herzogin which are represented equally sized, equally prominently, and frequently. Half of the noblemen listed as competing are depicted under the Herzogin’s banner, the other half the Herzog’s.128 However, at least by the seventeenth century, women also seem to have been able to compete in this particular form of knightly exercise, which was described in festival books, just like jousting, as a Ritterspiel. Evidence for this comes from the account by Johann Mayer of the visit to Munich of Ferdinand II in 1607. Mayer presents a list of all of the nobility ‘shooting’ in the contest.129 This list includes, mixed in with the noble men (not at the end or separated), the names of noble women: ‘Hertzogin Elizabetha in Bayern’, ‘Ertzhertzogin Maria Cristerna zu Oesterreich’ (who is actually listed immediately above the male ‘Ertzherzog Maximilian Ernesti zu Oesterreich’), ‘Ertzherzogin Maria Anna zu Oesterreich’, ‘Hertzogin Magdalena in Bayern’, ‘Ertzhertzogin Leonora zu Oesterreich’, ‘Hertzogin Maria Maximiliana in Bayern’, ‘Ertzhertzogin Maria’, and ‘Ertzhertzogin Maria Magdalena’. Moreover, noted among the winners of the lordly shoot are several 127 Mitchell, ‘The Women of Ruling Families’, 17. 128 Lienhart Flexel, Ordeliche Beschreibüng deβ Füerstlichen Herren Schiesen mitt dem Stachel deβ gehalten hatt der Dürchleüchtig Hochgeboren Füerst vnd Herr, Herr Christoff vonn Gottes genaden, Hörtzog zue Wüerttemberg vnnd zue Teckh, graff zue Mumppelgartt/ Wass füer Chur vnnd Füersten, Frawen vnnd Herren, Ritterschafft vnnd Adel. Stett vnnd Fenckhen den Drey vnnd zwaintzigisten Septembris Anno inn Sechtzigisten zu Stuettgarten im Lanndt Wüerttemberg gehalten, erkennen vnnd erschÿnnen, alles im Keyeren vnd gedicht verfast dürch Liennhartt Flexel von Augspurg Wie alle fäch darob erganngen ist von Anfang biss zum Endt Wie Hernach Volgett (Augsburg: 1560). 129 Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Civ v-Di v.
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ladies, including ‘Ertzhertzogin Anna Maria zu Oesterreich’, ‘Ertzhertzogin Elizabeth in Bayern’, and ‘Ertzhertzogin Maria Cristerna zu Oesterreich’.130 Equally, in the dances, themselves a demonstration of virtue and skill on the part of the participants, one would imagine a reinforcing of gender norms with one male and one female dancing together. Of course, this did happen. Zimmermann’s account of the festival at Munich in 1613 describes how, following an evening banquet, ‘the bride brought forth the ruling Lord/ they then danced/ then Duke Albrecht accompanied the ruling princess’ and ‘As now each prince had his partner/ the entertainment began/ and every pair began to dance at the same time’.131 Yet this was not always the case. At this same festival, ‘The Lord Groom at first led forth the father of his bride/ and danced with him’.132 McGowan notes how court dances sometimes involved two men dancing with the same woman, at other times two women dancing together, or even in some instances two men dancing together.133 Indeed, as we shall see, the picture in relation to gender in court dances could be significantly more complex even than this. Gendered representations and bodily appearances could also be subverted and toyed with. The history of the body itself is another topic which has received significant historiographical attention in recent times. The work of Pierre Bourdieu, which discussed the significance of bodies as well as their physical placing in space, provided a platform for the work of later writers, even if his assumption that the sexed body is natural has been largely replaced by a view of the body as socially constructed.134 Linda McDowell describes the body as ‘the place, the location or site […] of the individual with more or less impermeable boundaries between one body and another’, noting the mutability of it in response to place and position.135 More recently, ‘embodiment’ has been preferred since, as Kathleen Canning argues, embodied practices are ‘always contextual, inflected with class, ethnic, racial, gender, and generational locations’, with ‘place, time, physiology and culture’, and so, in the words of Leslie Adelson, embodiment is the process ‘of making and doing the work of bodies — of becoming a body in social space’.136 The overwhelming theme of this work on embodiment has been to cast the gendered human body as socially constructed and mutable. 130 Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Di v-Dii r. 131 ‘hat man die Braut dem Regierenden Herrn gebracht/ dem hat man […] vorgedantzt/ Darnach hat man Hertzog Allbrechten die Regierende Fürstin gebracht’, ‘Als nun jeder Fürst sein Vorders gehabt/ hat man angefangen die Seitenspiel nemmen/ vnnd haben hernach etliche par zugleich gedantzt’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, pp. 3-4. 132 ‘Dem Herrn Bräutigam haben die Brautführer sein Braut zum ersten zugeführt/ vnd ihme […] vorgedantzt’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 3. 133 McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance, p. 22. 134 See Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste, trans. by Richard Nice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984). 135 Linda McDowell, Gender, Identity and Place (Cambridge: Polity, 1999), p. 34. See also Martina Löw, ‘The Social Construction of Space and Gender’, European Journal of Women’s Studies, 13 (2) (2006), 119-33. 136 Kathleen Canning, Gender History in Practice (New York and London: Cornell University Press, 2006), p. 139; Leslie Adelson, Making Bodies: Making History; Feminism and German Identity (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), p. xiii.
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This can be seen at festivals too. A particularly striking example is that of the Habsburg Archduke Charles II of Austria, who had recently become ruler of Inner Austria in 1564 and was the brother of Archduke Ferdinand II, at the wedding festival held in Munich in 1568. This powerful, recently elevated, noble member of the Habsburg dynasty was, of course, represented in a dignified military fashion in elements of the festival. For instance, for the Foot Tournament he made his entry with a column of nobles and knights, ‘[a]t the head of which rode his princely serene highness nobly and well-armed as a field-commander in his gold-plated cuirass’.137 However, there is also a description for another of the earlier knightly exercises of the entry into the tournament arena of ‘the goddess Diana, namely Archduke Charles’, along ‘with two nymphs, and several attendants/ in red and white/ artistically and nobly adorned with gold/ silver and silk’ and ‘[b]efore his princely serene highness went eleven good instrumentalists covered with goutweed/ all craftily made up as the Satyrs’.138 This spectacularly vivid image shows that seemingly carnivalesque elements did not necessarily undermine the masculinity of participants, but it also further demonstrates that gender was a category which could be played with at the behest of the nobility within the context of festivals. This is also reinforced by the cross-dressing, the inversion of gendered appearances, which can frequently be witnessed, particularly as part of the choreography of court dances. Smart mentions one such example of cross-dressing and, simultaneously, representing Turks at the christening in Halle in 1616 of the daughter of Margrave Christian Wilhelm of Brandenburg, an engraving of which ‘depicts nine dancers, probably male, attired as Turkish women’.139 This partially served to trivialize the Turkish threat through appropriation as well as the element of cross-dressing, a theme which will be returned to in a later chapter, but it also once again demonstrates the mutability of gendered norms and how this corresponded to a conception of identity based on virtue above all other factors.140 As Smart remarks, the ‘central theme’ of the dances at Halle, being ‘the celebration of the ladies’ virtue and purity […] in turn corresponds to the theme of knightly virtue underlying the tournament’.141 This mutability of gender was also not restricted to court festivals in the German lands. Once more, a similarity can be drawn with the entry of the Queen of France into La Rochelle in 1632. As part of this entry, at the Palais de Justice, on a platform were placed ‘twenty-two young ladies, in the prime of their lives […] dressed as wood nymphs’ and ‘This parade of young women […] created a most pleasant 137 ‘Denen ire Furst: Durch: in derselbem von gold geetztem Kiris/ als ain Feldthaubtman herrlich vnd wolgerüst vorgeritten’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 45v. 138 ‘die Göttin Diana, Nemlich Ertzhertzog Carl’, ‘mit zwaien Nymphen, vnd etlichen Laggeien/ in rot vnd weiβ/ von Gold/ Silber vnd seiden künstlich vnnd herrlich angethan’, ‘Vor irer Fürstlichen Durchleuchtigkait giengen ailff guter Instrummentisten mit Gaiβfüssen gestalt/ wie die Satyri alles artlich zugericht’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 41r. 139 Smart, ‘The Württemberg Court and the Introduction of Ballet’, p. 44. 140 See below, Chapter V. 141 Smart, ‘The Württemberg Court and the Introduction of Ballet’, p. 45.
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spectacle’.142 Yet later, as the author reveals, all was not as it seemed: ‘Her Majesty chose to summon the troupe of Nymphs’ and ‘During the conversation, it was revealed to the ladies that the Nereid was a cross-dressed boy, played by the eldest son of the Royer family’.143 As with Archduke Charles at Munich, it is a member of a prominent family who cross-dresses, and once again gender is shown to be mutable. This does not sit easily with Watanabe-O’Kelly’s argument, building on the work of Marjorie Garber, amongst others, on cross-dressing and transvestism, that such contraventions of the ‘semiotic system’ could only pass if order is ultimately re-imposed, through some form of punishment or unwelcome consequence, since such blurring of sexual categories was inherently threatening.144 Perhaps this is in part because the sole focus of such works has been on women dressing as men and so they do not fully consider the fluidity of these boundaries as demonstrated by their transgression by men. In addition, it could be because the heavy focus of such studies has been on literature whereas it is particularly in court festivals that the mutability of categories is central to identity. In conclusion, while the mortality of gendered participants in festivals was prominently visible, gender was not in fact a fixed, inflexible, crucial component of identity or self-image as seen at these events, but rather a mutable construct which could be manipulated in different contexts of self-representation. Elements of a more traditional view, from the perspective of the existing historiography, of gendered images involving spatial segregation of the genders, and emphasizing female beauty and subservience juxtaposed with manly strength, power, and courage, can be seen in places here, too. Yet what is striking is the degree of fluidity rather than fixity, and although gendered language is prevalent, gendered roles seem to be able to be performed, fulfilled, and acted out by members of either sex. In these festivals men can appear in drag, female figures can represent manly virtues, and women can even partake in Ritterspiel. The over-riding themes revealed by this analysis, namely skill, virtue, and mutability, fused into a broader conception of nature and identity to be discussed in the following chapter.
142 ‘vingt et deux Damoiselles, en la fleur de leur aage, faisant les Nimphes Bocageres’, ‘Il faisoit fort beau voir ceste ceremonie de Filles’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé, pp. 62-63, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 216-17. 143 ‘La Reyne […] prit envie de mander la troupe des Nymphes’, ‘Là tombant de propos en autres, les Dames sçeurent que la fille Marine estoit un garçon travesti, et que l’aisné Royer avoit joüé ce Personnage’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé, pp. 71-72, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 222-23. 144 Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘Wearing the Trousers: The Woman Warrior as Cross-Dresser in German Literature’, in Sarah Colvin and Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (eds), Women and Death 2: Warlike Women in the German Literary and Cultural Imagination since 1500 (Rochester, New York: Camden House, 2009), pp. 28-44. See also Marjorie Garber, Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety (New York and London: Routledge, 1992).
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Plate I. View of the Tournament Arena at the festival for the wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, at Munich in 1568, from Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung (1568), inserted between pp. 40v and 41r. Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel: Gm 2° 131.
Plate II. A dance at the festival for the wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, at Munich in 1568. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: Gm 2° 131.
Plate III. Scene inside the church at the wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, in Munich in 1568. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: Gm 2° 131.
Plate IV. Image of a ‘Foot Tournament’ with knights riding artificial horses inside the Residenz at the festival for the wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, at Munich in 1568. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: Gm 2° 131.
Chapter III
Nature and the German Land
Within the context of the late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Holy Roman Empire, festival occasions frequently interacted with conceptions of Germania, of the German land, through the use of natural imagery. The German land, personified or artistically rendered, provided a recurring motif for courtly spectacles, and the features of the physical landscapes of the various territories through which retinues passed as part of festivals acted as stages for the performance of possession and the projection of identity. Equally, the mutability of nature to the whim of the ruler and portrayals of the cultivation of the land were central pillars for the construction of a civilized, Christian identity. While this imagery could be used to make competing, politicized, and confessionalized claims to legitimacy, it also afforded one of the bases for a shared identity of nobility through virtue. The use of this rhetoric is not unique to court festivals within the Holy Roman Empire in this period — similar themes featured prominently in court festivals elsewhere in early modern Europe as well as having a tangible legacy within the German-speaking lands, as the conclusion to this book will explore. However, an analysis of natural imagery is fundamental to an understanding of identity as it was constructed and projected through these occasions. The early modern period has often been identified by historians as a period of profound intellectual change; a time at which the religious ideas of the Reformation interacted with new ‘scientific’ ideas which challenged the authority of the ancients, provided ‘the origins of modern science’, and led, ultimately, to the ‘disenchantment of the world’. In short, early modern Europe supposedly witnessed a ‘scientific revolution’.1 A strong body of revisionist historiography, though, has undermined any such notions of a complete disjuncture with the past on an intellectual level, instead placing an emphasis on the close interconnection of religion and science throughout the early modern period, and the boundaries between religion, science, and magic have been shown to have been fundamentally blurred with John Henry stating that ‘the scientific world-view developed […] out of a wedding of natural philosophy with the pragmatic and empirical tradition of natural magic’.2 Peter Burke has noted the extent to which broadly disseminated literature such as almanacs continued to reinforce
1 See, for example, Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science, 1300–1800 (London: G. Bell, 1949). 2 John Henry, The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), p. 43; see also, for instance, John Hendley Brooke, Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
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rather than challenge traditional views of the natural world, and Stuart Clark has discussed the persistence of belief in demonology and the intervention of the supernatural even among practitioners of early modern ‘science’.3 What has remained clear is that the status and contexts of natural philosophy and of investigations into nature changed during this period, particularly through an association with courts. Rather than remaining purely within the setting of universities, many of those conducting investigations into nature in this period enjoyed the patronage of rulers, becoming part of the court, in a shift which both contributed to the development of new ideas and served to form part of the glorification of the ruler and the representatio maiestatis.4 These changes in natural philosophy also certainly interacted with the Reformation, with Alexandra Walsham’s work, The Reformation of the Landscape, arguing that changed religious understandings influenced and shaped explanations of the natural world, seen in the scientific discourse of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in a way which enabled the reclaiming of the landscape.5 She writes that ‘the landscape was a crucial forum in which confessional identities were forged’.6 This claiming of the land, interacting with religious ideas, in the pursuit of legitimacy and as part of claims to identity, can also be seen in court festivals. The land and its topography had long been important to the creation of a ‘German’ identity. Conrad Celtis (1459–1508) expressed the idea forcefully in a public oration delivered at the University of Ingolstadt. In the oration, Celtis declared that German students should ‘Consider it […] the height of shame to know nothing about the topography, the climate, the rivers, the mountains, the antiquities and the peoples of our region and our own country’.7 The land of Germany must, according to Celtis, be great due to ‘the painstaking exactitude and subtle learning with which the Greeks and Romans have surveyed our country, which is, to use their own words, the greatest part of Europe’.8 Celtis’s belief was that Germans should have a visual image of the topography of Germany imbedded in their minds in order to understand its history, customs, and, ultimately, the identity of its people. This project of visualizing the land and amalgamating this image with its customs and history was then taken up at great effort and expense in the sixteenth century. One such project of mapping the world together with German Reich’s place in it was the Waldseemüller world map of 1507, produced by the German 3 Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (London: Ashgate, 1978), 3rd edn (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008); Stuart Clark, Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). 4 See, for instance, Mario Biagioli, Galileo, Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1993). 5 Alexandra Walsham, The Reformation of the Landscape: Religion, Identity, & Memory in Early Modern Britain & Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). 6 Walsham, The Reformation of the Landscape, p. 10. 7 Conrad Celtis, ‘Public Oration Delivered in the University of Ingolstadt’, in Leonard Forster (ed. and trans.), Selections from Conrad Celtis 1459–1508 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1948), pp. 38-65, p. 43. 8 Celtis, ‘Public Oration Delivered in the University of Ingolstadt’, p. 43.
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cartographer Martin Waldseemüller (1470–1520), in association with a small group of scholars and printers in eastern France, and dedicated to Emperor Maximilian I. Another example is Sebastian Münster’s (1488–1552) lavishly illustrated Cosmographia which first appeared in 1544.9 Notably, in this work, which merged geography and history, the term Teütschland was used indiscriminately throughout the Empire, irrespective of regional linguistic variations.10 These themes were also central to the work of Wolfgang Lazius (1514–1565), court historian to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. In 1555, he set out to describe the origins of the ‘Franks, Alemans, Suebs, Marcomanni, Boii, Carni, Taurisci, Celts, and the Galatians’, all of whose descendants he counted among the inhabitants of the Habsburg lands. This resulted in De gentium migrationibus (1557), the first attempt to assign the origins of European peoples to a complex series of migrations. The concept was translated into German as Völkerwanderung. Identity in this reading was geographic and natural, as a Volk, through blood, as opposed to being dependent on more cultural factors such as language or religion. Lazius even wrote that ‘It is necessary to know the migrations of peoples, not only for a better understanding of history, but, truly, in order to expose the origins of these peoples, which, from the succession of so many centuries, are very much unaffected by customs and language’.11 In terms of cartography, indeed, in the early modern period the lands of the Holy Roman Empire were represented visually as a coherent unit; the stark difference between a multi-coloured patchwork Empire of dynastic territories juxtaposed with centralized states depicted in solid block colours was, for the most part, an invention of the nineteenth century.12 Celtis, Waldseemüller, Münster, and Lazius lived at a moment when America and the New World was being ‘discovered’ — when cartography was politically, economically, territorially, and intellectually crucial. It was a moment of geographic specificity and a moment of taming nature.13 Maps in the early modern period could be used to bring financial, as well as political, rewards at the very highest level. A prominent example of this is a map made by Diogo Ribeiro (d. 1533) in 1529 which asserted the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, over the Moluccas islands (via his sovereignty of Castile). The Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, which was signed following the discoveries of 9 See Toby Lester, The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America its Name (London: Profile Books, 2009). 10 Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe’s History (London: Allen Lane, 2017), p. 259. 11 As quoted in Patrick J. Geary, ‘Europe of Nations or the Nation of Europe: Origin Myths Past and Present’, Revista Lusófona de Estudos Culturais (Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies), 1 (1) (2013), 36-49 (43-44). 12 Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire, pp. 253-54. 13 Surekha Davies has recently published a study which begins to assess how sixteenth- and seventeenthcentury maps, within the context of New World discoveries, reveal attitudes towards different peoples whose cultures were related to the lands they inhabited. See Surekha Davies, Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human: New Worlds, Maps and Monsters (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).
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Columbus in the western Atlantic in 1492, had divided the right to sovereignty of newly discovered territories between Portugal and Castile. However, it was not definitive since, by fixing the line of demarcation between the two spheres of territorial influence 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, in the Atlantic, it left the question of where this line should fall in the eastern hemisphere, if it was to be drawn around the entire globe rather than on a flat map. In particular, it was contested whether the Moluccas islands, situated to the east of Malacca on the rim of the Pacific Ocean, fell into the Portuguese or the Castilian sphere of influence. The islands were valuable as a source of high-quality pepper. In his 1529 world map, Ribeiro placed the islands 172° 30’ W of the Tordesillas line of demarcation, leaving them a mere seven-and-a-half degrees inside the Castilian sphere of territorial influence. Ribeiro’s map was the first to place the islands within the western hemisphere, and thus was the first to remove them from Portugal’s sphere. In comparison with modern maps, Ribeiro’s map greatly distorts the breadth of the Pacific, with a distance of only 134° separating the westernmost point of South America and the Moluccas — a substantial underestimation of the distance between these two points by modern reckoning. Nevertheless, the map’s ‘continuing geographical influence stood as an abiding image of Charles’ claim to the Moluccas, which could be quickly consulted if the emperor felt the need to reclaim his rights to the islands’.14 On the basis of such depictions of the islands as lying within the Castilian sphere, the Holy Roman Emperor obtained a lavish financial settlement from the Portuguese at Saragossa in 1529, coming at the height of Charles V’s power in the year preceding his triumphant coronation by the Pope at Bologna. While it is not certain that this specific map was presented at Saragossa, the originality of its composition in favour of Charles V suggests that it at least provided the basis for the maps which were presented. Thus, the political mastery over nature depicted on Ribeiro’s map translated into actual sovereignty and financial gain. Maps and globes created a vision not only of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, but of its place in the world as a whole; a world about which more information was being gathered and in which new opportunities for interactions with distant territories were emerging as a result of the Spanish and Portuguese voyages of discovery. They were a major way in which nature was depicted visually and an important medium through which mastery of nature was sought; financially and politically as well as intellectually. As Beat Kümin and Cornelie Usborne have rightly observed, ‘In cartography […] maps are no longer seen as mere records of physical conditions produced by artists with gradually increasing technical skills, but as claims to power, as tools of representation, and as reflections of changing spatial awareness’.15 These ideas are seen as clearly in the court festivals of this period as they are in cartography. 14 Jerry Brotton, Trading Territories: Mapping the Early Modern World (London: Reaktion Books, 1997), Chapter 4, pp. 119-50 (p. 145). 15 Beat Kümin and Cornelie Usborne, ‘At Home and in the Workplace: A Historical Introduction to the “Spatial Turn”’, History and Theory, 52 (October 2013), 305-18 (316).
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A festival such as a joyous entry clearly required the city to be entered as a stage — as the ruler passed through the gate he symbolized his possession of the city, and this stage provided the necessary audience to give the festival meaning and efficacy. As discussed in the Conclusion below, joyous entries, based on the Roman imperial adventus, symbolized both the ruler’s possession of a city and respect for that city and its freedom by the need to be greeted and invited to pass through the city’s gates.16 Furthermore, as the processions and entries worked their way through the cityscape, past permanent landmarks and ephemeral architecture temporarily constructed for the event along a carefully choreographed route, and then into the castle, cathedral, or other venue in which the visiting nobility was to be received, the city afforded a platform for both the very public and more private aspects of festivals. Yet the legitimacy afforded by the land and its ties to identity were also vital to the imagery of festivals. Journeys to festivals could be punctuated by festivities themselves, and some festival occasions involved travelling between different elements of the festival held in different locations, which provided the opportunity for the land and its features to become a part of the festival’s rhetoric. For instance, at the start of the 1568 wedding festival for the marriage of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, a party set out from Munich by boat, led by Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria, to meet the party from Lorraine at Ingolstadt. The account says that they travelled along the Danube. Munich itself is on the Isar which flows into the Danube to the north-east from its official head in the Karwendel mountains in Tyrol, and going along the Isar then the Danube by boat is a circuitous route to take from Munich to Ingolstadt compared to just going over land. This could of course be for the added spectacle of entries from the water, but it also means that a lot of effort was gone to in order to use the Danube, one of the great rivers nourishing the Germanic lands, something which is then emphasized in the account. The use of the Danube could also be an allusion to the fact that if the Danube nourishes Germany then the Isar, Munich’s river, feeds it in turn. Of course, actual nourishment and trade also flowed across the Empire this way. By the seventeenth century Mediterranean fruit, spices, cotton and silk from the Venetian Market in Mittenwald went down the Isar and Danube as far as Vienna and Buda. Indeed, the recent volume edited by Margaret Shewring, Waterborne Pageants and Festivities in the Renaissance, has sought to draw attention to the extensive use of bodies of water in early modern European festivals as a whole.17 As Shewring remarks, this should hardly be surprising given ‘the essential role played by water — seas, rivers, lakes and canals — in the very survival of communities, cities and countries, providing routes for the transport of goods, services and individuals as well as employment and leisure activities’.18 These vital roles of 16 See below, Conclusion, p. 213. 17 Margaret Shewring (ed.), Waterborne Pageants and Festivities in the Renaissance: Essays in Honour of J. R. Mulryne (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013). 18 Margaret Shewring, ‘Introduction’, in Shewring, Waterborne Pageants, pp. 1-8 (p. 1).
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water could become incorporated, as in this instance, into the rhetoric of festivals since the various means of nourishing subjects through water and waterways ‘could all be presented as features of the benevolent state’ and ‘To be, and to be seen as being, in control of the gift of water came to be regarded as a necessary requirement of a ruler concerned with the wellbeing of his people’.19 Another highly interesting example of this integration of the landscape and of bodies of water into festivals, incorporating religion as well, can be found at a later Bavarian festival, held in 1607 to mark the visit to Munich of the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II (1578–1637), together with his wife, Maria Anna (1574–1616), and his mother Maria (1551–1608), both princesses of Bavaria, and their reception by Maximilian I, the future Elector of Bavaria (1573–1651). After the initial reception in Munich, the account of Johann Mayer records that the participants in the festival travelled to Starnberg, which lies 30 kilometres to the south-west of Munich, on the shores of a lake. On their arrival, ‘There waiting on the lake/ thirteen boats were moored/ On which with great joy one/ set off into the lake’.20 Then, the next morning, ‘One took to the lake once more/ in the princely vessels’, with the account adding that ‘The boats were all decorated’ and, in an image of complete serenity, that ‘no motion of the waves unsettled them’.21 That day, ‘Many entertainments were performed/ before the evening drew in’.22 Mayer continues by recalling that ‘Then one Baptised there/ a great crowd of the masses/ there needing to be Baptised/ The Baptism was a great delight’, before the water-based element of the festival concluded with a swim in the lake: ‘In the lake young and old/ swam here and there/ having quickly jumped down/ from the princely ships/ which they swiftly disembarked/ this was so deliberate/ a great princely delight/ after which they got themselves level/ floating across the lake’.23 Thus the festival made use of the physical landscape surrounding Munich, not just for additional entertainment in a more secluded setting than the city could afford, but also, by integrating Baptism, to enhance
19 Shewring, ‘Introduction’, p. 3. 20 ‘Da warten auff dem See/ Dreyzehen Schiff verstee/ Drauff man mit grosser Frewd/ Fuhr auff dem See’, Johann Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Das ist/ Kurtzer Bericht/ wie der Durchleuchtigist Fürst vnnd Herr/ Herr Maximilianus/ Pfaltzgraue bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Obern vnd Nidern Bayern/ etc. Ir Fürstlichen Durchl. Ertzhertzog von Grätz vnnd Oesterreich/ sambt seinem Hochgeliebten Gmahel/ vnd Fraw Mutter/ auch andern Geschwistern entgegen gezogen/ vnd in die Fürstl. Hauptstat München den 30. Augusti/ Anno 1607. einbeleitet. Sambt kurtzer Erzehlung der vberauβ grossen Pancket/ darinn 19. Fürstenpersonen bey einander gewesen. Weitter wird angezeigt/ alle Kurtzweil vnd Freudenspiel/ als Tragedi/ Fechtschuelen/ Geiaider/ Vogelschiessen/ so in vnd ausser der Statt seynd gehalten worden. Durch Johan Mayer/ Teutschen Poeten vnd Burgern in München. Gedruckt zu München bey Adam Berg. ANNO M.DC.VII. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1607), Biv r. 21 ‘Man auff dem See einnam/ In den Fürstlichen Schiffen’, ‘Die Schiff warn all bedeckt’, ‘Kein Regen sie erschröckt’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Biv r. 22 ‘Vil Kurtzweil man erzeigt/ Biβ sich der Abent reigt’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Biv v. 23 ‘Den tauffet man verstee/ Ein grosse Schar der massn/ Must sich da tauffen lassn/ Die Tauff ein wol ergetzt’, ‘In den See Jung vnd Alt/ Sie schwamen hin vnd wider/ Schnell wurdens gschossen nider/ Auβ den Fürstlichen Schiffen/ Die ihren schnell nachliessen/ Diβ ware wie bewust/ Ein groβ Fürstlicher Lust/ Nach dem wend man sich eben/ Thet am See abwertz schweben’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Biv v.
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the rhetoric of the festival, underlining the Counter-Reformation piety of the Wittelsbach and Habsburg dynasties. The beauty of the land within a ruler’s territory and the majesty of nature is frequently praised in the accounts. Following the journey to the lake at Starnberg during the visit of Ferdinand II to Munich in 1607, the participants in the festival made another journey out of the city again, this time to Schleiβheim Palace in the village of Oberschleiβheim which was a Wittelsbach summer residence built by Maximilian’s father, Wilhelm V. The account vividly describes its setting ‘amongst the many cold springs/ pleasantly springing/ flowing without number’ and comments that ‘the springs made a sweet noise/ beautiful grass stood there to knee-height/ the rock so beautifully and smoothly formed/ as though a workman had sculpted it/ with great art and mastery/ So nature through its power/ has masterfully made it’.24 Reverence for the natural world and the beauty of the land ruled over by the Dukes of Bavaria pervades the account of the shoot held by Duke Maximilian as part of this festival. This section begins with a brief interlude that ‘Pliny wrote/ on the nature of deer/ saying when he had taken in venom/ so he hastens undeterred/ to drink the water/ standing in it to the neck/ so that then it flows over him’, explaining that the deer then secretes water from its own eyes which solidifies into a jewel, and when the deer feels that the poison has left its system ‘so he climbs out of the water/ rubs his wet eyes/ on the tall and small trees/ and deposits the jewels against them’.25 The author proceeds to describe ‘a very beautiful shoot/ in which I beheld many powerful deeds/ of wild animals and of stags/ stalked swiftly here and there/ The water and assorted birds/ I also saw there not a few/ such as herons/ and other wild things’.26 The beauty and fertility of the land is emphasized once more, with the remark that the central park in Munich, in which the shoot took place, was ‘pregnant with clover and little flowers’.27 The countryside was also appropriated and brought into the city for festival occasions. A performed visual representation of the land flooded the imagery of festivals. This could often specifically refer to iconic features of the Germanspeaking lands, and, in particular, the Danube and the Rhine. At the marriage of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, and Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I of England, in 1613, references to the German land and its features came in the form of the motif of the marriage of the Thames and the Rhine. The marriage 24 ‘In den vil kalter Quellen fast/ Fein sprungen/ flussen ohne zal’, ‘Die Quellen gaben süssen Klang/ Schön graβ stund da eins Kniees lang/ Der stein was schön vnd glat gformiert/ Als hett ein Werckman ihn palliert/ Auβ rechter Kunst vnd Meisterschafft/ Also die Natur durch ihr Krafft/ Ihn meisterlich gewircket hat’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Div r. 25 ‘Plinius schreibet pur/ Von deβ Hirschen Natur/ Spricht wann er gifft hab gnossen So eyl er vnuerdrossen/ Dem Wasser zu nachmals/ Steh drein biβ an den Hals/ Alβdann fliessen ihm iech’, ‘So geht er auβ dem Wasser/ Reibt seine Augen nasser/ An die Bäum auff vnd nider/ Vnd verleurt den Stein wider’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Ciii r. 26 ‘ein fast schöne Awen/ Drin ich vil Gwilts thet schawen/ Von Wildpret vnd von Hirschen/ Schnel hin vnd wider pirschen/ Der Wasser vögel menig/ Sah ich auch da nit wenig/ Als Raiger/ vnd Wild Endn’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Ciii r-Ciii v. 27 ‘Von Kleh vnd Blümlein schwanger’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Ciii v.
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in London was followed by a triumphal journey along the Rhine, including smaller festivities, such as at Oppenheim, and culminating at Heidelberg in June of that year. It is recorded in a number of English sources as well as the German Beschreibung Der Reiβ.28 The union of the two rivers was a major theme of Thomas Campion’s Lords Maske performed on the wedding night itself. Indeed, one song within the masque desired ‘That it may liue in fame,/ As long as Rhenus or the Thames/ Are knowne by either name’.29 This was picked up on by the Venetian ambassador, Antonio Foscarini, who reported that the ‘subject of the Masque was […] Jove and Juno desiring to honour the wedding and the conjunction of two such noble rivers, the Thames and the Rhine’.30 Moreover, the theme ran into the literature surrounding the festival. A number of references are made to the Rhine in Henry Peacham’s collection of ‘Nuptiall Hymnes’. In a passage relating to hopes for a son from the marriage and the dynasty’s ‘Imperiall Ligne’, there is a reference to the ‘fertile Rheine [sic]’; a reference which intimates that the fertility of this couple is sanctioned by Germania itself as a reflection of the fertility of the Rhine, and that, furthermore, just as the waters of the Rhine continually bring fresh life to the land of Germany, so too will the dynasty established by this couple.31 The link between this dynasty at the head of the Protestant Union, only shortly before the Thirty Years War, and the Rhine is reinforced later in Peacham’s work as Elizabeth is hailed with the lines ‘Oh Virgin, worthy onely not of Rhine,/ And that sweet soile, thy Countie
28 Beschreibung Der Reiβ: Empfahung deβ Ritterlichen Ordens: Vollbringung des Heyraths: und glücklicher Heimführung: Wie auch der ansehnlichen Einführung: gehaltener Ritterspiel und Frewdenfests: Des Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herrn Herrn Friederichen deβ Fünften Pfaltzgraven bey Rhein deβ Heiligen Römischen Reichs Ertztruchsessen und Churfürsten Hertzogen in Bayern etc. Mit der auch Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürstin und Königlichen Princessin Elisabethen deβ Groβmechtigsten Herrn Hernn IACOBI deβ Ersten Königs in GroβBritannien Einigen Tochter. Mit schönen Kupfferstücken gezieret. In Gotthardt Vögelins Verlag. Anno 1613. ([Heidelberg]: Gotthardt Vögelin, 1613), trans. by Anna Linton, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 80-91. 29 Thomas Campion, A RELATION OF THE LATE ROYALL ENTERTAINMENT GIVEN BY THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE LORD KNOVVLES, AT Cawsome-House neere Redding: to our most Gracious Queene, Queene ANNE, in her Progresse toward the Bathe vpon the seuen and eight and twentie dayes of Aprill. 1613. Whereunto is annexed the Description, Speeches, and Songs of the Lords Maske, presented in the Banquetting-house on the Marriage night of the High and Mightie, COVNT PALATINE, and the Royally descended the Ladie ELIZABETH. (London: Printed [by William Stansby] for John Budge, 1613), C3v. 30 May 10. 1613. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives, ‘832. Antonio Foscarini, Venetian Ambassador in England, to the Doge and Senate.’, in Horatio F. Brown (ed.), Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts, Relating to English Affairs, Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice, and in other libraries of Northern Italy, 38 vols (London: Mackie and Co. LD., 1897–1940), vol. 12 (1905), pp. 53133 (p. 533). 31 Henry Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning. Disposed into sixe VISIONS. In Memorie of the late Prince. TOGETHER VVith Nuptiall Hymnes, in Honour of this Happy Marriage between the Great PRINCES, FREDERICK Count Palatine of the RHENE, AND The Most Excellent, and Aboundant President of all VIRTVE and GOODNES ELIZABETH onely Daughter to our Soueraigne, his MAIESTIE. Also the manner of the Solemnization of the Marriage at White-Hall, on the 14. of February, being Sunday, and St Valentines day. (London: T. S. for John Helme, 1613), F3v-F4r.
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Palatine’ the rivers of which ‘With Nectar runne against thy comming there’.32 Again, the reference to ‘Nectar’ conjures images of nourishment and plenty, and that this runs through these German rivers in anticipation of the couple’s arrival once more suggests Germania welcoming this marriage alliance. Beyond Germania’s flourishing on these Protestant occasions, the land was claimed in a confessionalized manner in another way. The Calvinist chaplain to Friedrich V, Abraham Scultetus, spoke of his master’s dominions as being a New Jerusalem, and his people as modern Israelites, utilizing common Calvinist rhetoric to claim the land for the Union and the Protestants. He affirmed that ‘we haue at this day, euen as great & weighty cause to praise him [God], as euer the people of Israell had in the old Testament’.33 He then went on to speak of ‘this Ierusalem of our Palatinate’ which had been ‘grieuously afflicted, and as it were euen rent asunder’, just as Jerusalem had often been, ‘about three yeares since, when Fredericke the fourth of blessed memorie departed this life’.34 Yet, in a clear allusion to the newly-wedded couple he was addressing, he continued ‘But, praysed be God, who euer buildeth Ierusalem againe. And this hee doth, when as hee blesseth a countrey with Princely branches, who wax and grow vp vnto his honour, and their natiue countries benefit’.35 The use of the phrase ‘their natiue countries’ again served to emphasize the intrinsically Germanic nature of this dynasty, in spite of the English bride. Scultetus then drew a parallel between the heavenly Jerusalem, where the faithful will be received by Christ, and Heidelberg, where Elizabeth had been received by Friedrich, which was, by implication, the earthly Jerusalem and the subjects of which were, by extension, the heavenly host on earth — members of the Elect. The sermon rhetorically asked: For if the honest subiects of the Electorall Palatine did heartely so much reioyce yesterday, when they saw that our right gracious, and illustrious Princesse Electoresse, was well and safely arriued here in good health, and receaued with ioy of our gracious Lord; what thinke you will bee then there, when wee, and all the other faithfull, who are Christs Bride, that shall haue sailed ouer the deepe, hideous, terrible, and tempestious Sea of this world, yea the
32 Peacham, THE PERIOD OF Mourning, G2v. 33 James Meddus, A SERMON Preached before the two high borne and illustrious Princes, FREDERICKE the 5. PRINCE ELECTOR PALATINE, DVKE OF BAVARIA, &c. And the Princesse Lady ELIZABETH, &c. Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG the 8. of Iune 1613. being the next day after her Highnesse happy arriuall there: By that reuerend and iudicious Diuine, Mr ABRAHAM SCVLTETVS, his Highnesse Chaplaine. Together with a short narration of the Prince Electors greatnes, his Country, his receiuing of her Highnesse. accompanied with twe[l]u[e] other Princes, thirty Earles, besides an exceeding great number of Barons and Gentlemen, and eight daies ent[e]rtainment. Translated out of High Dutch by IA MEDDVS D. and one of hi[s] Maiesties Chap[la]ines. (London: John Beale for William Welby, 1613), B6v. For many examples of Calvinist rhetoric across Europe, see the essays in Menna Prestwich (ed.), International Calvinism 1541–1715 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985). 34 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, C3v-C4r. 35 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, C4r.
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temporary death, and shall haue arriued at the holy hill, not at Heydelberg, but in heauenly Ierusalem, where Christ will receaue vs.36 A note in the margin confirms this reference by informing the reader that ‘He alludeth to a hil [sic] at Heidelberg called the Holy hill’.37 The ‘Holy hill’ referred to is surely not an actual place, but a pun on the city’s name, as in German ‘heilig’ means ‘holy’ and ‘Berg’ means ‘hill’. The figure of Germania herself was also seen to attend these festivals, as has been alluded to in Chapter I and discussed in another context, that of gender, in Chapter II.38 A good example of this can be found at the wedding in Stuttgart in 1609 of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and Barbara Sophia, the sister of the Elector of Brandenburg. Oettinger’s account records ‘Then the most acclaimed noble queen, Germania, came riding in on a fine, well-adorned triumphal carriage drawn by six snow-white oxen’.39 Germania was accompanied by ‘Religio’, ‘Libertas’, and ‘Iustitia’.40 Following her carriage were ‘Tempus’, ‘Fortuna’, and ‘Veritas’.41 Tellingly, ‘Veritas’s head was covered, and on top were separate fiery flames, but her face was exposed, and she was carrying a book in her hands’.42 Clearly there was a forceful Protestant message behind Germania appearing and giving her authority and blessing at a Protestant festival accompanied by ‘Religion’ and followed by ‘Truth’, a veiled and persecuted figure with flames rising from her head, carrying a book — surely a reference to Protestantism’s emphasis on the Word, ‘sola scriptura’.43 However, Germania is still closely associated with the German imperial framework. Queen Germania is 36 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, D6v-D7r. 37 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, D7r. 38 See pp. 65-66, 73, 84 in this volume. 39 ‘Alsdann ist die hochberühmbte Edle Königin GERMANIA herein gefahren in einem wolgezierten schönen Triumphwagen welchen sechs schneeweisse Ochsen gezogen’, Johann Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung Der Fürstlichen Hochzeit und des Hochansehnlichen Beylagers So Der Durchleuchtig Hochgeborn Fürst und Herr Herr Johann Friderich Hertzog zu Würtemberg und Teck Grave zu Mümpelgart Herr zu Haydenhaim etc. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin unnd Frewlin Frewlin Barbara Sophia Marggrävin zu Brandenburg in Preussen zu Stettin Pomern der Cassuben unnd Wenden auch zu Crossen und Jägerndorff in Schlesien, Hertzogin Burggrävin zu Nürnberg und Fürstin zu Rügen etc. In der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgardten Anno 1609. den 6. Novembris und etliche hernach volgende Tag Celebriert und gehalten hat: Darinnen alle Fürsten Fürstine und Frewlin: Graven Herren und vom Adel: Auch der abwesenden König: Chur: Fürsten unnd Stände Abgesandte so dieser Hochzeit beygewohnt verzeichnet: Darzu alle darbey gehaltene Ritterspihl Ring-rennen Turnier Auffzüg Fewerwerck und alle andere kurtzweil in dreyen underschiedlichen Büchern eigentlich und gründlich beschriben und mit lustigen Kupfferstücken Abgebildet werden. Durch M. Johann Oettingern Fürstl. Würtembergischen Geographum und Renovatorem. Gedruckt in der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgart. Anno 1610 (Stuttgart: [G. Grieb], 1610), p. 110, trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 58-73 (pp. 64-65). 40 ‘Religion’, ‘Freedom’, ‘Justice’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 111, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 64-65. 41 ‘Time’, ‘Fortune’, ‘Truth’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 111, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 64-65. 42 ‘Veritas hat ein verhüllet Haubt und darauff zertheilte Fewerflammne doch war ihr das Angesicht offen und hielt ein Buch in Henden’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 111, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 64-65. 43 ‘[Salvation] by Scripture alone’.
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described as ‘a handsome, radiant female figure wearing her imperial regalia […] holding a globe in her right hand and a sceptre in her left’.44 Nor is this the only example of Germania appearing in this way. For instance, at the christening in Stuttgart of Friedrich, the second son and fourth child of the couple married in 1609 ( Johann Friedrich and Barbara Sophia), seven years later, in 1616, Germania again appeared as ‘hearing of this joyfull assemblie of her Princes, shee desireth her owne selfe to salute them’.45 Once more, ‘the still-victorious Empresse Germanie’ was presented in imperial fashion. Weckherlin records that ‘Her bodie was covered most stately with a gowne of carnation satin embrodered all over with silver: she had vpon her head a golden crowne, in her right hand an imperiall scepter, and in her left hand a golden globe’.46 The image of the German land flourishing as though to indicate its support of the events being celebrated is also frequently seen, for example in the German account of Elizabeth’s arrival in Heidelberg in 1613, the Beschreibung Der Reiβ. The account records that, ‘In the city the streets were strewn with grass and flowers, and the houses decorated with green branches, and in many places there were green garlands across the streets on which the Palatine coat of arms on three different shields was hung, together with a large number of all kinds of exotic fruits, decorated with gold’.47 Elizabeth passed through these streets to a triumphal arch which had been erected at the end of the market-place.48 The inside of the arch continued the theme of Germania flourishing and thus showing her approval for this marriage, the Union, and the religion, ideals, and policies for which it stood. Indeed, ‘The inside of the whole arch was decorated with ivy and beautiful flowers, with hanging Seville oranges, lemons, also damsons, peaches, and all the other fruits that grow in Germany, a large number of them, and in the middle was a fine garland’.49 Germania was frequently shown to blossom and flourish. Nature and representations of the land were extremely common in the dances which regularly punctuated early modern European court festivals. Margaret McGowan, who has written on dance at French Renaissance courts, explains how this came 44 ‘ein ansehenlich leuchtend Frawenbild in ihrem Keyserlichen Geschmuck […] hat in der rechten Hand eine Weltkugel und in der Lincken ein Scepter gehalten’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 111, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 64-65. 45 Georg Rudolf Weckherlin, TRIVMPHALL SHEVVS Set forth lately at Stutgart. WRITTEN First in German, and now in English BY G. Rodolfe Weckherlin, Secretarie to the Duke of Wirtemberg. (Stuttgart: 1616), p. 44. 46 Weckherlin, TRIVMPHALL SHEVVS, p. 48. 47 ‘In der Stadt waren die gassen mit graβ und blumen bestrewet und die heuser mit grünen meyen besteckt und an vielen orten mit grünen Krentzen uber [sic] die strassen daran der Chur Pfaltz Wappen in drey underschiedlichen schilten sambt allerhand frembden früchten in grosser anzahl mit gold geziert gehengt’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ, p. 136, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 84-85. 48 Beschreibung Der Reiβ, p. 136, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 84-85. 49 ‘Inwendig war der gantze Arcus mit Ephew und schönen blumen anhangenden Pomerantzen Citronen wie auch Quetschen Pfirsing und allen andern in Teutschland wachsenden baumfrüchten in grosser anzahl gezieret und mitten durch ein schöner krantz’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ, p. 137, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 84-85.
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from a literary tradition celebrating natural rebirth.50 The theme was of ‘harmonies in Nature that depended on and were extended to the good rule of a monarch […] the great shepherd […] the source of strength and order’.51 This was a feature, for example, at the reception of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at Fontainebleau in 1539.52 She discusses in her analysis of early modern dance ‘This blurring of roles, this ready interaction and interchange between shepherd and courtier […] where court manners spilled over into the countryside and produced idealized versions of pastoral scenes and activities’ as part of a ‘process of interweaving homely and courtly elements’.53 French dance did have a strong influence at German courts, particularly in Stuttgart following the tours of France and England made by Georg Rudolf Weckherlin (who published festival texts as we have seen) and by Duke Johann Friedrich from 1607, as well as at the court of Duke Friedrich Ulrich of Braunschweig due to the French dancing master Anthoine Emeraud.54 Yet this natural imagery was also very much in keeping with other elements of German festivals. Imagery relating to the wilderness, forests, and the cultivation of the land was also present and highly significant. An example of this can be seen at the festival held in Stuttgart in 1617 for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg and Teck (1582–1628), and Barbara Sophia, Margravine of Brandenburg (1584–1636), which was celebrated alongside the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard (1586–1631), and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen (1600–1624). Figure 4 is one of the 92 engravings of the event forming the pictorial account by Esaias von Hulsen.55 This image shows a not uncommon element of processions involving wild and mythical creatures. A triumphal procession for Elizabeth’s arrival at Heidelberg in 1613, too, featured a ‘Chariot of Forrestworke, garnished with liuing birds and beasts’ carrying ‘Diana, attended by six Satyres, playing wildly on musicke: six other Satyres leaping and dauncing Antick-like: twelue Satyres more leading Dogges and Deere: the Wood-men followed’.56 Moreover, the ‘God of Husbandry’ followed Juno’s chariot, which was ‘drawne by Peacockes’, closely ‘with 3. Ploughes’.57 50 Margaret M. McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance: European Fashion, French Obsession (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 184. 51 McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance, p. 190. 52 McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance, p. 187. 53 McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance, p. 187. 54 McGowan, Dance in the Renaissance, p. 245. 55 Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō vnnd Abbildung aller Fürstlichen Auffzüg vnd Rütterspilen. Beÿ Deβ Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnnd Herren, Herren Johann Friderichen Hertzogen zü Württemberg vnnd Teck. Graven zü Montpelgart Herren zü Haydenhaim. Iro: F: Jungen Printzen vnd Sohns Hertzog Vlrichen wohlangestellter Fürstlichen Kindtauff: vnd dann beÿ Hochermelt Iro: F: G: geliebten Herren Brüoders. Deβ auch Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnd Herren Herren Ludwigen Friderichen Hertzogen zü Württemberg. Mit der Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin vnd Fräwlin Fraw Magdalena Elisabetha Landtgraffin auβ Hessen. Fürstlichem Beÿlager vnd Hochzeÿtlichem Frewdenfest Celebrirt vnd gehaltten. In der Fürstlichen Haüptstatt Stüetgartt. Den 13.14.15.16. vnnd 17. Iulij Anno 1617. (Stuttgart: Esaias von Hulsen, 1617), plate 32. 56 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, F3v. 57 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, F2v.
Figure 4. A scene depicting wild men, animals, and mythical creatures as part of a festival procession in Stuttgart for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard, and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen, in 1617, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 32. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: 36.17.4 Geom. 2° (1).
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Just as in the imagery of the God of Husbandry and his ploughs at Heidelberg, the cultivation of God’s creation had been celebrated as God’s will at the wedding in Stuttgart of Johann Friedrich and Barbara Sophia in 1609. During the ballet which took place in the new Lusthaus, three nymphs wearing white and with laurel wreaths emerged from the mountain, which lay at the centre of the performance, and sang ‘How well has God ordained everything and made it according to His will for the benefit of man, and has created everything on earth that lives and breathes, also the vegetation and the grass, so that it serves his [man’s] best interests’.58 They continued, praising the cultivation of the land, ‘At the same time, the lovely and virtuous nymphs in the wild woods plant and cultivate the earth as they can, early and late, just as God has ordained, and they trust in Him alone’.59 The lyrics then went further by attacking the ‘hermits’, with whom the nymphs are contrasted and who are almost certainly intended to represent fanatical Catholics, as going against God’s will by fleeing into the wilderness. These allusions to the wilderness and its cultivation are telling. Carolyn Merchant has observed that in the sixteenth century ‘civilized society’ came to be contrasted with ‘wilderness’ and that ‘To become “civilized” was to be brought out of a state of barbarism, to be instructed in the arts of living, and to be elevated in the scale of humanity’.60 Richard Cole, too, has noted the widespread use of ‘wild-man folk-lore imagery’ in relation to ‘non-western peoples’, stating that from the point of view of sixteenth-century western Europeans, ‘[a]s different as were the Indian and the Turk, both lived in barbaric cultures’. He has also stressed how clothing (or the lack thereof ) was important in this ‘wild-man’ imagery which separated out ‘non-western’ culture.61 Through ‘wild-man folklore’ based partly around appearance, therefore, all ‘non-western’ peoples could be conglomerated to form a dipole to German civilisation, and one frequently finds characters dressed as these peoples in festivals. The precedent for this can be seen in Hans Burgkmair’s depiction of the people of ‘Calicut’ (a merging of Africans, Americans, and Indians) for Emperor Maximilian I’s ‘Triumph’ — a series of woodcuts sent to the prominent figures within the Holy Roman Empire. These images showed the people of newly discovered lands displaying few marks of civilization, being dressed in animal skin or simple feathers and 58 ‘Wie hat Gott alls so wol bestelt/ Und gmacht wies seinem Willen gfelt/ Dem Menschen zu seim frommen/ Auff Erd erschaffen alles das Was lebt und schwebt/ auch Laub und Graβ Soll ihm zum besten kommen’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 146, in Mulryne, WatanabeO’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 68-69. 59 ‘In wilden Wälden auch zugleich/ Die Nymphe schön und tugendreich Das Erdich pflantzen/ bawen/ Nach ihrer glegnheit früe und spat [sic]/ Wie es dann Gott geordnet hat/ Dem sie allein vertrawen’, Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung, p. 146, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 68-69. 60 Carolyn Merchant, Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western Culture (New York and London: Routledge, 2003), pp. 68-69. 61 Richard G. Cole, ‘Sixteenth-Century Travel Books as a Source of European Attitudes toward NonWhite and Non-Western Culture’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 116 (1) (1972), 59-67 (62-65).
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likened visually to animals, thus portraying them as ‘easy to subjugate, without pride’.62 According to Ulinka Rublack, Burgkmair had, therefore, ‘created ethnic stereotypes to serve imperial propaganda’.63 Furthermore, in his study of sixteenth-century travel books, Cole observed the Renaissance ‘origins of a new cultural trait, the intensification of ethnological pride and the formation of the myth of colour’.64 He notes that this drew on the metaphor of light and darkness representing good and evil in classical and Christian culture as well as the precedent in late medieval folklore that blackness signified ‘evil or something inherently defective, undesirable, or mysterious’, and that, by the sixteenth century, dark skin colour was the mark of a slave.65 He remarks that ‘[i]n most cases when color is noted by European observers, a statement inevitably follows on the relative inferiority of the people observed’.66 David Abulafia, too, has made similar observations, noting how classical expectations of dark-skinned, cannibalistic savages inhabiting the Aristotelian terra australis seemed to be fulfilled in early modern visions of the inhabitants of the New World.67 Sabine MacCormack has demonstrated how, especially in the New World, other peoples were shown to be at a lower level of civilisation than that attained by Europeans with their Greco-Roman heritage, by charting how their cultures departed from the civic history of Rome.68 Giovanni Battista Ramusio’s engraving of Cuzco, made in 1606, for instance, showed that Cuzco’s civic development had stopped at a specific point in that of the history of Rome and so had not advanced to the same level of civility.69 Margaret Meserve similarly observes that the Ottomans were often given Scythian ancestry by western Europeans, attributing their supposed cruelty and primitive civilisation to this heritage.70 There were, of course, some visions of the ‘noble savage’ in early modern Europe, too, with objects produced by these non-Christians in some cases becoming prized components of Kunstkammern, or Cabinets of Curiosities, and the suggestion being made by some that all peoples could attain a level of human reasoning and thus civilisation even without Christianity, as the work of Christian Feest 62 Ulinka Rublack, Dressing Up: Cultural Identity in Renaissance Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 178-79. 63 Rublack, Dressing Up, p. 180. For another discussion of this theme, see Renate Pieper, Die Vermittlung einer neuen Welt: Amerika im Nachrichtennetz des Habsburgischen Imperiums 1493–1598 (Mainz: P. von Zabern, 2000). 64 Cole, ‘Sixteenth-Century Travel Books’, 59. See also Francisco Bethencourt, Racisms: From the Crusades to the Twentieth Century (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013). 65 Cole, ‘Sixteenth-Century Travel Books’, 64. 66 Cole, ‘Sixteenth-Century Travel Books’, 64. 67 David Abulafia, The Discovery of Mankind: Atlantic Encounters in the Age of Columbus (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), p. 4. 68 See Sabine MacCormack, ‘Limits of Understanding: Perceptions of Greco-Roman and Amerindian Paganism in Early Modern Europe’, in Karen Ordahl Kupperman (ed.), America in European Consciousness, 1493–1750 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1995). 69 MacCormack, ‘Limits of Understanding’, pp. 79-86. 70 Margaret Meserve, Empires of Islam in Renaissance Historical Thought (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), pp. 67-69.
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has argued.71 However, the level of that civilisation without Christianity was limited. While Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) appeared to depict an advanced civilisation in the absence of Christianity, the emphasis in early modern political thought on tracing the development of political society from the disorderly and chaotic ‘state of nature’, in aid of theories of ‘natural law’, and the depiction of non-European, non-Christian societies as being closer to a state of nature seen ubiquitously in early modern European culture, surely set these societies as being in a more primitive state, at a lower level of civilisation.72 The rhetoric seen in Burgkmair’s work can also be observed at the tournament and fireworks in Stuttgart in 1602. The very first entry into the tournament arena, that of Lord Friedrich Duke of Württemberg and Teck and his wife, depicted the differences between the continents with Europe, Asia, Africa, and America represented in the procession.73 This entry, so the account claims, was made ‘[i]n the form/ character/ appearance/ and manner’ of ‘America’ and ‘with naked people’.74 Interestingly and significantly, the account of this entry uses the term ‘vnsern Vatterlandt’ (‘our Fatherland’), an extremely rare term in these festival books (although not in contemporary political discourse), which for the most part prefer to reference Germania or Teutschland, in immediate juxtaposition with Columbus’s discoveries.75 This demonstrates the emotional connection with the ‘Fatherland’ generated by its juxtaposition with the New World, uncivilized ‘Other’, and perhaps hints towards the heredity of racial characteristics. It also potentially suggests that the notion of ‘Vaterland’ should best be understood in this context as being attached to broad ideas of belonging as opposed to a geographically specific area, as something universalizing and mutable rather than antagonistic and exclusive: it interacts with expansive ideas
71 Christian F. Feest, ‘The Collecting of American Indian Artifacts in Europe, 1493-1750’, in Karen Ordahl Kupperman (ed.), America in European Consciousness, 1493–1750 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), pp. 324-60, esp. pp. 325-30. 72 For a detailed bibliography of primary and secondary material relating to the development of natural law theory in political thought, see J. H. Burns (ed.), The Cambridge History of Political Thought 1450–1700 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 765-76. See also Richard Tuck, ‘The “Modern” Theory of Natural Law’, in Anthony Pagden (ed.), The Languages of Political Theory in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 99-119. 73 Jakob Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, Königlichen Auffzugs/ Heroischen Ingressus vnd Herrlicher Pomp vnd Solennitet: Mit welcher/ auff gnädige Verordnung Deβ dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnd Herrn/ Herrn Friderichen/ Hertzogen zu Würtenberg vnd Teck/ Grafen zu Mümpelgart/ Herrn zu Heydenheym: Ritter beyder Königlichen Orden in Franckreich vnd Engellandt: In der Faβnacht Mannliche vnnd Ritterliche Thurnier vnnd Ringrennen/ gehalten worden: Sampt einem stattlichen vnd wunderbarlichen Feuwerwerck/ dergleichen zuvor niemals gesehen noch gehöret: In Gegenwart etliche Fürsten/ Grafen/ Herrn/ Ritter vnd vom Adel/ Hochlöblichen/ Fürstlichen/ Adelichen Frauwenzimmer: Auch der Ehrwürdigen/ hoch vnd wolgelehrten Herren Prælaten in Würtenberg/ vnd Versammlung einer Ehrsamen Landischafft/ Mit gnädiger Bewilligung vnd Vorwissen Ihrer F.G. zur ewigen Gedächtnuβ/ der Posteritet publiciert. Durch M. IACOBVM FRISCHLINVM BALINGENSEM: POETAM ET HISTOricum Wirtenbergicum. Gedruckt zu Franckfurt am Mayn/ durch Joachim Brathering/ Im Jahr 1602. (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1602), pp. 22-23. 74 ‘In Format/ Gestalt/ Zier vnnd Habit’, ‘mit nackenden Leuten’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 21. 75 Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 23.
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of civilization contrasted with that which is evidently different as opposed to referring to a rigidly defined territory. A very similar theme can also be observed in the depiction in Figure 5 of a Moor (on the far right of the image) juxtaposed to German trumpeters in Jocquet’s account of the festivities at Heidelberg for Elizabeth’s arrival there. Apart from his skin colour, there are several other obvious and significant features which distinguish the ‘Moor’ from the Germans in this image. In contrast to the elaborately dressed Germans, he is virtually naked, wearing only a dress made out of feathers with a bare and ill-defined upper-body, a tribal-looking headdress, and playing the drums — the simplest possible instrument — instead of a trumpet. Again, this shows the implied greater level of civilization of the Christian Germans. Returning to the theme of the untamed, uncivilized wilderness, Tamar Herzog, in her work in relation to the claiming of territory in the New World, writes about a fundamental dichotomy distinguishing civilized from barbarians, those who properly occupied the land from those who did not […] European domination was inevitable because Europeans were more worthy, better governed, or more likely to observe the divine mandate, now also part of natural law and the law of nation, to occupy what was ‘empty’.76 Wilderness was commonly represented by forests, and William O’Reilly has shown the importance of the forest to the Germanic concept of the wilder Mann.77 Moreover, O’Reilly has argued that in the case of the Roma (Gypsies) of the Balkans who lay between the Ottoman and Habsburg empires ‘the defining line was drawn between those who lived “this side of the forest”, i.e., the Cis-silvanii, and those on the other side of the forest, the Trans-silvanii, with the name becoming geographically associated with a territory which had become “Ottomanised”’, so that, for western Europeans, ‘wood dwellers formed the border, the quarantine zone, the frontier of civilisation’ and those who were Trans-silvanii were beyond civilisation, indeed beyond salvation — they had become Ottomanized.78 The fanatic hermits, clearly intended to represent Catholics, of the ballet in Stuttgart in 1609 mentioned above, with their self-flagellation, who had fled to the wilderness, were therefore grouped with the Ottomans, Gypsies, and others who were Trans-silvanii, or even ‘infidels’. They represented how Catholicism 76 Tamar Herzog, Frontiers of Possession: Spain and Portugal in Europe and the Americas (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2015), p. 259. 77 William O’Reilly, ‘Turks and Indians on the Margins of Europe’, Belleten, Dört Ayde Bir Çikar ( Journal of the Turkish Academy of Arts and the Sciences), 65 (242) (April 2001), 243-56 (247). See also Urs Bitterli, Die ‘Wilden’ und die ‘Zivilisierten’: Grundzüge einer Geistes- und Kulturgeschichte der europäisch-überseeischen Begegnung (Munich: 1976), 2nd edn (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1991). However, Bitterli’s work is limited in scope; see the review by Richard G. Cole in American Historical Review, 82 (2) (1977), 347-48. 78 O’Reilly, ‘Turks, Indians and the Margins of Europe’, 247.
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Figure 5. German Trumpeters and a ‘Moor’ at the festival for the return of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, with his new wife, Elizabeth Stuart of England, to Heidelberg in 1613, from D. Jocquet, Les Triumphes, Entrees, Cartels, Tovrnois, Ceremonies, et Avltres Magnificences (1613), p. 145. BL Shelfmark, 605.a.27. © British Library Board.
had lost its way to sin, in contrast to those who followed God’s word. Merchant explains that ‘In religious terms, lost in the wilderness meant a lost soul’ and that ‘The expulsion [of fallen mankind] from the Garden [of Eden] into the wilderness equated the latter with the evil introduced when Eve submitted to the temptation of the serpent’.79 Furthermore, particularly for Calvinists ‘God had authorized human dominion over the earth’ and ‘humanity had a mandate to “make the desert blossom as the rose (Isaiah 35:1)”’.80 Thus, for the Catholics to be associated with those who went astray into the wilderness and the nymphs at this Protestant festival to instead cultivate the land furthered the rhetoric of civility versus wild people. Karin MacHardy has also found references to cultivation of the land to be significant within a political and confessional context, albeit slightly differently so, within early-seventeenth-century Protestant discourse in the Austrian lands, as part of a broader study of the rhetoric of court versus rural life in German literature from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. She has found that ‘[a]lthough the Protestant opposition did not glorify pastoral country life, or vilify corruption at the Imperial court, they clearly identified the latter with
79 Merchant, Reinventing Eden, pp. 68-69. 80 Merchant, Reinventing Eden, p. 69.
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Catholicism and the Land, or country, with Protestantism’.81 The culture of the Habsburg court and the wilderness may seem at opposite ends of the spectrum as ways to criticize Catholics, but they share the common feature of not representing the correct, virtuous cultivation of the land. Nature and the German land could, then, be politicized and confessionalized to suit contemporary causes in the Holy Roman Empire — whether for the propagandistic purposes of the Habsburgs behind Lazius’s work or to assert the legitimacy of the Protestant Union’s cause. Yet it was also fundamental to an often unifying and universalizing rhetoric of ‘Germanness’ based on the control of nature which, in turn, fit in to broader conceptions of nobility and of German noble identity which superseded confessional or any other cultural divisions. Sitting alongside the imagery of military might in the representatio maiestatis in early modern Europe was, as alluded to earlier, a symbolic command over nature; an aspect of the projection of monarchical power which has been almost entirely overlooked within existing festival scholarship but which is crucial as the rhetoric went beyond a display of power alone — mastery over nature
81 Karin J. MacHardy, War, Religion and Court Patronage in Habsburg Austria: The Social and Cultural Dimensions of Political Interaction, 1521–1622 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2003), p. 92.
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and technological feats were linked to identity.82 The primary setting in which nature was possessed, manipulated, and thereby symbolically mastered in early modern Europe was in the Kunstkammern or Cabinets of Curiosities possessed by the ruling elite.83 As Watanabe-O’Kelly has declared, the Kunstkammer ‘was a system for organizing knowledge about the universe and for demonstrating man’s mastery over nature’.84 Such collections could form an integral part of a noble court’s ‘panoply of power’.85 One famous example of an expansive Kunstkammer in the German-speaking lands was at Schloss Ambras in Innsbruck, at the court of the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand II, who was given the county of Tyrol in 1564. He rebuilt the existing medieval fortress into a Renaissance palace, which he gave to his low-born (and so secretly wedded) first wife Philippine Welser, an Augsburg patrician. Around 1572 he created the lower castle to house his various collections. These included ‘Turcica’ — Ottoman luxuries, clothing, weapons, and armour, gathered during Ferdinand’s governorship in Bohemia, which were used to equip opponents for the so-called ‘Hussar tournaments’; the Heldenrüstkammer which contained, for example, armour from the commanders at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571; and the blend of natural and artificial objects — gemstones, eggs of exotic animals, coral, ivory, maps, cartographical equipment, mechanical devices, and so on — on display in the Kunstkammer. Another extensive collection was amassed by the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, and much of this remains on display in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Watanabe-O’Kelly has also illustrated how the Kunstkammer in Dresden displayed a rhetoric strongly connected to the Electors’ political aims from the mid-sixteenth century.86 Dresden became the capital city of Moritz, the Albertine Duke of Saxony, following his victory over his Ernestine cousin Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous at the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547, where he claimed the title of Elector of Saxony. Although Moritz was then killed at the Battle of Sievershausen in 1553, his successors retained the Electorship and proceeded
82 One important exception is the work by Luciano Berti, Il Principe dello studiolo: Francesco I dei Medici e la fine del Renascimento fiorentino (Florence: Edam, 1967), which discusses the Medicis’ interest in technology, such as fountains, in terms of their governance of Florence and projection of power. Still, this work does not link technological feats to notions of identity. 83 See, for example, Horst Bredekamp, The Lure of Antiquity and the Cult of the Machine: The Kunstkammer and the Evolution of Nature, Art and Technology, trans. by Allison Brown (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1995); Oliver Impey and Arthur MacGregor (eds), The Origins of Museums: The Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe (Oxford: The Clarenden Press, 1985; reissued London: House of Stratus, 2001; reissued with updated photgraphs, Ashmoleum Museum, 2017). 84 Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly has shown how this was the case in mid-sixteenth century Dresden. See Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Management of Knowledge at the Electoral Court of Saxony in Dresden’, in Mary Lindemann (ed.), Ways of Knowing: Ten Interdisciplinary Essays (Boston and Leiden: Brill, 2004), pp. 53-65. 85 See Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Management of Knowledge’; Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, Court Culture in Dresden: From Renaissance to Baroque (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave, 2002). 86 See Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Management of Knowledge’; Watanabe-O’Kelly, Court Culture in Dresden.
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to embellish Dresden with a number of collections designed to illustrate their power and political ambitions. The Kunstkammer was developed by Elector August, Moritz’s successor. As Watanabe-O’Kelly has argued, it was connected to August’s aims as Elector of Saxony — namely solidifying the government of Electoral Saxony, securing its borders, encouraging trade and industry, and establishing Dresden as a princely residence.87 The collection occupied seven rooms in the Palace in Dresden, and was divided into 85 groups of objects. It was characterized by instruments relating to the mapping of the heavens and the earth and included celestial and terrestrial globes, compasses, and astrolabes. It also contained, very significantly, a complete illuminated map of his territories made by August himself. As Watanabe-O’Kelly has observed, reliable maps and calculations of distance were highly important in the further exploitation of the natural resources of Saxony, territorial expansion, advancement of trade, and the consolidation of the power and administration over his territory which were features of August’s reign.88 Even more significantly, however, the map symbolized August’s sovereignty over this territory, and this symbolism of his power over nature can only have been enhanced by the fact that it was made by the Elector. Yet the most crucial feature of August’s Kunstkammer consisted of seven groups of turned ivory and wooden objects. This section of the inventory is set apart with a special title page which reveals that some of the ivories displayed were also made by Elector August. Ivory turning was a hobby for many contemporary princes, and August had this skill taught to his son. The collection of ivory pieces begins with those made by the Elector personally, then those made by Egidius Löbenigk and Georg Weckhardt, the court ivory turners, and finishes with pieces which were presented to August as gifts by other nobles, for example the Duke of Florence. In Watanabe-O’Kelly’s words ‘The turner’s lathe or Drehbank […] like the complex mapping devices […] enabled man — particularly the prince, who had access to such a costly machine — to master nature’.89 These pieces of turned ivory, works of art fashioned from nature, symbolized man’s control, and more specifically the control of the most powerful men, over nature and the ability to manipulate it. The same ideas can be seen represented artistically through other media, for example at the Bavarian court at the Residenz in Munich. The space inside the Residenz was physically restructured to facilitate festivities in the early modern period. As mentioned in Chapter I above, the early-sixteenth century Steinzimmer were reserved for the Holy Roman Emperor and his wife when they visited Munich. These rooms included the Zimmer der Welt — on the ceiling of which was the biblical scene of the sixth day of Creation when God commanded Adam and Eve to gain dominion over the world. Of course, such imagery, collections, and Kunstkammern had a presence at festivals. Mayer’s account of Ferdinand II’s visit to Munich in 1607 records that 87 Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Management of Knowledge’, p. 54. 88 Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Management of Knowledge’, p. 56. 89 Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Management of Knowledge’, p. 57.
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the antiquary ‘quite beautifully juxtaposed/ art and great industry’.90 Immediately afterwards it describes a visit to ‘the beautiful Kunstkammer’, in which the whole world is brought together, such that ‘Even as one remains there/ one visits all places’.91 Moreover, the account printed by Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann states how, at the wedding of Wolfgang Wilhelm, Duke of Pfalz-Neuburg, Pfaltzgraf (1578–1658), and Magdalena, Duchess of Bavaria (1587–1628), in Munich in 1613, ‘the princely persons were shown around the beautiful chapel and Kunstkammer’.92 In addition, the same underlying rhetoric can also clearly be observed within other aspects of the festivals themselves. A spectacular use of technology in these festivals was in the form of lavish fireworks displays. According to Johann Mayer, at the conclusion of the festival in Munich in 1607 there were ‘fireworks in the city of Munich the like of which/ no people had ever seen before’.93 Figure 6 is an illustration of the fireworks for the coronation of Matthias I as Holy Roman Emperor in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1612. As in this instance, these fireworks displays often involved the use of elaborate temporary structures from which to launch them. Equally, as depicted here, they often took place over or around water. To give another example, when in 1568 the party from Munich journeyed by boat to Ingolstadt in order to meet with the party from Lorraine, as Lady Christina came forth, ‘[a]t the same time all sorts of rockets were fired into the air and other strange fireworks across the water’.94 Much later in the festival there is another fireworks display, this time in Munich. As part of this, the master gunner ‘entrenched fireballs in the water/ thus it sprung up from under the water’.95 That these displays often took place on or around water was obviously partly for practical reasons of preventing fires. However, there was also a more
90 ‘Gar schön abcontraseit/ Die Kunst vnd groβ Arbeit’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Biii v. 91 ‘der Kunstkammer schon’, ‘Jetzt alβ man da balt dort/ Man bsuchet alle Ort’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM. 92 ‘die Fürstliche Personen in die schön Capell vnd in die Kunstkammer geführt’, Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte entwerffung der Fürstlichen Hochzeit/ So Der Durchleuchtig/ vnd Hochgeborn Fürst vnd Herr/ Herr Wolffgang Wilhelm/ Pfaltzgraff bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Bayrn/ Gülch/ Cleue vnd Berg/ Graf zu Veldentz vnd Sponhaim. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigstin vnd hochgebornen Fürstin Fraw Magdalena/ Pfaltzgräfin bey Rhein/ Hertzogin in Obern vnd Nidern Bayrn. Zu München/ im sechzehenhundert vnd dreyzehenden Jahr/ den zwölfften Nouembris Celebriert vnd gehalten. Ins Werck versetzt/ durch Wilhelm Peter Zimmerman/ ins Kupffer Geradiert zu Augspurg. 1614. (Augsburg: Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, 1614), p. 4. 93 ‘Welchs Fewrwerck in München der stat/ Kein Mensch zuuor nie gsehen hat’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Fiii r. 94 ‘Dergleichen allerley Rogetlen in die Lüfft vnd andere seltzame Feurwerch in das wasser geworffen’, Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung des Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornnen Fürsten vnnd Herren/ Herren Wilhalmen/ Pfaltzgrauen bey Rhein/ Hertzogen inn Obern vnd Nidern Bairen/ etc. Vnd derselben geliebsten Gemahel/ der Durchleuchtigisten Hochgebornnen Fürstin/ Frewlein Renata gebornne Hertzogin zu Lottringen vnd Parr/ etc. gehalten Hochzeitlichen Ehren Fests. Auch welcher gestalt die darauff geladnen Potentaten vnd Fürsten Personlich/ oder durch ire abgesandte Potschafften erschinen. Vnd dann was für Herrliche Ritterspil/ zu Roβ vnd Fueβ/ mit Thurnieren/ Rennen vnd Stechen. Neben andern vil ehrlichen kurtzweilen mit grossen freuden/ Triumph vnd kostligkait/ in der Fürstlichen Haubtstat München gehalten worden sein/ den zwenvndzwaintzigisten vnd nachuolgende tag Februarij/ Im 1568. Jar. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1568), p. 7r. 95 ‘inn die wasser graben Fewrkuglen/ so vnder dem wasser pronnen/ geworffen haben’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 54r.
Figure 6. Fireworks at the coronation of Matthias I as Holy Roman Emperor in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1612, from Gotard Arthus, Electio et coronatio sereniss. potentiss. et invictiss. principis […] Matthiae I. electi rom. imperat. semper augusti etc. eiusq. sereniss. coniugis Annae Austriacae etc. (1612), plate 14. BL Shelfmark, 811.d.41 Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel: Gm 2° 36.11.1.
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metaphorical meaning to this aspect of forcing fire into competition with its contrary element of water at the whim of the Emperor — showing man’s control over nature and thus the power of this monarch which was also displayed by the skill of the gunners in staging such a spectacle. In his study of fireworks, Werret has argued that ‘Pyrotechny was an elemental art, and gunners played on their power to force fire into confrontation with the other elements’, explaining why performances often occurred on lakes and rivers ‘close to fire’s contrary element’.96 This juxtaposition of the elements by human skill was very much present in the fireworks upon the Thames which formed part of the celebrations for the marriage of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, and Elizabeth Stuart in 1613. An anonymous account records that there ‘appeared out of a hill of earth made vpon the water, a very strange fire flaming vpright like vnto a blazing starre’ and crucially, that, marvelling at these fireworks ‘we could not chuse but approue by all reasons that Arte hath exceeded Nature’.97 Such ideas of subjugating all of the elements to the will of the ruler were not exclusively a feature of German festivals. Jean-Baptiste Machaud’s Eloges et discours recording Louis XIII of France’s entry into Paris in 1629, following capture of La Rochelle, depicts the eleventh in the sequence of ephemeral triumphal arches lining the king’s route, dedicated to ‘Magnificence’ on which ‘Victory is seated above the sea wall […] In one hand she holds the orb, representing the King’s earthly power, and in the other gathers the reins that tether allegorical figures, including […] figures for the four elements, Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Jupiter represents the Air, Vulcan Fire, Neptune the Ocean and Cybele the Earth’.98 Meanwhile, Horace Morel’s Sujet du Feu d’Artifice, sur la Prise de La Rochelle vividly sets out details of the fireworks display to take place on the Seine (over water) in front of the Louvre, which was mentioned above in Chapter II.99 It was to take place ‘on the waters of the Seine’, featuring the ‘figure of Andromeda’ terrorized by ‘sea monsters […] exuding fire’, then from the Tour de Nesle, within the Louvre, Perseus (representing the King) would fly down upon Pegasus and slay the monster, after which ‘Your Majesty will witness the Tour de Nesle covered in flames, and on a large raft a ballet will be danced by eight men dressed in flames, and, as they dance their patterns, they will set alight a number of fireworks and big rockets. Then we shall see Perseus burn the rock to which Andromeda had
96 Simon Werrett, Fireworks: Pyrotechnic Arts and Sciences in European History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), pp. 32-33. 97 The marriage of the tvvo great Princes, Fredericke Count-palatine, &c: and the Lady Elizabeth, daughter to the Imperial Maiesties of King Iames and Queene Anne vpon Shroue-Sonday last. With the shows and fire-workes vpon the water: as also the masks & reuells, in his Highnes court of White-Hall. (London: Thomas Creede for William Barley, 1613), A3r. 98 Jean-Baptiste Machaud, Eloges et discours sur la triomphante Reception du Roy en sa ville de Paris, apres la Reduction de la Rochelle, Accompagnez des Figures, tant des Arcs de Triomphe, que des autres preparatifs (Paris: Pierre Rocolet, 1629), trans. by Marie-Claude Canova-Green, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 154-81 (pp. 174-75). 99 See above, Chapter II, p. 98.
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been tied’.100 This display clearly and spectacularly demonstrated that all of the elements of nature could be manipulated and tamed by the monarch. Various mechanical devices and other demonstrations of engineering prowess on display as part of festivals reinforced this same performed rhetoric of mastery over nature. At Stuttgart in 1602, the theme of the entry of Friedrich Duke of Württemberg in the manner of ‘America’ was continued through the appearance of a ‘tree’ (surely a fountain) which seemed to spring with endless water. This ‘Wasserbaum’ or ‘water-tree’ came near some seconds for the tournament dressed ‘in the Indian [here meaning ‘American’] style’.101 The account describes the arrival of this ‘water-tree’ brought from a distant island, saying ‘Here upon a most beautiful procession/ with green leaves sprouting around/ The foliage had broad shoots and roots/ everything was verily grass-green’ and ‘In amongst which [tree] lay a white ball/ as though a cloud’ with the author noting ‘I saw with diligence/ itself dripping not in the spring/ the water made sweet/ and delicately plucked/ so that people might enjoy it. Otherwise the inhabitants must perish/ It was as one harvested from the territory of America,/ and the springs there’.102 This strange mechanical fountain symbolized mastery over the New World with the ruler being able to bring back a supposed exotic example from it which then nourished his subjects with its water. During the festival for the visit to Munich of Ferdinand II in 1607, too, one of the chapels visited during the expedition to Schleiβheim, the chapel of Saint Corbinianus, had a mechanical fountain. Mayer wrote that ‘It has a beautiful great device/ one which descends deep under the earth/ a springing fountain can be seen there/ in which on a turning column/ a glass ball stands/ out of which water springs high in all directions/ so gently as the sweet rain’.103 Similarly at the final celebration accompanied by fireworks, there was ‘a beautiful fountain’ which seemed to defy the laws of nature since, as Mayer explains, ‘the platform/ on which this fountain stood/ shot up much water/ into the air/ and nobody at all knew from where it flowed/ and came out/ because it hung in mid-air’.104
100 ‘dessus l’eau de la Seine’, ‘la figure d’une Andromede’, ‘monstres de la mer […] jettera du feu’, ‘Vostre Majesté verra la Tour de Nesle tout en feu, et sur un grand basteau sera dansé un Ballet par huict hommes couverts de feu, et dansant leurs figures enflammeront quantité d’artifices et grosses fusees. Puis l’on verra Persee brusler le Rocher où estoit attachee Andromede’, Horace Morel, Sujet du Feu d’Artifice, sur la Prise de la Rochelle que Morel doit faire pour l’arrivée du Roy sur la Seine, devant le Louvre (Paris: C. Son et P. Bail, 1628), pp. 5-7, trans. by Marie-Claude Canova-Green, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 182-85 (pp. 182-83). 101 ‘Auff Indianisch’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 46. 102 ‘Wasserbaum’, ‘Hierauff ein gar schöner Bomb/ Mit grünem Laub ein Brunn darumb/ Das Laub hat breyte Blättr vnd Näst/ Graβgrün fürwar auffs aller best’, ‘Damitten lag ein Ballen weiβ/ Gleich wie ein Wolck’, ‘sah ich mit fleiβ/ Derselbig tropfft in Brunnen neyn/ Macht süβ/ vnd gschlacht das Wasser fein/ Damit die Leut solchs können gniessn. Sonst die Eynwohner sterben müssn/ Wie man liβt von AMERICA, Der Insel/ vnd dem Brunnen da’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 46. 103 ‘Ein schön Wäxine Orgel hat/ Die schlegt man tieff vnder der Erden/ Ein Brunnen thut da gsehen werden/ In dem auff einer Säulen dreht/ Ein Gläserine Kugel steht/ Auβ der springt Wasser hoch allwegen/ So subtil als der zarte Regen’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Ei v. 104 ‘schönen Brunnen’, ‘Die Taffel/ diser Brunnen steht/ Im Lufft/ darauβ vil Wassers geht/ Vnd hat noch niemand gwiβ vernummen Woher es fleust/ vnd hin thut kummen/ Weil er in freyem Lufft thut schweben’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Fiii v.
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Mechanical devices were also on display in the chapel of Saint Nicholas at Schleiβheim, where there was an image of him ‘standing high above the door’, which ‘turns his head so that the whole face/ is depicted through a clockwork movement’.105 Wine fountains were another common feature of early modern festivals in the Holy Roman Empire, demonstrating technological ability mixed in with the generosity and benevolence of the ruler towards his people. They could also carry additional meanings, such as the wine fountain created for the entry of Maximilian II into Vienna as King of the Romans in 1563 which, according to the accounts, flowed with red and white wine. The inscriptions on it stressed both the colour symbolism of the wine as the good flowing from the Austrian house (red and white being the colours of Austria) and, on the side facing the cathedral, the Eucharistic meaning as symbolic of the sacraments of water and wine: Baptism and Communion.106 This symbolism was particularly poignant amid fears in Catholic Vienna that Maximilian could have Lutheran sympathies, given that the communion sacrament stood at the heart of Reformation debates. Yet the primary purpose of such devices, along with the Kunstkammern, fireworks displays, and so on was to demonstrate the ability of the ruler to manipulate the natural world through artistry, and thus the ruler’s virtue was also shown through the learning which necessarily supported such endeavours, serving as a compliment to the more direct references to this learning which were also present. At the wedding of Wilhelm and Renée in 1568 in Munich, when Ferdinand travelled to Ingolstadt to meet with the party from Lorraine, part of the reception party was made up of the members of the University of Ingolstadt and Ferdinand and Christina, the old Duchess of Lorraine, were ‘received most finely in the name of the community’s university/ by the most learned Lord Nicolas Eberhart the appointed doctor of Latin’.107 Equally, nature was symbolically tamed through displays of horsemanship, hunting, shooting contests, and accounts of them. Figure 7, shows a pair of horse-masters, brandishing long whips, manipulating their horses in a relaxed fashion as they prance and rear. Equestrian ballet, and displays of finely-bred horses, formed an important spectacle at many courts.108 The same theme pervades a lavish manuscript account of a shooting match in Stuttgart in 1560 which is in the British Library’s collection. The account is
105 ‘Hoch oben stehn auff dem Portal’, ‘wend sein Haupt sammt dem Gesicht Ist durch ein Vhrwerck zugericht’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Eii v-Eiii r. 106 Mikael Bøgh Rasmussen, ‘Vienna, A Habsburg Capital Redecorated in Classical Style: The Entry of Maximilian II as King of the Romans in 1563’, in J. R. Mulryne, Krista De Jonge, Pieter Martens, and R. L. M. Morris (eds), Architectures of Festival in Early Modern Europe: Fashioning and Re-fashioning Urban and Courtly Space (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2018), pp. 53-72 (p. 62). 107 ‘in namen gemainer Vniuersitet/ von dem hochgelerten Herrn Niclasen Eberharten der rechten Doctor Latine vnd zum zierlichsten entpfangen worden’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, pp. 7r-v. 108 For a recent work on this, see Barbara Ravelhofer, ‘Equestrian Ballet as Representative of Cultural Change in Europe, c. 1500–1700’, in Sonja Fielitz (ed.), ‘That I Wished Myself a Horse’: The Horse as Representative of Cultural Change in Systems of Thought (Heidelberg: Winter, 2015), pp. 149-74.
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Figure 7. A pair of horse-masters depicted at the festival in Stuttgart for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard, and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen, in 1617, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 10. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: 36.17.4 Geom. 2° (1).
made up of hand-coloured illustrations of participants, of the shooting match itself, and of crests with captions and results written by hand, and it comprises 69 folios, recto and verso — a costly work. Particularly striking is the amount of money and staging involved in making, both at the event and in the manuscript account, a pair of great oxen appear ceremoniously submissive — they are shown being led by men with ropes around their horns, the oxen wearing spectacular cloth tabards with stripes of white, red, green, brown, yellow, and blue, and on one the Herzog’s and on the other the Herzogin’s crest with lots of shining gold ink. The oxen are then killed with 19 shots to the heart.109 Hunting formed part of the majority of court festivals. When the participants in the festival for Ferdinand II’s visit to Munich in 1607 had made the journey to Starnberg, the account recalls that: ‘In the woods and green hedges/ one heard the
109 Lienhart Flexel, Ordeliche Beschreibüng deβ Füerstlichen Herren Schiesen mitt dem Stachel deβ gehalten hatt der Dürchleüchtig Hochgeboren Füerst vnd Herr, Herr Christoff vonn Gottes genaden, Hörtzog zue Wüerttemberg vnnd zue Teckh, graff zue Mumppelgartt/ Wass füer Chur vnnd Füersten, Frawen vnnd Herren, Ritterschafft vnnd Adel. Stett vnnd Fenckhen den Drey vnnd zwaintzigisten Septembris Anno inn Sechtzigisten zu Stuettgarten im Lanndt Wüerttemberg gehalten, erkennen vnnd erschÿnnen, alles im Keyeren vnd gedicht verfast dürch Liennhartt Flexel von Augspurg Wie alle fäch darob erganngen ist von Anfang biss zum Endt Wie Hernach Volgett (Augsburg: 1560), pp. 4v-5v.
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dogs barking loudly/ many huntsmen’s calls rang out’.110 Archduke Ferdinand is made to sound almost heroic in demonstrating his skill during this hunt: ‘a wild boar was in hiding/ the beast sprang forth/ like a quick spit of flame/ from which his serene highly honoured/ Archduke Ferdinand defended himself/ With a drawn sword he caught it/ At this moment a badger sprang forwards/ which would also not be spared’.111 Meanwhile, Figure 8, taken from Esaias von Hulsen’s account of the Stuttgart christening and wedding of 1617, depicts a nobleman, named as Wilhelm zu Metz, dressed in elegant hunting attire and carrying, hanging about his horse, the prizes of his expedition in the form of a rabbit and birds which he has shot. Undoubtedly, these activities had an intrinsic value as noble entertainments and carried overtones of military might and martial skill. Yet it was more than this. Such clear imagery of mastery over nature, combined with the skill and learning displayed by the Kunstkammern, fireworks, mechanical devices, and objects of curiosity, played into a humanist conception of nobility founded on the display of virtue through a charismatic form of rule and formulated in response to the developments of the early modern period. One final aspect of the natural world which was demonstrated to be mutable to the whims of rulers through the court festivals of this period was that of time. Of course, it is challenging for the historian to recover perceptions of time. Reinhart Koselleck has attempted to research, in broad terms, the nature of ‘historical time’, asking ‘How, in a given present, are the temporal dimensions of past and future related?’.112 He, though, has bemoaned that ‘the sources of the past, informing us of thoughts and deeds, plans and events, provide no direct indication of historical time’ and noted that it is characteristic of the very nature of what he has called ‘historical time’ that in any era there are ‘many forms of time superimposed on one another’.113 Yet, as we have seen in Chapter I, court festivals involved a rich interweaving of historical times with the ‘presence’ of ancient, historical, mythological, and legendary figures as part of confessionalized and politicized retellings of distorted or even invented histories, genealogies, and timelines in order to provide legitimacy. This distortion of timelines and genealogies, placing events within an invented conception of historical time, was not unrelated from the collections housed in the Kunstkammern. In these collections, ancient coins and other objects from antiquity sat alongside natural objects, the skeletons and other remains of deceased animals, even objects which we would now term fossils, and mechanical devices which employed the latest technology. Daniel Woolf, in his work on Cabinets of Curiosities in early modern England has talked about this in terms of the development of a ‘historical culture’, manifesting itself in the collection of historical objects alongside 110 ‘Im Wald vnd grünem Hag/ Hört man die Hund laut bellen/ Vil Jäger hörlein schellen’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Biv v. 111 ‘Ein wilder Eber war im Gjeidt/ Vor ihn sprang her der vngehewr/ Gleich einem schnellen Plitz von Fewr/ Dem hat ihr Durchl. hochgeehrt/ Ertzhertzog Ferdinandus wehrt/ Mit blossem Schwert geben ein fang/ In diesem ein Dachs herfür sprang/ Dessn wurde auch verschonet nit’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Eiii v-Eiv r. 112 See Reinhart Koselleck, Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time, trans. by Keith Tribe (Cambridge, MA., and London, U.K.: The MIT Press, 1985), xxiii. 113 Koselleck, Futures Past, xxi-xxii.
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Figure 8. A nobleman depicted as a hunter at the festival in Stuttgart for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard, and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen, in 1617, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 58. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: 36.17.4 Geom. 2° (1).
natural remains of earlier periods.114 Though the main focus of his study is on a slightly later period, Martin Rudwick, too, has charted the role of collecting natural alongside historical objects in ‘the historicization of the earth itself ’ between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, ultimately leading to the realization that the history of the earth significantly differed in extent from human history, but the central relevance to this analysis is that the collection of these curiosities could, and did, become intertwined in this period with conceptions of time.115 Moreover, one of the core purposes of festivals and accounts of them was to immortalize occasions and their participants. We have already seen this through the line in one song within Thomas Campion’s masque performed for Friedrich’s marriage in 1613 which desired ‘That it may liue in fame,/ As long as Rhenus or the Thames/ Are knowne by either name’.116 At Stuttgart in 1617, too, von Hulsen 114 Daniel Woolf, The Social Circulation of the Past: English Historical Culture 1500–1730 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). 115 Martin J. S. Rudwick, Bursting the Limits of Time: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Revolution (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2005). 116 Campion, A RELATION OF THE LATE ROYALL ENTERTAINMENT, C3v.
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depicts Chronos and a figure with a huge scythe (Death) wearing a winged head-piece with an hour glass, representing human mortality next to eternity.117 Festivals and the festival books created to commemorate them, as well as the material cultural artefacts relating to them, could in a sense transcend time by their place in the creation of cultural memory — a foundational aspect, of course, of identities involving selective forgetfulness as well as commemoration. The Friedensfeste marking and commemorating the end of the conflict of the Thirty Years War have been studied by Claire Gantet, although further scholarly attention of these occasions is certainly warranted.118 The festivals, according to Gantet, retained ‘all the rituals of exorcism’ as ‘the same trumpets and the same drums handled by the armies in manoeuvre now announce peace; the canons henceforward resound with military salutes, and tears of joy take the place of tears of blood’.119 Material culture, outlasting the day of the occasion, was important in these festivals. At the Kinderfriedensfest in Augsburg, for instance, engravings depicting passages from the Bible were distributed to children with the hope that they would be treasured for years to come.120 The peace festival ‘both exhibited confessional tensions and sublimated them through its diversionary character’, yet the way in which the war was remembered was clearly confessionalized as peace festivals were rarely celebrated in Catholic territories, with the victory for Emperor Ferdinand II’s forces over the Bohemians under Christian of Anhalt at the Battle of White Mountain (1620) forming the focus for Catholic memory.121 At all of these occasions, though, a lasting memory, every bit as subjective and mutable though less transitory than the day of the festival itself, was created through selective recalling of the past, as we have seen in festival culture and the associated literature more broadly in the first chapter of this book. Breaking free from the limits of time and achieving immortality was certainly not solely a concern of German festivals, but rather a primary purpose of early modern festival culture more broadly. Machaud’s account of the entry of Louis XIII into Paris in 1629 depicts an arch dedicated to Glory which showed the taming of time: In the main panel Athena, Mars, Apollo, and Mercury, under orders from Jupiter and the gods, are shown holding Time in chains so that the King’s Glory may be eternal. In this they are granting the request of France (bottom right of panel) which Basilea, goddess of Eternity, seated among the clouds, has endorsed. To either side, left to right, Memory, accompanied by an elephant, is seen trampling Forgetfulness, Virtue tramples Inconstancy, Glory, crowned with stars, tramples Envy, and Gratitude tramples Ingratitude, who holds vipers.122
117 Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō, plate 19. 118 Claire Gantet, ‘Peace Festivals and the Culture of Memory in Early Modern South German Cities’, in Karin Friedrich (ed.), Festive Culture in Germany and Europe from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century (Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2000), pp. 57-71. 119 Gantet, ‘Peace Festivals and the Culture of Memory’, p. 62. 120 Gantet, ‘Peace Festivals and the Culture of Memory’, p. 65. 121 Gantet, ‘Peace Festivals and the Culture of Memory’, pp. 63-64. 122 Machaud, Eloges et discours, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 176-77.
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One particularly striking section from the entry of the French Queen into La Rochelle in 1632, too, explicitly links overcoming the boundaries of time and overcoming physical, natural boundaries. Along the route of her majesty’s procession was a triumphal arch, showing Hercules with ‘the face of the King, a laurel wreath on his head, the Alps beneath his feet and, at his knees, the rivers Rhine and Po’; the account then says that: one could read at the top of the Alps, right at the feet of His Majesty: THE HIGH ALPS WILL NOT HAVE STOOD IN HIS WAY. And in the space between the rivers: HE HAS ESTABLISHED THE GOLDEN PO AND THE THREATENING RHINE AS THE BORDERS OF HIS KINGDOM. And above the whole: HOWEVER I SET NO SUCH PHYSICAL BOUNDARIES OR LIMITS IN TIME TO HIS DOMINION.123 Time, just like the rest of nature, was portrayed as mutable, as subject to the power and manipulation of virtuous noblemen in early modern Europe. In conclusion, imagery relating to the German land and its features, to nature, and even to the environment and its cultivation more broadly had an important place in court festivals within the Holy Roman Empire and played a vital role in identity as it was constructed and projected at these events. Nature and the elements, and even time itself, were shown through the performances, displays, and devices at festivals to be mutable and subject to the all-encompassing, quasi-divine power of the ruler. This high rhetoric of the untameable ruler bestriding the earth may not have squared with the reality of the restrictions, some self-imposed, which actually circumscribed the lives of early modern rulers. Nevertheless, this rhetoric was a central component of noble identity. At a time when cartography and the mapping of identity, of the geographic origins of peoples, and of possession, was of critical importance, the land, represented through references to features such as the Rhine and the Danube, the figure of Germania, images of nature flourishing, and to cultivation juxtaposed with the wilderness and the wild, became used as a claim to legitimacy. This could be confessionalized and politicized in various ways to suit the cause of a particular ruler or civic elite, but it also fed into a broader, more universal rhetoric of German noble identity and legitimacy through virtue.
123 ‘la face du Roy, un lien de laurier en teste, les monts des Alpes sous ses pieds, et à ses deux genoux les fleuves du Rhin et du Pau’, ‘Car on lisoit sur le sommet des Alpes tout aux pieds de sa Majesté. NON CELSAE OBSTITERINT ALPES. Par l’espace d’entre les Fleuves. AURATUM ERIDANDUM, RHENUMQUE MINACEM FINIBUS IMPOSUIT REGNI. Et par dessous le tout, NON TAMEN HAS REBUS METAS AUT TEMPORA PONO.’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne en la Ville de la Rochelle. Au mois de Novembre mil six cens trente-deux (La Rochelle: Mathurin Charruyer, 1633), pp. 13-15, trans. by Marie-Claude Canova-Green, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 186-231 (pp. 206-07).
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Chapter IV
Religion, Piety, and Confessional Difference
Religion and piety lay at the centre of court festivals, which were very often based around events taking place in church, such as christenings or weddings. J. S. Richardson has observed the centrality of religion to imperium from its Roman origins and how ‘the importance of Jupiter and the particular relationship of the god to the holder of imperium remained a fundamental aspect of the celebration of the triumph by a successful imperator on his return to Rome’.1 In the early modern period, too, festivals were opportunities for the nobility to demonstrate their piety and, especially in the case of Catholic festivals where there was a Jesuit presence, for the Church to assert its own position. Clearly, against the backdrop of the religious disunity of the late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Holy Roman Empire, particularly in the immediate build-up to the religious conflict of the Thirty Years War, confessional difference presented a potentially divisive and destructive aspect to any notion of a shared identity and one which had to be negotiated, particularly when members of the different confessions attended the same festival events. Yet, what is striking is the relative lack of direct confessional antagonism seen in German court festivals in stark contrast with scenes elsewhere in Europe. While confessionalized imagery can certainly be found within festival sources, the rhetoric of Christendom was frequently brought to the fore and, despite the prominence of religious practice and symbolism at festivals, the cracks created by confessional differences could be papered over where necessary. Approaches to religious history in recent scholarship have diversified significantly away from a pure focus on highly institutionalized ecclesiastical history, centred on church councils, law codes and their enforcement, religious leaders, and large movements. An important early contribution to this process was made by scholars of the Annales School, influenced by the sociology of Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), the anthropology of Marcel Mauss (1872–1950), and, later, that of Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009). Anthropological investigations of non-European societies inspired new thinking about past societies. Durkheim analysed belief and practices about the sacred which create something of a ‘moral community’. Religion came to be studied as a social and cultural phenomenon and this study was thus broadened to seek out experience and participation in religious life.
1 J. S. Richardson, ‘Imperium Romanum: Empire and the Language of Power’, in David Armitage (ed.), Theories of Empire, 1450–1800 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), pp. 1-9 (p. 2).
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Historians also imitated economists by using ‘proxies’ — quantifiable, visible things which can provide a lens through which to analyse the elusive experience of faith. The work of Clifford Geertz, an American anthropologist, has been hugely influential, especially his concept of ‘religion as a cultural system’.2 Historians now attempt to understand and analyse entire religious cultures. This involves seeking to analyse the experiences and world-views of people from across the social hierarchy and how these, together with religious language and ritual, structured their lives and societies. Indeed, John Kieschnick, in his study of the impact of Buddhism on Chinese material culture, has argued that religion must be understood as ‘clusters of ideas and practices expressed and embedded within material objects, lived as stimuli to the senses, prompting memory and securing identity’.3 It is this broad conceptual framework which informs the attempt here to analyse performed religious identities as they were constructed and articulated through court festivals. Secondary literature discussing confessional differences during the early modern period has also developed significantly in recent decades. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, the idea of ‘confessionalization’ dominated Germanlanguage historiography relating to the religious life of this period, with scholars employing terms such as Konfessionsbildung (‘confessional development’) and Konfessionalisierung (‘confessionalization’), and concerned with the processes of Sozialdisziplinierung (‘social discipline’).4 These works had a large impact on English-language historiography. There is no doubt that, as Peter Claus Hartmann has said, ‘the cultural development of the Reich was strongly influenced by the three distinctive cultures of the principal confessions’.5 However, Hartmann’s argument in the same work that the enforcement of Kirchenordnungen, visitations, the publication of the Lutheran Konkordienbuch (1580), the Calvinist Heidelberg Catechism (1563), and the Catholic Council of Trent (sitting intermittently from 1545 until 1563) strictly delineated the three confessions in the second half of the sixteenth century has been heavily challenged.6 There is now a great deal more ‘caution in reaching any secure evaluation of just how successful the confessionalization process, in all of its many variations, really was’.7 2 Clifford Geertz, ‘Religion as a Cultural System’, in Michael Banton (ed.), Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion (London: Tavistock, 1966), pp. 1-46. 3 John Kieschnick, The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003), p. 34. 4 See Ernst Walter Zeeden, Die Entstehung der Konfessionen. Grundlagen und Formen der Konfessionsbildung im Zeitalter der Glaubenskämpfe (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1965); Wolfgang Reinhard, ‘Zwang zur Konfessionalisierung? Prolegomena zu einer Theorie des konfessionellen Zeitalters’, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung, 10 (1983), 257-77; Heinz Schilling, ‘Die Konfessionalisierung im Reich. Religiöser und gesellschaftlicher Wandel in Deutschland zwischen 1555 und 1620’, Historische Zeitschrift, 246 (1988), 1-45. 5 ‘die Kulturentwicklung des Reiches stark bestimmt war durch die drei ausgeprägten Kulturen der Hauptkonfessionen’, Peter Claus Hartmann, Das Heilige Römische Reich deutscher Nation in der Neuzeit 1486–1806 (Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam, 2005), p. 122. 6 Hartmann, Das Heilige Römische Reich, p. 120. 7 Joachim Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), vol. 1, p. 508.
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The idea of sharp divisions between the confessions has been undermined at every level. Numerous studies have shown that, in many instances across early modern Europe, there was a process of ‘accommodation’ in which devotional practices actually changed relatively little during the course of the Reformations, perhaps being slightly reshaped or adapted, albeit they may have been incorporated into new confessional identities.8 Thus, a far more complex model has emerged. As Joachim Whaley has argued, ‘In the period between the Peace of Augsburg and the Thirty Years War, things were often confused and fluid’ as ‘many religious groups negotiated a delicate path to gain acceptance and security in what were de facto multi-confessional and pluralist communities’.9 The attention of a number of scholars has turned towards ‘the notion of a “living” religious diversity’, analysing how various religious groups interacted, how religious cultures were ‘fashioned through negotiation, adaptation and resistance’, and considering the ‘related consequences for the ways in which people began to rethink other notions of identity and community’.10 Chapter I of this book examined the various attempts to write Protestantism into the history of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Yet, while these projects attempted to form a Protestant identity through rendering the place of Protestantism in history, they were not necessarily starkly antagonistic in nature. As noted above, Alexandra Kess has observed that Johann Sleidan’s Commentaries were grounded within an imperial framework and even acknowledged the role and authority of the Emperor.11 This is one way in which Sleidan’s work ‘reflected the more tolerant strands of thought that were emerging from Bucer’s Strasbourg at the time’.12 Indeed, there has been a growing interest in the idea of moderate thought in the Reformation attached to such ideas.13 Hartmann perhaps exaggerates religious toleration, writing that ‘the Holy Roman Empire offered in comparison with other states almost ideal conditions for multiconfessional cultural development and diversity’ — though he does add the qualifier that this statement is mainly true on the level of the Reich as
8 See Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (London, 1978), 3rd edn (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008); Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller (1980), trans. by John and Anne Tedeschi (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992); Robert W. Scribner, ‘The Reformation, Popular Magic, and the “Disenchantment of the World”’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 23 (1993), 475-94; Trevor Johnson, ‘Blood, Tears and Xavier-Water: Jesuit Missionaries and Popular Religion in the Eighteenth-Century Upper Palatinate’, in Bob Scribner and Trevor Johnson (eds), Popular Religion in Germany and Central Europe, 1400–1800 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996), pp. 183-202. 9 Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, vol. 1, p. 508. 10 C. Scott Dixon, ‘Introduction: Living with Religious Diversity in Early-Modern Europe’, in C. Scott Dixon, Dagmar Freist and Mark Greengrass (eds), Living with Religious Diversity in Early-Modern Europe (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 1-20 (pp. 3-5). 11 Alexandra Kess, Johann Sleidan and the Protestant Vision of History (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), p. 180. See above, Chapter I, p. 50. 12 Kess, Johann Sleidan, p. 2. 13 See Ole Peter Grell and Robert Scribner, Tolerance and Intolerance in the German Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Alec Ryrie and Luc Racaut (eds), Moderate Voices in the European Reformation (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005).
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a whole rather than individual territories or cities which mostly only had one official religion.14 This present chapter develops such arguments about the lived experience of religious diversity, showing festivals as moments when religious identities were performed but direct confessional antagonisms could, for the most part, be sidestepped. This is certainly not to say that the influences of the Reformations and CounterReformation were invisible at festivals. On the contrary, at the wedding in Munich in 1568 of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, the form of worship was very clearly and indulgently that of Tridentine Catholicism. The account recalls that ‘the worship was conducted entirely properly with songs of praise/ and artistic figures/ also all sorts of instruments’.15 There was kissing of a Crucifix.16 The Church of Our Beloved Lady, where the wedding was held, was lavishly decorated — ‘above the altar were standing many various expensive images in gold and silver/ such as the twelve Apostles/ with the Saviour in the middle, and other more valuable ornaments’.17 This rich ornamentation using precious materials was central to the sensory experience of worship in the Counter-Reformation, as Wietse De Boer has shown.18 Moreover, once the wedding itself had taken place, the account states that ‘the groom and bride no longer sat at the head/ but the highest place at the table was occupied by/ the Cardinal von Augsburg/ as the Legate of his Papal holiness, with the envoy of his Roman Imperial Majesty the Master of the German Order’.19 This was a clear performance of the hierarchy at the top of which sat the supposed secular and religious arms of Christendom — the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy. The influence of the Counter-Reformation Catholic aesthetic can again clearly be seen during Ferdinand II’s visit to Munich in 1607, which ends with a litany
14 ‘Das Heilige Römische Reich bot somit im Gegensatz zu anderen Staaten für eine multikonfessionelle kulturelle Entwicklung und Vielfalt nahezu ideale Bedingungen’, Hartmann, Das Heilige Römische Reich, p. 121. 15 ‘ist der Gottsdienst mit Lobpsalmen/ vnd künstlichen Figuriren/ auch allerley Instrumenten gar verricht […] worden’, Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung des Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornnen Fürsten vnnd Herren/ Herren Wilhalmen/ Pfaltzgrauen bey Rhein/ Hertzogen inn Obern vnd Nidern Bairen/ etc. Vnd derselben geliebsten Gemahel/ der Durchleuchtigisten Hochgebornnen Fürstin/ Frewlein Renata gebornne Hertzogin zu Lottringen vnd Parr/ etc. gehalten Hochzeitlichen Ehren Fests. Auch welcher gestalt die darauff geladnen Potentaten vnd Fürsten Personlich/ oder durch ire abgesandte Potschafften erschinen. Vnd dann was für Herrliche Ritterspil/ zu Roβ vnd Fueβ/ mit Thurnieren/ Rennen vnd Stechen. Neben andern vil ehrlichen kurtzweilen mit grossen freuden/ Triumph vnd kostligkait/ in der Fürstlichen Haubtstat München gehalten worden sein/ den zwenvndzwaintzigisten vnd nachuolgende tag Februarij/ Im 1568. Jar. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1568), p. 33r. 16 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 32r. 17 ‘auff dem Altar sein gestanden vil ansehlicher von Gold vnnd Silber köstliche Bilder/ als die zwölff Apostel/ in der mitt der Saluator, vnnd ander mehr köstliche Ornamenta’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 34r. 18 Wietse De Boer, ‘The Counter-Reformation of the Senses’, in Alexandra Bamji, Geert H. Janssen, and Mary Laven (eds), The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), pp. 243-60. 19 ‘sein Breutigam vnnd Braut nit mehr zu obrist gesetzt worden/ sonder das höchste ort an der Taffel hat gehabt/ der Cardinal von Augspurg/ als Bäbstlicher heiligkeit Legatus, sampt der Römischen Kay: May: Botschafft dem Teutschenmaister’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 38v.
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in which the ‘uberköstlichen’ (‘extremely expensive’) decorations are stressed.20 Interestingly, the author says that the ornaments are of pure gold and silver so that ‘one is brought to pure worship’ and the great number of wax candles are described at great length as well.21 The author says that ‘it is not possible for me/ to articulate the beauty of it all’ with ‘the church full of lighted candles/ […] one also saw them all burning brightly/ many thousand/ large and small’.22 These statements explicitly highlight the connection between the purity of materials used in worship and the purity of thought in Jesuit theology and the sensory experience of Tridentine piety. The piety of the attendees at this festival is recorded: ‘The princes entered in/ in front of the choir altar with the desire/ to begin the prayers as soon as they entered/ through the clergy with reverence/ one worshipped kneeling/ In great humility felt by all/ their hands held aloft to God’.23 The litany was also carried out ‘In the chapel of our Beloved Lady […] in which the worthy St Benedict rests’ — a statement which highlights the presence of relics.24 The account describes visits to all nine of the chapels at Schleiβheim in some detail, and in terms which are unmistakably Catholic. In the first of these chapels were the relics of Saint Bruno of Cologne ‘maintained by the Carthusian Order/ in which still live many devout men’ (monastic orders of course also being a feature of the Catholic Church).25 At the chapel of Saint Ignatius there was a depiction of the Crucifixion, ‘which one considered/ and when this had been done diligently/ the tears streamed from his eyes’.26 This emotional engagement with the scene would be tantamount to idolatry from a Protestant perspective. At the chapel of Saint Nicholas, meanwhile, ‘one sees in this place in truth/ the revelation of Christ’s grave/ […] as if it had just happened’.27 The final part of the tour of the chapels saw one travel ‘into the Castle at Schleiβheim/ In which the worthy St Gwilhelmus [William] rests/ then one also worshipped there’; 20 Johann Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Das ist/ Kurtzer Bericht/ wie der Durchleuchtigist Fürst vnnd Herr/ Herr Maximilianus/ Pfaltzgraue bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Obern vnd Nidern Bayern/ etc. Ir Fürstlichen Durchl. Ertzhertzog von Grätz vnnd Oesterreich/ sambt seinem Hochgeliebten Gmahel/ vnd Fraw Mutter/ auch andern Geschwistern entgegen gezogen/ vnd in die Fürstl. Hauptstat München den 30. Augusti/ Anno 1607. einbeleitet. Sambt kurtzer Erzehlung der vberauβ grossen Pancket/ darinn 19. Fürstenpersonen bey einander gewesen. Weitter wird angezeigt/ alle Kurtzweil vnd Freudenspiel/ als Tragedi/ Fechtschuelen/ Geiaider/ Vogelschiessen/ so in vnd ausser der Statt seynd gehalten worden. Durch Johan Mayer/ Teutschen Poeten vnd Burgern in München. Gedruckt zu München bey Adam Berg. ANNO M.DC.VII. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1607), Fii v. 21 ‘man braucht zum Gottsdinst rein’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Fii v. 22 ‘mir ist müglich nie/ Die Zierheit zubeschreiben je’, ‘Die Kirchen voller Liechter bran/ […] Sah man auch alle gwaltig brinnen/ Vil taussent/ beide groβ vnd klein’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Fii v-Fiii r. 23 ‘In dem die Fürsten giengen ein/ Für den Chor Altar mit verlangen/ Bald wurd das Gebett angefangen/ Durch die Priesterschafft mit Andacht/ Das Gebett knyent man verbracht/ In grosser Demut mercket eben/ Die Händ thet man zu Gott auffheben’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Fiii r. 24 ‘In dem Stifft vnser lieben Frawen […] Drin würdigklich S. Benno rast’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Fii r. 25 ‘Fieng den Cartheuser Orden an/ Drin lebt noch mancher frommer Man’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Ei v. 26 ‘Wer das betracht/ dem macht es fliessen/ Die Zäher auβ sein Augen giessen’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Eii v. 27 ‘sicht man an dem Ort fürwar/ Christi Grablegung offenbar/ […] Als ob das erst geschehen sey’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Eiii r.
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again saintly relics are present, here giving historicity and religious blessing to a very recently constructed castle.28 References to individual and collective displays of piety and eagerness of devotion litter festival accounts, particularly in Munich, with regular mentions of early morning worship. Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann’s account of the 1613 wedding in Munich of Wolfgang Wilhelm, Duke of Pfalz-Neuburg, and Magdalena, Duchess of Bavaria, notes that on the morning after the first Church ceremony for the marriage, ‘at 8 o’clock in the morning the Lord Pfaltzgraf received in his antechamber/ his court chaplain Dr Hailbrunnern/ to receive a sermon/ and the Pfaltzgraf with the Pfaltzgräfin and their retinue were at the sermon’.29 Indeed, there was arguably a different character of religious presence in the festivals of Catholic territories and the accounts of them when compared with Protestant territories. Obviously the Jesuit presence was particularly visible in Munich where there was a Jesuit College. There were visits to chapels as part of festivals, the accounts make sure to record that the correct prayers were said, and there was even some direct missionary activity in the form of baptizing people during festivals (as seen in Chapter III), as well as moralizing Jesuit tragedy plays (to be discussed further below). In the festivals of the Protestant Union, meanwhile, religion is also a feature but in a perhaps slightly less self-assertive way. There are of course church services held as part of the occasions, there are references to true religion, even images of reformers on arches, but in many ways it is more subtle, more hushed, both in the performances of the festivals and in the accounts of them. Partially, this could be explained by the lack of consensus on important issues of religious practice and doctrine within ‘Protestantism’ itself, generating a need for circumspect handling, even before any question of any potential political antagonism or clashes with Catholics. The attempt to forge the Protestant Union in the early-seventeenth century based on some form of cross-confessional Protestant consensus is prominently visible in James Meddus’s English account of Abraham Scultetus’s sermon delivered at Heidelberg the day after Elizabeth’s arrival there as the wife of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, in 1613. The sermon, preached by Friedrich’s chaplain, speaks of ‘the most Highest, who […] bindeth the people that lie farre asunder one from another, firmely together in the vnitie of faith, loue, and assured hope of the
28 ‘In das Schloβ gen Schleiβheim hinein/ Drin würdig S. Gwilhelmus rast/ Den man auch da verehret fast’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Eiii v. 29 ‘hat Herr Pfaltzgraff in seinem Vorzimmer deβ Morgens zu 8. vhren/ seinen Hoffprediger D. Hailbrunnern/ lassen predigen/ Vnd seyn die Pfaltzgrafen mit den Pfaltzgräfin vnd ihrem Hoffgesind an der Predig gewesen’, Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte entwerffung der Fürstlichen Hochzeit/ So Der Durchleuchtig/ vnd Hochgeborn Fürst vnd Herr/ Herr Wolffgang Wilhelm/ Pfaltzgraff bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Bayrn/ Gülch/ Cleue vnd Berg/ Graf zu Veldentz vnd Sponhaim. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigstin vnd hochgebornen Fürstin Fraw Magdalena/ Pfaltzgräfin bey Rhein/ Hertzogin in Obern vnd Nidern Bayrn. Zu München/ im sechzehenhundert vnd dreyzehenden Jahr/ den zwölfften Nouembris Celebriert vnd gehalten. Ins Werck versetzt/ durch Wilhelm Peter Zimmerman/ ins Kupffer Geradiert zu Augspurg. 1614. (Augsburg: Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, 1614), p. 4.
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blessed saluation to come’.30 The sermon goes on to set out the ‘Protestant’ (not simply Lutheran or Calvinist) faith. This section begins with the statement that ‘We, beloued in the Lord, can now at this day reioyce of that, in the Protestant Churches of Germanie […] as namely, that God hath shewed vnto vs his holy word, and hath let vs know his statutes, and his iudgements. Hee sheweth his word vnto vs, that is, he cleerely reuealeth himselfe vnto vs in the Gospell’.31 The sermon continued ‘This wee know and acknowledge with all Protestant Churches’ before commencing a list of statements of belief, all ending with this same refrain.32 Among these assertions was that ‘the Lord sheweth his word vnto Iacob, and reuealeth his grace and mercie only to Protestant Churches’.33 At the conclusion of this series came another, beginning with the declaration ‘he sheweth vs also his statutes and his iudgements. Now these are Gods statutes and iudgements’, and again this refrain was repeated at the end of each article.34 These ‘statutes and iudgements’ included that ‘Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soule, with all thy strength, and thy neighbour as thy selfe’.35 As these examples illustrate, both lists contain statements which are relatively uncontroversial, and which must have been calculated to be agreeable to all ‘Protestant Churches’ — a term which itself remains undefined. Similarly, the customary prayer for God to ‘giue peace, and vnity to all Kings and Princes, we pray’ must have taken on an additional pertinence at the coronation of Friedrich as King of Bohemia in 1619 — an event which made conflict with the Habsburgs inevitable.36 Particularly at Catholic festivals, religion could drive forward the proceedings and rhetoric of festivals in a way which went beyond displays of piety 30 James Meddus, A SERMON Preached before the two high borne and illustrious Princes, FREDERICKE the 5. PRINCE ELECTOR PALATINE, DVKE OF BAVARIA, &c. And the Princesse Lady ELIZABETH, &c. Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG the 8. of Iune 1613. being the next day after her Highnesse happy arriuall there: By that reuerend and iudicious Diuine, Mr ABRAHAM SCVLTETVS, his Highnesse Chaplaine. Together with a short narration of the Prince Electors greatnes, his Country, his receiuing of her Highnesse. accompanied with twe[l]u[e] other Princes, thirty Earles, besides an exceeding great number of Barons and Gentlemen, and eight daies ent[e]rtainment. Translated out of High Dutch by IA MEDDVS D. and one of hi[s] Maiesties Chap[la]ines. (London: John Beale for William Welby, 1613), B2r. 31 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, D3r. 32 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, D3v. 33 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, D5r. 34 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, D5r. 35 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, D5v. 36 John, Harrison, A SHORT RELATION OF The departure of the high and mightie Prince Frederick King Elect of Bohemia: with his royall & vertuous Ladie Elizabeth; And the thryse hopefull yong Prince Henrie, from Heydelberg towards Prague, to receiue the Crowne of that Kingdome. Whearvnto is annexed the Solempnitie or manner of the Coronation. Translated out of dutch. And now both togither published (with other reasons, and iustifications) to giue satisfaction to the world, as touching the ground, and truth, of his Ma[ies]ties proceedings, & vndertaking of that Kingdome of Bohemia: lawfully and freelie Elected, by the generall consent of the States, not ambitiouslie aspiring thearvnto. As also to encourage all other noble & heroicall spirits (especiallie our owne nation, whom in honour it first and chieffelie concerneth) by prerogative of that high, and soveraigne Title, hæreditarie to our Kings & Princes: defendees of the faith to the lyke Christian resolution, against Antichrist and his Adhærents. Si Deus nobiscum quis contranos. (Dort: George Waters, 1619), B2r.
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to the glorification of the Church and the reminder that secular authority is subordinate to that of God. This can be seen clearly in the account by Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann of the 1613 wedding in Munich of Wolfgang Wilhelm and Magdalena, and its references to the sensory aspects of the occasion. The sound of the festival begins, as very often in the adventus format, with salutes fired by cannon. According to this account the shots ‘thundered across the air/ as though a weather from heaven’, and it states shortly after that ‘it had begun to get very dark on account of the smoke’.37 What is then interesting is that the account makes a point of mentioning that the first evening banquet ‘would be held without music and entirely quietly’ and again states of lunch the next day that ‘this was also without music’.38 Indeed, the initial banquet seems somewhat austere as Zimmermann says that ‘The water was served from 4 gold hand-basins and jugs/ and the evening meal lasted about 2 hours’ — there is no mention of the attendees drinking wine or of hours of conversation and dancing as is usual.39 It is in the church that music dramatically enters into the festival for the first time. The account recalls that ‘as soon as the princely persons entered/ one heard resounding through the entire church the buglers/ trumpeters/ and military trumpeters placed in the gallery’.40 The senses are indulged in the service. The clergy ‘sung three psalms/ between which was music from 2 and 3 choirs’, and ‘under which there was the smell of incense’.41 The style of the choral music, too, was elaborate and distinctively Catholic: the Gloria in Excelsis was sung with three choirs accompanied by various instruments/ then three descants made an echo with embellishments which fitted so beautifully/ one could not praise enough the complete sound/ The third echo was always delicately lost into silence/ almost as though one were far away in a wood.42 At the end of the service ‘the military drummers and trumpeters again made a great noise in the church’ and, as they processed away, ‘all the bells rang out in a sign of joy’.43 From this point, all of the banquets are now accompanied by 37 ‘haben in der lüffte gesauβt/ als wann ein Wetter am Himmel were’, ‘hat es angefangen so wol wegen deβ Nebels […] sehr finster werden’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 1. 38 ‘ohne Music vnd gantz still gehalten worden’, ‘die auch ohne Music gewesen’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 2. 39 ‘Auβ 4. verguldten Handbecken vnd Gieβkandten hat man das Wasser geben/ vnd hat die Nachtmalzeit fast 2. Stund gewehret’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 2. 40 ‘so bald die Fürstenpersonen kommen/ haben sich durch die gantze Kirchen in der Höhin die Pusauner/ Trommeter/ vnd Heerpaucken hören lassen’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 2. 41 ‘sangen drey Psalmen/ Zwischen welchen man musicierte auff 2. vnd 3. Chören’, ‘vnder dessen man räucherte’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, pp. 2-3. 42 ‘hat man das Gloria in Excelsis mit drey Chören auff vnderschiedlichen Instrummenten gesungen/ da dann drey Discantisten einen Echonem mit Coloratur so auβbündig gemacht/ das mäniglich nicht gnugsamb loben könden/ Der dritte Echo hat sich fein allzeit still verlohren/ als wann er gar weit in einem Wald dahinden were’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 3. 43 ‘haben die Heerdrummeln vnd Trommeter wider einen grossen Fracasso in der Kirchen gemacht’, ‘hat man zum Frewdenzeichen alle Gloggen geleuttet’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 3.
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music, there are several princely dances on different days, and each visit to church is accompanied by ‘splendid music’. At the evening banquet after the wedding, ‘before the table stately choral music and instrumental music was performed’ and after ‘one went to the dance’.44 Now the celebrations do last long into the evening. This dance ‘lasted until 12 o’clock at night’.45 It is significant that this livelier aspect of the festival, embodied by music, only commences in earnest following the initial visit to the church. This was in contrast to the expected norm, and even to the festival which had been held at Munich in 1607. Johann Mayer’s account of this visit to Munich by Ferdinand II puts music and sound at the centre of proceedings from the outset. Before the entry into Munich the princely retinue gathered two miles from the gate, assembled by ‘the sound/ of the clear trumpet call’.46 Then, at the first banquet of the festival, ‘The minstrels played a long time/ that made a beautiful sound’.47 The following morning, in advance of the next procession, ‘all alleyways were cleared/ with pipes and with trumpets’.48 Again, at a later banquet, held when the party visited Starnberg, ‘one heard beautiful singing/ the music resounded’.49 Partly through the fact that the music does not appear until the first church service, but also in a number of other ways the religious aspect of the festival at Munich in 1613 seems to go beyond a display of Catholic piety to the ecclesiastical elites reminding the temporal elites of their duties to the Church and that their power is merely temporal; one could even detect an element of subtle chastisement and encouragement to humility. As the scene is described in the account, on entering the church the couple stood in front of their seats, and the princes and princesses stood to the sides, meanwhile ‘up above the altar a canopy was made/ under which the Bishop of Eichstätt was sitting’ and the clergy also sat.50 The Bishop is enthroned above the altar while the couple and the rest of the temporal elite are below, and the priests are dressed in splendid colours in contrast to the mostly white-clad couple. It is true, as Duindam argues, that ‘Celestial and terrestrial hierarchies merged in liturgies of power elevating the dynasty’ and that ‘the humble prostration of the ruler before higher powers underlined his role as intermediary’, however at times court festivals appear to have moved beyond this into the self-assertion of the ecclesiastical elite in front of the temporal.51 The theme of humbling before the Church continued in the Jesuit tragedy plays which formed a prominent and frequent part of Bavarian festivals in this
44 ‘Vor der Tafel hat man stattliche Musicam vocalem vnd Instrumentalem gehalten’, ‘ist man zum Tantz […] gangen’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 3. 45 ‘biβ auff 12. vhr in die Nacht verweilt’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 4. 46 ‘schall/ Starck der Trometen hall’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Aiv r. 47 ‘Man Musicieret lang/ Das gab lieblichen Klang’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Bii v. 48 ‘All Gassen säubert man/ Mit Pfeiffen vnd mit Trummen’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Biii r. 49 ‘hört man lieblich singen/ Die Musica erklingen’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Ci r. 50 ‘hinauff oben bey dem Altar war ein Himmel auffgemacht/ vnder welchen der Bischoff von Aichstatt […] gesessen’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, pp. 2-3. 51 Jeroen Duindam, Dynasties: A Global History of Power, 1300–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), p. 256.
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period. In the mid-sixteenth century Jesuit plays had come to the Holy Roman Empire, firstly through Vienna, after Emperor Ferdinand I had invited the Society to open a College in Vienna in 1551, and the first morality play, Livinus Brecht’s Euripus, was then performed by the Jesuits of this College in 1555. WatanabeO’Kelly observes that ‘a characteristic type of Latin drama soon evolved which was then to be found in all Jesuit institutions, codified in the Ratio studiorum or regulations for the Jesuit schools promulgated in 1599’.52 The College at Munich was founded in 1559 and, already, at the 1568 Munich wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, ‘the Jesuits performed a beautiful Tragedy of the mighty Samson’.53 Samson was a strong, heroic figure, taken captive by the Philistines after his hair was cut short and then only able to defeat his enemies by killing himself in the process, thus demonstrating the fleeting nature of worldly strength. Johann Mayer’s account of the visit to Munich of Ferdinand II in 1607 also records a Jesuit tragedy play performed at the Jesuit College.54 This was the ‘Tragedy/ of Bellisario/ the Roman leader’, composed by Jakob Bidermann (1578–1639), who had recently been appointed as Professor of Rhetoric in Munich. As a preamble to his account, the author starts by speaking of a ‘golden’ age or ‘season’, in which there is ‘no closed city’ and ‘nobody has a powerful fortress’.55 In addition, in this fictional golden season ‘no navigation over the seas took place/ a nation would be seen alone’.56 The implication of this is surely that Empires are a feature of man in his fallen state, a product of sin. In this golden season ‘one never saw any winter’.57 It was after the conclusion of this golden and then silver time, presumably a veiled reference to the Garden of Eden and then the Fall, that ‘mankind first went through strife/ with weapons they shortened their time’.58 Mayer finally comes to the drama itself, commenting that ‘the tragedy soon began/ there one saw how it fared/ with fickle fortune/ which always hung over this general/ Bellisario the religious’.59 The setting for the tragedy mirrored the festival at which it was performed. The tragedy began with a scene in which ‘Justinianus the Emperor held/ a Triumph after the Roman custom’ — just like the triumph Ferdinand was receiving.60 Mayer remarks
52 Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Early Modern Period (1450–1720)’, in Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (ed.), The Cambridge History of German Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 92-146 (pp. 106-07). 53 ‘haben die Iesuiter ain schöne Tragedi von dem starcken Samson gehalten’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 54r. 54 Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Ci r-Cii v. 55 ‘gulden’, ‘Zeit’, ‘kein verschlossne Statt’, ‘Kein gwaltig Bergkschloβ niemand hat’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Ci r-Ci v. 56 ‘Kein Schiffart vber Meer war gschehen/ Ein Nation allein wurd gsehen’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Ci v. 57 ‘sah man keinen Winter nimmer’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Ci r-Ci v. 58 ‘Sich schickten erstlich zu dem Streit/ Mit Waffen kürtzen sie ihr Zeit’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Ci r-Ci v. 59 ‘die Tragedi bald anfieng/ Da sahe man wie es ergieng/ Mit dem wanckelmütigen Glück/ Das alzeit vbet seine Dück/ An Bellisario dem frummen’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Cii r. 60 ‘Hielt Justinianus der Keisser/ Ein Triumph nach Römischem brauch’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Cii r.
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that ‘The tragedy lasted for five hours/ thoroughly wonderful and entertaining to behold/ through which a lesson was well learnt/ of how man should handle fate’ — once again reminding the audience that no man is all powerful.61 Yet again, at the wedding in Munich of Wolfgang Wilhelm and Magdalena in 1613 another tragedy was staged by the Jesuits. Zimmermann records that, on 15 November, ‘after lunch one went to the Jesuits/ firstly their Church’ and then ‘afterwards in the room above one saw a tragedy/ of Emperor Mauritius’, with the plot dramatizing ‘how he did not wish to release the imprisoned Christian from Troy/ sentenced him to execution/ then his ghost carried out the righteous work of God/ to bring forth vengeance’ and, in enacting God’s punishment, ‘he then drove out Mauritius and his whole line’.62 This play had a clear message, illustrating God’s vengeance against unrighteous emperors and secular rulers who do not defend the faith. This was not only seen at Catholic festivals where there was a strong Jesuit presence, though perhaps it was more pointed on such occasions. Similar rhetoric of the limitations of human power can be seen in Protestant Stuttgart at the tournament and fireworks held in 1602. The account describes a scene whereby ‘A beautiful globe or world-sphere came forth’, continuing that ‘It displayed the world itself/ All surely the globe went before/ And hovering on a blue sky/ From which the four winds blew rudely/ And the affair was so ordered/ that the globe entirely departed/ but one could not see/ how it moved on its course’ — this seems to be an allusion to some form of hidden, mechanical movement which is, of course, linked to the displays of innovative technology discussed in the previous chapter.63 The description continues that ‘Two hands floated over the globe with a script’ from Pliny accompanied by an interpretation of its content ‘Which was also given in familiar German’ explaining that the globe provided 61 ‘Fünff Stund thet die Tragedi wehrn/ Gar schön vnd lüstig anzuhörn/ Darauβ ein Weiser lernet wol/ Wie er sich fort verhalten soll’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Cii v. 62 ‘nach der Mahlzeit ist man zu den Jesuittern gefahren/ erstlich ihr Kirch’, ‘nacher oben im Saal ein Tragediam gesehen/ vom Kaiser Mauritio’, ‘wie er von Troianern die gefangne Christen nit erlassen wollen/ hinrichten lassen/ da dann ihre Geister ihme vor dem Richter stuel Gottes verklagt/ vmb Raach geschryen’, ‘der den Mauritium vnd sein gantzes Geschlecht auβgereittet’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 5. 63 ‘Ein schöner Globus oder Weltkugel gieng vorher’, ‘Die Welt dieselb anzeigen thät/ Gantz steiff die Kugel für sich gäht/ Vnd schwebt auff einem Wolcken blaw/ Darauβ vier Winde bliesen Rauch/ Vnd war so zugericht die Sach/ Daβ die Weltkugel allgemach Fortgieng/ wardt aber nicht gesehen/ Wer sie beweget in dem gehn’, Jakob Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, Königlichen Auffzugs/ Heroischen Ingressus vnd Herrlicher Pomp vnd Solennitet: Mit welcher/ auff gnädige Verordnung Deβ dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnd Herrn/ Herrn Friderichen/ Hertzogen zu Würtenberg vnd Teck/ Grafen zu Mümpelgart/ Herrn zu Heydenheym: Ritter beyder Königlichen Orden in Franckreich vnd Engellandt: In der Faβnacht Mannliche vnnd Ritterliche Thurnier vnnd Ringrennen/ gehalten worden: Sampt einem stattlichen vnd wunderbarlichen Feuwerwerck/ dergleichen zuvor niemals gesehen noch gehöret: In Gegenwart etliche Fürsten/ Grafen/ Herrn/ Ritter vnd vom Adel/ Hochlöblichen/ Fürstlichen/ Adelichen Frauwenzimmer: Auch der Ehrwürdigen/ hoch vnd wolgelehrten Herren Prælaten in Würtenberg/ vnd Versammlung einer Ehrsamen Landischafft/ Mit gnädiger Bewilligung vnd Vorwissen Ihrer F.G. zur ewigen Gedächtnuβ/ der Posteritet publiciert. Durch M. IACOBVM FRISCHLINVM BALINGENSEM: POETAM ET HISTOricum Wirtenbergicum. Gedruckt zu Franckfurt am Mayn/ durch Joachim Brathering/ Im Jahr 1602. (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1602), p. 59.
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‘A glimpse for men in life/ Look on with diligence at this limit/ What the extent of our material is/ A little globe great as a bean/ When we come before heaven’s throne’.64 It gives the admonition and warning that ‘When we have a share/ A little piece to tend/ Such great pride grabs us at once/ Just as when the wine can not fill a drinking vessel: so on earth/ mankind cannot be fulfilled’.65 A note alongside this text denounces the futility of ‘How men quarrel over this world/ from which they must after all depart/ and cannot long enjoy’.66 Then it is also noted ‘How great rulers have endeavoured to bestride the whole world/ and to bring it under their control’ with the observation that ‘As when the face of the marksman/ is sharply fixed on the target alone/ so too is the world the target/ to which many great lords/ turn the sights of their hearts/ as though it would never end’.67 This is then derided as a vain ambition: ‘But they have the nature/ that is nothing but vanity/ with all their splendour and might/ since as is said above/ and already brought forth/ the world is a little dot/ which is also their greatest desire’.68 The passage represents an admonishment that a desire to conquer the world should not lead to vanity and impiety. Indeed there is a warning too that ‘it should cost a kingdom […] with the gods themselves to quarrel’ — a very similar message to that of the Jesuit tragedy plays.69 Admittedly, the extent to which this theme can be seen does vary between festival occasions. It is noticeable that the festival at Munich in 1568 saw less by way of any rivalry between secular and religious authorities than in 1607 and, particularly, 1613. In 1568 the spiritual and secular elites blend. There was a reminder to fear God, as Wagner’s account records that ‘the psalm “Blessed is he who fears the lord” was sung’.70 There was also, as mentioned above, a Jesuit tragedy play. Yet the story of Samson, while it does expose the transitory nature of worldly power, is hardly as pointed as the plays described above for the later festivals — especially the tale of the smiting of Emperor Mauritius and his dynasty as performed in 1613.
64 ‘Zwo Hände schwebten ob der Kugel mit einen Schrifft’, ‘Das man auff Teutsch kündt also gebn’, ‘Osterblich Menschen in dem Lebn/ Seht an mit fleiβ zu dieser Frist/ Was vnsers Rhumbs Materi ist/ Ein Kügelein groβ als ein Bohn/ Wann wir sie haltn gens Himmels Thron’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 59. 65 ‘Wann wir haben ein Portion/ Ein klein Stücklin zur Dition/ Ergreifft vns baldt so grosser Stoltz/ Gleich wie der Wein ein truncken Boltz Nicht füllen kan: also auff Erdn/ Der Mensch nicht kan erfüllet werdn’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 60. 66 ‘Wie sich die Menschen zancken vmb diese Welt/ welche sie doch müssen dahinden lassen/ vnd nicht lang geniessen können’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 60. 67 ‘Wie grosse Potentaten sich vmb die gantze Welt zu besitzen/ vnd vnter ihren Gewalt zu bringen/ bemühet haben’, ‘Gleich wie allein deβ Schützen Gsicht/ Zum Ziel auffs schäryffest ist gericht/ Also ist auch die Welt das Ziel/ Dahin der grossen Herren viel/ Die Augen ihrer Hertzen wendn/ Als würds mit ihr gar nimmer endn’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, pp. 60-61. 68 ‘Hat doch mit ihr die Bschaffenheit/ Daβ sie ist lauter Eytelkeit/ Mit aller ihrer Pracht vnd Macht/ Wie droben gsagt/ vnd schon fürbracht/ So ist die Welt ein Pünctlin klein/ Wie sie am grösten auch mag seyn’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 61. 69 ‘kosten solt ein Königreich […] Mit den Göttern selbest zu zanckn’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 60. 70 ‘der Psalm Beati qui timent Dominum zierlich gesungen worden’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 33r.
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This trend could be indicative of the Church, through the Jesuits especially, feeling a need to reassert itself in the early-seventeenth century in troubled times of mounting religious conflict. It also ties in with, though pre-dates, a trend which Karl Vocelka has observed in the festivals of the Austrian Habsburg court. In his view, following the Battle of White Mountain (1620), Habsburg festivals were now particularly ‘paralleled by an explicitly Catholic character’.71 He, too, observes in this the ‘ambiguity of the God-like Habsburg ruler, on the one hand, and the religious humble Habsburg, on the other’, demonstrated through court pilgrimages to Altötting in Bavaria and later especially to Mariazell as well as participation in the Corpus Christi procession in which ‘the ruler displayed his modesty’ by wearing a crown of roses like any other person, demonstrating humility before God.72 The research presented here suggests that this theme was far more widespread within the court festivals of the Holy Roman Empire rather than being restricted to the Habsburg court itself. It also calls into question whether the Battle of White Mountain per se was such a turning point, as Vocelka claims, suggesting instead that this humbling of temporal rulers before spiritual authority was a persistent theme seen in both Protestant and Catholic festivals and one which waxed and waned in significance according to the broader political and religious contexts in which the festivals in question took place. There were confessional messages against religious opponents conveyed through these festivals, of course, some of which have already been discussed in this work. The imagery of the festivals of the Protestant Union did, in places, ridicule Catholics. Figure 9, for example, is an image taken from D. Jocquet’s account of the celebrations for the marriage of Friedrich and Elizabeth both in England and on the continent in 1613. The German text, the Beschreibung Der Reiβ, states that, as part of a triumphal procession for the running at the ring in Heidelberg in June 1613, the nine deadly vices were portrayed bound in chains having been defeated by Jason (the part played by Friedrich V in this festival). Among these vices was, of course, ‘hypocrisy’ which the account describes as being represented by a character ‘dressed completely in black, with a paternoster or rosary and a prayer-book in one hand, but at intervals dropping playing cards’.73
71 Karl Vocelka, ‘Habsburg Festivals in the Early Modern Period’, in Karin Friedrich (ed.), Festive Culture in Germany and Europe from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century (Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2000), pp. 123-35 (p. 132). 72 Vocelka, ‘Habsburg Festivals in the Early Modern Period’, p. 135. 73 ‘gantz schwartz bekleidet mit eim Pater noster oder Rosenkrantz und bettbuch in der einen hand lieβ doch underweilen karten bletter fallen’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ: Empfahung deβ Ritterlichen Ordens: Vollbringung des Heyraths: und glücklicher Heimführung: Wie auch der ansehnlichen Einführung: gehaltener Ritterspiel und Frewdenfests: Des Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herrn Herrn Friederichen deβ Fünften Pfaltzgraven bey Rhein deβ Heiligen Römischen Reichs Ertztruchsessen und Churfürsten Hertzogen in Bayern etc. Mit der auch Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürstin und Königlichen Princessin Elisabethen deβ Groβmechtigsten Herrn Hernn IACOBI deβ Ersten Königs in GroβBritannien Einigen Tochter. Mit schönen Kupfferstücken gezieret. In Gotthardt Vögelins Verlag. Anno 1613. ([Heidelberg]: Gotthardt Vögelin, 1613), p. 170, trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 80-91 (pp. 90-91).
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Figure 9. A cardinal as Hypocrisy at the festival for the return of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, with his new wife, Elizabeth Stuart of England, to Heidelberg in 1613, from D. Jocquet, Les Triumphes, Entrees, Cartels, Tovrnois, Ceremonies, et Avltres Magnificences (1613), p. 149. BL Shelfmark, 605.a.27. © British Library Board.
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This engraving by Harnister illustrates this character, showing below the word ‘Hijpocrisis’ a representation of a cardinal holding a rosary and an open book, which he is looking away from, rather than reading, while dropping playing cards.74 Aside from representing the obvious critique of the Catholic clergy, that they hypocritically lived lives of sin (represented here by gambling) while claiming to preach God’s word and relying for salvation on mere objects with no efficacy, there are other interesting features of this image. Firstly, it is significant that the cardinal is not looking at the open book. A major tenet of Protestantism was salvation ‘sola scriptura’, by Scripture alone, by the word of God as recorded in the Bible. Thus, that the cardinal is looking away from the book illustrates how, according to the Protestant critique, the Catholic Church ignores God’s word; rather, the Catholics preach according to the pronouncements of the Church which do not have their basis in Scripture. Secondly, the cardinal’s long, rather straggly beard is interesting. The beard is reminiscent of popular contemporary images of Jews, and another aspect of Protestant attacks on the Catholic faith was to equate it with Judaism as it was alleged to place too little emphasis on Christ’s teachings in the New Testament and therefore too much on the ‘Jewish’ texts of the Old Testament. Although Luther’s early stance towards the Jews was arguably a sympathetic one, this changed with his striking condemnations in the works Von den Juden und Ihren Lügen (‘On the Jews and Their Lies’) and Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi (‘Of the Unknowable Name and the Generations of Christ’), both written in 1543. As for Jews themselves, meanwhile, the only direct reference to them in the festival books studied here comes from the processional entry into Munich for the wedding of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine, in 1568, which passed through the ‘Jewish’ area of the city — of course it was not uncommon for early modern cities to have such areas, which could be of great economic benefit given the involvement of the Jewish community in banking and money lending.75 Processing through this area of the city demonstrated that nowhere was off limits to the rulers’ authority. Yet the relative silence in relation to these people shows a reluctance to stir antagonism within the Reich and to use the Jewish people as a dipole as they were in amongst societies within the Holy Roman Empire in a way in which the Ottomans (representations of whom as a dipole are to be discussed in the following chapter of this book) were not. The Catholic Church had been mocked in similar comical fashion in a firework display at the 1605 festival for the conferring of the Order of the Garter on Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, which was performed in such a way ‘which made everyone laugh’.76 The display focused on a convent standing at the centre 74 There are minor differences between the description in the German text and this image. Firstly, the rosary and the prayer-book are held in different hands in the image as opposed to ‘in one hand’. Secondly, it is hard to tell from the image whether the cardinal is ‘dressed completely in black’ although the style of the clothing would suggest that this is unlikely. 75 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 31v. 76 ‘Das jederman must lachen drob’, Johann Oettinger, Fürstlicher Würtembergischer Ritterlicher Pomp und Solennität: mit welcher […] Friderich Hertzog zu Würtemberg und Teck […] den Könn. Englischen Ritters Orden Dess Hosenbands […] An S. Georgentag den 23. Aprilis […] 1605. In […] Stuttgart
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of a Wheel of Fortune, for which a monk and a Jesuit both fought for possession ‘as though it belonged to him’.77 In this way, the show demonstrated ‘the disunity amongst clerics, for which reason they have been living with no small complaint for many a year’.78 At first, the pair attempted to use arguments from books to prove their right to the convent. Meanwhile, they continued to cling to the convent with both hands, ‘considering [the convent] to be their refuge’, so that it seemed ‘as though they were fighting each other and battling over the house of God’.79 The Jesuit then began to shoot ‘terrible lightning flashes and thunder-bolts’ from his book, while ‘He cursed his brother’s happiness and salvation, and fulminated horribly with threats of excommunication’, to which attacks and threats the monk replied in like manner.80 Eventually, ‘the convent caught fire and was set ablaze in a most frightful manner by their own devices’ and the monk and Jesuit both perished in the flames.81 Upon seeing this, a nun ‘did not wish to remain there any longer, and immediately fled from that place on her nag so that she might not also be burned to death’.82 The display thus illustrated that the convent was not actually where refuge was to be found. It mocked the use of legalistic arguments based on canon law (represented in the form of the Jesuit and monk quoting from books to prove their right to possession of the convent) and threats of excommunication. It criticized the way in which the Jesuit could not be happy for his brother’s salvation, and it demonstrated how such attitudes led only to destruction in the fire (potentially even the fires of hell) for those involved. Meanwhile, the nun who flees the self-destructive and laughable clerics for safety from the flames as the convent burns potentially represents the religious people of Germany who should do likewise and flee from the collapsing Catholic Church. However, the imagery of this display was neither distinctly Lutheran nor distinctly Calvinist; it simply embodied universally held criticisms amongst Protestants of the faults of the Catholic Church. This was highly appropriate for a festival in celebration
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celebriert und begangen hat. (Stuttgart: 1607), p. 133, trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, WatanabeO’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 54-57 (pp. 56-57). ‘Als wenn es wer sein Eigenthumb’, Oettinger, Fürstlicher Würtembergischer Ritterlicher Pomp und Solennität, p. 126, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 54-55. ‘Der Geistlichen Uneinigkeit/ Darum sie jetzt viel Jahr und tag Leben mit nicht geringer klag’, Oettinger, Fürstlicher Würtembergischer Ritterlicher Pomp und Solennität, p. 127, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 54-55. ‘bedt das Kloster alβ ihr Nest’, ‘Alβ wenn sie sich rissen im Straus/ Mit einander umb das Gottshauβ’, Oettinger, Fürstlicher Würtembergischer Ritterlicher Pomp und Solennität, p. 133, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 56-57. ‘Schröckliche Blitz und Donnerkeil’, ‘Verflucht seins Brudern Glück und Heil/ Mit Bannen grewlich fulminiert’, Oettinger, Fürstlicher Württembergischer Ritterlicher Pomp und Solennität, p. 134, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 56-57. ‘das Kloster vom Fewr angang/ Und wardt durch ihre eigen Kunst Gar jämmerlich gesteckt in brunst’, Oettinger, Fürstlicher Württembergischer Ritterlicher Pomp und Solennität, p. 134, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 56-57. ‘Wolt sie da lenger wartten nicht/ Mit ihrem Gaul gleich davon rent/ Damit sie nicht auch wurdt verbrent’, Oettinger, Fürstlicher Württembergischer Ritterlicher Pomp und Solennität, p. 134, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 56-57.
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of Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, given his attempts to bring about a union between Lutheran and Calvinist princes. Equally, by stating that the clerics had been ‘living with no small complaint for many a year’ and illustrating the devastating effects of disunity, this display surely constituted a call for unity between the Protestant princes who witnessed it. Yet the mockery in these festivals, such as the image of the cardinal as hypocrisy and this firework display, hardly constituted explicitly militant Protestantism, and was certainly not overtly anti-imperial or even anti-Habsburg. Indeed, there were plentiful criticisms from Catholics of corruption within the Church. John Bohnstedt has observed that early modern pamphlets relating to the Ottomans ‘do not consist exclusively of propaganda against the Muslim foe. The authors interpret the Turkish peril as a scourge inflicted by God upon a sinful Christendom’ and ‘use the Turkish visitation as a strong argument for Christian repentance and reform’.83 He observes that ‘Catholic and Protestant writers alike believed that the Christians had provoked the wrath of God by corrupting the teachings of the faith’.84 This even led to Catholic anti-papal rhetoric as Catholic pamphleteers criticized ‘the corruption of the Papacy and clergy’. They claimed that the Pope had been distracted by worldly affairs, instead of devoting himself to his spiritual function, that ‘The popes’ constant feuds with the Holy Roman Emperors have been particularly detrimental to Christendom’, and that ‘It is sinful […] for the popes to meddle in politics at all’ since ‘Christ […] taught that Christendom should have two equal heads’. These arguments drew on quotes from the New Testament: John 18. 36 states that ‘My kingdom is not of this world’, and Mark 12. 17 demands one to ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s’.85 John Headley, too, has observed anti-papal but pro-imperial arguments.86 He notes that Mercurino Arborio Marchese di Gattinara (1465–1530), who was made a Cardinal in 1529, shortly before his death, and was a close advisor to Emperor Charles V, arranged to have correspondence between the Pope (Clement VII) and Emperor, together with related materials, published at Alcalá, Antwerp, Cologne, and Mainz. The first imperial reply to Clement in ‘raking up all past wrongs inflicted by Rome upon Charles, repeatedly finds the pope neglectful of his pastoral duties’.87 It is clear that the dichotomy was not simply Protestant versus Catholic but various oppositions were established along broader lines of believer versus ‘infidel’, claims of legitimacy and illegitimacy of identity made on the basis of adherence to or corruption of the ‘true’ faith. Esaias von Hulsen’s heavily illustrated account of the festivities held at Stuttgart in 1617 does again carry Protestant messages. Figure 10, taken from 83 John W. Bohnstedt, ‘The Infidel Scourge of God: The Turkish Menace as Seen by German Pamphleteers of the Reformation Era’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 58 (9) (1968), 1-58 (3). 84 Bohnstedt, ‘The Infidel Scourge of God’, 28. 85 Bohnstedt, ‘The Infidel Scourge of God’, 30. 86 John M. Headley, ‘The Habsburg World Empire and the Revival of Ghibellinism’, in David Armitage (ed.), Theories of Empire, 1450–1800 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), pp. 45-79 (pp. 54-57). 87 Headley, ‘The Habsburg World Empire’, pp. 56-57.
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Figure 10: An image contrasting religious truth with (Catholic) heresy, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 51. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: 36.17.4 Geom. 2° (1).
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the Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō, seems to be themed around religion and contrasting truth with (Catholic) heresy. On the left there is a man in fairly plain, almost scholarly robes and a four-pointed hat reading from an open book. Following him is a small boy also dressed in plain robes. In his right hand he is holding a lighted candle, which commonly represents gospel truth. It would be no stretch to suppose that these plainly attired figures represent Protestants reading the truth revealed in the Word of God. On the right of the image is a large rocky mound with smoke coming from a crack in the top. This rock could again be a reference to the wilderness as discussed in Chapter III, above, or it could be taken as a more direct representation of Papal authority as Peter, the first Pope, was the rock on which Christ was to build his Church according to Matthew 16. 18-19. The mound is covered in serpents and some grotesque, unnatural figures with wings, one of which has a reptile tail and butterfly wings but the body and face of a tiny, grotesque human. On the lefthand edge of the mound sits a bishop wearing a bishop’s mitre and robes and carrying his crosier, looking down at the two figures on the left of the image. Surely this represents the perversions and degeneracy of the Catholic Church from a Protestant perspective. This image is very much in keeping with the Reformation visual strategy of the use of antithetical images seen in famous examples of early Lutheran propaganda such as Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Passional Christi et Antichristi (Wittenberg, 1521). This work contrasts the holy life of Christ with the decadent life of the Pope and the venal customs of the Curia Romana in 13 pairs of antithetical woodcuts, culminating in the final woodcut pair depicting the Ascension on the one side and the Pope, identifiable by his three-layered papal tiara, being cast down into hell on the other side, accompanied by brief texts from the Bible and papal decretals composed by Philipp Melanchthon and Johann Schwertfeger. There has been some debate about the efficacy of these images, with Robert Scribner a leading proponent of their influence in spreading the anti-Catholic message, arguing that even the ‘simple folk’ would have understood these images by connecting them with liturgical ritual and well-known symbols, while Andrew Pettegree has opposed this, saying that the importance of images in the Reformations has been overstated.88 In any event, what is clear is that the visual rhetoric here in von Hulsen’s account is some distance from images of religious opponents being burned at the stake. Indeed, something which is strikingly common across sixteenth- and seventeenth-century German festivals both Catholic and Protestant, is the lack of any direct hostility or fanning of the flames when it came to religious sensitivities. As mentioned above, the daily worship which took place throughout the wedding festival at Munich in 1568 was triumphantly Catholic in nature. However, it is not explicitly described as being such. Rather, there is simply no acknowledgement 88 Robert W. Scribner, For the Sake of Simple Folk: Popular Propaganda for the German Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981); Andrew Pettegree, Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
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of any other form of Christian worship — it is described as the ‘customary and Christian godly worship’.89 The role and treatment in the festival of the Duke of Württemberg, whose territory converted away from Catholicism in 1530, is also illustrative. This Duke of a Protestant territory arrives along with the Papal legate, Catholic Dukes of Bavaria, and the Archbishop of Salzburg.90 Wagner records that ‘Duke Wilhelm/ as bridegroom the Archbishop of Salzburg and then Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria Duke Eberhard of Württemberg/ each spectacularly entered together. They gave/ and received/ all the friendliest greetings’.91 During the entry of the bride into the city, the Duke’s retinue and accompanying nobility blended with that of the Duke of Bavaria and the Archbishop of Salzburg in the procession, wearing the same colours as the Bavarians.92 In a different context, Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger cites theological arguments which could justify the way in which Protestant nobles could attend ceremonies taking place in Catholic services such as this wedding in the Frauenkirche in Munich. She points out that Protestant ‘preachers in Augsburg cited Paul, who in Romans 14 and I Corinthians 8-10 teaches that for the sake of the gospel, one had to misrepresent oneself under certain circumstances and conform to the practices […] of the pagans and Jews’ and Luther preached following this that no external thing is unclean in itself but becomes so only through mistaken faith.93 Likewise, in 1613, when Heidelberg celebrated the marriage of Friedrich, the Calvinist leader of the Protestant Union, to Elizabeth Stuart, the arch erected outside the theological faculty at the University of Heidelberg was decorated with portraits of the Fathers, and of Luther, Melanchthon, and Beze but crucially omitted to represent Calvin.94 This is not in fact surprising, as Frances Yates has found it, but it is significant.95 This event occurred well before the recognition of Calvinism at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. As of the Peace of Augsburg of 1555, only Lutheranism and Catholicism were recognized and incorporated into the Empire’s constitutional framework. Calvin did not appear on the arch because the Holy Roman Empire’s laws did not recognize Calvinism. The portrayal of a Calvinist identity was not made at the expense of the imperial constitution; it was not openly subversive towards the Empire. Of course, religious confessions did contain an antagonistic element of being defined in relation to, or against, something else — other confessions or 89 ‘gewondlichen vnnd Christlichen Gottsdienst’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 20v. 90 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung , p. 22v. 91 ‘Hertzog Wilhelm/ als Preütigam dem Ertzbischoffen zu Saltzburg Vnd dann Hertzog Ferdinand in Bairn Hertzog Eberharden von Wiertenberg/ jeder sonderbar entgegen geriten. Dieselben aller fraintlichst angenommen/ empfangen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 22v. 92 Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 30v. 93 Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, ‘Kneeling before God – Kneeling before the Emperor: The Transformation of a Ritual during the Confessional Conflict in Germany’, in Nils Holger Peterson, Eyolf Østrem, and Andreas Bücker (eds), Resonances: Historical Essays on Continuity and Change (Turnhout: Brepols, 2011), pp. 149-72 (p. 168). 94 Frances A. Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972), p. 10. 95 Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, p. 10.
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political structures — but more often than not the effect of this was to make the Empire and its structures more, rather than less, relevant. Len Scales has observed in the medieval period the role of conflict between the papacy and the Holy Roman Emperors in making the Empire more immediately relevant to its inhabitants as it raised questions of ‘Whether an interdict was to be observed, an excommunicate prince shunned or an anti-king backed’ such that ‘In the century following Frederick II’s reign no institution did more than the papacy to ensure the Empire’s continuing, periodically urgent, relevance to Germans’.96 These disagreements between Emperors and Popes certainly continued into the early modern period, and, similarly, the questions accompanying the Reformations made the Empire of particular relevance to identity. Indeed, the whole notion of ‘Protestantism’ has its origins in a definition made in juxtaposition to the Emperor’s decree and expressed at an Imperial Diet. The ‘Protestatio’ (meaning ‘I object’) was presented to the Reichstag (Imperial Diet) at Speyer in 1529, with six princes and 14 Imperial Free Cities petitioning against the Reichsacht (Imperial Ban) against Luther, and all those measures which they saw as contrary to the Word of God. It was then at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 that the Confessio Augustana emerged, which set out the Lutheran faith as it was to be recognized at the 1555 Peace of Augsburg between Charles V and the Schmalkaldic League. From the outset, then, ‘Protestantism’, as much as Catholicism, was defined through, and in relation to, the framework of the Holy Roman Empire. It is remarkable, though, how different the treatment of religion and imagery relating to it is in court festivals from that seen in other cultural examples. Watanabe-O’Kelly’s study of early modern German literature reveals much more savage and divisive scenes. For instance, she points to ‘Die Todtenfresser’ (‘The eaters of the dead’) of 1522, which ‘satirises the profit the clergy derive from Masses for the dead by depicting the Pope, a monk, a nun, and so on, feasting on the corpse dished up in front of them’.97 Granted, her examples are predominantly from an earlier part of the sixteenth century than the festivals under consideration here, and so perhaps fall more into the initial period of intense fervour of the early Reformation, yet the point stands that such explicit imagery as this is not seen in these court festivals, even in the immediate prelude to religious conflict. Moreover, the contrast with the treatment of religion and confessional differences as seen elsewhere in Europe also could not be more stark. A striking comparison is with the entry of Prince Philip (son of Charles V and future King Philip II of Spain) into Lille in 1548 during his progress from Italy, through Germany, and up into the Low Countries. This was, of course, a time when the Lutherans had recently been defeated at Mühlberg in 1547, the Protestant Schmalkaldic League had been repressed, and the Council of Trent was in
96 Len Scales, The Shaping of German Identity: Authority and Crisis, 1245–1414 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 243. 97 Watanabe O-Kelly, ‘The Early Modern Period’, pp. 101-02.
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its early stages. As Roy Strong has described, at Lille there was a ‘tableaux of religion’ in which: While Charles and Philip stood within the Temple of Virtue, below yawned a gaping hell-mouth inhabited by the figure of Martin Luther. Further on, the figure of the Catholic Church was to be seen treading Heresy underfoot, attended by pope and emperor as the shield of the faith, while nearby Luther and Zwingli rubbed shoulders with Julian the Apostate, Simon Magus, Arius and Hus, as vanquished heretics.98 There is also an example, at least, of an effigy of a reformer, Zwingli, being publicly burned at the Swiss Catholic Carnival of Lucerne in 1523, with Lucerne being one of very few Swiss cities to remain Catholic in the 1520s.99 Such forthrightly oppositional representations of confessional identity were not a feature of festivals in the German-speaking lands in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries. Again, while various contextual factors were undoubtedly at work in these examples, they serve to illustrate the type of imagery and rhetoric which was available and seen elsewhere, but not employed in these festivals. There is a clear emphasis in the religious rhetoric across the court festivals of the Holy Roman Empire on ‘Christendom’, peace, rest, and unity. A body of historiography exists relating to these notions of Christendom in the early modern period, which is also connected to attempts to trace concepts of ‘Europe’ onto which pan-European identities could be grafted. Scholars such as Denys Hay and, more recently, Michael Wintle have identified the late medieval and early modern periods as the time at which the foundations of European identity began to emerge.100 Gerard Delanty has written that ‘Europe was constituted as a cultural frame of reference’ which precipitated ‘the formation of identities and new geo-political realities’, and that such identities were ‘all-embracing and comprehensive systems of thought’.101 He puts this formation of collective European identity in the sixteenth century. However, at this stage he identifies a close connection with the concept of Christendom.102 While Hay argues that in ‘the course of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries Christendom slowly entered the limbo of archaic words and Europe emerged as the unchallenged symbol of the largest human loyalty’, he also concedes that the idea of Christendom continued to be used in the early modern period, even in the wake of the Reformation.103
98 Roy C. Strong, Art and Power: Renaissance Festivals 1450–1650 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1984), pp. 88-89. 99 Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, p. 317. 100 Denys Hay, Europe: The Emergence of an Idea (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1957); Michael Wintle, The Image of Europe: Visualizing Europe in Cartography and Iconography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). See also Noel Parker (ed.), The Geopolitics of Europe’s Identity: Centers, Boundaries and Margins (New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). 101 Gerard Delanty, Inventing Europe: Idea, Identity, Reality (London: Macmillan, 1995), pp. 4-5. 102 See Delanty, Inventing Europe, pp. 6, 13. 103 Hay, Europe, p. 116.
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This contrasts with the argument of Patrick J. Geary, who sets the work of Wolfgang Lazius within the context of competition between Italian and northern, German humanists.104 He talks of a transformation away from understanding identity as part of the larger populus christianus. He cites Regino of Prüm, a tenth-century churchman and chronicler who argued that what mattered was not the divisions of custom, language, and law, but the unity of one faith, before arguing that in the sixteenth century, ‘Northern humanists began a process of re-differentiation of nations, not only as contemporary states but as peoples with their individual, non-Roman histories’; which does reflect in the emphasis in Protestant festivals in particular on non-Roman Germanic figures such as Arminius, which was discussed in Chapter I of this book. Geary says that ‘Crucial in the process was the re-discovery of Tacitus’ Germania’ alongside ‘traditions of erudition such as that of [Lazius] which sought to distinguish the many peoples of Europe according to the criteria of origin and language’ resulting in his conviction that ‘the major languages of Europe, including those of the “Hispani, Galii, Belgae, Itali, and Longobardi” were actually derived from what he called Teutonic’.105 However, Christendom and national differentiation or the telling of national stories did not necessarily have to pull against each other — what Geary presents is a false dichotomy. As this work demonstrates, there was a presence of both types of rhetoric, used with different emphases at different times, as part of multi-layered identities. The idea of Europe, or even Christendom, providing an ‘all-embracing and comprehensive’ identity in this period seems to overstate the case, but the rhetoric of Christendom certainly provided a unifying aspect to identity as witnessed in the court festivals of the Holy Roman Empire. The greeting to the bride, Renée of Lorraine, at Munich in 1568 hopes that God will grant ‘that the glory of the forces of Christendom be promoted/ that your princely graces’ equally both most prominent houses/ their lands and peoples be in peace/ rest/ and unity now and evermore/ so both their souls as well as their bodies will blossom and be enriched’.106 Similarly, a reference is made in the account of the festival at Munich in 1607 to the ‘Volck Christi’ (‘people of Christ’), in amongst numerous other references to the ‘Volck’ at large.107 Equally, the Protestant couple of 1613, Friedrich and Elizabeth, were described as ‘two Paragons of the Christian world’.108
104 Patrick J. Geary, ‘Europe of Nations or the Nation of Europe: Origin Myths Past and Present’, Revista Lusófona de Estudos Culturais (Lusophone Journal of Cultural Studies), 1 (1) (2013), 36-49. 105 Geary, ‘Europe of Nations or the Nation of Europe’, 43-44. 106 ‘das hail der armen Christenheit befürdert/ frid/ rhue/ vnd ainigkait erhalten/ Ewer F.G. auch beder hochauschlicher Heuser/ irer Land vnd Leut ewige vnd zeitliche/ so wol der Seelen als des Leibs wolfart gepflantzt vnd erlangt werde’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 31r. 107 Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Ei v. 108 See Robert Allyne, TEARES OF IOY SHED At the happy departure from Great Britaine, of the two Paragons of the Christian world. FREDERICKE and ELIZABETH, Prince, and Princesse Palatines of Rhine, Duke and Dutches of Bauaria, &c. (London: Nicholas Oakes for Thomas Archer, 1613).
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In conclusion, while religion was of course an important element of the identity constructed and projected in the court festivals of the Holy Roman Empire at this time, it did not necessarily undermine or prove an insurmountable impediment to other, shared, broader conceptions of German identity. Modernists may now look back from what many regard as a secular age in the twenty-first century towards the early modern period and be tempted to see a naïve form of religiosity informing identity exclusively. Yet religious identity formed part of a more complex whole, and as such it could be of greater or lesser priority or proclaimed more loudly or subtly at different historical moments and in different locations, and so could co-exist with more or less friction with other forms of identity. The various bonds of allegiance were more complex than an alignment between pro-Habsburg, pro-Imperial, and pro-Papal thought, with Catholic voices often joining with Protestants in criticism of the papacy and it being demonstrably possible to be anti-Habsburg but not to challenge the Holy Roman Empire itself. Viciously divisive imagery which can be observed elsewhere in other forms of literature and culture as well as in other areas of Europe did not, for the most part, feature prominently in the court festivals of the Holy Roman Empire of this time, which instead espoused a far less antagonistic rhetoric of identity. Religion was visibly present but in the majority of both Protestant and Catholic festivals confessionalized messages were only addressed directly in hushed tones. Religious identities were expressed within the framework of the Holy Roman Empire as it provided a basis for an identity which could transcend the confessional divisions even within the Protestant Union, both between Calvinists and Lutherans and within those confessions themselves as the theologians still debated issues of doctrine, as well as a basis for unity between attendees of different confessions at Catholic festivals. Ultimately, court festivals, rather than appealing to narrower allegiances, instead stressed a unifying notion of Christendom claimed positively, as seen here. Such notions were further defined and reinforced by opposition to those represented as being outside of the transient, mutable borders of who could legitimately lay claim to a ‘German’, Christian identity, as will be seen in the following chapter.
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Chapter V
Festival Encounters and the Shifting Borders of German Identity
Festivals were moments at which retinues from across the Empire, and Europe more broadly, came into contact and at which various non-Christian, non-European peoples, though only rarely physically present, were encountered through performed representations. As such, they were sites of intersection across all sorts of geographical, cultural, and linguistic ‘borders’. Indeed, there is a discernible flexibility of where the ‘border’ of who could legitimately lay claim to, or be included in, a ‘German’ identity lay in different contexts. Ottomans, Moors, and the inhabitants of the New World often became part of the rhetoric of German Christian identity, founded in virtue, which their presence at festivals served to illuminate by contrast. This was already a feature of Habsburg imagery in the reign of Emperor Maximilian I (1508-1519), and one which became pervasive in German court festivals by the late-sixteenth century. Exotic, luxurious elements of these foreign cultures were prominent at festivals, as were those of other Europeans, yet these material and cultural exchanges, within the imagery of festivals, at least, were predominantly subsumed into the same rhetoric of virtue and mastery as we have seen in relation to nature in order to transcend divisions within the Empire itself. Rather than presenting a paradox between the luxurious and the barbarous, representations of the Turk in festivals show that Ottoman culture, as with the natural world seen in the ‘Cabinets of Curiosities’ (Kunstkammern) and representations of nature discussed in Chapter III, above, was being subsumed by the over-riding power of the ruler in question to obtain and have mastery over such objects. As such they formed part of a trivializing appropriation to make a mockery of the threat which the Ottoman Empire posed in this period. This rhetoric could be deployed in a confessionalized and politicized manner as the trope of the Turk could be merged with images of Catholics in Protestant festivals to mar all others as opulent in contrast with the protagonists’ own virtuosity, yet it could also serve as a means of fostering a unifying rhetoric of ‘Christendom’. Language, meanwhile, could present a potential obstruction to the formation of shared identities, especially when the linguistic diversity of the early modern Holy Roman Empire is considered from a modern vantage point. While there is some evidence that language could be linked to notions of civility and so linguistic differences could be used to marginalize the non-German-speaking inhabitants even of territories within the Empire in certain contexts, this, too, did
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not prove insurmountable at festival occasions designed to forge and reinforce a shared identity. It is readily visible in the accounts that these festivals drew attendees from across the Empire, and Europe more broadly. Even the shooting match held in Stuttgart in 1560, though not on the scale of many of the festivals discussed in this work, attracted participants from across the lands of the Holy Roman Empire, including from Heidelberg, Jägerndorf, Strasburg, Augsburg, Vienna, Ansbach, Ingolstadt, Tübingen, and Nuremberg, as well as from Stuttgart itself.1 By far the most notable example of this diversity, though, can be seen at the Munich wedding in 1568 of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée, Duchess of Lorraine. This involved the bride’s retinue travelling to Bavaria from Lorraine, an autonomous duchy within the Holy Roman Empire since ad 962, which was positioned on the western fringe of the German lands, bordering Frankish territory. The festivities for this wedding were attended not just by the two courtly retinues, but by nobles from across the Empire, ambassadors (including from Spain, Poland, and Florence), and the Papal legate. Among the nobility present was Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria. Son of the recently deceased Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand I, and younger brother of the reigning Emperor Maximilian II, he represented the junior line of the House of Habsburg from his court at Schloss Ambras in Innsbruck, famous for its own festival culture.2 There were close familial ties between the Habsburgs and the Wittelsbachs. In 1546 the reigning Duke of Bavaria, Albrecht V, had married Anna of Austria — Emperor Ferdinand I’s daughter and Archduke Ferdinand II’s sister. Meanwhile, one of the largest noble retinues to attend this festival from elsewhere in the German lands was that from Swabia, with the account prominently mentioning that Lord Karl I von Hohenzollern had accompanied Archduke Ferdinand of Austria to Munich.3 The Hohenzollern family was split between the Protestant Franconian branch and the Catholic Swabian branch. The Swabian branch, present at this
1 Lienhart Flexel, Ordeliche Beschreibüng deβ Füerstlichen Herren Schiesen mitt dem Stachel deβ gehalten hatt der Dürchleüchtig Hochgeboren Füerst vnd Herr, Herr Christoff vonn Gottes genaden, Hörtzog zue Wüerttemberg vnnd zue Teckh, graff zue Mumppelgartt/ Wass füer Chur vnnd Füersten, Frawen vnnd Herren, Ritterschafft vnnd Adel. Stett vnnd Fenckhen den Drey vnnd zwaintzigisten Septembris Anno inn Sechtzigisten zu Stuettgarten im Lanndt Wüerttemberg gehalten, erkennen vnnd erschÿnnen, alles im Keyeren vnd gedicht verfast dürch Liennhartt Flexel von Augspurg Wie alle fäch darob erganngen ist von Anfang biss zum Endt Wie Hernach Volgett (Augsburg: 1560), 11r. 2 See Sabine Haag (ed.), Ferdinand Karl. Ein Sonnenkönig in Tirol (Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2009); Václav Bůžek, Ferdinand von Tirol zwischen Prag und Innsbruck: Der Adel aus den böhmischen Ländern auf dem Weg zu den Höfen der ersten Habsburger (Vienna: Böhlau, 2009). 3 Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung des Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornnen Fürsten vnnd Herren/ Herren Wilhalmen/ Pfaltzgrauen bey Rhein/ Hertzogen inn Obern vnd Nidern Bairen/ etc. Vnd derselben geliebsten Gemahel/ der Durchleuchtigisten Hochgebornnen Fürstin/ Frewlein Renata gebornne Hertzogin zu Lottringen vnd Parr/ etc. gehalten Hochzeitlichen Ehren Fests. Auch welcher gestalt die darauff geladnen Potentaten vnd Fürsten Personlich/ oder durch ire abgesandte Potschafften erschinen. Vnd dann was für Herrliche Ritterspil/ zu Roβ vnd Fueβ/ mit Thurnieren/ Rennen vnd Stechen. Neben andern vil ehrlichen kurtzweilen mit grossen freuden/ Triumph vnd kostligkait/ in der Fürstlichen Haubtstat München gehalten worden sein/ den zwenvndzwaintzigisten vnd nachuolgende tag Februarij/ Im 1568. Jar. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1568), p. 10r.
festival encounters and the shifting borders of german identity
festival, was in favour with the Habsburgs and in 1535 Karl I had received the counties of Sigmaringen and Veringen as Imperial Fiefs. Meanwhile, as part of the entry of Duke Albrecht of Bavaria there were ‘The knights of the Spanish and Polish emissaries’.4 All of the attendees from various foreign territories as well as from other parts of the Holy Roman Empire were intermixed in the festival celebrations. For instance, the account records how the Spanish and Polish emissaries were among the nobles accompanying Archduke Ferdinand of Austria into the city.5 They are then followed by the various nobles from Lorraine, and then some further members of the nobility from different German-speaking territories. Moreover, this theme of incorporating attendees from different territories was reflected in the festival’s ephemeral architecture. The fact that the bride and groom came from different lands was endorsed and related to classical literature by an arch which stood at one end of the tournament arena, on which was depicted ‘the struggle of Aeneas and Mezentrius. Also the struggle of Turnus with Pallas. Also Aeneas, how he defeated Turnus. Also the wedding of Aeneas with Lavinia, which stories all also revolved around Fortune [depicted at the top of the arch on a globe]/ what strains and labours the old heroes/ willingly and undauntedly took on/ to acquire their beloved ones’.6 Of course, one understood that King Latinus had been warned by his father in a dream not to marry his daughter Lavinia to a Latin (from her own land) but to the foreign Aeneas. However, at the same time there are references to more problematic aspects of encounters with foreignness. The foreignness of those who accompanied the bride is conveyed by references to the ‘gränitz’, the frontier, which the party from Lorraine had to cross to reach Munich, between Bavaria and the Palatinate, and describing how the party came from Ingolstadt, where they had been received, ‘across the Bavarian border’.7 Peace between peoples is repeatedly stressed, but in such a way as it simultaneously highlights the presence of foreigners and the potential for conflict. The book has a section on preparations for the wedding, during which preparing for foreign visitors — the ‘frembden’ — is frequently discussed. The first mention associates these outsiders with dispute and disorder, saying: ‘then to good peace-keeping so that no dispute would occur between the foreigners and others/ or that if it did ever occur/ it would be handled with necessary tact/ and peace would be made/ these measures included illuminating
4 ‘Der Spanischen vnd Polnischen Potschafften Knecht’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 30r. 5 ‘Vnder wölche auch der Spanischen vnd Polnischen Potschafften Herren/ vnd vom Adel eingetheilt vnd gemischt worden sein’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 30v. 6 ‘dem kampff Aneæ vnnd Mezentrij. Item von dem kampff Turnin mit dem Pallante. Item von dem Aeneæ, wie er Turnum vberwindt. Item die hochzeit des Aeneæ mit der Lauinia, wölcher Historien sich alle auff Fortunam auch dahin gereimbt haben/ was mühe vnd arbeit die alten helden ire geliebte zuerwerben/ willig vnd vnuerdrossen auff sich genommen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 39r. 7 ‘biβ auff die Bayrisch grenitz’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 11v.
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the fire-pans in all of the alleys/ also a strict and close watch on horse and foot’.8 Towards its conclusion, the account declares that ‘It is necessary to give especial praise and thanks to God almighty/ that all in good peace and unity/ at the same time without any conflict danger or rumour/ was undertaken between so many foreigners and various peoples’.9 Meanwhile, there are many examples of cultural transmission between European courts and the merging of fashionable styles from elsewhere in Europe into the court festivals of the Holy Roman Empire. Veronika Sandbichler has written about how Schloss Ambras in Innsbruck served as a gateway for the transmission of elite culture from Italy into the German-speaking lands, citing the construction of permanent ‘Comedy Houses’ at Innsbruck in the early-seventeenth century in a manner which mirrored Italian theatrical styles.10 This can also be seen in a number of other facets of festival culture, including in music. The use of violins, in particular, is interesting in this regard. The first violins emerged in the sixteenth century, making them innovative instruments. Intriguingly, they were initially used mostly for tavern dances and cheap, popular entertainment; they were, for the most part, frowned upon in more refined circles, and in parts of Italy the Church even ordered their destruction. This changed when Catherine de’ Medici ordered a set of 38 Italian violins made in Cremona in northern Italy (which was the major centre of early violin production) by Andrea Amati in 1564.11 Already, in 1568, these newly fashionable instruments appear at the wedding of Wilhelm and Renée in Munich, introduced into the festival by Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. When he entered the tournament arena, along with two others, for the running at the ring, he was ‘carried on a beautiful Triumphal Carriage’ and ‘Around them stood beautifully fashioned/ five goddesses or Muses in joined-together and assorted foliage with five types of instruments/ being namely a lute/ a zither [a type of string instrument]/ and three violins [“Geigen”]/ which were very beautifully harmonised together’.12 This cultural
8 ‘dann zu guter befridung/ auff das auch zwischen den frembden vnnd andern ainicher vnwill nit erfolge/ oder da es je geschech/ mit ehestem gestilt/ vnnd frid gemacht wurde/ ist vber anzündung der Fewrpfannen in allen gassen/ auch ein starcke vnd solche wacht zu Roβ vnd Fuβ’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 3r. 9 ‘Ist Gott dem Allmechtigen sonderlich lob vnd danckh zusagen/ das alles in gutem frid oft ainigkeit/ darzue one ainiche Feurs gefar oder Rumor/ vnder souil frembden vnnd mancherlay volckh abgangen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung , p. 65v. 10 Veronika Sandbichler, ‘Permanent Places for Festivals at the Habsburg Court in Innsbruck: The “Comedy Houses” of 1628 and 1654’, in J. R. Mulryne, Krista De Jonge, Pieter Martens, and R. L. M. Morris (eds), Architectures of Festival in Early Modern Europe: Fashioning and Re-fashioning Urban and Courtly Space (Abingdon: Routledge, 2018), pp. 257-74. 11 See Stanley Sadie and Alison Latham (eds), The Cambridge Music Guide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 34-35; Max Wade-Matthews and Wendy Thompson, Music: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments and the Great Composers (London: Lorenz Books, 2006), p. 102. 12 ‘sein auffgezogen auff ainem schönen […] Triumph Wagen’, ‘Ob inen herumb stunden zierlich angethan/ fünff Göttin oder Musæ in schwipögen vnd auβgeschnitnem Laubwerch mit fünfferlay Instrumenten/ als nemlichen mit ainer Lautten/ ainer Zitter/ vnd dreyen Geigen/ wölche gar lieblich zusamen stimbten’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 40v.
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transmission continued, and in 1617 violins can clearly be seen in Esaias von Hulsen’s depiction of the festival at Stuttgart. Figure 11 shows four musicians, two of whom are playing violins. The violin serves to illustrate that elements of festival performances were subject to pan-European fashions. Indeed, in 1632 ‘the indistinct music of sixteen violins emanated from one of the roads opposite’ during the entry of the Queen of France into La Rochelle.13 The fact that music, including that informed by European influences, was highly prized at the Wittelsbach court in Munich can be seen by the career of Orlando de Lassus.14 Lassus joined the court of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria, in 1556 and had been appointed maestro di cappella by 1563. He remained in the service of Duke Albrecht and then Wilhelm V until his death in 1594. He composed over two thousand works. He was truly well-travelled and drew on many different musical influences having been born in Mons and spent time in Mantua, Milan, Naples, Rome, and possibly France and England, before coming to Bavaria. In the late 1570s and 1580s he again made several visits to Italy. This was reflected in his music, as he combined ‘the beauty and expressiveness of Italian melody, the charm and elegance of French text-setting, and the solidity and richness of Flemish and German polyphony’.15 Adam Berg, the publisher of many Munich festival accounts, dedicated five volumes of his Patrocinium musicum (published 1573–1580) to Lassus’s music, including a collection of motets published in 1574 which is described as festival music.16 These motets written for multi-voicepart choirs, with their Latin text and the crests of the Emperor and papacy on the frontispiece, demonstrate how Lassus’s music sat within a European tradition of Tridentine polyphonic Catholic choral music. The skill of the musicians under one’s patronage, and being able to rival or exceed any other court in Europe, fed into a ruler’s noble identity based on virtue just as the collection of exotic and exquisite objects, discussed in Chapter III of this book, did. Robert Lindell has written of the importance of music as part of banquets at the Hofburg in Vienna in the late-sixteenth century in demonstrating the majesty of the Habsburg emperors.17 Meanwhile, Wagner’s account of a banquet held during the wedding festival at Munich in 1568 explains: ‘And because it was such a princely meal/ all of the instrumentalists and the
13 ‘l’harmonie de seize violons descoulant incertaine par l’une des ruës opposites’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne en la Ville de la Rochelle. Au mois de Novembre mil six cens trente-deux (La Rochelle: Mathurin Charruyer, 1633), p. 52, trans. by Marie-Claude Canova-Green, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 186-231, pp. 212-13. 14 See Sadie and Latham, The Cambridge Music Guide, pp. 118-20. 15 Sadie and Latham, The Cambridge Music Guide, p. 119. 16 Orlande de Lassus, PATROCINIVM MVSICES ORLANDI DE LASSO, Illustriss. Ducis Bauariæ, Chori Magistri, OFFICIA ALIQVOT, DE præcipuis Festis Anni, 5. vocum. Nunc primum in lucem editæ. Illustriss: Principis D. GVILHELMI Comitis Palatini Rheni, vtriusque Bauariæ Ducis, liberalitate in lucem editum Monachij excudebat (Munich: Adam Berg, 1574). 17 Robert Lindell, ‘Helden – Musik bei kaiserlichen Festen im späten 16. Jahrhundert’, in Wilfried Seipel (ed.), Wir sind Helden: Habsburgische Feste in der Renaissance (Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2005), pp. 15-19.
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Figure 11. An image showing two musicians with violins in a procession at the festival in Stuttgart for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard, and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen, in 1617, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 74. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: 36.17.4 Geom. 2° (1).
whole of the princely musicians served so beautifully and skilfully/ that they were heard by so many in awe/ also one would imagine/ it would not be easy to come by the same from other princes’.18 Yet there were also notions of cultural superiority, even over other parts of Europe, expressed through festivals. Towards the end of the 1568 Munich wedding festival there is a fleeting reference to a ‘Welsche Comedi’, saying ‘an amusing and entertaining comedy/ was held in the Italian language/ and afterwards everyone
18 ‘Vnd weil solche Fürstliche malzeit gewert/ ist von allen Instrumentisten vnnd der gantzen Fürstlichen Musicen so lieblich vnnd künstlich gedient/ das dasselb bey menigklich verwunderlich zuhören gewest/ auch derhalben vermaint worden/ es sey der gleichen bey andern Fürsten nit wol zubekommen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 36r.
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went to rest’.19 Of course, in part this continues the theme discussed above of the adoption of Italian styles, through Innsbruck (with which the Wittelsbach court had close ties). However, it is also indicative of the association of foreignness and foreigners with being amusing. The use of the term ‘Welsche’ implies an element of derision as it had negative overtones first seen in the work of medieval German poets such as Walther von der Vogelweide. The ‘Walhen’ and ‘Welschen’ referred to by Vogelweide in Mittelhochdeutsch provided the precedent for the ‘Welschen’ of early modern literature. In Vogelweide’s writings, these terms are
19 ‘ain lustige vnd kurtzweilige Comedi/ in Italianischer sprach gehalten worden ist/ Vnd darnach hat sich jederman zu rhue gethon’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 65r.
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associated with the foreign, the corrupt, and the enemies of the German people. In an attack on Pope Innocent III, he wrote: Alas, how Christianly the Pope now laughs, Whenever he says to his lackeys [sînen Walhen]: ‘I have brought it to this point!’ He says […] ‘I have goaded them to my stick, their wealth is all mine: their German silver is flowing into my foreign safe [mînen welschen schrîn]. You priests, eat chicken and drink wine, and let the German laymen hunger and fast!’20 The pejorative use of the term Welsch for ‘Latin’ foreign peoples (French and Italians for the most part) re-intensified in the early modern period, partly as a result of tensions between the Empire and the papacy throughout the fifteenth century.21 A further example comes at the evening banquet following the initial Church ceremony for the wedding in Munich of Wolfgang Wilhelm and Magdalena in 1613. The account by Zimmermann mentions that, by the table at which the most prominent noble figures sat, ‘were standing two servers/ one foreign [“Welscher”] and one French’.22 There is, once again, clear symbolism in these foreigners serving the nobility of the Holy Roman Empire. Indeed, ‘foreignness’, and its representation, was adopted by the rhetoric of the festival at Munich in 1568 to buttress the German identity it triumphantly promoted. One piece of imagery is especially revealing in this. One of the tournament entries, discussed in Chapter II in the context of gendered identities, focuses on a young woman who is foreign ‘auβ India’ (here meaning America), with a prisoner on a gold chain. The passage reads: ‘there came a prisoner in black velvet/ with a long gold chain on his arm/ into which he had been placed by a beautiful young woman/ leading on horseback/ and above the Lord Judges (of the tournament) was placed the notice described below’. It continues: I, a young woman, come from afar out of India [America], am so highly afflicted/ by an unfaithful knight/ […] wherefore I have taken this noble knight captive/ and lead him around all lands/ to seek the unfaithful knight/ 20 ‘Ahî wie kristenlîche nû der bâbest lachet,/ swenne er sînen Walhen seit “ich hânz alsô gemachet!” / er giht […] “ich hâns an mînen stoc gement, ir guot ist allez mîn./ ir tiuschez silber vert in mînen welschen schrîn./ ir pfaffen, ezzet hüenr und trinket wîn,/ unde lât die tiutschen [leien magern unde] vasten!”’, Peter Wapnewski, Walther von der Vogelweide: Gedichte (Frankfurt-am-Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1991), p. 156. 21 Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe’s History (London: Allen Lane, 2017), p. 261. 22 ‘seyn gestanden zween Vorschneider/ ein Welscher vnd Francoβ’, Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte entwerffung der Fürstlichen Hochzeit/ So Der Durchleuchtig/ vnd Hochgeborn Fürst vnd Herr/ Herr Wolffgang Wilhelm/ Pfaltzgraff bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Bayrn/ Gülch/ Cleue vnd Berg/ Graf zu Veldentz vnd Sponhaim. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigstin vnd hochgebornen Fürstin Fraw Magdalena/ Pfaltzgräfin bey Rhein/ Hertzogin in Obern vnd Nidern Bayrn. Zu München/ im sechzehenhundert vnd dreyzehenden Jahr/ den zwölfften Nouembris Celebriert vnd gehalten. Ins Werck versetzt/ durch Wilhelm Peter Zimmerman/ ins Kupffer Geradiert zu Augspurg. 1614. (Augsburg: Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, 1614), p. 3.
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and to contend with him. I have also likewise come to this most praiseworthy wedding celebration and knightly contest/ and if my fate allows […] / I might find his scent. I entrust myself entirely to the Lord Judges/ that they in such their chivalry might intend towards me and the present knight as foreigners and unknown/ no misfortune to befall us.23 What is presented here is a foreigner appealing to the virtue, justice, and knightly honour of the Germans who uphold it even when other lands do not. Indeed, the importance of justice to the self-image of dynastic rulers has been stressed by Jeroen Duindam in his recent comparative global study of early modern dynasties. He observes that ‘the court developed a powerful association with justice’ with a ‘stress on direct and personal royal justice’.24 He notes how ‘In Europe wrongdoers were pardoned during royal entries’, resulting in a ‘steady stream of petitioners’ which ‘followed the trajectories of royalty to obtain grace’ and so the dispensing of justice, or interventions in the judicial system, was part of how the court impacted broader communities through such occasions.25 The above passage, with the woman travelling to obtain justice from a ruler, is also an allusion to this aspect of court festivals. Nor was it only in the German lands that justice constituted a significant part of claims linked to identity. The author of the festival book for Queen Anne of France’s entry into La Rochelle insists that, through his conquests, ‘the King brought law and order to foreigners’; even those within Europe itself.26 This vision of justice, however, was oppositional with foreign others. As Richard Cole has observed from his study of sixteenth-century travel books as a source of European attitudes toward non-white and non-western culture, a ‘major area of European criticism of the non-west was the apparent lack of adequate systems of justice and governmental structure among barbarians’.27 Gift-giving, meanwhile, as was so frequently the case in international diplomacy, was a necessary part of attendance at festivals but one which could be interpreted, particularly in instances in which the exchange was not bilateral, 23 ‘ainer in schwartzem samat/ mit ainer langen güldenen Ketten an dem arm/ daran ihnen ain Junckfraw auffs schönest geputzt/ zu Roβ gefangen gefüert/ vnnd den Herrn Richtern nachfolgende geschribne Zettel vbergeben’, ‘Ich von weitem herkomne Junckfraw auβ India, bin von ainem vngetrewen Ritter/ so hoch belaidigt worden/ […] darumben ich disen ehrlichen Ritter gefangen/ vnd in alle Land herumb fier/ den vngetrewen Ritter zusuchen/ vnd mit ime zukempffen. Bin also auch gleich zu disem hochlöblichen hochzeit fest vnnd Ritterspil herkommen/ vnd wil mein glück alda durch inen versuchen […] vnnd ich gerochen werden möcht. Versich mich gentzlich zu den Herrn Richtern/ sie werden mir vnd disem gegenwürtigen ehrlichen Ritter/ als frembden vnd vnbekanten inn solchem Ritterlichen vorhaben kain vnbilligkait widerfaren lassen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 52r. 24 Jeroen Duindam, Dynasties: A Global History of Power, 1300–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), pp. 158, 24. 25 Duindam, Dynasties, pp. 266-67. 26 ‘le Roy a donné la loy aux Estrangers’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne, p. 30, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 200-01. 27 Richard G. Cole, ‘Sixteenth-Century Travel Books as a Source of European Attitudes toward NonWhite and Non-Western Culture’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 116 (1) (1972), 59-67 (66).
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more as ‘tribute’, as an acknowledgement of the status of the ruler to whom the gift is given (despite the opportunity to demonstrate one’s own wealth through the richness of a gift, allowing for an element of polysemy). At the wedding in Munich in 1568, gifts were given on behalf of all of the visiting nobility, from the other parts of the Holy Roman Empire as well as foreign visitors from further afield, to the bride and groom. Wagner remarks that ‘Then there were all there so many of the most expensive necklaces/ chains/ …rings’ and so forth ‘and all types of the most beautiful jewels/ that it was not possible to discern or describe/ a satisfactory estimate/ from the great mass/ what each had gifted’.28 An exaggerated form of the same combination of adoption of exotic luxury, to illustrate a ruler’s power and virtue, with a vision of superiority and mocking process of othering can be seen in the representation of Turks at festivals. It is unsurprising that the motif of ‘Turks’ was ubiquitous in the court festivals of the late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Holy Roman Empire and interwoven with the identities presented. We have already seen, in Chapter III of this book, that Ottomans, Moors, and the New World ‘Other’ were incorporated into the rhetoric of civilization, learning, and virtue as a dipole, yet the performed language of representation around such ‘others’ was more complex than this. This period was marked by a more or less acute but nevertheless continuous threat to the German-speaking lands of the Holy Roman Empire from the Ottoman Empire. Earlier in the sixteenth century, the Ottoman victory at Mohács in 1526 had resulted in roughly one third of Hungary becoming an Ottoman territory, and Süleyman the Magnificent even laid siege to the Imperial capital, Vienna, in 1529. Campaigns westwards into Christian Europe and the Mediterranean by the Ottomans continued on and off throughout the century and beyond. In 1565, the base of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem at Malta was besieged. The much-celebrated Christian naval victory at Lepanto in 1571 temporarily stalled Mediterranean Ottoman expansion, but the Ottomans remained a severe threat to the lands of the Holy Roman Empire with the Thirteen Years War running from 1593 to 1606. The Turks were, for the most part, represented by characters, images, and material culture in festivals, but the physical presence of Turkish ambassadors could also be carefully stage-managed to become incorporated into the rhetoric of the festival, although such occasions were extremely rare. Carina Johnson has recently studied the appearance of the Turkish ambassador, Ibrahim Bey, at the 1562 election of Maximilian II as King of the Romans at Frankfurt, for instance.29 Gifts were exchanged between the ambassador, Ferdinand I, and Maximilian,
28 ‘Dann der köstlichesten Halβpenter/ Geheng/ […] Ring […] alda gewest’, ‘vnnd dergleichen schönesten Klainater souil […] /das man es nit genugsam schetzen/ nach der grossen menig/ was jeder geschenckt hat/ mercken oder beschreiben mögen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 38r. 29 Carina L. Johnson, ‘Imperial Authority in an Era of Confessions’, in Carina L. Johnson, Cultural Hierarchy in Sixteenth-Century Europe: The Ottomans and Mexicans (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 197-230, esp. pp. 202-05.
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and the occasion was used to agree a treaty with Ferdinand. Johnson argues that ‘The varied propaganda of this Austrian-Ottoman diplomatic exchange all supported a natural distancing between the Habsburg and Ottoman empires which exoticized the eastern empire’.30 Moreover, by offering a distinct ‘Other’, a dipole against which members of all religious confessions could rally, ‘In the events and descriptions of the 1562 election, we can trace the Habsburgs’ efforts to negotiate and reinscribe their symbolic authority in a newly multiconfessional Holy Roman Empire’, an aspect of festival culture which fitted particularly well with Maximilian’s preference, seen through his reign, for less religiously divisive rhetoric.31 The discussion here will build on these observations and introduce a comparative element into the analysis which Johnson has made in microcosm. The secondary literature relating to ‘the Turk’ in early modern Europe has moved in recent decades towards acknowledging the mixed complexion of European relations with the Ottomans — stressing the degree of material and cultural exchange between the Ottomans and western Europeans, the similarities between these societies, and even a degree of co-existence and accommodation, as well as animosity. Indeed, J. R. Hale refers to the ‘atmosphere of double-think’ in which the Turks were seen to represent partially ‘monstrous inhumanity’ and, simultaneously, ‘high standards of material well-being’.32 Daniel Goffman has gone so far as to argue that the ‘spiritual bases of Christian Europe and the Muslim Ottoman Empire were remarkably similar’, that it is ‘not only reasonable — but quite fruitful — to conceive and study a “Greater Western World”’ and that, while this ‘does not connote harmony’, the civilizations were ‘symbiotic’.33 Recent research has shown how such interactions occurred on a day-to-day basis in the early modern world at moments of contact, such as between Christian and Islamic merchants, encounters which frequently encompassed the exchange of knowledge as well as goods.34 As alluded to above with the incorporation of fashions from the festival culture of other European courts, foreign culture as part of the festival could be seen as exotic and luxurious, and this included Ottoman culture. This becomes clear in relation to many aspects of the festival at Munich in 1568 and the various commodities present at it. The account by Wagner specifically notes that ‘all of the princes rode on beautiful/ well-decorated/ horses such as Spanish/ Turkish/
30 Johnson, ‘Imperial Authority’, p. 198. 31 Johnson, ‘Imperial Authority’, p. 198. 32 See J. R. Hale, The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance (London: Harper Collins, 1993), pp. 39-43 (p. 41). 33 Daniel Goffman, The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 8-9. 34 See for instance: Avner Ben-Zaken, Cross-Cultural Scientific Exchanges in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1560–1660 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010); Zoltán Biedermann, Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello (eds), Global Gifts: The Material Culture of Diplomacy in Early Modern Eurasia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018); John-Paul Ghobrial, The Whispers of Cities: Information Flows in Istanbul, London, and Paris in the Age of William Trumbull (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
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and other expensive breeds’.35 The horse breeds were clearly highly prized and there are numerous references to the qualities of the various protagonists’ horses. For instance, the bride approached the tent where the initial meeting took place ‘on a beautiful brown palfrey’ — the palfrey horse was highly valued for riding.36 Again with regard to food and drink: ‘From the Lordly/ also from foreign lands were brought to this place/ huge and artistic cakes/ also so many various drinks/ as one could ever wish to have/ of exotic and expensive ingredients of innumerable types’.37 Later, the account boasts that the Duke of Bavaria had provided ‘all desires of foreign delicacies and others/ to be served alongside the most expensive wine. Such that many wondered/ how one might obtain such things’.38 As argued earlier in this work, this idea of bringing the world’s treasures, natural and artificial, together in one place at the behest of a ruler was central to the overall rhetoric of early modern German courts. As we saw in Chapter III, it also found expression in the Kunstkammern (or Wunderkammern) — the collections of eclectically mixed objects of curiosity of all kinds from across the world as a microcosm of its wonders which rulers assembled as demonstrations of their learning and the extent of their power.39 It was not only at this festival in Bavaria that Ottoman material culture was present. At the 1609 wedding in Stuttgart of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg and Teck, and Barbara Sophia, Margravine of Brandenburg, for example, in the first procession of the bridegroom, the figures of Apollo, Orpheus, and Linus, riding on white horses led by servants, carried ‘Turkish sabres’ (‘Türkische Seubeln’) at their sides.40 Similarly, at the Jägerndorf wedding of Johann Georg, 35 ‘sein aller Fürsten schöne/ wolgezierte/ als Spanische/ Türkische/ vnnd ander köstliche Leibpferd gerutten worden’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 30r. 36 ‘auff einen schönen praunen Zelter’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 30v. 37 ‘Von den Herrlichen/ auch von frembden Landen hierzu gebrachten trachten/ gwaltigen vnnd künstlichen schawessen/ auch so mancherlay getranck/ als man der immer gehaben mögen/ von seltzamer vnnd köstlicher Conficirung vnzehlicher sorten’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 36r. 38 ‘allem wollust von Welschen früchten vnd anderm gethon/ darzue gar kostliche Wein dermassen auffgetragen worden. Das sich/ wie man es bekhommen mögen/ menigklich verwundert’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 65v. 39 See, for example, Horst Bredekamp, The Lure of Antiquity and the Cult of the Machine: The Kunstkammer and the Evolution of Nature, Art and Technology, trans. by Allison Brown (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1995); Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, Court Culture in Dresden: From Renaissance to Baroque (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave, 2002); Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Management of Knowledge at the Electoral Court of Saxony in Dresden’, in Mary Lindemann (ed.), Ways of Knowing: Ten Interdisciplinary Essays (Boston and Leiden: Brill, 2004), pp. 53-65. 40 Johann Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung Der Fürstlichen Hochzeit und des Hochansehnlichen Beylagers So Der Durchleuchtig Hochgeborn Fürst und Herr Herr Johann Friderich Hertzog zu Würtemberg und Teck Grave zu Mümpelgart Herr zu Haydenhaim etc. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin unnd Frewlin Frewlin Barbara Sophia Marggrävin zu Brandenburg in Preussen zu Stettin Pomern der Cassuben unnd Wenden auch zu Crossen und Jägerndorff in Schlesien, Hertzogin Burggrävin zu Nürnberg und Fürstin zu Rügen etc. In der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgardten Anno 1609. den 6. Novembris und etliche hernach volgende Tag Celebriert und gehalten hat: Darinnen alle Fürsten Fürstine und Frewlin: Graven Herren und vom Adel: Auch der abwesenden König: Chur: Fürsten unnd Stände Abgesandte so dieser Hochzeit beygewohnt verzeichnet: Darzu alle darbey gehaltene Ritterspihl Ring-rennen Turnier Auffzüg Fewerwerck und alle andere kurtzweil in dreyen underschiedlichen Büchern
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Margrave of Brandenburg, and Eva Christina, Duchess of Württemberg, in 1610, when the Duke of Brieg made his entrance for the running at the quintain he was followed by six pairs of knights who all had ‘pusikans in their hands’ — a pusikan being a Turkish ceremonial club decorated with jewels.41 The Margrave, Johann Georg, also carried ‘ein Pusican’ for his own entry.42 The theme continued at the running at the ring at Heidelberg in 1613, where the procession included ‘six well-armed knights […] dressed very magnificently and armed with golden lances and shields as well as Turkish sabres’.43 Again, then, we see German nobles bedecked with often luxurious and ornate items of Ottoman origins or in imitation of Ottoman culture. This association of other cultures, including the Ottomans, as well as Moors, with exotic luxury was not unusual in early modern Europe. It can be seen at the Queen of France’s entry into La Rochelle in 1632. Describing a scene at the Palais de Justice, the festival book records that: When the Queen was opposite […] [everyone assembled] bowed deeply before the Queen and presented her with a Moorish-style basket, decorated with ornate garlands of roses and other striking flowers and containing phials of angel-water, whose scent would have been considered delightful by the gods of Sheba themselves.44
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eigentlich und gründlich beschriben und mit lustigen Kupfferstücken Abgebildet werden. Durch M. Johann Oettingern Fürstl. Würtembergischen Geographum und Renovatorem. Gedruckt in der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgart. Anno 1610 (Stuttgart: G. Grieb, 1610), p. 108, trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 58-73 (pp. 60-61). ‘Pusican in der händen’, Aygentliche Beschreibung Aller Frewden unnd Ritterspiell Ringelrennen auch anderer Kurtzweilen unnd gantzen ansehenlichen Apparatus und Pomp so bey Dem Fürstlichen Beylager deβ Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten unnd Herrn Herrn Johans Georgen Marggraffen zu Brandenburg in Preussen zu Stettin Pommern der Cassuben und Wenden Auch in Schlesien zu Cassen und Jägerndorff etc. Hertzogen Burggrafens zu Nürnberg und Fürsten zu Rügen Und Seiner Fürstl: Gn: geliebtester Gespons Der Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin und Fr: Fr: Eva Christina, Geborner Hertzogin zu Würtemberg Gräfin zu Mümpelgarth etc. In Seiner Fürstl: Gn: Hofresidentz der Statt Jägerndorff in Schlesien gantz herrlich zierlich und glücklich fürüber gangen und vollendet worden. Gedruckt zu Kempten bey Christoff Krausen. Anno 1610. (Kempten: Christoff Krausen, 1610), Ci v, trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 74-79 (pp. 74-75). Aygentliche Beschreibung, Cii r, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 76-77. ‘Sechs wol auβgerüste Ritter […] sehr stattlich gekleidet mit güldenen Spiessen und Schilten auch türckischen Sebeln gewapnet’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ: Empfahung deβ Ritterlichen Ordens: Vollbringung des Heyraths: und glücklicher Heimführung: Wie auch der ansehnlichen Einführung: gehaltener Ritterspiel und Frewdenfests: Des Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herrn Herrn Friederichen deβ Fünften Pfaltzgraven bey Rhein deβ Heiligen Römischen Reichs Ertztruchsessen und Churfürsten Hertzogen in Bayern etc. Mit der auch Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürstin und Königlichen Princessin Elisabethen deβ Groβmechtigsten Herrn Hernn IACOBI deβ Ersten Königs in GroβBritannien Einigen Tochter. Mit schönen Kupfferstücken gezieret. In Gotthardt Vögelins Verlag. Anno 1613. ([Heidelberg]: Götthardt Vögelin, 1613), p. 169, trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 80-91 (pp. 90-91). ‘A mesme temps que la Reyne fut vis à vis […] font tres-profonde Reverance, presentent à Sa Majesté dans un panier à la Moresque, travaillé fort mignardement, des Guirlandes de Roses et autres singulieres fleurs, avec des Ampoules d’eau d’Ange; dont l’encensement eust passé pour bon, chez les Dieux mesmes de Sabée’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne, p. 64, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 218-19.
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Sheba was the kingdom of the Sabeans and noted for its wealth accumulated by the trading of spices, gold, and precious stones. Its spices, presented as a gift, were emphasized in the account in the Bible (I Kings 10) of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. This was another clear allusion to luxurious sensory experiences associated with these cultures. The theme of exotic distant goods being brought to Europe continued when the Queen was taken to the Town Hall: the great hall had been prepared with much magnificence: the canopy, the tapestries, the dresser laden with vermeiled and chased gold inspired respect and admiration from those who were permitted to enter the room. Amber, musk and burning benzoin [a gum resin found in perfumes] made the air sweet outside and the good people felt they had reached the promised land, and the sailors thought they were still on the long journey along the Arabian coasts or those of the Molucca Islands.45 La Rochelle was a significant French port, and so its involvement with trade including spices was responsible for its wealth. Finally when ‘the Queen went to see the ships at Chef-de-Baye after dinner’ and was led ‘to the quayside where her galliot waited for her’, Ottoman textiles heightened the sense of luxury, as ‘The cloth covering the ship’s poop was made of satin, the floor and benches were covered in Turkish carpets and a set of luxurious square cushions’.46 However, despite this, a large secondary literature exists detailing more negative and stylized depictions of ‘the Turk’ in early modern Germany. Amanda Wunder, based on her study of travel literature by Renaissance antiquarians who travelled to the Ottoman Empire such as the Habsburg ambassador Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, has argued that the Turks were distanced from the Europeans, depicted ‘either as the enemy of antiquities or, alternatively, as an eternal, exotic object like the relics of the past’.47 This was reinforced by visual culture. The artist Melchior Lorck travelled in the service of the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand I to the Ottoman Empire, joining Busbecq’s retinue in Constantinople in around 1555. He created 125 woodcuts, published posthumously, which contained a series posing anonymous Ottoman men and women ‘among the columns, obelisks, and ruins’. Wunder contends that by means of
45 ‘la Grand sale estoit aprestée avec toute magnificence; le Daix, la Tapisserie, le Buffet chargé d’or vermeil, et cizelé, donnoient respect et admiration tout à coup à ceux qui en avoient l’entrée. L’Ambre, le Musc, le Benjoin allumé, faisoient un air si doux par le dehors, qu’il sembloit aux honnestes gens, d’estre arrivez en la Terre de Promission, et à nos Matelots d’estre encore au long cours par le travers des costes d’Arabie ou celles des Molucques’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne, p. 68, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 220-21. 46 ‘la Reyne fit partie d’aller voir les Navires à Chef-de-Baye à l’issuë du disner’, ‘au Quay ou l’attendoit sa Galiotte’, ‘le Tendelet de Satin, le plat fonds et les Bancs couverts de Tapys de Turquie et nombre de riches quarreaux d’une pareure’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne, p. 80, Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 226-27. 47 Amanda Wunder, ‘Western Travellers, Eastern Antiquities, and the Image of the Turk in Early Modern Europe’, Journal of Early Modern History, 7 (1) (2003), 89-119 (89).
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this exotic antiquarian imagery, the Turk was granted a place in Constantinople through an association with its antiquities and, at the same time, Lorck’s Turk receded even further back in time and space to become all the more distant and distinct from the European viewing audience.48 Furthermore, far more fear-inducing images of the Turks as harbingers of doom were prevalent. For instance, Albrecht Dürer’s, Apocalypsis cum Figuris, a series of 15 woodcuts published in 1498, includes images of Ottoman Turks in the Apocalypse, notably as a horseman of the Apocalypse wielding a bow and arrow — the traditional weapon of the Turkish warrior. Bohnstedt, too, has shown how the early-sixteenth-century Türkenbüchlein portrayed the Turks as terrifying warriors possessed by ‘inhuman cruelty’, with an ‘insatiable lust for blood’, and prone to dishonouring promises to gain an advantage — all of this was evidence of an ‘Anti-Christian’ character.49 Wunder agrees that the ‘standard image of the Turkish warrior maintained its hold over the European imagination’, giving the examples of Jost Amman’s Kunstbüchlein (1578) in which ‘the only Oriental image was that of the ferocious Turkish warrior’ and, more dramatically, a Lutheran version of the New Testament printed in 1530 (the year after the 1529 Siege of Vienna) in which ‘illustrations from the workshop of Lucas Cranach merged the tragedy of Vienna with the prophesy of Revelation’.50 Ultimately, Wunder has vividly stated that ‘The terrifying mounted Turkish warrior — wearing an elaborate turban and an enormous moustache, waving the crescent flag, and wielding a pike with which to impale Christian babies — thundered across the printed page’.51 Images of Turks and Moors, especially being defeated, afforded a performed language around which disparate people could unite based on the notion of Christendom. At Charles V’s entry into Messina in 1536, the Imperial retinue was preceded by a chariot bearing six captive Moors below a trophy-laden altar, and the Cathedral itself hosted a piece of dramatic imagery in which a model of Constantinople under the Turkish arms was attacked by an Imperial eagle and brought under the sign of the cross.52 At Munich in 1568, similar rhetoric accompanied the running at the ring. The account records that ‘Firstly came to the course three knights/ who were in Hungarian clothes […] bearing […] sabres […] Before them rode three seconds, and walking near three attendants/ dancing a Hungarian dance’.53 Later came three ‘in blue and brown silk/ fully and elegantly dressed in 48 Wunder, ‘Western Travellers, Eastern Antiquities’, pp. 104-08. 49 John W. Bohnstedt, ‘The Infidel Scourge of God: The Turkish Menace as Seen by German Pamphleteers of the Reformation Era’, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 58 (9) (1968), 1-58 (19). 50 Wunder, ‘Western Travellers, Eastern Antiquities’, pp. 117, 93. 51 Wunder, ‘Western Travellers, Eastern Antiquities’, p. 93. 52 Roy C. Strong, Art and Power: Renaissance Festivals 1450–1650 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1984), p. 82. 53 ‘Erstlich sein auff die Pan kommen drey Ritter/ die waren in Vngerische klaidung […] fürten ire […] Sebel […] Inen ritten vor drey Patrini, vnnd loffen neben ihnen drey Laggeyen/ tantzten ainen Vngarischen Tantz’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 40v.
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the Turkish fashion’.54 Archduke Ferdinand, who took part in the tournament, had led the campaign in Hungary against the Turks in 1556 — thus this was a case of dramatically reliving his battle glory, and creating an idealized memory. One of the most spectacular forms of recollecting encounters with the Ottoman enemy and demonstrating the triumph of Christendom was through mock naval battles or naumachiae, often re-enacting, or being interpreted by spectators as re-enacting, the victory at Lepanto in 1571. These naumachiae of the early modern period revived an ancient form, as the earliest recorded naumachia was performed at the behest of Julius Caesar on a lake constructed in the Campus Martius in 46 bc and represented a battle between a Tyrian and an Egyptian fleet. As Margaret Shewring has stated, ‘naumachiae evoked moments of past glory as part of the state or national self-image and as projecting that image on the wider stage of international diplomacy’.55 One of the festivities for the marriage of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, and Princess Elizabeth of England in 1613 was a naumachia on the Thames. As John Taylor described, ‘In this representation of a Sea-fight there were 16 Ships, 16 Gallies and 6 Friggots: of the which Nauy, the Ships were Christians and the Gallies were supposed Turks’.56 One could tell that the opponents were Turks since, as another account of the event states, the ‘Admirall of the Gallies’ was ‘attired in a red Jacket with blew sleeues, according to the Turkish fashion’.57 The distinction between the Christian ‘Ships’ and the Turkish ‘Gallies’ is an important one. Galleys, vessels propelled mainly by rowers, had dominated naval warfare in the Mediterranean from the eighth century but were becoming antiquated by the early-seventeenth century with the rise of sail-powered ships. Of course, though the Spanish and Venetian ships represented within the Christian fleet struggled against the Turkish galleys, the outdated galleys eventually found themselves totally overpowered by the English Christian ships and, according to this account, ‘submitted to the conquest of the English Admirall, who fired many of the said Gallies’.58 This contrasts slightly with the account in Taylor’s Heauens Blessing, which reports a more neutral outcome with ‘no conquerors’ after three hours of intense fighting; however, Taylor’s account seems less likely than that given above, as it would neither fit in with the rhetorical nature and
54 ‘in blaw vnd brauner seiden/ auff Türckisch wol vnd zierlich geklaidt’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 41r. 55 Margaret Shewring (ed.), Waterborne Pageants and Festivities in the Renaissance: Essays in Honour of J. R. Mulryne (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), p. 4. 56 John Taylor, Heauens Blessing, And Earths Ioy. OR A true relation, of the supposed Sea-fights & Fireworkes, as were accomplished, before the Royall Celebration, of the al-beloved Mariage, of the two peerlesse Paragons of Christendome, FREDERICKE & ELIZABETH. With Triumphall Encomiasticke Verses, consecrated to the Immortall memory of those happy and blessed Nuptials. (London: [By E. Allde] for Joseph Hunt, 1613), A3v. 57 The marriage of the tvvo great Princes, Fredericke Count-palatine, &c: and the Lady Elizabeth, daughter to the Imperial Maiesties of King Iames and Queene Anne vpon Shroue-Sonday last. With the shows and fire-workes vpon the water: as also the masks & reuells, in his Highnes court of White-Hall. (London: Thomas Creede for William Barley, 1613), B1r. 58 The marriage of the tvvo great Princes, B1r.
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purpose of the festivities nor conform with the European festival tradition with which this naumachia can be seen as engaging.59 This returns us to the theme raised in Chapter III, above, of technological mastery over nature being a crucial way in which the ‘Christians’ were defined in opposition to (and in a relationship of superiority over) the ‘Turks’. Moreover, the Turks, with their technological backwardness, are equated in Taylor’s account with barbarians. The Turkish galleys began ‘lying all at an Anchor […] in a hauen or harbor made artificially […] which harbor or hauen was belonging to a supposed Turkish or Barbarian Castle of Tunis, Algeirs, or some other Mahometan fortification’.60 This festivity was designed to show Christendom versus the Turk, rather than Protestants or Catholics versus the Turk or indeed against each other. This can be seen throughout Taylor’s comprehensive account of the ‘Sea-fights & Fire-workes’ in which he observes that ‘This was the manner of the happy and famons [sic] battell of Lepanto fought betwixt the Turks and the Christians in the yeare of grace 1571’ or the ‘memorable battaile betwixt vs and the inuincible (as it was thought) Spanish Armado in the yeare 1588’.61 While the English victory over the Armada in 1588 was an instance of a Protestant state clashing with a Catholic one, the Battle of Lepanto had, of course, been contested between the Turks and the Catholic Holy League. Taylor’s account offering these two possibilities is therefore a perfect demonstration of polysemy and how such a performance could avoid confessional antagonism by incorporating a degree of ambiguity enabling spectators to draw their own conclusions. Similar naumachiae were also present in imperial ceremonial. For example, when Emperor Maximilian II entered Vienna in 1563 to celebrate his election as King of the Romans, the conclusion of the festival saw a mock-battle in which Christians fought the Turks. Thus this was not divisive, strongly confessionalized or politicized imagery; rather the Ottoman threat provided a point of unity in festival imagery of this kind. Scenes of this nature, showing combat between Christians and non-Christians, continued to be a fixture of both Catholic and Protestant festivals within the German-speaking lands, and such representations often took on a comical aspect. Among the festivals of the early-seventeenth-century Protestant Union was the wedding at Jägerndorf of Johann Georg and Eva Christina. At this festival there was a spectacular ‘carisell’ in which 25 ‘Moors’ drew up against another 25 ‘Moors’. They then proceeded to ‘fight’ each other in a very technologically and strategically primitive manner, to the delight and merriment of the German spectators: Firstly a white Moor galloped out of the base which had been set up. A red Moor chased him back to his own men […] as the white Moor took flight, he drew his shield over his back, and then the red Moor galloped after him and threw the earthenware balls […] And when the red Moor had driven the
59 Taylor, Heauens Blessing, A3v-A4v. 60 Taylor, Heauens Blessing, A3v. 61 Taylor, Heauens Blessing, A4r.
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white Moor back to his own men, another white Moor appeared and likewise drove the red one back to his men, bombarding him, and so on […] so that many pieces of the earthenware balls flew about, and this knightly exercise was very merry to behold.62 Another example of this type of entertainment can be seen in an account of the Protestant festival in Stuttgart in 1617 which jointly marked both a christening and a wedding in the family of the Duke of Württemberg.63 Figure 12 shows Esaias von Hulsen’s image of this ‘combat’. It was not uncommon at court festivals for members of the German nobility to dress as Ottoman Turks and Moors, which were very frequently grouped together. This constituted a mocking trivialization of military threats through appropriating aspects of culture, reducing the representation of fearsome warriors to a dressing-up game. Indeed, a significant way in which the ‘Other’ was distanced from the audience of the festivals was through their appearance. Clothing was an important part of this, as can be seen, for instance, from the ‘Turkish’ attire of the admiral at the naumachia on the Thames in 1613 mentioned above. Wunder has argued that ‘Europeans who never left home could see for themselves the differences between their dress and that of exotic strangers in printed books of costume’ such as Nicolas de Nicolay’s extremely popular Navigations, Peregrinations and Voyages Made into Turkey, which was first published in French in 1568 and translated into German in 1576.64 This created expectations for how they would appear at festivals and made them readily distinct from the Germans themselves. At the wedding of Wilhelm and Renée in Munich in 1568, Wagner’s account describes an entry into the tournament arena of Moors who were dressed ‘in the colours of the princely bride’.65 On their entry to the tournament, Duke Wilhelm and Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria were part of a group ‘in the form of Moors/ their clothes were/ skilfully made/ from gold and silver thread/ also
62 ‘Erstlich ranndte ein weisser Mor auβ dem gemachten Hald den jagte ein rother Mor widerumb zu den seinigen in ihren Hald oder Imboscata von Bäumen auβgesteckt auff diese weise: […] wann […] der weisse Mor die flucht gab zog er seinen Schilt uber den Rucken so ranndte der rothe Mor hinder ihm her unnd warff die Thoneren Balle auff deβ flüchtigen Schilt daβ die stucken davon sprungen: wann nun der rothe Mor den weissen widerumb zu den seinigen gejagt hatte so war ein anderer weisser da der jagte gleichfals den rothen widerumb mit würffen zu den seinigen und so immer fort […] nachmals aber jagten immer 5. einander da flohen viel stuck von den Thoneren Ballen welches Ritterspiel sehr lustig zusehen war’, Aygentliche Beschreibung, Ciii r, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 76-79. 63 See Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō vnnd Abbildung aller Fürstlichen Auffzüg vnd Rütterspilen. Beÿ Deβ Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnnd Herren, Herren Johann Friderichen Hertzogen zü Württemberg vnnd Teck. Graven zü Montpelgart Herren zü Haydenhaim. Iro: F: Jungen Printzen vnd Sohns Hertzog Vlrichen wohlangestellter Fürstlichen Kindtauff: vnd dann beÿ Hochermelt Iro: F: G: geliebten Herren Brüoders. Deβ auch Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnd Herren Herren Ludwigen Friderichen Hertzogen zü Württemberg. Mit der Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin vnd Fräwlin Fraw Magdalena Elisabetha Landtgraffin auβ Hessen. Fürstlichem Beÿlager vnd Hochzeÿtlichem Frewdenfest Celebrirt vnd gehaltten. In der Fürstlichen Haüptstatt Stüetgartt. Den 13.14.15.16. vnnd 17. Iulij Anno 1617. (Stuttgart: Esaias von Hulsen, 1617), plate 91. 64 Wunder, ‘Western Travellers, Eastern Antiquities’, pp. 115-16. 65 ‘als der Fürstlichen Braut farb geklaidt’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 41r.
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with turbans on their heads fashioned from the same flowing thread/ bearing in their hands shields and darts decorated with gold and silver’.66 These were not inconsequential attendants but rather prominent members of the German nobility dressed as the ‘Other’. As discussed above, this was often a very luxurious image, and as such a softened, idealized appropriation. A particularly notable example of appropriating the image of ‘the Turk’ in order to make them the subject of mockery came at the festival in Stuttgart in 1602. There was a ‘Turkish’ entry made by the Graf von Starhemberg. He was at the head of a noble family from Upper Austria, which had only been first ennobled in 1559 and his descendants were later to be elevated to Reichsgraf in 1643 — making him the representative of a relatively new, rising, and ambitious family in the circles of the high nobility. His arrival is noted as the ‘heroic entry’ of ‘Lord Ersami von Starhemberg’, made ‘in the manner of a Turk/ from Constantinople’.67 It is notable that the entry is described as ‘Heroisch’ (‘heroic’), ‘zierlich’ (‘splendid’) and a ‘schönen Werck’ (‘beautiful affair’); entering in the manner of the foe which is to be the subject of mockery in the entry clearly did not in any way diminish the majesty of the entering noble, just as cross-dressing did not diminish the masculinity of entering lords as discussed in Chapter II, above. Equally worthy of comment is that the name ‘Constantinople’ is used for the Ottoman capital — the use of the Christian name for the city feeding into the theme of appropriation. The members of the entry were decorated ‘gantz Türckisch’ (‘entirely in the Turkish manner’), ‘with darts/ arrows/ quivers/ and bows’, and ‘Just as though they came/ Naturally from Constantinople/ Then they fiercely bearded/ brought to that place/ the Turkish custom’.68 These ‘Turks’ were, as previously discussed, equipped with traditional, simple weaponry and the use of the word ‘Natürlich’ is also interesting as it may imply that race is ‘natural’, that there are intrinsic characteristics of different peoples — a view which would chime with the theories of sixteenth-century authors such as Wolfgang
66 ‘in Morischer gestalt/ ire klaider waren von gulden vnd silberen duckh/ artlich gemacht/ auch die pünd auff dem kopff mit fliegenden gleichem duckh/ fierten in iren henden Schilt vnd Pfeil von gold vnnd silber geziert’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 41v. 67 ‘Heroisch Ingressus’, ‘Herrn Ersami von Starrenberg’, ‘in Türckischer Manier/ auβ Constantinopel’, Jakob Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, Königlichen Auffzugs/ Heroischen Ingressus vnd Herrlicher Pomp vnd Solennitet: Mit welcher/ auff gnädige Verordnung Deβ dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnd Herrn/ Herrn Friderichen/ Hertzogen zu Würtenberg vnd Teck/ Grafen zu Mümpelgart/ Herrn zu Heydenheym: Ritter beyder Königlichen Orden in Franckreich vnd Engellandt: In der Faβnacht Mannliche vnnd Ritterliche Thurnier vnnd Ringrennen/ gehalten worden: Sampt einem stattlichen vnd wunderbarlichen Feuwerwerck/ dergleichen zuvor niemals gesehen noch gehöret: In Gegenwart etliche Fürsten/ Grafen/ Herrn/ Ritter vnd vom Adel/ Hochlöblichen/ Fürstlichen/ Adelichen Frauwenzimmer: Auch der Ehrwürdigen/ hoch vnd wolgelehrten Herren Prælaten in Würtenberg/ vnd Versammlung einer Ehrsamen Landischafft/ Mit gnädiger Bewilligung vnd Vorwissen Ihrer F.G. zur ewigen Gedächtnuβ/ der Posteritet publiciert. Durch M. IACOBVM FRISCHLINVM BALINGENSEM: POETAM ET HISTOricum Wirtenbergicum. Gedruckt zu Franckfurt am Mayn/ durch Joachim Brathering/ Im Jahr 1602. (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1602), pp. 108-10. 68 ‘Mit Blitschen/ Pfeil/ Köcher/ vnd Bogn’, ‘Als wann sie kämen mit ihrm Doppel/ Natürlich von Constantinopel/ Dann sie greuliche Knebelbart/ Brachten daher/ Türckischer Art’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 108.
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Figure 12. Image of ‘Moors’ engaged in ‘combat’ at the festival in Stuttgart for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard, and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen, in 1617, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 91. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: 36.17.4 Geom. 2° (1).
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Lazius — or indeed be an allusion once more to the primitive, uncivilized Turks who live in a state close to that of nature, in contrast to that of Christian civilization and learning, as discussed in Chapter III. The reference to these figures being ‘fiercely bearded’ is surely an early indication of the mockery of Ottoman appearance and customs which is to follow through the entry. Once again, they are accompanied by Moors — again evidence of the agglutination of various groups into one savage, non-Christian ‘Other’. The account records that: ‘Firstly two Moors in costume/ rode white horses with diligence/ in red material/ beautifully gilded’, and they were followed by a ‘drummer’ dressed ‘in a red Hungarian robe’.69 It is unsurprising to see Hungarian clothing incorporated as Hungary was a major theatre of military encounters between the Holy Roman Empire and these foes. The image presented here seems luxurious, very materially ornate, and this becomes a subject of further mockery. The entry is also accompanied by music from ‘a reedpipe’, which is described as an example of ‘the Turkish art/ overly fine/ as when one chops at a mere sausage’ — this idiom clearly implies that Turkish custom is needlessly ornate, over-done, as though delivering a fierce cutting blow to nothing more than a sausage.70 The rhetoric of superiority pervading this entry only deepens with the supposed arrival of Ottoman commanders. Following the musicians, One of them known as Ali Pasha/ rode with his three attendants/ As though he came/ the long journey/ from Turkey/ to the German Land/ especially to honour the Princes and Lords/With his unknown companions/ Who came here in all splendour/ in Tartaric costume/ and manner/ The peaks on their hats/ pure white/ The pointed caps/ blue/ red/ with care/ as though they were naturally Turkish.71 This makes explicit that these ‘Turks’, including the Grand Vizier, are here merely to honour the German nobles. The reference to Tartaric costume is also additional evidence of combining ‘foreign’, non-Christian peoples — the Tartars were an ethnic group found in present-day Russia and Ukraine. The Grand Vizier was further accompanied by three more ‘Turkish leaders’, named as ‘Ottomanus, Temerlanus, Leone’, and together ‘They gambled their money quite freely’ such that ‘The Turks left much gold on the course’.72 This spilling of gold onto the tournament arena is again a reference to Ottoman luxury spilling over into opulence, profligacy, and a lack of morality as they fritter and gamble 69 ‘Erstlich zween Mohren ritten weiβ In Kleydern/ auch die Pferdt mit Fleiβ/ Im roten Zeug/ vergüldet schön’, ‘Trommenschläger’, ‘Im roten Vngerischen Thalar’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 108. 70 ‘Ein Schallmey’, ‘Auff Türckisch Art/ fein vberlaut/ Als wann er hacket nur ein Kraut’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 108. 71 ‘Einer sich Alli Bascha nennt/ Mit seinen drey Agaia rennt/ Als wann er käm zu sondern Ehrn/ Die weite Rheyβ/ Fürsten vnd Herrn/ Auβ der Türckey/ ins Teutsche Landt/ Mit seinen Gsellen vnbekandt/ Welche hergiengn nach aller Zier/ Auff Taterischer Tracht/ Manier/ Die Stürm an Hüten/ Doschet weiβ/ Die Spitzhauben/ blaw/ rot/ mit Fleiβ/ Als wanns natürlich Türcken wern’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 109. 72 ‘Türckischer Häuptleut’, ‘Verspielten ihr Gelt ledig gar’, ‘Türcken verlletzen viel Gelt auff dem Rennplatz’, Frischlin, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, p. 109.
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it away. It is also very similar to the image of the gambling Catholic clergy seen in Chapter IV, above, with this Protestant occasion not missing the opportunity to make a veiled, though it is veiled, reference to the corruption of the Catholic Church and likening it to the behaviour of infidels.73 However, for the most part these images provided an uncontentious enemy in the face of which a sense of unity, and even of superiority, could be projected. They facilitated the overall message that, while we may be divided, we are Christian, and we are German. This phenomenon of differences being supplanted by being contrasted with an ‘Other’ is very similar to that which Tamar Herzog has noticed in the division of territory in the New World, with her arguing that ‘what transpired in the American interior was an ideologically motivated divide between an internal and an external frontier, allowing actors to apply different criteria when dealing with rival Europeans and when facing natives’.74 A similar situation existed in the Holy Roman Empire with respect to divisions between German Catholics and Protestants, as opposed to divisions between Christians and non-Christians, or Germans and non-Germans. Differences in confession or other factors could be highlighted, or they could be papered over, in the face of a more stark division against a non-German or non-Christian ‘Other’. An ambivalence of attitudes towards the Ottoman Empire was common in early modern Europe more broadly, not just in the Holy Roman Empire. This can be seen in the comparative work of Charlotta Forss on seventeenth-century Sweden and England.75 She has observed that ‘using Europe and Christendom to denote a transnational polity was common in news reports covering the perceived aggressions of the Ottoman Empire’ and further remarked that This evidence supports a notion of Europe or Christendom defined in contrast to the Ottoman “Other”, yet it is also complicated by the cartographic sources. In the English maps and atlases, drawing on continental trends, the boundaries between east and west are at times conflated, resulting in “Turkey in Europe” and praise of the glory of the east. It would have been surprising if only one image of the Ottomans existed in early modern England, and the important aspect here, again, is that no apparent conflict is seen between “Turkey in Europe” in one context, and the Turk as “Enemy” in another.76 However, the image of the Turk as a unifying enemy had a much greater potency in these court festivals of the Holy Roman Empire than elsewhere in Europe. Marie-Claude Canova-Green has argued in the case of France and England that by the seventeenth century naumachia had a new significance — rather than just demonstrating Christianity triumphing over Islam, they directly reassured
73 See above, Chapter IV, Figure 9, p. 156. 74 Tamar Herzog, Frontiers of Possession: Spain and Portugal in Europe and the Americas (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2015), p. 13. 75 Charlotta Forss, Concepts of Europe in Seventeenth-century Sweden and England, M.Phil. Dissertation (University of Cambridge, 2011). 76 Forss, Concepts of Europe, p. 74.
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populations in the face of attacks by Barbary pirates as the Turks withdrew from the Mediterranean.77 Here, these pirates were a ‘more real danger than Ottoman advances on the fringes of Europe’.78 This can be seen in the naumachia which took place at La Rochelle for the French Queen’s triumphal entry in 1632. According to the festival book, when the Queen visited the harbour, ‘By way of an interlude, it was suggested that we should copy the battle with the English fleet when these foreigners attempted to take the Royal Army by surprise and to cross the sea wall in the year 1628’.79 In this instance, it was the English, the more immediate and poignant foreign naval threat, which played the role of the enemy, and not the Turks. There was then another phase of proceedings. Initially, it seemed as though the Turks were indeed to resume the role of the non-Christian other. The account continues that ‘As the English fleet retreated, there appeared a large Turkish ship, arriving from Antioch’ with ‘the silver crescent on a red flag’.80 However, on closer inspection, ‘The French found that it was a pirate ship from Algiers, commanded by Mustapha, a young and reckless gentleman from the Abensarages family’ as opposed to an Ottoman commander.81 The members of the family referred to had played a central part in the Moorish kingdom of Granada up until its fall in 1492, and this would not have been lost on Queen Anne who was Spanish Infanta by birth; again, the Turks were a less poignant ‘Other’ on this occasion. Similarly to how we have seen in German festivals, though, the men were identifiable as foreign through clothing, as they are described ‘wearing turbans’.82 Furthermore, when the pirate ship is eventually defeated ‘In order to escape death, Mustapha was cunning enough to give himself up to the Queen and he was led to her, a prisoner. He received her pardon and presented her with his most precious jewels. It is said that soon afterwards he was baptized a Christian’.83 Once again, then, we see a foreigner submitting to the justice, and acknowledging the superiority, of Christendom.
77 Marie-Claude Canova-Green, ‘Lepanto Revisited: Water-fights and the Turkish Threat in Early Modern Europe (1571–1656)’, in Margaret Shewring (ed.), Waterborne Pageants and Festivities in the Renaissance, pp. 177-98. 78 Canova-Green, ‘Lepanto Revisited’, p. 195. 79 ‘Par entremets on proposa de copier le Combat des Anglois, lors que ces Estrangers firent mine d’avoir envie de muguetter l’Armée Royalle et d’essayer la Digue en l’année six cents vingt et huict’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne, p. 83, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 226-27. 80 ‘L’Armée Angloise ayant gaigné le haut, parut un grand Navire Turc entrant par Antioche’, ‘le Croissant d’argent dans un Pavillon Rouge’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne, p. 85, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 228-29. 81 ‘Les François trouvent que c’est un Pyrate d’Alger, commandé par Mustapha, jeune Gentilhomme hazardeux de la famille des Abensarages’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne, p. 85, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 228-29. 82 ‘ayant le Turban’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne, p. 85, in Mulryne, WatanabeO’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 226-27. 83 ‘Mustapha pour se rachepter de la chaude eut l’industrie de s’advoüer à la Reyne, vers laquelle on l’amena prisonnier, receut sa grace et fit presant de ses plus precieux joyaux. On dit qu’il fut bien tost apres Baptizé parmy les Chrestiens’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne, p. 86, in Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 228-29.
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The position of the members of the Protestant Union of German princes towards the Turkish threat was certainly ambivalent. This comes through strongly in the despatches of Antonio Foscarini, a Venetian ambassador writing at the time of the wedding between Friedrich and Elizabeth in 1613. The despatches clearly reveal a widespread preoccupation with the Turkish threat held by many figures at this time, and a very real fear that the Turks would launch attacks into German territory. One despatch, written on 16 February 1613, relays that the ‘Spanish Ambassador discussed with me at great length the subject of Turkish armaments, which he holds for certain will be turned against Germany’.84 Foscarini’s despatch of 8 March 1613 then reports a conversation with King James I of England in which he remarked ‘that the Turk was arming by sea and much more by land, and has already turned his thoughts to Transylvania’, even suggesting that as there were ‘signs of war with the Turk the Emperor could not afford to annoy the confederated Princes, of whose support he had urgent need’.85 A further despatch of 29 March confirms that ‘the King, and everyone else here, is convinced that Turkish arms are intended for Transylvania’.86 However, Foscarini reported to the Doge and Senate a conversation he had had with a ‘councillor of the Palatine’, in which the councillor revealed that: his Master had begged the King to instruct the Mufti and whoever he thinks right, that the Princes of the Union intend to live in peace with the Sultan as long as he is fighting outside Germany, where alone they hold sway and have interests […] Transylvania is of no interest to them and it is not fair that the Emperor, for his own private interests, should disturb them all.87 Similar reported sentiments are found in numerous despatches. Many were resentful of the taxation to fund conflict with the Ottomans, and Foscarini commented that ‘There are those who say that the Emperor is exaggerating the Turkish armament in order to extort contributions from Germany’.88 A particularly revealing instance comes in an account of a conversation between Foscarini and Friedrich himself. Friedrich came to the ambassador’s house ‘with a great train of gentlemen’, and, after exchanging compliments, ‘he remarked that the House of Austria showed a great desire for war with the Turk’ whereas
84 16 February 1613. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives, ‘767. Antonio Foscarini, Venetian Ambassador in England, to the Doge and Senate.’, in Horatio F. Brown (ed.), Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts, Relating to English Affairs, Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice, and in other libraries of Northern Italy, 38 vols (London: Mackie and Co. LD., 1897–1940), vol. 12 (1905), pp. 49394 (p. 494). 85 8 March 1613. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives, ‘783. Antonio Foscarini, Venetian Ambassador in England, to the Doge and Senate’, in Brown (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, vol. 12, pp. 504-05 (p. 505). 86 29 March 1613. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives, ‘802. Antonio Foscarini, Venetian Ambassador in England, to the Doge and Senate’, in Brown (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, vol. 12, p. 515. 87 21 March 1613. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives, ‘795. Antonio Foscarini, Venetian Ambassador in England, to the Doge and Senate’, in Brown (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, vol. 12, p. 512. 88 18 April 1613. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives, ‘816. Antonio Foscarini, Venetian Ambassador in England, to the Doge and Senate’, in Brown (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, vol. 12, pp. 522-23 (p. 522).
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Foscarini ‘gathered quite clearly that the Federated Princes loathe the war with the Turk, for if it be carried on by Austrian arms they are filled with suspicion; if by their own, it is very costly’.89 Friedrich’s words may have been coloured by the occasion on which he was speaking — the Venetians were keen to avoid a war with the Turks, while Friedrich was eager to cultivate an alliance with Venice; as the source states, ‘He declared he desired to be closely united to your Excellencies’.90 Perhaps, therefore, it would not be surprising for Friedrich to suggest that it was his desire to avoid such a conflict. Equally, this report was written by the Venetian ambassador for the Doge and Senate, and so their desire to avoid a war with the Turks may have led the ambassador either to hear what he wanted to hear, or to write what his audience wanted to read. However, given the number of other sources within the State Papers alone which corroborate Friedrich’s view as expressed here, one need not place too great an emphasis on the limitations of the source. Representations of ‘the Turk’ did not feature in Protestant festivals, then, in order to emphasize the degree of the threat posed by the Ottoman Empire, as this would contradict the position of Protestant rulers seen through other sources. Rather, the Ottoman Turk provided, just as it did for the Habsburgs and Catholic rulers within the Holy Roman Empire, a convenient dipole against which to construct a unified identity. The performed imagery of ‘the Turk’ could be manipulated to include or exclude various peoples from a legitimate German identity, grounded in virtue, as the rhetoric and context of the festival occasion demanded. The use of different languages within court festivals and the way in which this was recorded is also highly revealing when it comes to the question of identity. A particularly acute example of the meeting of different languages within a festival can again be seen at Munich in 1568 as the bride, Renée of Lorraine, came from a territory which was within the Holy Roman Empire but where a dialect of Lorraine Franconian, or Lothringish, was spoken. This only added to the linguistic mix which was always present at festivals which were attended by nobility and ambassadors from across Europe, but also presented a particularly intriguing challenge to a unified identity which the rhetoric of the festival was able to overcome. Firstly, the effect of the various language-barriers on the everyday peaceful functioning of the city was considered by the organizers of the festival. Intriguingly, the festival book mentions in the section on preparations for the festival that ‘a manual was prescribed/ with which the people might learn the foreign languages/ placed/ such that they could hand them around in the alleys/ and in all possible eventualities they could have them to hand by day and night’.91 89 29 March 1613. Original Despatch, Venetian Archives, ‘803. Antonio Foscarini, Venetian Ambassador in England, to the Doge and Senate’, in Brown (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, vol. 12, pp. 515-16 (p. 516). 90 ‘803. Antonio Foscarini, Venetian Ambassador in England, to the Doge and Senate’, in Brown (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, vol. 12, p. 516. 91 ‘einem Prouosen verordnet/ darzu mit leuten so der frembden sprachen erfaren gewest/ besetzt/ das sie sich in die gassen auβtheilen/ vnd in allen zufallenden nöten bey tag vnnd nacht an der hand sein mögen’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 3r.
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Even more instructive for our purposes of seeing the effect of the different languages on the rhetoric of the festival and on the broader question of identity, is the way in which their use by the various members of the attending nobility is referred to. The Graf von Schwarzenberg is repeatedly called upon to speak on behalf of the Munich court in ‘Frantzösisch’. When addressing the Duchess of Lorraine on behalf of Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria, who had gone to Ingolstadt to greet the party from Lorraine, the account states that Otto Heinrich, Graf zu Schwarzenberg, made the speech and commendation ‘finely and in French’.92 He was again called upon to make another greeting to mark Princess Renée’s arrival into Bavaria, ‘Which conversation and greeting once more was well-formed by the Graf zu Schwarzenberg in French and the thanksgiving of the Duke of Vademont as the cousin and guardian of the princely bride was made/ not briefly/ but at great length in the same French tongue’.93 Skilful use of French is again mentioned slightly later in the account as ‘Graf Charles von Zollern the Elder/ in the name of the highly esteemed Duke Albrecht of Bavaria […] gave a truly beautifully-composed Oration and greeting in the French language’.94 The emphasis once more is on how skilfully it is delivered. Linguistic skill is also implied by the members of the assembled nobility being able to appreciate the comedy play accompanying the festivities which was held ‘in the Italian language’.95 Clearly, part of the reason for so many mentions of the different languages and the skill that members of the court demonstrated in speaking them could be to highlight that it is the Bavarians who are the German-speakers, and not foreigners, here. Yet it is more than this. It must be significant that the level of skill is repeatedly emphasized — it illustrates the learned nature of this court. Equally, its purpose in highlighting linguistic differences could be to show that this empire of Germania transcends linguistic differences. We tend to think of language as essential to the existence of a nation but that is largely a product of nineteenth-century Romantic thought whereby the Volksgeist or character of a nation derived from its language together with its history and traditions. This is expressed by the Prussian philosopher and theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who wrote that ‘every language constitutes a particular mode of thought, and what is thought in one language can never be repeated in the same way in another’.96 Yet it may be that this manner of thinking about nations, with language playing an essential part, is not appropriate for the early modern 92 ‘zierlich vnnd Frantzösisch’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 7v. 93 ‘Welche Sermon vnnd empfahung abermal mehr wolermelter Graff zu Schwartzenberg Frantzhösisch vnd die dancksagung der Hertzog von Wademont als der Fürstlichen Praut Vetter vnd vormünder/ nit kurtz/ sonder nach der leng in gleicher sprach Frantzösisch gethon hat’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 11v. 94 ‘hat Graff Carl von Zollern der elter/ inn namen hochernants Hertzog Albrechts inn Bairen […] ein zierliche schöne Oration vnnd empfahung in Frantzösischer sprach gethon’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 30v. 95 ‘in Italianischer sprach’, Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung, p. 65r. 96 As quoted in T. C. W. Blanning, ‘The Commercialization and Sacralization of European Culture in the Nineteenth Century’, in T. C. W. Blanning (ed.), The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 126-52 (p. 140).
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period. Indeed, István Deák has even questioned how essential language was for national unity in the nineteenth century in his explanation of how an army drawn from different ethnicities could be bound by shared loyalty ‘overruling all other considerations’ including the fact that the inhabitants of the Hungarian monarchy ‘and hence its soldiers spoke ten major and scores of minor languages’.97 This is not to say that language and ideas about associated customs were entirely irrelevant in our period. Watanabe-O’Kelly has discussed how the early-seventeenth-century poetry of Protestant nationalist writers such as Georg Rudolf Weckherlin and Martin Opitz connected their religious and cultural programmes. Opitz’s first important work in 1617, Aristarchus or on the contempt of the German language, ‘was a call to arms on behalf of the German language, which since Luther was the language of Protestantism. Unlike Latin, held to be the language of Catholicism, it was free of foreign corruption’. Equally, the Fruchtbrigende Gesellschaft founded in 1617 by Prince Ludwig von Anhalt-Köthen in Weimar which ‘aimed to purify the German language’ was very deliberately founded on the centenary of the Reformation, and during Prince Ludwig’s life-time 96 per cent of the poets who were members were Protestant.98 Furthermore, in different political circumstances, after the wedding of 1568, a Bavarian negotiator later emphasized the foreignness of the people of Lorraine. In 1582, Duke Wilhelm the Rich of Jülich-Cleves-Berg was seeking a match for his only son and heir Johann Wilhelm, and two of the candidates were a daughter of Duke Charles of Lorraine and a cousin of Duke Wilhelm V of Bavaria called Jakobe of Baden. A Bavarian negotiator (likely to be Ernest of Bavaria, Wilhelm V’s brother and at that time Bishop of Liège) attempted to persuade Wilhelm the Rich to abandon the negotiations with Lorraine and choose the marriage alliance with the Wittelsbach family. This did indeed eventually happen, and Johann Wilhelm and Jakobe married in 1585, but the marriage remained childless and ended in her probable murder in 1597. He did later re-marry an heiress from Lorraine named Antonia, but by this point he was insane and this union also produced no heirs, leading to the Wars of the Jülich Succession on his death in 1609. The records of the negotiations with Wilhelm the Rich in August 1582 state that although Ernest of Bavaria’s near relations to Lorraine mean he has no cause to oppose the match, he advises against it on various grounds including the political circumstances of Lorraine’s entanglement in the French Wars of Religion.99 Significantly, though, he also mentions the ‘foreign customs’ and the ‘defects of language and manners’ of the women of Lorraine and this meant that one should not ‘expect strong offspring’ from the match.100 He therefore recommends, based on all of these 97 István Deák, Beyond Nationalism: A Social & Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps 1848–1918 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 4-5. 98 Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Early Modern Period (1450–1720)’, in Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (ed.), The Cambridge History of German Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 92-146 (pp. 118-20). 99 Summary of Negotiations between Bavaria and Jülich-Cleves-Berg dated 12th August 1582, Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen, Abteilung Rheinland (Duisburg), AA 0031 Jülich-Berg II Nr. 1994. 100 ‘frembde mores’, ‘mangell der sprachenn vnd sittenn’, Summary of Negotiations, pp. 6r-7v.
festival encounters and the shifting borders of german identity
factors and the military strength of Bavaria, that Wilhelm the Rich should secure his dynastic succession through the proposed marriage alliance with Bavaria which would then be willing and able to provide ‘help and support’.101 Yet, as seen in 1568, in order to meet the needs of the occasion, the language of festival was clearly universal enough to integrate these ‘foreign’ people from elsewhere in the Empire and the different languages they brought with them. Demonstration of linguistic skill was a prized signifier of learning, but language was not exclusively fundamental to the nation and identity in the way that later Romantic thought would have it. Rather, language was simply one element in a panoply of cultural characteristics and potential differences which could be exaggerated or smoothed over as the occasion and context demanded, to fluctuate the ‘borders’ delineating the construction of legitimate claims to German identity. Ultimately, the existence of a dipole is and was fundamental to the formation of identity. As Peter Sahlins has said, ‘Imagining oneself a member of a community or a nation meant perceiving a significant difference between oneself and the other across the boundary’.102 These differences inevitably came to the fore in festival culture. Thomas Rahn has remarked that in the early modern period the concept of the political border contained ‘einen militärisch-aggressiven Aspekt’ (‘a militarily aggressive dimension’) and that ‘The political wisdom of the early modern period considered every encounter as above all else a duel or battle, as a form of war-like contest, which would be vicariously acted out in the field of ceremonial’.103 Festivals were moments of encounter — between different member territories of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, between those from this Empire and other Christian Europeans, and, in person or, for the most part, through performed representations, between Christendom and the non-Christian, non-European ‘Other’. Aspects of courtly culture from elsewhere in Europe were adopted at German courts, yet this was often woven into a narrative of superiority. Likewise, material culture of the Ottomans and Moors was associated with the exotic and with luxury, but representations of these peoples were built on a form of trivializing appropriation which only heightened this narrative, despite the day-to-day realities of cross-cultural exchange of knowledge as well as goods which characterized the early modern period. Ottoman culture was portrayed as luxurious and the stylized ‘Turk’ as barbarous at festivals but this was more coherent than Hale’s model of ‘double-think’ allows for. Rather than presenting a paradox, representations of the ‘Turk’ in these sources show Ottoman culture becoming subordinated to the virtuosity of the German nobility. Different confessional and political 101 ‘hilff and beistand’, Summary of Negotiations, pp. 8r-v. 102 Peter Sahlins, Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees (Berkeley, LA and Oxford: University of California Press, 1989), p. 9. 103 ‘Die politische Klugheitslehre der Frühen Neuzeit begreift jede Begegnung hoher Häupter als duellum, als eine Form der kriegerischen Auseinandersetzung, die — stellvertretend — auf dem Feld des Zeremoniells ausgetragen wird’, Thomas Rahn, ‘Grenz-Situationen des Zeremoniells in der Frühen Neuzeit’, in Markus Bauer and Thomas Rahn (eds), Die Grenze: Begriff und Inszenierung (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1997), pp. 177-206 (pp. 177-78).
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groupings within the Empire had differing views regarding the degree of the threat posed by the Ottoman Empire, and confessionalized messages could be projected on to the figure of the ‘Turk’, but still Protestants and Catholics alike latched on to the utility of the ‘Turk’ as a dipole against which to construct a unified identity capable of offsetting potential disunity. Finally, this meeting of different peoples at festival occasions clearly entailed the meeting of different languages, even between those spoken by different territories within the Empire. Many interpretations which see language as essential to the formation of nations would see this as a significant barrier to any unity of identity within the Holy Roman Empire, yet the way in which linguistic differences were dealt with in court festivals prevented this, circumventing this aspect of potential disunity by subordinating it to a unifying rhetoric of shared identity through learning, skill, and virtue.
Conclusion
Virtue, Identity, and the Politics of Access to Festival
The court festivals of the late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century Holy Roman Empire provided the platform on which concepts of German identity and of noble legitimacy based on virtue could be created and articulated. In the period of apparent religious and political tension, fragmentation, and upheaval between the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 and the coming of the Thirty Years War in 1618, they constituted a performed, rather than spoken, ‘universal language’ of virtue and nobility which was sufficiently flexible to allow people of different languages and religions to tap into its rhetoric, enabling the idea of the nation to exist even if political legitimacy was contested. All of the aspects of festival occasions provided opportunities for charismatic rulers to demonstrate this virtue which supplemented traditional claims to noble identity based on lineage and history — claims which were contested through the distortion and embellishment of historical narratives and threatened by the rise of newly wealthy ennobled families which wielded political influence. Gendered, knightly roles, and demonstrations of military prowess were present in the performance of festivals, but the skill shown in tournaments was rendered in such a way as to demonstrate virtue, and conceptions of gender ideals were consistently shown to be mutable in light of the whims of rulers. This was part of a broader notion of the mutability of nature as a whole, including the mutability of time; such constraints did not apply to the virtuous nobility of the empire. The confessional and associated political divisions at this fractious period in the history of the Holy Roman Empire which challenged collective identities could be referenced or circumvented as necessary through the rhetoric of festivals. While the legitimacy of different sides was contested, as was the question of who possessed a genuinely German identity, the claims used in this exchange did not undermine the Holy Roman Empire as an entity. Religiously divisive rhetoric, although it was certainly present, did not feature as starkly in German court festivals as it did elsewhere in early modern Europe or in broader German literature and drama, with confessional points being made for the most part through subtler use of allusion and allegory and with the emphasis often instead being placed on the idea of Christendom. Encounters, be they direct or indirect, experienced and represented at festivals, whether with other Europeans or the stylized Ottoman ‘Turk’, were multi-layered and complex yet could also serve to transcend disunity where necessary for the success of the festival occasion. Linguistic differences, too, just like confessional differences, could be emphasized
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or, more often, downplayed, and even combined with ideas of skill, learning, and virtue, in order to manipulate the shifting ‘border’ of German identity. Through the performed, material, and literary rhetoric of court festivals in the late-sixteenth and into the seventeenth century, the concept of nobility through virtue was reworked, refined, and given a new vocabulary within the German context. In this way, court festivals created, amplified, and upheld an identity associated with the political rhetoric accompanying the reforms to the Holy Roman Empire made at the end of the fifteenth century: a new language of German identity to accompany the new epithet ‘of the German Nation’ which had been appended to the Empire’s title by 1495. The focus on ‘German’ figures of the past such as Arminius, which had entered into humanist discourse so prominently in the early-sixteenth century under the patronage of Maximilian I, was reflected at these events which sought to weave themselves and their celebrants into the fabric of German history. The Germanic concept of courtly romance and knightly behaviour, of Minne, seen in the poetry of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Minnesänger such as Walther von der Vogelweide, was reworked and infused into the ideals of virtue found in humanist thought. This virtue itself was acquiring a new, German, vocabulary which can be seen in these festivals. The language used in the festival book to describe the 1613 entry into Heidelberg of Friedrich V, Elector Palatine, as Jason, the heroic figure of Greek mythology, which is discussed in Chapters I and II, is particularly revealing in this respect. It states that above an image relating to Jason’s arrival in the kingdom of Colchos was the inscription: ‘Invia virtuti nulla est via, that is, “No path is barred to virtue [‘Der Tugend’]”’.1 What is revealing about this description is that it juxtaposes Latin and German terms for virtue. This is also shown by references to Germanafides found in these sources. It is significant that a specifically ‘German’ virtue, ‘GERMANAFIDES’, rode alongside other, traditional virtues such as ‘CLEMENTIA’ and ‘FORTITVDO’ at the entry of Barbara Sophia into Brandenburg for her wedding to Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, in 1609, for instance.2 In a context in which established pillars
1 ‘Darüber war geschrieben: INVIA. VIRTVTI. NVLLA. EST. VIA: Das ist: Der Tugend ist kein weg verlegt’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ: Empfahung deβ Ritterlichen Ordens: Vollbringung des Heyraths: und glücklicher Heimführung: Wie auch der ansehnlichen Einführung: gehaltener Ritterspiel und Frewdenfests: Des Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herrn Herrn Friederichen deβ Fünften Pfaltzgraven bey Rhein deβ Heiligen Römischen Reichs Ertztruchsessen und Churfürsten Hertzogen in Bayern etc. Mit der auch Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürstin und Königlichen Princessin Elisabethen deβ Groβmechtigsten Herrn Hernn IACOBI deβ Ersten Königs in GroβBritannien Einigen Tochter. Mit schönen Kupfferstücken gezieret. In Gotthardt Vögelins Verlag. Anno 1613. ([Heidelberg]: Gotthardt Vögelin, 1613), p. 167, trans. by Anna Linton, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 80-91 (pp. 88-89). 2 Johann Oettinger, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung Der Fürstlichen Hochzeit und des Hochansehnlichen Beylagers So Der Durchleuchtig Hochgeborn Fürst und Herr Herr Johann Friderich Hertzog zu Würtemberg und Teck Grave zu Mümpelgart Herr zu Haydenhaim etc. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin unnd Frewlin Frewlin Barbara Sophia Marggrävin zu Brandenburg in Preussen zu Stettin Pomern der Cassuben unnd Wenden auch zu Crossen und Jägerndorff in Schlesien, Hertzogin Burggrävin zu Nürnberg und Fürstin zu Rügen etc. In der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt
virtue, iden tity, an d the politics of access to festiva l
of noble identity such as the unitary Church and inherited wealth and titles were being shaken by the political, economic, and intellectual developments of the early modern period, these festivals represented an attempt to create and buttress a unified, Germanic identity with its own vocabulary, but one which was infused with humanist thinking. Festivals were an environment in which this was not done in isolation. Various ‘Others’, both Christian European and non-Christian, non-European, were present. They involved cultural encounters in relation to which German identities could be defined, and nobility could be asserted, in an era before formalized diplomatic etiquettes of precedence. These encounters preceded the ‘age of new diplomacy’, as Hamish Scott has termed it, which began to emerge in the eighteenth century.3 The status of possessing noble identity had to be claimed in the absence of detailed compendia, such as the 1706 work of Zacharias Zwanzig, designed to resolve such questions.4 Performed displays of superiority of civilization, of virtue, over the ‘Other’, fed into the honores regii which Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger has discussed in relation to early modern imperial ceremonial.5 She has emphasized the importance of this concept which constituted ‘the ceremonial treatment of a ruler, in which recognition as a king was manifested through its recognition by other political actors’.6 Likewise, festival rhetoric provided a means through which ‘Germanness’ and ‘German virtue’ could be displayed and ‘recognized’ by its relationship with the ‘Other’. Len Scales’ study of identity in medieval Germany concludes that ‘It was in imperial, Roman, or Christian-Roman, certainly not in any explicitly “German”, traditions that those most in need of legitimacy still sought it’.7 Ultimately, this is what begins to change in these court festivals of the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries. Although what it meant to be German or Holy Roman came to be heavily contested in the sixteenth and seventeenth
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Stuttgardten Anno 1609. den 6. Novembris und etliche hernach volgende Tag Celebriert und gehalten hat: Darinnen alle Fürsten Fürstine und Frewlin: Graven Herren und vom Adel: Auch der abwesenden König: Chur: Fürsten unnd Stände Abgesandte so dieser Hochzeit beygewohnt verzeichnet: Darzu alle darbey gehaltene Ritterspihl Ring-rennen Turnier Auffzüg Fewerwerck und alle andere kurtzweil in dreyen underschiedlichen Büchern eigentlich und gründlich beschriben und mit lustigen Kupfferstücken Abgebildet werden. Durch M. Johann Oettingern Fürstl. Würtembergischen Geographum und Renovatorem. Gedruckt in der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgart. Anno 1610 (Stuttgart: G. Grieb, 1610), p. 108, trans. by Anna Linton, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 58-73 (pp. 60-61). Hamish Scott, ‘Diplomatic Culture in Old Regime Europe’, in Hamish Scott and Brendan Simms (eds), Cultures of Power in Europe during the Long Eighteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 58-85. See Miloš Vec, Zeremonialwissenschaft im Fürstenstaat: Studien zur juristischen und politischen Theorie absolutischer Herrschaftsrepräsentation (Frankfurt-am-Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1998), pp. 33-41. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, ‘Honores Regii: Die Königswürde im zeremoniellen Zeichensystem der Frühen Neuzeit’, in Johannes Kunisch (ed.), Dreihundert Jahre Preuβische Königskrönung: Eine Tagungsdokumentation (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2002), pp. 1-26. ‘die zeremonielle Behandlung eines Potentaten, in der sich die Anerkennung als König durch die anderen politischen Akteure manifestierte’, Stollberg-Rilinger, ‘Honores Regii’, pp. 6-7. Len Scales, The Shaping of German Identity: Authority and Crisis, 1245–1414 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 230.
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centuries, the presence and flexibility of this rhetoric allowed for the creation and perpetuation of the identities which gave relevance to this long-lived, vast, and varied political entity. Equally, the court festivals of this period in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries developed and expanded on earlier discourses of what it meant to be German which had developed alongside fifteenth-century debates on reforming the structures of the Reich. Joachim Whaley has argued that, between the 1470s and 1500, a century before the period under consideration here, the threats posed primarily by the Ottoman Empire, but also by France and Burgundy, contributed to the emergence of a political discourse which placed primacy on the idea of the German nation and defining who did, and did not, belong within it.8 He argues: The need to defend the Reich fostered a new need to define its enemies, to elaborate the national and moral boundaries between the Germans and their foes. At the same time, the growing perception of the need to reform the Reich in the late fifteenth century also fostered a desire to define its essential character and potential.9 The need to conceptualize the Reich in opposition to its foes remained in the period under consideration here, as did the external threats to it, but with the ruptures of the Reformations and associated political divisions, and in the face of challenges to noble identity, there was a renewed impulse, indeed necessity, for the creation of a universalizing rhetoric at moments when different actors within the Reich came together or became visible at occasions such as court festivals in order to at least paper over the cracks. This was essential to gatherings which involved both Protestants and Catholics, or the presence of nobles from across the diverse lands of the Holy Roman Empire, and it was also necessary even at the festivals of the Protestant Union. At a time at which there was not necessarily any firm consensus on religious matters within this alliance, comprising both Lutherans and Calvinists, as the theological questions raised by Reformers continued to nourish ongoing debate, notions of Christendom and of German identity, as opposed to divisive rhetoric, served an important function. Established patterns of conferring legitimacy through spectacle were appropriated, their meanings altered to serve the differing confessional and political stances adopted by those the festivals sought to honour, but all sides had need of this language of legitimate, noble, German identity through virtue, and, as that legitimacy became contested by others, to symbolically weave themselves even more firmly into the fabric of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Of course, there was always the potential for divergence between performed and lived identities — Chapter II, for instance, discusses this in relation to 8 See Joachim Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), vol. 1, pp. 31-53, and the Introduction, above, pp. 1-2. 9 Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, vol. 1, p. 54.
virtue, iden tity, an d the politics of access to festiva l
violence and courtly civility. Yet what this work is concerned with is not the messy realities of individual subjectivity — the process of a self being produced by unique formulations which cut across categories in complex ways, through a transient lived experience — but rather with establishing the normative and ideological social categories which constituted identity; thus it is precisely concerned with the ideal, with the conceptual space of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. The Empire has often appeared bewildering to historians for at least two, interrelated, reasons. The first of these is an anachronistic comparison with the modern ‘nation state’ or with a now discredited nineteenth-century view of ‘absolutism’ in the form of total control by the monarch through central government.10 The second is an assumption that decentralized power structures and heterogeneity are synonymous with weakness. Rather, the existence of heterogeneity and localized power structures bound symbiotically and conceptually to the central authority of the Emperor were the Empire’s strength. As Ronald Asch has observed, seventeenth-century legal theorists ‘were able to present the Empire as a true state, not too different from the great monarchies of western Europe, without denying the privileges and autonomy of the princes of the Empire’.11 If we free ourselves from anachronism and teleological grand narratives, we too can identify this similarity with other European monarchies and observe a coherent structure in place of the hazily articulated model of bewilderingly heterogeneous elements which has been so often imposed upon the Holy Roman Empire. While it may be beneficial to an analysis of global geopolitics to think of the Reich as an amalgamation of largely self-governing territories with their own strategic objectives, as Brendan Simms has done, this does not lead to a full understanding of the Holy Roman Empire as an entity; for this one must also understand the rhetoric and bonds, political and cultural, which held it together.12 Jeroen Duindam’s recent study of dynastic power across the early modern globe has emphasized the importance of ritual and ceremonial practices to rule. He states that ‘Ritual mixed instrumental and mundane concerns with deeply held convictions: it stood at the heart of power and surely was more than a trick captivating spectators’.13 Thus he argues that: The Habsburg court in Vienna served as a focal point […] local nobles, connected to the centre through their court office and recurring stays in the capital, flaunted their court titles and fashions in their region of provenance
10 See J. H. Elliott, ‘A Europe of Composite Monarchies’, Past and Present, 137 (Nov. 1992), 48-71. 11 Ronald G. Asch, The Thirty Years War: The Holy Roman Empire and Europe, 1618–48 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), p. 20. 12 See Brendan Simms, Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, 1714–1783 (London: Penguin, 2007); Brendan Simms, Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy 1453 to the Present (London: Penguin, 2013). 13 Jeroen Duindam, Dynasties: A Global History of Power, 1300–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), p. 271.
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[…] This situation benefited the court as well as its inadvertent spokesmen. European chivalric culture was imbued not only with honour and personal fidelity; it could resemble a religious brotherhood and create a strong religious bond.14 This present work very much supports such arguments, yet it does not emphasize loyalty to the dynasty as such (indeed we have seen many examples of rhetoric in these court festivals outside of Vienna attacking the ruling Habsburg dynasty), but rather to the identity. Studying the court festivals of the Holy Roman Empire with an emphasis on identity and taking a nuanced approach to state formation and cultural nationhood, as this work has done, can enable us to reintegrate this area into a holistic view of early modern European history. The study of identity construction through court festivals will offer a new way of conceptualizing early modern Europe as made up not of nation states, nor of confessional states, nor of linguistic regions, nor even of composite monarchies, but rather of areas of claimed identities — not necessarily homogeneous states, but ones which existed and acted on the basis of a legitimacy, contested or otherwise, that could only itself exist in the presence of a shared rhetoric of identity. The purpose of this work is not to argue that all of the various aspects of identity as portrayed and constructed through court festivals are distinctively and exclusively German, as comparative examples scattered through this work have shown, but rather to illustrate a broader argument about the role of festival in identity in early modern Europe and to outline some of the important frameworks for this through pursuing an original approach focusing on the case of the Holy Roman Empire and elucidating how this performed rhetoric with its particular nuances played out within this specific and distinctive geo-political arena and historical moment. We have seen how some themes, such as the claiming of legitimacy through lineage, the symbolism of mastery over nature, the incorporation of fashionable elements of courtly culture from other lands, and the association of the foreign and exotic with luxury, were common to both court festivals in the Holy Roman Empire and elsewhere in early modern Europe. Yet comparisons with French examples especially have illuminated points of divergence between the two festival cultures such as the treatment of the Ottoman ‘Other’ seen in elements such as naumachia (with French examples placing less emphasis on Ottoman enmity and more on Barbary pirates and other opponents, the threat from whom was more acutely felt, unlike in the German lands in which the Ottomans served as a useful dipole for the construction of Protestant and Catholic identity alike), and, most poignantly, in the treatment of religion with French court festivals illustrating much more forceful and divisive imagery than was, for the most part, deployed in the Holy Roman Empire. Further comparisons with court festivals elsewhere focusing on identity and employing the methodological approach set out in the work of 14 Duindam, Dynasties, p. 237.
virtue, iden tity, an d the politics of access to festiva l
this monograph would surely continue to reveal such informative similarities and contrasts. Broadening the scope of analysis could, for instance, uncover whether distinctive Lutheran, Calvinist, or Catholic forms of representation, observable across territories of these different confessions, emerged and how this interacted with linguistic and national identities, whether to bolster or undermine them in favour of transnational ideas of belonging, or both, in different circumstances. Certain aspects of identity seen articulated through these court festivals of the early modern Holy Roman Empire do have an observable legacy within the German-speaking lands. This is particularly evident when it comes to the continued pertinence of notions of nature, the land, and civilization. The relationship between nature and German identity has often been discussed in existing secondary literature, but almost exclusively in relation to the modern period. Nineteenth-century Romanticism generated famous images such as Caspar David Friedrich’s The Chasseur in the Forest (1814) which depicts the Teutoburg Forest in which three Roman legions were ambushed and destroyed by Arminius.15 The trees are huge, dark, and menacing, towering above the dwarfed figure of a French soldier, alone in the winter, while a black bird perches nearby symbolizing his imminent death. It was created during the German War of Liberation and illustrates Germany rejecting the French. Connection with, and appreciation of, the German land was also important in the nineteenth-century nationalist writings of Friedrich Ludwig Jahn.16 Scholars have explored this association between German identity and the land, and between identity and mastery over the natural environment, in the modern period, with David Blackbourn’s The Conquest of Nature arguing that it became fundamental to Prussian identity, especially in the late-nineteenth century through schemes such as Otto von Bismarck’s project of drainage, which carried the ideological message that the Reich had the ability to reshape the natural environment in order to make something of nothing.17 Yet, as we have seen, similar imagery connecting German identity with the landscape and with a degree of control of nature was already prominent in the early modern period. Equally, just as Chapter V of this book observes in the case of the court festivals of the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries, O’Reilly has shown how notions of oppositional identity, fashioned around arguments based on civilization, continued to be pervasive in the context of the Militärgrenze (the military frontier of the Habsburg lands instituted in the 1520s which came to span 1900 kilometres from Senj on the Adriatic to Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania) right through the early modern period and on into the late-nineteenth and
15 See Joseph Leo Koerner, Caspar David Friedrich and the Subject of Landscape (London, 1990), 2nd edn (London: Reaktion, 2009). 16 See Günther Jahn, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn: Volkserzieher und Vorkämpfer für Deutschlands Einigung , 1778–1852 (Göttingen: Muster-Schmidt, 1992). 17 David Blackbourn, The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape and the Making of Modern Germany (London: Jonathan Cape, 2006).
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even early-twentieth century.18 O’Reilly argues that ‘life on the frontier, at the borderland, consistently helped produce a discourse of identity politics’ due to the meeting of cultures within the context of asymmetrical power relations.19 Therefore the frontier ‘became an object of difference against which a “domestic” Austrian identity could be forged’ yet this included inherent contradictions as the inhabitants of the frontier may have been portrayed as ‘outsiders to European civilization’ but were also ‘its most important vanguard against Ottoman incursion’; to an extent differences could be superseded in the face of a more stark and threatening alternative, again a theme seen in the handling of difference within the festivals studied here.20 By the time of the late-nineteenth century German language had risen to become a more important signifier of civilization in literary sources and travelogues, but the notion of civilization and othering being tied to identity and legitimacy of rule remained pervasive. The 1875 travelogue of Karl Emil Franzos ‘designates those areas of the Habsburg territories in which German is not spoken as Halb-Asien instead of “Asian” or “European”; designation as “oriental” was determined not by geography but rather by relative levels of German-ness or “civilization”’.21 Austrian civilization was not always so self-confident, and the fragility of it is examined in literature such as Robert Musil’s Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleβ (The Confusion of Count Törleβ) from 1906 or Franz Kafka’s 1919 In der Strafkolonie (In the Penal Colony).22 Equally, the locus of othering shifted as claims to universalism became more far-fetched. In place of imagery relating to the inhabitants of the New World, the Moors, and so on, by the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century ‘Kafka and other writers in the [Habsburg] monarchy did not seek to locate the orient at a far remove, in distant Asia or Africa, but rather drew on the exoticized frontier within Europe, to the east and to the south of Vienna’ as part of an innere Kolonisierung (‘internal colonialism’) to in some way compensate for the lack of an overseas Empire; by this point ‘Habsburg orientalism looked to the frontier, to the limits of Europe to project its imperialist discourse, and non-Germanophone Europeans became the subjects of a power that desperately sought — but could not have — a colonial empire’.23 Yet, overall, a transposed rhetoric of civilization justifying legitimate possession and rule of diverse territories provides a constant with the construction and articulation of identity seen in the festivals analysed here in this work. 18 See William O’Reilly, ‘Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis, Orientalism, and the Austrian Militärgrenze’, Journal of Austrian-American History, 2 (1) (2018), 1-30. 19 O’Reilly, ‘Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis’, 3. 20 O’Reilly, ‘Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis’, 18-20. 21 O’Reilly, ‘Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis’, 26. 22 O’Reilly, ‘Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis’, 21. See also Robert Lemon, ‘Imperial Mystique and Empiricist Mysticism: Inner Colonialism and Exoticism in Musil’s Törleβ’, Modern Austrian Literature, 42 (1) (2009), 1-22. 23 O’Reilly, ‘Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis’, 22, 23, 29. For more work on the idea of innere Kolonisierung see: Katherine Verdery, ‘Internal Colonialism in Austria-Hungary’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2 (3) (1979), 378-99; Stephen Steiner, Rückkehr Unerwünscht: Deportationen in der Habsburgermonarchie der Frühen Neuzeit und ihr europäischer Kontext (Vienna: Böhlau, 2014).
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The People & the Politics of Access to Festival A perhaps easy and obvious critique of any study of court festivals, such as this, is to challenge the relevance of these occasions by suggesting that they were only participated in and understood fully by a narrow social elite. Indeed, the question of social reception is a complicated one for scholars in this field, not least because of the limitations of surviving primary source materials. The foremost source for studying such occasions is the corpus of surviving official festival accounts — commissioned by courts or city councils to provide an approved version of the events which were to unfold (they were sometimes produced in advance as a guide to the viewer) or as they had happened (often, though, reported in an idealized or sensationalized manner). Interpretations, sometimes erroneous (usually in order to twist what had been seen to play to the predispositions of their patrons), can frequently be found in the despatches of ambassadors. It is extremely rare, however, to find any accounts written from the perspective of an ‘ordinary’ viewer from the lower social orders. Doubtless it is true that not all of the attendees at festival occasions understood all of the imagery on display or extracted the same meanings from it. Yet this was not a failure of court festivals, nor does it make them irrelevant. Rather, it was integral to the efficacy of festival occasions and their agency in shaping identities both that they were ‘public’ and that various different participants engaged with the elements of them on an uneven basis. In one of his accounts, relating to the festival held in Stuttgart in 1617, Esaias von Hulsen states his reasons for publishing it in a manner which highlights the major motivations for many of these works. Firstly, he stresses the ‘public’ (‘offentlichen’) nature of the celebrations which should be recorded for posterity.24 The fact that these occasions took place, at least partially, in the public gaze was essential to the legitimacy they were able to bestow, and these accounts gave an additional life to the festival by commemorating it, often as it should have happened rather than as it did happen. Secondly, he says that he has undertaken the trouble ‘to present the highly memorable princely processions and accompanying celebratory knightly exercises to all lovers of tournaments and of art’.25 This hints towards the genre of such publications with a readership specifically interested in these types of occasions. This readership was substantially made
24 Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō vnnd Abbildung aller Fürstlichen Auffzüg vnd Rütterspilen. Beÿ Deβ Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnnd Herren, Herren Johann Friderichen Hertzogen zü Württemberg vnnd Teck. Graven zü Montpelgart Herren zü Haydenhaim. Iro: F: Jungen Printzen vnd Sohns Hertzog Vlrichen wohlangestellter Fürstlichen Kindtauff: vnd dann beÿ Hochermelt Iro: F: G: geliebten Herren Brüoders. Deβ auch Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnd Herren Herren Ludwigen Friderichen Hertzogen zü Württemberg. Mit der Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin vnd Fräwlin Fraw Magdalena Elisabetha Landtgraffin auβ Hessen. Fürstlichem Beÿlager vnd Hochzeÿtlichem Frewdenfest Celebrirt vnd gehaltten. In der Fürstlichen Haüptstatt Stüetgartt. Den 13.14.15.16. vnnd 17. Iulij Anno 1617. (Stuttgart: Esaias von Hulsen, 1617), p. 1. 25 ‘hochgedachte Fürstliche Auffzüg/ vnnd damahlen celebrierte Ritterspihl […] / allen Liebhabern der Ritterspihlen vnd der Kunst/ zu […] presentiren’, Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō, p. 1.
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up of the nobility of other courts, between whom there was certainly an element of competition and a desire to keep up with the latest trends and innovations, and by whom such accounts would be collected often having been sent as gifts by the patron of the festival. The social reach of festivals beyond this noble, educated readership can be inferred in some ways. As mentioned in the introduction above, in the sixteenth century festivals started to be recorded in short, cheap pamphlets with one of the first festival occasions to produce a significant legacy in pamphlet literature being the (German) coronation of Charles V at Aachen in 1520. That such pamphlets were produced, and not merely at the behest of festival organizers, strongly implies an emerging broader readership engaged with the spectacle of such occasions — as printers and pamphlet sellers would have no commercial incentive otherwise. However, the differences in style and content between these pamphlets and the more official festival books also suggests a very different level of, and motivation for, engagement with festival occasions. These cheap pamphlets often contain no images at all and, if they do, they tend to be very crude, simple woodcuts and ‘stock’ images re-used from older works. Such pamphlets tend to list (sometimes inaccurately) the major nobles present, the order of proceedings, and the overall theme and outcomes of publicly observable tournaments. This is in contrast to the festival books which go into far more detail about who jousted with whom, how many lances were broken across how many runs, the positions in which people sat at banquets — elements of interest to the more ‘expert’ observer who would appreciate such details. Aside from the literary audiences for festivals, the material elements of such occasions also reveal societally broad, albeit differing, engagement with them. Material objects were often produced and distributed as part of festival occasions, as mentioned in Chapter III above in relation to Claire Gantet’s work on the peace festivals in Augsburg to mark the end of the Thirty Years War which has shown how woodcut images merging biblical scenes with those recalling the Battle of White Mountain were distributed, particularly to children, to form a confessionalized memory of the conflict.26 Meanwhile, Karl Vocelka has written that ‘festivals were a significant component of urban life’.27 Lars Olof Larsson states, in the case of the entry of Maximilian II into Vienna in 1563, that the planning of the entry required ‘a considerable amount of consultation and thereby of communication between various institutions and individuals’ and that this was even more the case for the implementation of these plans in reality, continuing ‘It is accepted, that the majority, if not all Viennese craftsmen were involved in the preparations in one form or another, be
26 See Chapter III in this volume, p. 140. 27 ‘Feste ein wichtiger Bestandteil des Lebens in den Metropolen waren’, Karl Vocelka, ‘Höfische Feste als Phänomene sozialer Integration und internationaler Kommunikation: Studien zur Transferfunktion habsburgischer Feste im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert’, in Andrea Langer and Georg Michels, Metropolen und Kulturtransfer im 15./16. Jahrhundert: Prag – Krakau – Danzig – Wien (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2001), pp. 141-50 (p. 141).
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it in the construction and decoration of the triumphal arches, in the production of the rich ephemeral ornamentation in the streets and on the fronts of houses or of costumes, ceremonial arms, banners etc.’ — thus the whole city became involved in the festival over a period of roughly two months.28 Moreover, the crowds played a significant part in the performances of the festivals themselves. These events were about much more than Latin epithets and elaborate emblems — court festivals and the associated music, processions, fireworks displays, tournaments, objects, and so on were multisensory events accessible, on one level or another, to the entire audience. Indeed, the public nature of early modern festivals and the visibility of the nobility in attendance at them marked a cultural shift from the early-medieval Holy Roman Empire. Under the Carolingians the emphasis had been on presentation as opposed to representation — on the idea that the ruler was only present in person among select members of the elite and not widely represented. While courts within the Empire still restricted access to the ruler during the early modern period in comparison with, say, the French court, under the Habsburg dynasty a representational culture developed in which festivals were central.29 During this period, the audience, most commonly described in festival books as the ‘Volk’, and thus as the people as a whole rather than just the nobility, burghers, or peasantry, was crucial to the efficacy of the festivals. Without the populace lining the streets, cheering, standing in awe, and thus participating in the events those events had no meaning; a joyous entry was no acclamation of a ruler if no one acclaimed. It is notable that it is the term Volk which is employed. Wilson observes that in most written contexts it was little used before the eighteenth century.30 In the medieval period the more common terms had been Populus (to denote particularly the politically active section of society), Gens (for a group with common descent), or Natio (more narrowly defined by birth).31 By the sixteenth century, Natio, acquiring new importance as the idea of the ‘nation’ gained increased cultural and political pertinence, merged with earlier conceptions of the Populus.32 Yet Volk is still more encompassing and has allusions to the ideas of Wolfgang Lazius regarding the inherent coherence of the Volk in his theory
28 ‘ein erhebliches Maβ an Beratungen und damit an Kommunikation zwischen verschiedenen Instanzen und Individuen’, ‘Es ist anzunehmen, daβ die Mehrzahl, wenn nicht alle Wiener Handwerker an den Vorbereitungen in der einen oder anderen Form beteiligt waren, sei es am Bau und an der Ausschmückung der Ehrenpforten, an der Herstellung des reichhaltigen ephemeren Schmucks in den Straβen und an den Häuserfassaden oder von Kostümen, Waffen, Fahnen etc.’, Lars Olof Larsson, ‘Höfische Repräsentation als kulturelle Kommunikation: Ein Vergleich der Höfe Maximilians II. in Wien und Rudolfs II. in Prag’, in Marina Dmitrieva and Karen Lambrecht (eds), Krakau, Prag und Wien: Funktionen von Metropolen im frühmodernen Staat (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000), pp. 237-43 (p. 238). 29 Peter H. Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe’s History (London: Allen Lane, 2017), pp. 266-67. 30 Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire, p. 236. 31 Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire, p. 236. 32 Wilson, The Holy Roman Empire, p. 237.
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of Völkerwanderung discussed above; this was a unit defined more by its shared origins as a people than by its present linguistic or cultural characteristics.33 The presence of the people as a whole, reportedly out of their own desire to attend and display reverence to their rulers, is repeatedly stressed in accounts. Johann Mayer records that when Ferdinand II entered Munich in 1607, there were ‘50 spear-bearing citizens’ present ‘of their own free will’ together with others of ‘his obedient subjects’.34 During the course of the festival, the reader is told that ‘There was no household in the city/ that did not rejoice/ young and old celebrated/ in manifold delights’.35 Entertaining the crowds was a necessary part of the festival’s broader organization, and it is mentioned that, after the conclusion of the shooting contest, ‘one of the local sausage sellers/ would a good while longer/ be allowed to serve the people/ the confectioner also came’.36 Zimmermann, too, makes note of the involvement of the ‘Volk’ during the wedding festival at Munich in 1613. The procession of the courtly retinues to the Church of Our Beloved Lady is described, with Zimmermann recounting that the amassed nobles ‘took a fairly circuitous route through the most beautiful alleys to the Church/ along which route there was no shortage of the people as well as in the houses/ and at the windows’.37 The festivals of the Protestant Union, too, used the repeated involvement of the people as another form of legitimacy, supplementing the arguments of history, lineage, and virtue. Meddus’s account of the reception of Elizabeth at Heidelberg in 1613 declares that ‘the Citizens wanted no expressions of ioy, loue, and duty in hearty welcoming of her, & praying for her’, and the windows were ‘replenished with people, drawne thither from all parts, not so much to
33 See above, pp. 113. 34 ‘Funffzig Trabanten frey’, ‘In ihrer Liberey’, ‘Sein ghorsam vnderthenig’, Johann Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Das ist/ Kurtzer Bericht/ wie der Durchleuchtigist Fürst vnnd Herr/ Herr Maximilianus/ Pfaltzgraue bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Obern vnd Nidern Bayern/ etc. Ir Fürstlichen Durchl. Ertzhertzog von Grätz vnnd Oesterreich/ sambt seinem Hochgeliebten Gmahel/ vnd Fraw Mutter/ auch andern Geschwistern entgegen gezogen/ vnd in die Fürstl. Hauptstat München den 30. Augusti/ Anno 1607. einbeleitet. Sambt kurtzer Erzehlung der vberauβ grossen Pancket/ darinn 19. Fürstenpersonen bey einander gewesen. Weitter wird angezeigt/ alle Kurtzweil vnd Freudenspiel/ als Tragedi/ Fechtschuelen/ Geiaider/ Vogelschiessen/ so in vnd ausser der Statt seynd gehalten worden. Durch Johan Mayer/ Teutschen Poeten vnd Burgern in München. Gedruckt zu München bey Adam Berg. ANNO M.DC.VII. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1607), Bi v. 35 ‘Kein Hauβ war in der Statt/ Das nit gfrolocket hat/ Sich frewet Jung vnd Alt/ In Frewden manigfalt’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Biii r. 36 ‘Wurd manchem die Weil lanck/ Einr hiesse der Wurst Hans/ Darff wehren sich deβ Manns/ Auch kam der Zuckerbacher’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Diii v. 37 ‘hat man gar einen weiten Vmbschweiff durch die schönste Gassen biβ in die Kirchen genommen/ auff welchen es an Volck so wol als in den Häusern/ vnd an den Fenstern nit gemangelt’, Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte entwerffung der Fürstlichen Hochzeit/ So Der Durchleuchtig/ vnd Hochgeborn Fürst vnd Herr/ Herr Wolffgang Wilhelm/ Pfaltzgraff bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Bayrn/ Gülch/ Cleue vnd Berg/ Graf zu Veldentz vnd Sponhaim. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigstin vnd hochgebornen Fürstin Fraw Magdalena/ Pfaltzgräfin bey Rhein/ Hertzogin in Obern vnd Nidern Bayrn. Zu München/ im sechzehenhundert vnd dreyzehenden Jahr/ den zwölfften Nouembris Celebriert vnd gehalten. Ins Werck versetzt/ durch Wilhelm Peter Zimmerman/ ins Kupffer Geradiert zu Augspurg. 1614. (Augsburg: Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, 1614), p. 2.
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see the Pageants that were erected to further this honorable entertainment, as to haue their eies [sic] filled in beholding of her Highnesse, whom all honoured and admired’.38 The anonymous English account of Friedrich and Elizabeth’s journey to Heidelberg agrees with this in very similar terms, potentially implying a degree of plagiarism, or at least heavy borrowing, between the two works, as it states that: the Burgers of the towne with all expressions of loue, ioy, and dutie, receiued her with heartie welcomes, the windows of euery House being filled with men, women and children of all degrees; and the Streetes couered with throngs of people, drawne thither by the fame of such Showes and Pageants as were builded to adde honour to this Entertainment, but especially to behold Her, vpon whom all their eyes were fixed with loue and admiration.39 Moreover, according to Meddus, the sermon preached by Abraham Scultetus, Friedrich’s chaplain, on the occasion of Elizabeth’s arrival, contained within a prayer the statement that ‘it is thy goodnesse, that his Highnesse best beloued spouse arriued here safely yesterday, to the great reioycing of all the people’.40 The German account of Elizabeth’s entry into Heidelberg, contained within the Beschreibung Der Reiβ, also places particular emphasis on her reception by the people of the city as well as by the nobility. The text states that from the arch erected at the end of the market-place ‘right out to the Speyer Gate a large number of the citizenry stood, well accoutred and armed’, adding, ‘A worthy council had also had the City Gate renovated, and the citizenry had joyfully and willingly presented themselves for sentry-duty’.41 Clearly, there are limitations to the reliability of all of these sources on this subject. For obvious reasons Friedrich’s chaplain would not declare that the people of Heidelberg held Elizabeth in anything other than the highest affection in a sermon preached before the couple on the occasion of her arrival, and the 38 James Meddus, A SERMON Preached before the two high borne and illustrious Princes, FREDERICKE the 5. PRINCE ELECTOR PALATINE, DVKE OF BAVARIA, &c. And the Princesse Lady ELIZABETH, &c. Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG the 8. of Iune 1613. being the next day after her Highnesse happy arriuall there: By that reuerend and iudicious Diuine, Mr ABRAHAM SCVLTETVS, his Highnesse Chaplaine. Together with a short narration of the Prince Electors greatnes, his Country, his receiuing of her Highnesse. accompanied with twe[l]u[e] other Princes, thirty Earles, besides an exceeding great number of Barons and Gentlemen, and eight daies ent[e]rtainment. Translated out of High Dutch by IA MEDDVS D. and one of hi[s] Maiesties Chap[la]ines. (London: John Beale for William Welby, 1613), F1r-v. 39 THE MAGNIFICENT, Princely, and most Royall Entertainments giuen to the High and Mightie Prince, and Princesse, FREDERICK, Count Palatine, Palsgraue of the Rhyne: and ELIZABETH, sole Daughter to the High and Mighty King of England, Iames, our Soueraigne Lord. TOGETHER WITH A true Relation of all the Gifts, Presentations, Showes, Pageants, Fire-workes, and other sumptuous Triumphs in euery place where the said Princes were lodged, and receiued, after their Landing vpon the Coasts of GERMANY. (London: [Thomas Snodham] for Nathaniel Butter, 1613), C1r-v. 40 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, D8v. 41 ‘bis an das Speyrer Thor hinauβ ist die Burgerschafft in zimlicher anzahl und wol staffirt in der Rüstung gestanden’, ‘So hatt auch ein Ersamer Rath die Stadtthor renoviren lassen und die Burgerschafft […] sich frewdig und willig eingestelt’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ, p. 138, in Mulryne, Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 86-87.
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same is surely true of the German festival book produced to commemorate the occasion. In addition, Meddus’s account openly declares in the title that it drew on a Dutch work and it is certainly possible that it may at least partially reflect Dutch attitudes towards governance and popular representation. Unfortunately, the original German text of the sermon has not been traced. Equally, Meddus himself was a chaplain to James I and is unlikely to have relayed to his sovereign that his only daughter was poorly received in her new land. Finally, it has already been noted that Meddus’s account and the anonymous English account resemble each other fairly closely in places, to the extent that the one may have drawn on the other. Yet whether the citizenry had indeed been joyful and willing in presenting themselves for sentry-duty, or whether the citizens of Heidelberg had been inspired to watch Elizabeth’s entry from love for her rather than simply a desire to see the various entertainments, is beside the point. What is significant is that the accounts claim that they had been, and thus that Elizabeth’s marriage to Friedrich V was celebrated by the citizens of Heidelberg, the people of Germania. In addition, the nobility, in many ways the symbolic representatives and figure-heads of the people more broadly, very publicly showed their subservience to Elizabeth as ‘fifteen old respected well-deserving noblemen dismounted from their horses to escort the royal princess and new Electress’.42 That the noblemen did not begin on foot but publicly dismounted in order to accompany the princess on foot as she sat in her carriage only added to the very public symbolism of subservience, and it was a gesture of subservience not just on behalf of those nobles themselves, but by extension on behalf of the people under them as a whole. While the involvement of the populace of a city was essential, this is not to imply that such encounters between court and people were devoid of conflict or were only a means by which the court could project a message to the people at large — festivals could become a symbolically acted dialogue, often only facilitated by the ability of both sides to take their own meanings from the events of the festival. This, as well as the work of Geertz on the agency of ritual, stands in opposition to the statement by William Roosen that: rituals are mechanistic in that their development and outcome are expected and participants usually do not try to alter the results […] the behaviour is symbolic in that the acts assert something about the state of affairs, but the acts do not necessarily try to change the state of affairs.43 Rather, Thomas Rahn has gone as far as to say that ‘The political wisdom of the early modern period considered every encounter as above all else a duel, as a form of war-like contest, which would be vicariously acted out in the field of
42 ‘Funfzehen alte ansehliche wolverdiente vom Adel von ihren Pferden abgestiegen die Königliche Princessin und newe Churfürstin zu begleiten’, Beschreibung Der Reiβ, p. 138, in Mulryne, WatanabeO’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 86-87. 43 William Roosen, ‘Early Modern Diplomatic Ceremonial: A Systems Approach’, Journal of Modern History 52 (3) (1980), 452-76 (454-55).
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ceremonial’.44 Central to understanding the dialogue which could be embodied in the form of a festival is the distinction which Vocelka highlights between ‘festivals which were bound up with the court and were organised by the court itself, and festivals which were organised on behalf of the court’.45 Particularly in the case of festivals organized on behalf of the court by local civic elites, court festivals could become a medium through which the burghers of a city could express their concerns and desires to their ruler; often by praising the ruler for a quality which they would like him or her to display in future. Occasions such as a triumphal or joyous entry also had to navigate a path between acknowledging a ruler’s sovereignty on the one hand and the integrity and rights of the city being entered on the other. This is reflected in the format adopted by early modern entries, which was based on the Roman imperial adventus. The entering noble would stop short of the city walls and be met outside of them by a delegation from the city before being invited to enter through the gates alongside them. This is concisely described, for instance, by Johann Mayer in his account of the visit to Munich of Ferdinand II in 1607. He records that ‘the great princes gathered/ […] two miles out from Munich […] in the open field’ where there were pitched ‘many pavilions’ and ‘after princely custom/ having received the morning meal/ through into the afternoon/ the journey was joyfully undertaken/ to the gate of Munich’.46 He continues that ‘There the train halted/ After which happened suddenly/ a double acclamation’, before the various nobles then made their way into the city.47 Equally, when Elizabeth Stuart approached Heidelberg in 1613 following her marriage to the Calvinist Elector and leading member of the Protestant Union, Friedrich V, she was: ‘met 3. miles from Heidelberg, with the Prince Elector, accompanied with 12. other Princes, 30. Earles, one thousand gentlemen of the country richly attired’, at which point: The Princes alighted, and welcomed her Highnesse, who ascended into her rich coach. After a while shee was again encountered in three seuerall places, with three regiments of foot, 2000. in regiment […] Then they marched altogether orderly in good aray, conducting her to Heidelberg.48 While a ruler’s entry into a city symbolized possession of that space, the need to stop outside of the walls before being welcomed in also demonstrated 44 ‘Die politische Klugheitslehre der Frühen Neuzeit begreift jede Begegnung hoher Häupter als duellum, als eine Form der kriegerischen Auseinandersetzung, die — stellvertretend — auf dem Feld des Zeremoniells ausgetragen wird’, Thomas Rahn, ‘Grenz-Situationen des Zeremoniells in der Frühen Neuzeit’, in Markus Bauer and Thomas Rahn (eds), Die Grenze: Begriff und Inszenierung (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1997), pp. 177-206 (p. 178). 45 ‘Feste, die mit dem Hof verbunden waren und von ihm selbst veranstaltet wurden, und Feste, die für den Hof veranstaltet wurden’, Vocelka, ‘Höfische Feste’, p. 142. 46 ‘Die Fürsten groβ zusamen/ […] Zwo Meil von München weit […] in freyem Feldt’, ‘viel Gezelt’, ‘nach Fürstlichem Brauch/ Das Morgenmal empfieng/ Als der Mittag vergieng/ Man frölich reisen thet/ Nach München die Post geht’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Aiv r. 47 ‘Da thet sich der Zug steln/ Drauff gschach in solcher nahung/ Ein doppelte Empfahung’, Mayer, COMPENDIVM, Aiv v. 48 Meddus, A SERMON […] Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG, E8v.
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respect for the city and its freedom. Indeed, to take an example from elsewhere in Europe by means of comparison, this can be seen by the contrast with the situation of La Rochelle following its Huguenot rebellion, siege, and recapture by Louis XIII of France in 1627–1628. When the Queen entered La Rochelle in November 1632, she was addressed by Colonel Sieur de l’Escale, on behalf of the city, who lamented ‘the ruin of her bastions, the revocation of her privileges’ and ‘the fall of these proud fortifications, once the wonder of the universe, and of these awesome bastions’, leaving the city visibly ‘captured’.49 Theoretical developments from the field of diplomatic history may offer further insight into how tensions inherent in ceremonial occasions could be overcome. Michael Talbot remarks that it ‘is important to consider that these diplomatic rituals, as with any rituals, were only given meaning by those participating in and viewing them’.50 This necessarily means that ritual contains ‘an element of tension, primarily through the possibility of non-participation’.51 Talbot then combines this observation with the ideas of Bourdieu, and uses the result to argue that, in the case of his study of British diplomacy in the Ottoman Empire, ‘polysemy seems to have permitted participation in these rituals largely without an overt expression or manifestation of those tensions, that is, multiple layers of meaning and interpretation enabled equal participation in potentially unequal settings’.52 Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, too, has made a similar point, employing the phrase ‘social magic’ to describe the way in which ritual ‘reciprocally changes the expectations of the participants’, and asserting that ‘The ambivalent and vague nature of rituals, the fact that they were always open to various interpretations, made it possible to represent a consensus that could never have been brought about by discourse’.53 Of course, some aspects of festival occasions — the joyous entries through the city gates, processions to and from the Cathedral, fireworks displays and so on — were performed far more publicly, with far greater freedom of physical access, than other aspects which took place in more intimate, restricted settings. This could have quite an effect on the nature of the display and of noble self-representation. Indeed, within the comparatively ‘private’ confines of entertainments held within the court itself even the nobility could become involved in somewhat farcical, carnivalesque performances. One particularly surreal demonstration of this comes in the account of the festival at Munich in 49 ‘la ruine de ses Bastions, la revocation de ses Privileges’, ‘la cheute de ces orgeuilleuses fortifications, jadis la merveille de l’univers: et de ces effroyables Boulevars’, ‘prise’, Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne en la Ville de la Rochelle. Au mois de Novembre mil six cens trente-deux (La Rochelle: Mathurin Charruyer, 1633), pp. 13-15, trans. by Marie-Claude Canova-Green, in Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans, vol. 2, pp. 186-231 (pp. 192-95). 50 Michael Talbot, British Diplomacy in the Ottoman Empire during the Long Eighteenth Century (Ph.D. Thesis, Department of History, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2013), p. 213. 51 Talbot, British Diplomacy in the Ottoman Empire, p. 223. 52 Talbot, British Diplomacy in the Ottoman Empire, p. 214. 53 Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, ‘Much Ado about Nothing? Rituals of Politics in Early Modern Europe and Today’, Bulletin of the GHI, 48 (2011), 9-24 (13, 18).
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1568. There is a description of a ‘Foot Tournament’ held indoors after the evening meal one night. The account relates that ‘these knights came so dressed/ that one believed they were riding on horses/ yet they were on small crafted little horses/ which were entirely covered with cloth’. As they progressed, ‘they shot from their little horses before and after fireworks and rockets/ which was not a little/ but very entertaining to watch’ and they then ran at each other, fighting with swords and striking each other, before coming together in a procession ‘nobly and manfully’ (‘dapffer vnd mannlich’).54 The accompanying illustration (see Plate IV), indeed shows men in fine cloth horse costumes and armour running at each other having processed shooting fireworks. Yet it is noble and manly. This is the surreal, carnivalesque festival paradox whereby such actions, albeit undertaken within the relatively private confines of the court rather than in public view, do not undermine dignity or masculinity. Similarly, noble visitors to the court of Archduke Ferdinand II of Further Austria at Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck, were put through a ceremony of ‘Welcome’. This welcome was held in the confined, private ‘Bacchus Grotto’ constructed in the grounds. The first record of it is in the travel report of Stephanus Pighius from 1574, describing how noble visitors were put through a drinking test involving being detained by hidden chains on a mechanical chair, from which they would only be released after finishing a vessel of wine, before entering an aphorism along with their name into specially maintained drinking books.55 It is significant that these noble men are drinking in a place called the ‘Bacchus Grotto’ in order to prove their masculinity through their ability to stomach alcohol, as it is an allusion to the classical Bacchanalia. Livy is the principal Roman literary source on these early Bacchanalia. He names Paculla Annia, a Companion Priestess of Bacchus, as the founder of a private, unofficial Bacchanalia cult in Rome and states that the earliest version was open to women only. Thus this ritual reinforces the argument that gender was a mutable construct within the context of festival occasions put forward in Chapter II, above. Equally it is another example of elaborately carnivalesque, even comic, elements of festival occurring within the setting of the court seemingly not undermining noble masculinity or dignity. 54 ‘Fueβthurnier’, ‘dieselben Ritter sein […] also geklaidt gewest/ das man gemaint sie ritten zu pferd/ do sie doch auff klainen gemachten pferdlein/ wölche mit decken gar hinab behangen gewest’, ‘sie mit iren Röβlein vornen vnd hinden Fewerwerch vnnd Ragetlen von sich geschossen haben/ wölches dann nit wenig/ sonder sehr lustig zusehen gewest ist’, Hans Wagner, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung des Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornnen Fürsten vnnd Herren/ Herren Wilhalmen/ Pfaltzgrauen bey Rhein/ Hertzogen inn Obern vnd Nidern Bairen/ etc. Vnd derselben geliebsten Gemahel/ der Durchleuchtigisten Hochgebornnen Fürstin/ Frewlein Renata gebornne Hertzogin zu Lottringen vnd Parr/ etc. gehalten Hochzeitlichen Ehren Fests. Auch welcher gestalt die darauff geladnen Potentaten vnd Fürsten Personlich/ oder durch ire abgesandte Potschafften erschinen. Vnd dann was für Herrliche Ritterspil/ zu Roβ vnd Fueβ/ mit Thurnieren/ Rennen vnd Stechen. Neben andern vil ehrlichen kurtzweilen mit grossen freuden/ Triumph vnd kostligkait/ in der Fürstlichen Haubtstat München gehalten worden sein/ den zwenvndzwaintzigisten vnd nachuolgende tag Februarij/ Im 1568. Jar. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1568), p. 55v. 55 Sabine Haag (ed.), Ambras Castle Innsbruck (Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2013), pp. 39-40; Sabine Haag, Ludwig Igálffy von Igály: Die Ambraser Trinkbücher (Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2010).
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Meanwhile, in the more public elements of festival processions, particularly in Protestant territories, carnivalesque performances also took place, though not participated in by the nobles themselves, potentially in order to entice engagement from onlookers and to circumvent potential tensions arising from the attitudes of Reformation thinkers. Protestant areas of the Holy Roman Empire had called into question the existence of the carnival as part of their programmes of societal and behavioural reform. The enforcement of this was certainly uneven as there was no one singular position on the matter. Luther was not opposed to the carnival or to Johannisnacht, saying ‘let the boys have their game’ (‘pueri etiam habeant suum lusum’); yet his follower, the Lutheran pastor Andreas Osiander, objected to Nuremberg’s Schembartlauf and his criticisms led to its abolition.56 Meanwhile, Zwingli and Calvin, together with their followers, mounted a much more radical attack on popular traditions than Luther. This caused not inconsiderable tension in many instances. In 1539 revenge was taken in Nuremberg against Osiander’s opposition to the traditional Schembartlauf, in the form of satire and of violence; the revellers made a float representing the ship of fools, which featured Osiander in his black gown, and they also attacked his house.57 Watanabe-O’Kelly has written about the social importance of carnival plays and biblical dramas, observing that the vast majority of so-called carnival plays performed in the pre-Lenten season were humorous and short plays featuring such themes as the lecherous priest. She writes: The humour is coarse, the behaviour exaggerated to the point of grotesquerie and the interactions between the characters often brutal. Here is where one sees the relationship […] to the biblical drama. On the one hand they function as an outlet for the taboos the biblical drama imposes […] On the other hand, order is restored at the end and the norms invoked are precisely those of biblical drama […] The carnival plays are thus the mirror-image of the biblical drama and serve the same normative social function.58 These moments in which festival culture touched upon that of carnival abounded in Protestant territories especially. Indeed, in Stuttgart the court even took over the celebration of carnival (rather than there simply being popular celebrations in the traditional manner), as Duke Friedrich held the tournaments and fireworks in Stuttgart in 1602 to celebrate the carnival. Furthermore, von Hulsen’s images of the court festival at Stuttgart in 1617 include one (Figure 13) which features ‘fauns’ performing tricks to entertain the spectators — one is upside down having 56 Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe (London, 1978), 3rd edn (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), p. 302. 57 Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, p. 307. 58 Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘The Early Modern Period (1450–1720)’, in Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (ed.), The Cambridge History of German Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 92-146, pp. 105-06. For other works touching on the role of Carnival see: Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe; Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Carnival: A People’s Uprising at Romans 1579– 1580, trans. by Mary Feeney (London: Scolar Press, 1980).
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Figure 13. A scene depicting ‘fauns’ performing tricks as part of a festival procession in Stuttgart for the christening of Ulrich, third son and fifth child of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and the wedding of Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard, and Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen, in 1617, from Esaias von Hulsen, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō (1617), plate 33. Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: 36.17.4 Geom. 2° (1).
ostensibly jumped through a hoop held by another, meanwhile yet another is carrying on its back a basket with two small creatures playing instruments. In Catholic territories, however, there remained a greater separation between the culture of court festivals and of carnival. One concession to this is that the Jesuit plays, as de Boer has argued, used theatre amidst ‘a widespread anti-theatrical backlash […] to replace rather than merely to forbid condemned practices. An author of sacred drama […] sought to appeal to sensory pleasures, even olfactory ones, to enhance his play’s effect’.59 We have also seen that there were some carnivalesque elements which took place within the confines of the court, such as the indoor ‘joust’ on costume horses at Munich in 1568. For the most part,
59 Wietse De Boer, ‘The Counter-Reformation of the Senses’, in Alexandra Bamji, Geert H. Janssen, and Mary Laven (eds), The Ashgate Research Companion to the Counter-Reformation (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), pp. 243-60 (p. 254).
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however, Catholic court festivals seem to have had greater solemnity in their public elements. Meanwhile, Claire Gantet has observed that in the mid-seventeenth century, in the aftermath of the Thirty Years War, Protestant peace festivals were responded to by a revival in carnival which was celebrated with additional zeal by Catholics.60 Gantet has further observed that these festivals played a role in lessening confessional antagonism. She states of the institutionalization of the peace festival as an annual event in Augsburg that ‘confessional parity […] was the main motive of institutionalisation […] the coexistence of Catholics and Protestants engendered an excessive ritualization of gestures in daily life and the emphatic celebration of the festivals. The festival both exhibited confessional tensions and sublimated them through its diversionary character’.61 Reaching out to confessionalized audiences to varying extents and in particular ways in different territories and contexts, therefore, could selectively engage, include, or exclude, the populace or sections of it in certain festivities. The selective, tactical use of vernacular languages for certain moments, meanwhile, could also serve to include or exclude certain members of the audience for particular elements within festivals. Zimmermann’s account of the 1613 wedding in Munich of Wolfgang Wilhelm, Duke of Pfalz-Neuburg, and Magdalena, Duchess of Bavaria, for instance, makes a note of the use of different languages. At this Catholic service, when it came to the vows, the Bishop ‘addressed the lord groom in German: High-born prince Wolfgang Wilhelm/ […] asking whether he wished to take the high-born princess Magdalena/ […] as his lawful wife/ […] Then he addressed the bride just as before with her entire title/ asking whether she would take the groom’, before reverting to Latin for giving his blessing ‘as both parties said yes/ he placed their hands together/ over which he placed his customary cloth/ laying his hand on top/ and said: This contracted marriage, I confirm and bless in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen’.62 The following day, ‘the bishop himself made a further Latin recollection of the marriage’.63 The solemn, formal parts of the marriage were conducted in Latin, but even in this Catholic service the vernacular was also used, and at a crucial moment — this was surely so that the congregation could understand this part of the proceedings and thus lend the legitimacy of their popular assent to the marriage.64 This same theme can be seen at the coronation of Elector Friedrich as King of Bohemia in 1619 at which the people of Germania were again central. An anony-
60 Claire Gantet, ‘Peace Festivals and the Culture of Memory in Early Modern South German Cities’, in Karin Friedrich (ed.), Festive Culture in Germany and Europe from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century (Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2000), pp. 57-71 (p. 66). 61 Gantet, ‘Peace Festivals and the Culture of Memory’, pp. 63-64. 62 ‘den Herrn Bräutigam auff Teutsch […] angesprochen: Hochgeborner Fürst Wollfgang [sic] Wilhelm/ […] Wann er wölle die Hochgeborne Fürstin Magdalena/ […] zu seinem Ehlichen Gemahl haben/ […] Hernach hat er die Braut ebner massen wider mit gantzem Tittul angesprochen/ wie den Bräutigam’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 3. 63 ‘daselbst der Bischoff nochmalen ein Lateinische Erinnerung vom Ehestand gethan’, Zimmermann, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte, p. 4. 64 See above, Chapter I, pp. 54-55.
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mous pamphlet published in German notes that as Friedrich entered Prague he was greeted by the ‘people’, including ‘so many thousand, young and old’.65 John Harrison’s English account of the coronation records how the ‘Royall Crowne’ was placed on Friedrich’s head with the words ‘Receiue the Crowne of the kingdome (O King Elect) which is set vpon thy head in the name of the Holy Trinitie: and out of the free consent of the States, and cheife of this kingdome, through the prouidence of God’.66 Once the crown had been placed on Friedrich’s head, there came another symbolic act of acceptance, obedience, and conferral of legitimacy by the congregation, as: the Burgraue spake in the country Language these words: Seeing that your King being lawfully chosen, and crowned, hath given his oath vnto vs, to defend you, and vphold your freedoms; so it becommeth you also, to sware vnto your King. Therefore all you that can come neare vnto the Royall Chayre, lay two fingers on the Kings Crowne, and the rest put vp your fingers. Instantly there was seene all the chiefe of the kingdome, with an excessiue ioy thronging to touch the Kings Crowne (as before ordered) and the rest of the people they put vp their fingers, in token of a willing, obedient, and faithfull oath.67 Following this ritual, ‘all the people cryed with ioyfull voyces: Viuat Rex, Viuat Rex’.68 In the German account, it is said that ‘the people all shouted out together unanimously: we will it’.69 Here the vernacular, ‘the country Language’, is used at a crucial moment in a ritual otherwise conducted in Latin, in order to ensure the understanding and necessary participation of the audience as a whole. Again, the manner of the festival, its location, its symbolism, and its language, is one of strategic inclusion, differing at different moments. In order to express these themes of selective inclusion and exclusion, of the creation of deliberately different levels of participation, it could be useful for scholars of festival to draw on a broader historiographical literature relating to the control of access to spaces and to knowledge in the early modern world. As
65 ‘Volck’, ‘so viel Tausend Jung und Alt’, Warhafftige Beschreibung/ deβ Einzugs vnd Crönung zu Praag. Hertzog Friederichen/ von Gottes Gnaden/ gekrönter König in Böhmen/ Pfaltz Graff bey Rhein/ des Heiligen Römischen Reichs ErzTruchseβ vnd ChurFürst/ Herzog in Beyern/ MargGraff zu Mähren/ Herzog in Schlesien/ MargGraff zu Ober vnd NiederLauβniβ. Geschehen den 21. vnd 25. Octobris Altes Calenders. Gedruckt zu Praag/ Im JahrChristi M.DC.XIX. (Prague: [n. pub.] 1619), Aiii v. 66 John Harrison, A SHORT RELATION OF The departure of the high and mightie Prince Frederick King Elect of Bohemia: with his royall & vertuous Ladie Elizabeth; And the thryse hopefull yong Prince Henrie, from Heydelberg towards Prague, to receiue the Crowne of that Kingdome. Whearvnto is annexed the Solempnitie or manner of the Coronation. Translated out of dutch. And now both togither published (with other reasons, and iustifications) to giue satisfaction to the world, as touching the ground, and truth, of his Ma[ies]ties proceedings, & vndertaking of that Kingdome of Bohemia: lawfully and freelie Elected, by the generall consent of the States, not ambitiouslie aspiring thearvnto. As also to encourage all other noble & heroicall spirits (especiallie our owne nation, whom in honour it first and chieffelie concerneth) by prerogative of that high, and soveraigne Title, hæreditarie to our Kings & Princes: defendees of the faith to the lyke Christian resolution, against Antichrist and his Adhærents. Si Deus nobiscum quis contranos. (Dort: George Waters, 1619), B3r. 67 Harrison, A SHORT RELATION, B3v. 68 Harrison, A SHORT RELATION, B4r. The Latin reads ‘Long live the King, Long live the King’. 69 ‘hat das Volck allweg einhellig geschrien: Wir wollens’, Warhafftige Beschreibung/ deβ Einzugs vnd Crönung zu Praag, Bi r.
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referred to in the introduction, Ronald Asch’s application of spatial theory to the early modern court reveals a spatial ‘politics of access’ within the architecture and day-to-day workings of European courts, with courts following different ceremonial traditions variously limiting the ability of courtiers and subjects to enter particular spaces or to come into the ruler’s presence.70 This meant that the inaccessibility, or restricted accessibility, of the ruler became part of the exercise and symbolism of power, an idea which can easily be applied to court festivals in which different elements were more or less ‘public’. Yet there was a politics not just of physical access but also of intellectual access to, and understanding of, the elements of festival occasions in terms of their imagery and language, with some of the messages being deliberately more accessible to the uninitiated while others remained ambiguous or obscure. Again, Asch has made a similar point but in relation to the ‘Small studiolos or cabinets within the palace’, the ‘atmosphere of intimacy’ created by these could emphasize the aura of majesty and give the visitor — if he managed to gain admittance — the impression of entering into the sphere of the arcana imperii. This impression was underlined by decorations or collections of curiosa and works of art which […] reinforced the feeling that mortals were inadequate to understand the mysterious ways of their god-like rulers.71 The deliberate exclusion from full understanding, the manipulation of ambiguity, was part of the construction of power relationships as were the limitations imposed upon physical access. This idea of restricting access to knowledge as an active part of constructing identity has only recently been developed in the historiography of this period. William O’Reilly has explored the application to the early modern period of ‘what Peter Galison has called “antiepistemology”, the study of non-knowledge or the art of how knowledge is deflected, covered and obscured’.72 We should examine, according to O’Reilly, the nature of non-knowledge and the political and social practices embedded in the effort to suppress or to kindle endless new forms of ambiguity and ignorance […] not merely as an accidental or deliberate impediment to, or precursor of, knowledge, but as a productive force in and of itself73 and its role in allowing, in McGoey’s words, ‘both governors and the governed to deny awareness of things it is not in their interest to acknowledge’.74 O’Reilly
70 Ronald G. Asch, ‘The Princely Court and Political Space in Early Modern Europe’, in Beat Kümin (ed.), Political Space in Pre-Industrial Europe (London: Routledge, 2009), pp. 43-60. 71 Asch, ‘The Princely Court and Political Space in Early Modern Europe’, pp. 49-50. 72 William O’Reilly, ‘Non-Knowledge and Decision Making: The Challenge for the Historian’, in Cornel Zwierlein (ed.), The Dark Side of Knowledge: Histories of Ignorance, 1400–1800 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2016), pp. 397-419 (p. 401). See P. Galison, ‘Removing Knowledge’, Critical Inquiry, 31 (2004), 229-43. 73 O’Reilly, ‘Non-Knowledge’, p. 401. 74 See L. McGoey, ‘Strategic Unknowns: Towards a Sociology of Ignorance’, Economy and Society, 41 (1) (2012), 1-16, p. 4.
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notes how ‘On most occasions knowledge remains restricted to certain members or groups in society’, which he refers to as the ‘societal isolation of knowledge’.75 Ultimately, O’Reilly argues that mechanisms for controlling access to knowledge ‘assure that societies in the past adapted to changing reality without endangering a shared identity’.76 This ‘societal isolation of knowledge’, the inclusion of references and classical allusions intended to be understood only by certain attendees, or the deliberate ambiguity of symbolism allowing for different parties to draw different meanings, is exactly what took place at festival occasions. The entire populace of cities, visiting retinues, the readership of various forms of accounts, those who created or interacted with the associated material culture, as well as members of the court, engaged on some level with the multisensory, all-encompassing proceedings of festival occasions. These various participants did not, of course, engage on an equal level of participation and understanding in all elements of proceedings. Yet this was not a failure of festival occasions, but a deliberate ‘politics of access’, a ‘societal isolation of knowledge’; a means of inclusion and exclusion which could be manipulated in different contexts in order to serve the purposes of the occasion — to enable and mediate the participation of different actors and social groups with different agenda and predispositions. The Holy Roman Empire, Festival, and Identity As Wallace Ferguson has eloquently put it, ‘If the historian is to interpret the past at all, he must have a point of view, but he may come closer to objectivity if the point of view is consciously recognised, and not regarded as absolute’.77 This book is unavoidably concerned with ‘timeless’ and ongoing questions about tolerance and intolerance, about how societies and ‘states’ have dealt with confessional differences, the implications of religious diversity for senses of identity, and about the meanings of the concepts of ‘nations’ and of ‘states’. These are themes which are pertinent to the political and social issues facing western societies today. At a time when the legitimacy of existing political structures is being challenged at national and international level (seen vividly in the events surrounding the ‘Brexit’ vote and associated questioning of the European Union), when established intellectual, commercial, and political elites are being rejected (as can be seen, for instance, in Donald Trump’s Presidential Campaign in the United States), it is important to understand how political structures have been legitimated, even in the absence of advanced state structures as was the case in the Holy Roman
75 O’Reilly, ‘Non-Knowledge’, p. 405. 76 O’Reilly, ‘Non-Knowledge’, p. 404. 77 Wallace C. Ferguson, The Renaissance in Historical Thought (1948), as quoted in David Cannadine, ‘The Present and the Past in the English Industrial Revolution 1880–1980’, Past & Present, 103 (1984), 131-72 (172).
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Empire.78 To what extent is charismatic leadership sufficient to claim authority? What is the role of different textual and visual media, and of censorship in this? Furthermore, in diverse societies, it is important to understand how a sense of common identity can be established in support of political structures, how potential sources of division, including religious and cultural differences, can be overcome. How can individuals be brought to invest collectively in the idea of the nation, or broader frameworks of belonging? Legitimacy and identity are a performance, and the study of festivals in a historical context can be informative about how this can function within societies. The research supporting this present work is not exhaustive. There are limitations to the scope of the present research, and there are numerous further potential avenues of investigation connected to the issues explored within this work relating to the creation of identity in the early modern period both within the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and more globally. Indeed, what is presented here is an original approach to the study of these themes and a broad argument formed on the basis of it. It is an interpretation which is inevitably imperfect as is the evidence on which it is based. Yet the deconstruction of history cannot be an endless process. Without the imposition of interpretive frameworks leading to arguments, imperfectly substantiated though they may be, this process would simply lead back to where it started, to an endless volume of disconnected sources, an unintelligible mass, when the role of the historian is to analyse the past and thus render it intelligible and comprehensible. The study of history could be said to consist of answering two fundamental questions: the first is ‘How do we know?’, the second ‘Why does it matter?’. Too often the temptation is to deconstruct the past endlessly and thus to answer only the first of these questions. Yet unless and until one attempts to reconstruct the past, to martial the evidence into a coherent whole, one cannot claim to answer the latter question. This is the difference between a student of anatomy dissecting a body, reducing it down to its component parts, and a surgeon who must open the body, remedy the particular issue which they have set out to address on that occasion, and then close the patient up again. So one might think of historical investigations as treating the living organism of historical knowledge. Of course, there will always be remaining blemishes and imperfections, even surgical scars, due to our inability to attain seamless methodological perfection, but we need to be like the surgeon, to close the patient up as best we can after each operation, to keep the organism functioning, maturing, and thriving. To study court festivals with this emphasis on identity, to approach political questions of state formation through the lens of cultural history in this manner, is complex. There are difficulties of interpretation, and it is ultimately impossible to recreate fully the realities of festival occasions, together with their reception 78 Professor Todd Gitlin of Columbia University attributed Donald Trump’s popularity to ‘the erosion of […] nets of belonging’, speaking on BBC Radio 4, Michael Goldfarb ‘Trump’s Loyal Army’, broadcast Wednesday 2 November 2016 at 11am, quote at 18:47-18:51 of the broadcast [accessed 01 March 2020]
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by participants and audiences. Working with these sources in this manner requires a degree of methodological flexibility and borrowing from related disciplines — from the history of material culture, anthropology, sociology, to name a few — as discussed earlier in the introduction to this work. However, it is an approach to the study of festival which will prove fruitful. This present work is an attempt to sketch out a way in which it might be done and to draw some provisional conclusions in the case of the Holy Roman Empire. It cannot be done by ignoring ‘political’ history in order to privilege ‘cultural’ history, by attempting to exclude the political from its analysis or by seeing the Holy Roman Empire as an entity formed solely on the basis of culture and spectacle. Rather, these questions must be approached in conjunction with the political history of the Empire being advanced by historians such as Whaley, Asch, and Georg Schmidt.79 After all, this is how states were formed in early modern Europe. It is clearly too much to say that advanced nation states with highly developed central structures existed at this time, just as it is also too much to deny the moves towards structural institutionalization which were being made and to say that states were only held as collective fictions with no political reality. The Holy Roman Empire was neither a ‘collective fiction’ nor a nation state. It was, however, an Empire with a sufficiently flexible and evolving political structure, reinforced by a sufficiently pervasive sense of historicity, to enable apparently disparate groups, in their own ways and for their own reasons, to ascribe to shared notions of identity even in an era of contested political legitimacy. States functioned by the combination of culturally created and nurtured notions of belonging, of identity, sitting alongside nascent state forms, though these varied in different geographical regions of early modern Europe. To unravel these aspects of the past is impossible, which is why approaches to the past cannot choose just one strand of the interwoven pattern either. As one thread of this pattern is tweaked, so a new overall image is created, disrupted, or clarified. Scholars of early modern court festivals must not simply take the political history of the period as read and view these occasions through an unchallenged narrative of the historical context, but rather use these rich sources to interact, in dialogue, with the large questions associated with early modern states.
79 See Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire; Asch, The Thirty Years War; Georg Schmidt, ‘Das Reich und die deutsche Kulturnation’, in Heinz Schilling, Werner Heun and Jutta Götzmann (eds), Heiliges Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation 962 bis 1806: Altes Reich und neue Staaten 1495 bis 1806 (Dresden: Sandstein, 2006), pp. 105-16.
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Primary Manuscript Sources Flexel, Lienhart, Ordeliche Beschreibüng deβ Füerstlichen Herren Schiesen mitt dem Stachel deβ gehalten hatt der Dürchleüchtig Hochgeboren Füerst vnd Herr, Herr Christoff vonn Gottes genaden, Hörtzog zue Wüerttemberg vnnd zue Teckh, graff zue Mumppelgartt/ Wass füer Chur vnnd Füersten, Frawen vnnd Herren, Ritterschafft vnnd Adel. Stett vnnd Fenckhen den Drey vnnd zwaintzigisten Septembris Anno inn Sechtzigisten zu Stuettgarten im Lanndt Wüerttemberg gehalten, erkennen vnnd erschÿnnen, alles im Keyeren vnd gedicht verfast dürch Liennhartt Flexel von Augspurg Wie alle fäch darob erganngen ist von Anfang biss zum Endt Wie Hernach Volgett (Augsburg: 1560) Summary of Negotiations between Bavaria and Jülich-Cleves-Berg dated 12th August 1582, Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen, Abteilung Rheinland (Duisburg), AA 0031 Jülich-Berg II Nr. 1994
Primary Printed Sources Abbildung und Repræsentation Der Fürstlichen Inventionen, Auffzüge Ritter-Spiel auch Ballet, So in des Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herren Herren Johann Georgen Fürsten zu Anhalt Grafen zu Ascanien Herrn zu Zerbst und Bernburg etc. Fürstlichem Hofflager zu Dessa Bey des auch Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herren Herrn GEORG RUDOLPH Hertzogen in Schlesien zur Liegnitz und zum Brieg Mit der Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin unnd Fraw Fraw SOPHIA ELISABETH Hertzogin in Schlesien zur Lignitz und zum Brieg Geboren Fürstin zu Anhalt Gräfin zu Ascanien etc. Hochzeitlichem Frewdenfest und Fürstlichem Beylager den 27. und drauff folgende Tage Octobris Anno 1614. mit Fürstlicher Magnificentz und Herrligkeit seyn gebracht und gehalten worden. Sambt den dazu gehörigen Cartellen Impresen versen und Kupfferstücken. Zu Leiptzig In Henning Grosen des ältern Buchh. Druckerey und auff seinen Vorlag vorfertiget. Anno M. DC. XV. (Leipzig: Henning Grosse, 1615), trans. by Anna Linton, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 92-95 Allyne, Robert, TEARES OF IOY SHED At the happy departure from Great Britaine, of the two Paragons of the Christian world. FREDERICKE and ELIZABETH, Prince, and Princesse Palatines of Rhine, Duke and Dutches of Bauaria, &c. (London: Nicholas Oakes for Thomas Archer, 1613)
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Arthus, Gotard, Electio et coronatio sereniss. potentiss. et invictiss. principis […] Matthiae I. electi rom. imperat. semper augusti etc. eiusq. sereniss. coniugis Annae Austriacae etc. (Frankfurt-am-Main: Theodor de Bry, 1612) Assum, Johann-Augustin [Charitinus Philopatris], Warhaffte Relation und Historischer Politischer Höfflicher Discours Uber Dess Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herren Herren Johann Friderichen Hertzogen zu Würtemberg und Teck […] Jungen Sohns Printz Friderichen angestelter […] Kind Tauff: sampt darbey begangnem […] Ritterlichem Frewden Fest zu Stuttgardten […] (Stuttgart: J. W. Rösslin & J. A. Cellius, 1616), trans. by Anna Linton, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 96-101 Aygentliche Beschreibung Aller Frewden unnd Ritterspiell Ringelrennen auch anderer Kurtzweilen unnd gantzen ansehenlichen Apparatus und Pomp so bey Dem Fürstlichen Beylager deβ Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten unnd Herrn Herrn Johans Georgen Marggraffen zu Brandenburg in Preussen zu Stettin Pommern der Cassuben und Wenden Auch in Schlesien zu Cassen und Jägerndorff etc. Hertzogen Burggrafens zu Nürnberg und Fürsten zu Rügen Und Seiner Fürstl: Gn: geliebtester Gespons Der Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin und Fr: Fr: Eva Christina, Geborner Hertzogin zu Würtemberg Gräfin zu Mümpelgarth etc. In Seiner Fürstl: Gn: Hofresidentz der Statt Jägerndorff in Schlesien gantz herrlich zierlich und glücklich fürüber gangen und vollendet worden. Gedruckt zu Kempten bey Christoff Krausen. Anno 1610. (Kempten: Christoff Krausen, 1610), trans. by Anna Linton, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 74-79 Bebel, Heinrich, ‘Oration in Praise of Germany, Given before Maximilian I (1501)’, trans. by Gerald Strauss, in Gerald Strauss, Manifestations of Discontent in Germany on the Eve of the Reformation (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971), pp. 64-72 Beschreibung Der Reiβ: Empfahung deβ Ritterlichen Ordens: Vollbringung des Heyraths: und glücklicher Heimführung: Wie auch der ansehnlichen Einführung: gehaltener Ritterspiel und Frewdenfests: Des Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herrn Herrn Friederichen deβ Fünften Pfaltzgraven bey Rhein deβ Heiligen Römischen Reichs Ertztruchsessen und Churfürsten Hertzogen in Bayern etc. Mit der auch Durchleuchtigsten Hochgebornen Fürstin und Königlichen Princessin Elisabethen deβ Groβmechtigsten Herrn Hernn IACOBI deβ Ersten Königs in GroβBritannien Einigen Tochter. Mit schönen Kupfferstücken gezieret. In Gotthardt Vögelins Verlag. Anno 1613. ([Heidelberg]: Gotthardt Vögelin, 1613), trans. by Anna Linton, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 80-91 Brown, Horatio F. (ed.), Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts, Relating to English Affairs, Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice, and in other libraries of Northern Italy, 38 vols (London: Mackie and Co. LD., 1897–1940), vol. 12 (1905) Buchanan, George, De Iure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus (1579), ed. and trans. by Roger A. Mason and Martin S. Smith (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004)
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Calvin, Jean, Institutio Christianae Religionis (1536–1559), in Harro Höpfl (ed. and trans.), Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 47-86 Campion, Thomas, A RELATION OF THE LATE ROYALL ENTERTAINMENT GIVEN BY THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE LORD KNOVVLES, AT CawsomeHouse neere Redding: to our most Gracious Queene, Queene ANNE, in her Progresse toward the Bathe vpon the seuen and eight and twentie dayes of Aprill. 1613. Whereunto is annexed the Description, Speeches, and Songs of the Lords Maske, presented in the Banquetting-house on the Marriage night of the High and Mightie, COVNT PALATINE, and the Royally descended the Ladie ELIZABETH. (London: Printed [by William Stansby] for John Budge, 1613) Celtis, Conrad, ‘Public Oration Delivered in the University of Ingolstadt’, in Leonard Foster (ed. and trans.), Selections from Conrad Celtis 1459–1508 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1948), pp. 38-65 Frischlin, Jakob, Beschreibung deβ Fürstlichen Apparatus, Königlichen Auffzugs/ Heroischen Ingressus vnd Herrlicher Pomp vnd Solennitet: Mit welcher/ auff gnädige Verordnung Deβ dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnd Herrn/ Herrn Friderichen/ Hertzogen zu Würtenberg vnd Teck/ Grafen zu Mümpelgart/ Herrn zu Heydenheym: Ritter beyder Königlichen Orden in Franckreich vnd Engellandt: In der Faβnacht Mannliche vnnd Ritterliche Thurnier vnnd Ringrennen/ gehalten worden: Sampt einem stattlichen vnd wunderbarlichen Feuwerwerck/ dergleichen zuvor niemals gesehen noch gehöret: In Gegenwart etliche Fürsten/ Grafen/ Herrn/ Ritter vnd vom Adel/ Hochlöblichen/ Fürstlichen/ Adelichen Frauwenzimmer: Auch der Ehrwürdigen/ hoch vnd wolgelehrten Herren Prælaten in Würtenberg/ vnd Versammlung einer Ehrsamen Landischafft/ Mit gnädiger Bewilligung vnd Vorwissen Ihrer F.G. zur ewigen Gedächtnuβ/ der Posteritet publiciert. Durch M. IACOBVM FRISCHLINVM BALINGENSEM: POETAM ET HISTOricum Wirtenbergicum. Gedruckt zu Franckfurt am Mayn/ durch Joachim Brathering/ Im Jahr 1602. (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1602) Gebwiler, Hieronymus, Libertas Germaniae (Augsburg: Scotus, 1519) GRATVLATORIA CARMINA AD ILLVSTRISSIMVM ET GENEROSISSIMVM PRINCIPEM ET DOminum D. GEORGIVM FRIDERICVM Marchionem Brandenburgensem, Inclytum Boruβiæ, Stetini, Pomeraniæ, Cassubiorum, Vandalorum & in Iegerndorff, Silesiæ Ducem &c. Burggrauium Noribergensem ac Rugiæ principem &c. Cum Illustriβima Coniuge SOPHIA, Ducissa Lunæburgensi &c. Vrbem Vitebergam feliciter ingressum, debitæ Gratitudinis ergo scripta. Anno 1579. die 14 Augusti. (Wittenberg: Haeredes Johannis Cratonis, 1579) Harrison, John, A SHORT RELATION OF The departure of the high and mightie Prince Frederick King Elect of Bohemia: with his royall & vertuous Ladie Elizabeth; And the thryse hopefull yong Prince Henrie, from Heydelberg towards Prague, to receiue the Crowne of that Kingdome. Whearvnto is annexed the Solempnitie or manner of the Coronation. Translated out of dutch. And now both togither published (with other reasons, and iustifications) to giue satisfaction to the world, as touching the ground, and truth, of his Ma[ies]ties proceedings, & vndertaking of that Kingdome of Bohemia: lawfully and freelie Elected, by the generall consent of the States, not ambitiouslie aspiring thearvnto. As also to encourage all other noble & heroicall spirits (especiallie our owne
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nation, whom in honour it first and chieffelie concerneth) by prerogative of that high, and soveraigne Title, hæreditarie to our Kings & Princes: defendees of the faith to the lyke Christian resolution, against Antichrist and his Adhærents. Si Deus nobiscum quis contranos. (Dort: George Waters, 1619) Hulsen, Esaias von, Aigentliche Wahrhaffte Delineatiō vnnd Abbildung aller Fürstlichen Auffzüg vnd Rütterspilen. Beÿ Deβ Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnnd Herren, Herren Johann Friderichen Hertzogen zü Württemberg vnnd Teck. Graven zü Montpelgart Herren zü Haydenhaim. Iro: F: Jungen Printzen vnd Sohns Hertzog Vlrichen wohlangestellter Fürstlichen Kindtauff: vnd dann beÿ Hochermelt Iro: F: G: geliebten Herren Brüoders. Deβ auch Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürsten vnd Herren Herren Ludwigen Friderichen Hertzogen zü Württemberg. Mit der Dürchleüchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin vnd Fräwlin Fraw Magdalena Elisabetha Landtgraffin auβ Hessen. Fürstlichem Beÿlager vnd Hochzeÿtlichem Frewdenfest Celebrirt vnd gehaltten. In der Fürstlichen Haüptstatt Stüetgartt. Den 13.14.15.16. vnnd 17. Iulij Anno 1617. (Stuttgart: Esaias von Hulsen, 1617) Jocquet, D., Les triomphes, entrees, cartels, tournois, ceremonies, et autres magnificences faites en Angleterre, [et] au Palatinat, pour lr mariage & reception de Monsieur le Prince Frederic V. Comte Palatin du Rhin, Electeur du Sainct Empire, Duc de Baviere &c. et de Madame Elizabeth, fille unique et princesse de la Grande Bretagne, Elactrice Palatine du Rhin &c. son espouse (Heidelberg: Gotthard Vögelin, 1613) Lassus, Orlande de, PATROCINIVM MVSICES ORLANDI DE LASSO, Illustriss. Ducis Bauariæ, Chori Magistri, OFFICIA ALIQVOT, DE præcipuis Festis Anni, 5. vocum. Nunc primum in lucem editæ. Illustriss: Principis D. GVILHELMI Comitis Palatini Rheni, vtriusque Bauariæ Ducis, liberalitate in lucem editum Monachij excudebat (Munich: Adam Berg, 1574) Lazius, Wolfgang, De gentium aliquot migrationibus: sedibus fixis, reliquis, linguarumque initiis & immutationibus ac dialectis (Basel: Johannes Oporinus, 1557) Luther, Martin, Von Weltlicher Oberkeit (1523), in Harro Höpfl (ed. and trans.), Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 3-43 Machaud, Jean-Baptiste, Eloges et discours sur la triomphante Reception du Roy en sa ville de Paris, apres la Reduction de la Rochelle, Accompagnez des Figures, tant des Arcs de Triomphe, que des autres preparatifs (Paris: Pierre Rocolet, 1629), trans. by MarieClaude Canova-Green, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 154-81 Maxwell, James, A MONVMENT of Remembrance, ERECTED IN ALBION, IN HONOR OF THE MAGNIFICENT DEPARTVRE FROM BRITANNIE, and honorable receiuing in GERMANY, namely at HEIDELBERGE, of the two most Noble Princes FREDERICKE, First Prince of the Imperiall bloud, sprung from glorious Charlemaigne, Count Palatine of Rhine, Duke of Bauier, Elector and Arch-sewer of the holy Romane Empire, and Knight of the Renowned order of the GARTER. & ELIZABETH INFANTA of ALBION, Princesse PALATINE, and Dutchesse of BAVIER, the onely Daughter of our most gratious and Soueraigne Lord CHARLES- IAMES, and of his most Noble and vertuous Wife, Queene ANNE. Both of them being almost in one and the same degree of lineall descent from 25 Emperours of the East and West, of Romanes, Greekes, and Germans, and from 30 Kings of diuers countries. (London: N. Okes for H. Bell, 1613)
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———, An English-Royall Pedegree: Common to the two most Noble Princes Lately Maried. FRIDERICK, first Prince of the Imperiall, blood sprung from glorious Charle-Magne, Count palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bauier, Elector and Arch-Sewer of the holy Romaine Empire, & knight of the renowned order of the Garter. and ELIZABETH, Infanta of Albion, Princesse Palatine, Dutchesse of Bauier, the onely Daughter of our most gracious King Iames and Qu[e]ene Anne. Being both of them in one, and the same degree of lineall descent from Edward the Third, the victorious King of England. (London: Edward Allde for Henry Gosson, 1613) Mayer, Johann, COMPENDIVM, Das ist/ Kurtzer Bericht/ wie der Durchleuchtigist Fürst vnnd Herr/ Herr Maximilianus/ Pfaltzgraue bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Obern vnd Nidern Bayern/ etc. Ir Fürstlichen Durchl. Ertzhertzog von Grätz vnnd Oesterreich/ sambt seinem Hochgeliebten Gmahel/ vnd Fraw Mutter/ auch andern Geschwistern entgegen gezogen/ vnd in die Fürstl. Hauptstat München den 30. Augusti/ Anno 1607. einbeleitet. Sambt kurtzer Erzehlung der vberauβ grossen Pancket/ darinn 19. Fürstenpersonen bey einander gewesen. Weitter wird angezeigt/ alle Kurtzweil vnd Freudenspiel/ als Tragedi/ Fechtschuelen/ Geiaider/ Vogelschiessen/ so in vnd ausser der Statt seynd gehalten worden. Durch Johan Mayer/ Teutschen Poeten vnd Burgern in München. Gedruckt zu München bey Adam Berg. ANNO M.DC.VII. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1607) Meddus, James, A SERMON Preached before the two high borne and illustrious Princes, FREDERICKE the 5. PRINCE ELECTOR PALATINE, DVKE OF BAVARIA, &c. And the Princesse Lady ELIZABETH, &c. Preached in the Castle-Chappell at HEIDELBERG the 8. of Iune 1613. being the next day after her Highnesse happy arriuall there: By that reuerend and iudicious Diuine, Mr ABRAHAM SCVLTETVS, his Highnesse Chaplaine. Together with a short narration of the Prince Electors greatnes, his Country, his receiuing of her Highnesse. accompanied with twe[l]u[e] other Princes, thirty Earles, besides an exceeding great number of Barons and Gentlemen, and eight daies ent[e]rtainment. Translated out of High Dutch by IA MEDDVS D. and one of hi[s] Maiesties Chap[la]ines. (London: John Beale for William Welby, 1613) Morel, Horace, Sujet du Feu d’Artifice, sur la Prise de la Rochelle que Morel doit faire pour l’arrivée du Roy sur la Seine, devant le Louvre (Paris: C. Son et P. Bail, 1628), trans. by Marie-Claude Canova-Green, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 182-85 Oettinger, Johann, Fürstlicher Würtembergischer Ritterlicher Pomp und Solennität: mit welcher […] Friderich Hertzog zu Würtemberg und Teck […] den Könn. Englischen Ritters Orden Dess Hosenbands […] An S. Georgentag den 23. Aprilis […] 1605. In […] Stuttgart celebriert und begangen hat. (Stuttgart: G. Grieb, 1607), trans. by Anna Linton, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 54-57 ———, Wahrhaffte Historische Beschreibung Der Fürstlichen Hochzeit und des Hochansehnlichen Beylagers So Der Durchleuchtig Hochgeborn Fürst und Herr Herr Johann Friderich Hertzog zu Würtemberg und Teck Grave zu Mümpelgart Herr zu Haydenhaim etc. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornen Fürstin unnd Frewlin Frewlin Barbara Sophia Marggrävin zu Brandenburg in Preussen zu Stettin Pomern
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der Cassuben unnd Wenden auch zu Crossen und Jägerndorff in Schlesien, Hertzogin Burggrävin zu Nürnberg und Fürstin zu Rügen etc. In der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgardten Anno 1609. den 6. Novembris und etliche hernach volgende Tag Celebriert und gehalten hat: Darinnen alle Fürsten Fürstine und Frewlin: Graven Herren und vom Adel: Auch der abwesenden König: Chur: Fürsten unnd Stände Abgesandte so dieser Hochzeit beygewohnt verzeichnet: Darzu alle darbey gehaltene Ritterspihl Ring-rennen Turnier Auffzüg Fewerwerck und alle andere kurtzweil in dreyen underschiedlichen Büchern eigentlich und gründlich beschriben und mit lustigen Kupfferstücken Abgebildet werden. Durch M. Johann Oettingern Fürstl. Würtembergischen Geographum und Renovatorem. Gedruckt in der Fürstlichen Haubtstatt Stuttgart. Anno 1610 (Stuttgart: G. Grieb, 1610), trans. by Anna Linton, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 58-73 Peacham, Henry, THE PERIOD OF Mourning. Disposed into sixe VISIONS. In Memorie of the late Prince. TOGETHER VVith Nuptiall Hymnes, in Honour of this Happy Marriage between the Great PRINCES, FREDERICK Count Palatine of the RHENE, AND The Most Excellent, and Aboundant President of all VIRTVE and GOODNES ELIZABETH onely Daughter to our Soueraigne, his MAIESTIE. Also the manner of the Solemnization of the Marriage at White-Hall, on the 14. of February, being Sunday, and St Valentines day. (London: T. S. for John Helme, 1613) Relation de ce qui s’est passé à l’Entrée de la Reyne en la Ville de la Rochelle. Au mois de Novembre mil six cens trente-deux (La Rochelle: Mathurin Charruyer, 1633), trans. by Marie-Claude Canova-Green, in J. R. Mulryne, Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly and Margaret Shewring (eds), Europa Triumphans: Court and Civic Festivals in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), vol. 2, pp. 186-231 Römischer Künigklicher Maies. Krönung zu Ach geschehe (Augsburg: Sigmund Grimm and Marx Wirsung, 1520) Schrot, Martin, Wappenbuch des Heiligen Römischen Reichs/ vnd allgemainer Christenheit in Europa/ insonderheit des Teutschen Keyserthumbs/ an vnd zugehörige Chur vnd Fürstenthumb/ auch Ertz vnd gemaine Bischoffe: Deβgleichen andere Abbt vnd Prelåten/ Graff vnd Herrschafften/ sambt den Freyen Reichs Stetten/ souil deren von alters her bey dem Reich gewest/ vnd sich darzu bekent haben. Daneben auch der Geistliche Stand/ als des Apostolischen Stuls zu Rom/ Patriarchen/ Cardinal/ Ertz vnd gemaine Bistumben/ in den Königreichen Frankreich/ Hispanien/ Engelland/ Schottland/ Schweden/ Dennmarck/ Polland/ Griechenland/ sambt Italien/ vnd was mehr für Christliche Königreich vnd Landschafften der Christenheit zugethan/ vnd dann auch die Vniuersiteten oder Hohenschulen inn gantz Europa/ sambt derselbigen Lobsprüch vnd aigenschafften. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1580) Taylor, John, Heauens Blessing, And Earths Ioy. OR A true relation, of the supposed Sea-fights & Fire-workes, as were accomplished, before the Royall Celebration, of the al-beloved Mariage, of the two peerlesse Paragons of Christendome, FREDERICKE & ELIZABETH. With Triumphall Encomiasticke Verses, consecrated to the Immortall memory of those happy and blessed Nuptials. (London: [By E. Allde] for Joseph Hunt, 1613)
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THE MAGNIFICENT, Princely, and most Royall Entertainments giuen to the High and Mightie Prince, and Princesse, FREDERICK, Count Palatine, Palsgraue of the Rhyne: and ELIZABETH, sole Daughter to the High and Mighty King of England, Iames, our Soueraigne Lord. TOGETHER WITH A true Relation of all the Gifts, Presentations, Showes, Pageants, Fire-workes, and other sumptuous Triumphs in euery place where the said Princes were lodged, and receiued, after their Landing vpon the Coasts of GERMANY. (London: [Thomas Snodham] for Nathaniel Butter, 1613) The marriage of the tvvo great Princes, Fredericke Count-palatine, &c: and the Lady Elizabeth, daughter to the Imperial Maiesties of King Iames and Queene Anne vpon Shroue-Sonday last. With the shows and fire-workes vpon the water: as also the masks & reuells, in his Highnes court of White-Hall. (London: Thomas Creede for William Barley, 1613) Wagner, Hans, Kurtze doch gegründte beschreibung des Durchleuchtigen Hochgebornnen Fürsten vnnd Herren/ Herren Wilhalmen/ Pfaltzgrauen bey Rhein/ Hertzogen inn Obern vnd Nidern Bairen/ etc. Vnd derselben geliebsten Gemahel/ der Durchleuchtigisten Hochgebornnen Fürstin/ Frewlein Renata gebornne Hertzogin zu Lottringen vnd Parr/ etc. gehalten Hochzeitlichen Ehren Fests. Auch welcher gestalt die darauff geladnen Potentaten vnd Fürsten Personlich/ oder durch ire abgesandte Potschafften erschinen. Vnd dann was für Herrliche Ritterspil/ zu Roβ vnd Fueβ/ mit Thurnieren/ Rennen vnd Stechen. Neben andern vil ehrlichen kurtzweilen mit grossen freuden/ Triumph vnd kostligkait/ in der Fürstlichen Haubtstat München gehalten worden sein/ den zwenvndzwaintzigisten vnd nachuolgende tag Februarij/ Im 1568. Jar. (Munich: Adam Berg, 1568) Wapnewski, Peter, Walther von der Vogelweide: Gedichte (Frankfurt-am-Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1991) Warhafftige Beschreibung/ deβ Einzugs vnd Crönung zu Praag. Hertzog Friederichen/ von Gottes Gnaden/ gekrönter König in Böhmen/ Pfaltz Graff bey Rhein/ des Heiligen Römischen Reichs ErzTruchseβ vnd ChurFürst/ Herzog in Beyern/ MargGraff zu Mähren/ Herzog in Schlesien/ MargGraff zu Ober vnd NiederLauβniβ. Geschehen den 21. vnd 25. Octobris Altes Calenders. Gedruckt zu Praag/ Im JahrChristi M.DC.XIX. (Prague: [n. pub.], 1619) Weckherlin, Georg Rudolf, TRIVMPHALL SHEVVS Set forth lately at Stutgart. WRITTEN First in German, and now in English BY G. Rodolfe Weckherlin, Secretarie to the Duke of Wirtemberg. (Stuttgart: John-Wyrich Resslin, 1616) ———, Kurtze Beschreibung/ Deβ zu Stutgarten/ bey den Fürstlichen Kindtauf vnd Hochzeit/ Jüngst-gehaltenen Frewden-Fests (Tübingen: Dieterich Werlin, 1618) Zimmermann, Wilhelm Peter, Beschreibung vnd kurtze Radierte entwerffung der Fürstlichen Hochzeit/ So Der Durchleuchtig/ vnd Hochgeborn Fürst vnd Herr/ Herr Wolffgang Wilhelm/ Pfaltzgraff bey Rhein/ Hertzog in Bayrn/ Gülch/ Cleue vnd Berg/ Graf zu Veldentz vnd Sponhaim. Mit Der auch Durchleuchtigstin vnd hochgebornen Fürstin Fraw Magdalena/ Pfaltzgräfin bey Rhein/ Hertzogin in Obern vnd Nidern Bayrn. Zu München/ im sechzehenhundert vnd dreyzehenden Jahr/ den zwölfften Nouembris Celebriert vnd gehalten. Ins Werck versetzt/ durch Wilhelm Peter Zimmerman/ ins Kupffer Geradiert zu Augspurg. 1614. (Augsburg: Wilhelm Peter Zimmermann, 1614)
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Index
Aachen: 37, 43 n. 114, 50, 208 Achilles. See Friedrich Achilles Adam (biblical): 98, 131 Aeneas, heroic figure of GrecoRoman mythology married in Virgil’s Aeneid (written 29–19 BC) to Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus: 49 n. 17, 56 n. 46, 48, 49, 171 Africans: 124 air (element): 135, 150, 182, 182 n. 45 Albrecht V (1528–1579), Duke of Bavaria (from 1550), m. Anna of Austria (1546): 39, 74, 74 n. 26, 86, 86 n. 68, 89, 89 n. 84, 103, 171, 173, 195, 195 n. 94. See also Anna of Austria Alexander the Great (356–323 BC), King of Macedon (from 336 BC): 19, 53, 54 Algiers: 185, 192 Alps: 141, 141 n. 123 Altötting, Bavaria: 151 Amanti, Andrea (1505–1577), luthier and celebrated violin maker of Cremona, Italy: 172 Amazons, tribe of warrior women in Greek mythology: 83 ambassador(s): 118, 118 n. 30, 170, 178, 179, 182, 193, 193 n. 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 194, 194 n. 89, 90, 207 amber: 182, 182 n. 45 America: 27, 27 n. 49, 97, 113, 113 n. 9, 125 n. 68, 126, 126 n. 71, 135, 176 American: 28 n. 50, 50 n. 23, 126 n. 71, 135, 191, 195 n. 102 American Indian: 126 n. 71 Americas: 21, 21 n. 22, 127 n. 76, 191 n. 74
Amman, Jost (1539–1591), artist and woodcut maker, born in Zürich and citizen of Nuremberg from 1560: 183 Andromeda, Greek mythological figure saved from being sacrificed to a sea monster by Perseus: 98, 134 Anhalt, Christian of (1568–1630), Bohemian commander, Battle of White Mountain (1620): 140 Anna of Austria (1528–1590), daughter of Emperor Ferdinand I and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary, sister of Archduke Ferdinand II, m. Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria (1546): 76, 76 n. 25, 77, 77 n. 27, 170. See also Albrecht V Anne of Austria (1601–1666), Spanish princess, Austrian archduchess of the House of Habsburg, m. Louis XIII of France (1615–1643): 80 Anne (Anna) of Denmark (1574– 1619), wife of James IV of Scotland, I of England: 57 n. 52, 58 n. 53, 118 n. 29, 134 n. 97, 184 n. 57, 192 Ansbach: 40, 170 Antioch: 192, 192 n. 80 Antwerp: 159 Apocalypse: 183 horseman of: 183. See also Dürer Apollo, Olympian deity, Sun god (aka Phoebus): 54, 54 n. 39, 140, 180 Arabian coasts: 182 arch(es): 42 n. 113, 63, 83, 102, 121, 140, 141, 148, 163, 209, 211. See also ephemeral arch(es) architecture: 26, 41, 220. See also ephemeral architecture
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Argonauts, Greek mythological heroes who accompanied Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece: 53, 56, 99 artificial horses: cover, 109. See also costume horses Arius (c. 256–336 AD), theologian at the heart of the Arian controversy about Christology which was addressed at the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD): 165 Arminius (c. 18/16 BC–AD 19/21), ancient German hero who defeated three Roman legions under Varus at Teutoburg Forest (AD 9): 61, 62, 64, 65, 166, 200, 205 armour: 38, 62, 81 n. 49, 89, 94, 95, 130, 215 Ascension: 162 Asia: 206 Assum, Johann Augustin (1577–1634), pseud. Charitinus Philopatris, court poet in Stuttgart: 65 n. 83-87 astrolabes: 131 Athena (Pallas Athena), Greek goddess, patron of Athens: 84, 140 Atlantic: 114, 124 n. 67 Augsburg: 37, 45, 46, 47, 48, 81, 130, 140, 163, 170 Diet of (1530): 164 Peace of (1555): 17, 145, 163, 164, 199 peace festivals: 208, 218 Reichstag at (1495): 15 August(us) (1526–1586), Elector of Saxony (from 1553): 131 Austria: 40, 46, 59, 67 n. 97, 68, 80, 89, 98, 104, 129 n. 81, 136, 170, 171, 172, 206 n. 23, 215; Further Austria: 46, 215; Inner Austria, 104; Upper Austria, 187. See also Österreich Austria, House of: 64, 193 Bacchanalia, Roman festival and cult of Bacchus: 215 Bacchus Grotto at Schloss Ambras, Insbruck: 215. See also drinking test Bacchus, Priestess of: 215
Baden: 80, 196 Baden-Durlach: 40 Baldung Grien (or Grun), Hans (1484–1545), German artist in painting and printmaking, student of Albrecht Dürer: 38 Balkans: 127 ballets: 22, 87, 92, 92 n. 87, 124, 127, 134, 135 n. 100, 139 n. 139 & 141. See also equestrian ballet ballet de cour: 87, 87 n. 74 & 75, 104 n. 139 & 141 banquet(s): 47, 74, 78, 101, 103, 150, 151, 173, 176, 208 banqueting hall/room: 68, 75, 94 Banqueting House: 29 baptism: 116, 136 Barbara Sophia (1584–1636), Margravine of Brandenburg, m. Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg (1609): 26, 27 n. 47, 40, 61 n. 72, 62, 64 n. 57, 94, 120, 120 n. 39, 121, 122, 124, 180, 180 n. 40, 200, 200 n. 2. See also Johann Friedrich, Duke of Würtemberg and Teck barbarian: 185 barbarians: 127, 177, 185 barbaric cultures: 124 Barbary pirates: 192, 204 Baronius, Cesare (1538–1607), Roman Catholic Cardinal and ecclesiastical historian: 50 Basilea, Greek goddess of Eternity: 140 Bebel, Heinrich (1472–1518), German humanist poet and orator: 84, 84 n. 55 Berg, Adam the Elder (fl. 1564–1610), printer and publisher in Munich: 39, 173 Bey, Ibrahim, Turkish ambassador in Frankfurt (1562): 178 Beze (Beza), Theodore (1519–1605), French Reformed theologian: 163 biblical dramas: 216 languages: 54, 57 scene: 131, 208
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Bidermann, Jakob (1578–1639), Professor of Rhetoric in Munich: 152 bishop: 162, 218 bishop’s mitre: 162 Bohemia: 17, 37, 38 n. 106, 40, 55, 130, 149, 149 n. 36, 218, 219 n. 66 Bologna: 37, 68, 114 Bourbon: 56 Brandenburg: 40, 79 n. 38, 200, 200 n. 2 Brandenburg-Ansbach, Georg Friedrich. See Georg Friedrich I (1539–1603), Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach Brandenburg, Christian Wilhelm, Margrave. See Christian Wilhelm, Margrave Brandenburg, House of: 79 Brandenburg, Barbara Sophia. See Barbara Sophia (1584-1636), Margravine Brandenburg, Johann Georg, Margrave. See Johann Georg, Margrave of Brandenburg (1598–1637) Brecht, Livinus, playwright and poet, wrote Euripus (morality play), performed in Vienna in 1555: 152 Brennus, military leader of the Gauls as chieftain of the Senones (c. 390 BC): 61, 62, 64 Brussels: 52 Buda: 115 Burgkmair, Hans, the Elder (1473– 1531), German painter and woodcut printmaker: 38, 124, 125, 126 Burgundy: 16, 56, 57, 202. See also Order of the Golden Fleece Cabinet(s) of Curiosities. See Kunstkammer(n) Calvin, Jean (1509–1564), French theologian, pastor and reformer in Geneva: 60 n. 64, 61, 61 n. 70, 163, 216 Calvinist: 55, 60, 61, 119, 119 n. 33, 149, 159, 163, 205, 213 Calvinist Heidelberg Catechism (1563): 144
Campion, Thomas (1567–1620), English poet and composer: 118, 118 n. 29 cannon: 85, 150 canon law: 21, 158 canopy: 151, 182 Cape Verde Islands, in the Atlantic: 114 captive(s): 97, 152, 176, 183 carnival plays: 216 carriage: 53, 80, 81, 84, 88, 99, 100, 120, 172, 212 Carthaginians: 53 Carthusian Order: 147 cartography: 113, 114, 151, 165 n. 100 Castile: 113, 114 Catherine de’ Medici (1519–1589), m. Henry II of France (1533), queen consort of France (1547–1559): 172 Catholic: 39, 40, 44, 47, 50, 51, 53, 54, 67, 68, 93, 101, 136, 140, 143, 144, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 153, 155, 157, 159, 162, 163, 165, 167, 170, 173, 185, 191, 194, 204, 205, 217, 218 Catholic Church: 57, 147, 157, 158, 16061, 162, 165, 191 Catholic Holy League: 185 Celtis, Conrad (1459–1508), German humanist and orator: 16, 20, 112, 112 n. 7 & 8, 113 chains: 62, 100, 140, 155, 178, 215 Charlemagne (742–814), crowned first Holy Roman Emperor, Rome 800: 15, 49, 50, 56, 57, 61 Charles II (1549–1590), Habsburg Archduke of Austria, ruler of Inner Austria from 1564: 58, 86, 89, 104, 105 Charles the Bold (1433–1477), Duke of Burgundy (1467–1477): 16 Charles V (1500–1558), elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1519: 46, 59, 122, 164, 165 coronation in Bologna (1530): 114 entry into Messina (1536): 183 funeral procession in Brussels (1558): 52 obsequies for: 57
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Charles VI (1685–1740), Holy Roman Emperor (from 1711): 56 Charles von Zollern the Elder (1516– 1576), Count of Hohenzollern (1525–1575): 86, 195 chiaroscuro, woodcut technique: 38 childbearing: 78 childbirth: 79 chivalric: 20, 57, 100, 204 chivalry: 97, 177 choreography: 22, 23, 86, 87, 88, 104 Christendom: 15, 49, 57, 143, 146, 159, 165, 166, 167, 183, 184, 185, 191, 192, 197, 199, 202 christening(s): 40, 53, 54, 65, 95, 104, 121, 123, 137, 138, 139, 174, 186, 188, 217 Christian Wilhelm, Margrave of Brandenburg (1587–1665), daughter christened in Halle (1616): 104 Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Lorraine (1521–1590), daughter of Christian II of Denmark and Norway and Isabella of Austria, m. Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (1533) and then Francis I, Duke of Lorraine (1541), mother of Renée (Renata) of Lorraine: 74, 85, 132, 136 Christine (Christina), Duchess of Lorraine (1565–1637), m. Ferdinando, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1589): 33 Christoph of Württemberg (1515–1568), Duke of Württemberg (1550–1568): 40 Chronos, Greco-Roman personification of time: 140 church councils: 143 citizens: 55, 61, 210, 212 civility: 93, 125, 128, 169, 203 clemency, princely virtue: 20 Clement VII (1478–1534), born Giulio di Giuliano de’ Medici, pope (1523–1534): 37, 68, 114, 159 clockwork movement: 136. See also mechanical movement clothes: 26, 183, 186. See also costume and dress
coin(s): 138 Colchos (Colchis), kingdom of: 53, 99, 200 Cologne: 159; Saint Bruno of Cologne: 147 Columbus, Christopher (1451–1506), Italian explorer and colonizer: 114, 125 n. 67 confessionalization: 144 Confession Auguatana (1530): 17, 164 Constancy: 97 Constantia, princely virtue: 81. See also Constancy Constantinople: 16, 182, 183, 187 convent: 157-58 cornet-players: 64 Corpus Christi procession: 155 costume: 76, 80, 190. See also clothes and dress horses (Munich, 1568): 217. See also artificial horses cotton: 115 courtly love. See Minne Cranach the Elder, Lucas (1472–1553), artist and printmaker: 162, 183 Creation (biblical): 131 Cremona, northern Italy: 172 cross-dressing: 104, 105, 187 crowds: 209, 210 Crusade(s): 56, 57, 63, 64, 125 n. 64 cuirass(es): 83, 94, 97, 104 Curia Romana: 162 Cybele (Kybele), Phrygian goddess adopted into Greek mythology, often representing the element earth: 134 Cynisca (born c. 440 BC), sister of Spartan kings Agis II (r. 427401/400 BC) and Agesilaus II (c. 444–360 BC): 102 dance(s): 41, 47, 49, 65, 87, 87 n. 73, 100, 103, 107, 121-22, 134, 151, 172, 183. See also ballets and ballet de cour patronage of: 87 treatises on: 88
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dancer(s): 104 dancing: 74, 88, 100, 103, 150, 183 master(s): 122 Daniel (biblical prophet): 49 Danube, River: 58, 115, 117, 141 deer: 117 diamonds: 94 Dorothea, Electress Palatine, Princess of Denmark, Sweden and Norway (1520–1580), m. Friedrich II, Elector Palatine (1535): 85, 85 n. 59 dragon: 99 Drehbank, turner’s lathe: 131 Dresden: 41, 43 n. 115, 130, 130 n. 84, 131 Palace in: 131 dress: 83, 94, 127, 186. See also clothes and costume drink: 117, 176, 180 drinking: 93, 150, 215 vessel: 154 test: 215. See also Bacchus Grotto drums: 127, 140 Dürer, Albrecht (1471–1528), German painter and printmaker: 38, 183 Apocalypsis cum Figuris, series of woodcuts, pub. 1498: 183 Dutch: 38 n. 106, 119 n. 33, 149 n. 36, 212 Dutch Republic: 48 Earth (element), allegorical figure: 134 earth: 49, 56, 97, 113 n. 9, 119, 124, 128, 131, 134, 135, 139, 141, 154, 184 n. 56 earthenware balls: 185-86 Edward III (1312–1377), King of England (from 1327): 58, 58 n. 53 eggs (of exotic animals): 130 Egyptian fleet: 184 Eichstätt, Prince-Bishop of, Johann Christoph von Westerstetten (1563–1637), Bishop (1612– 1636): 151, 151 n. 50 elephant seals: 52 elephants: 53
Elizabeth Stuart (1596–1662), Princess, daughter of James VI of Scotland, I of England, m. Friedrich V, Elector Palatine (London. 1613), Queen of Bohemia 1619–1620: 38, 38 n. 106, 40, 41, 42 n. 112 & 113, 53, 56, 57, 57 n. 51 & 52, 58, 58 n. 53 & 54, 63, 64, 117, 118, 118 n. 29 & 31, 119, 119 n. 33, 121, 122, 127, 128–29, 134, 134 n. 97, 148, 149 n. 30 & 36, 155, 156, 163, 166, 166 n. 108, 184, 184 n. 56 & 57, 193. 210, 211, 211 n. 38 & 39, 212, 213, 219 n. 66. See also Bohemia, Friedrich V, and Heidelberg Elizabeth(a) of Lorraine, Duchess of Bavaria, daughter of Charles III, Duke of Lorraine, and Claude of Valois, m. Maximilian I, Duke of Bavaria (1595): 102, 103. See also Maximilian I embroidery: 97 emissaries: 46, 171 engraving (onto copper plate): 38 envoy: 47, 69, 146 Envy: 140 ephemeral arch(es): 21, 51, 121, 171. See also arch(es) architecture: 51, 115, 171. See also architecture ornamentation: 209 equestrian ballet: 136, 136 n. 107 Erasmus, Desiderius (1466–1536), Dutch humanist scholar: 20 The Education of a Christian Prince (1516): 20 Ernest of Bavaria (1554–1612), brother of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, Archbishop and Prince-Elector of Cologne (1583–1612): 196 etching (using acid on a printing plate): 38 etiquette: 29, 30, 93, 201 Europe: 15, 20, 21, 21 n. 21 & 22, 25, 26, 26 n. 42, 27 n. 47, 28, 28 n. 55 & 56, 29 n. 58, 30 n. 66, 34, 38, 41, 42 n.110, 44, 46 n. 1, 48, 50 n. 19, n. 22 & 23, 51 n. 27, 52 n. 28, 56, 57, 66 n. 94, 67
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n. 97, 77 n. 29, 79, 111, 112 n. 3, 113 n. 11, 118 n. 28, 119 n. 33, 125, 125 n. 62, 126, 126 n. 71 & 72, 127 n. 76, 129, 130, 130 n. 83, 136 n. 106 & 108, 140 n. 118, 141, 143, 145, 145 n. 8 & 10, 155 n. 71, 164, 165, 165 n. 99-103, 166, 166 n. 104 & 105, 167, 169, 170, 172, 172 n. 10, 173, 173 n. 13, 174, 177, 178, 178 n. 29, 179, 179 n. 32 & 33, 181, 182, 191, 191 n. 74-76, 192 n. 77, 194, 195 n. 96, 197, 199, 200 n. 1, 201 n. 3, 203, 203 n. 10-12, 204, 206, 214, 214 n. 53, 216 n. 56-58, 218 n. 60, 220 n. 70, 223 European: 21, 21 n. 21 & 23, 28 n. 54, 29 n. 61, 31, 34, 35, 36, 42 n. 112, 48, 57, 57 n. 50 & 51, 58, 87 n. 73, 103 n. 135, 113, 115, 121, 122 n. 50, 123 n. 61, 125, 125 n. 68, 126 n. 71, 127, 134 n. 96, 145 n. 13, 165, 172, 173, 177, 177 n. 27, 179, 183, 185, 195 n. 96, 197, 201, 203, 204, 206, 220, 221. See also non-European Eva Christina, Duchess of Württemberg, m. Johann George, Margrave of Brandenburg ( Jägerndorf, 1610): 40, 52 n. 28, 181, 181 n. 41, 185 Eve (biblical): 98, 128, 131 excommunication: 158 exotic: 135, 169, 173, 179, 180, 182, 183, 186, 197, 204 animals: 130 fruits: 121 luxury: 178, 181 feathers: 82, 124, 127 Ferdinand I (1503–1564), Holy Roman Emperor from 1556: 40, 113, 152, 170, 178, 179, 182 Ferdinand II (1529–1595), son of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, m. Philippine Welser (1557), Archduke of Further Austria and Count of Tyrol (from 1564), m. Anne Juliana Gonzaga (1582): 46, 68, 86, 89, 98, 104, 130, 170, 171, 172, 184, 215
Ferdinand II (1578–1637), m. Maria Anna of Bavaria (1600), Holy Roman Emperor (from 1619): 32, 46, 48, 49, 66, 75, 89, 99, 102, 116, 117, 131, 135, 137, 138, 140, 146, 151, 152, 210, 213 Ferdinand, Duke of Bavaria (1550– 1608), son of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria, and Archduchess Anna of Austria: 85, 97, 115, 136, 163, 186, 195 Ferdinando I de’ Medici (1549–1609), Grand Duke of Tuscany (from 1587), m. Christina of Lorraine (1589): 33 Ferrara: 20 Fidelitas (fidelity), princely virtue: 81 fide: 95 Fides (faith), princely virtue: 81 Fire (element): 134 fire: 77, 132, 133, 134, 158 fireballs: 132 fire-pans: 172 fireworks: 21, 21 n. 21, 98, 99, 126, 132, 133, 134, 134 n. 96 & 97, 135, 136, 138, 153, 157, 159, 184 n. 56 & 57, 185, 209, 211 n. 39, 214, 215, 216 flames: 97, 120, 134, 158, 162 Florence: 21 n. 21, 33, 130 n. 82, 131, 170 flowers: 76, 117, 121, 181 folk-lore: 124, 125 Foot Tournament, Munich (1568): cover, 49, 87, 104, 109, 215 forests: 122, 127 Forgetfulness, personification: 140 fortification(s): 185, 214, 214 n. 49 Fortitudo (Fortitude), princely virtue: 81, 82, 83 Fortuna (Fortune), personification: 120, 120 n. 41 fortune: 95, 152, 158, 171 Foscarini, Antonio (c. 1570–1622), Venetian nobleman and ambassador to London and Paris, son of Nicolò di Alvise and Maria Barbarigo di Antonio: 118, 118 n. 30, 193, 193 n. 84-88, 194, 194 n. 89 & 90
index
fountain(s): 21, 21 n. 21, 33 n. 83, 130 n. 82. See also wine fountains France: 16, 28, 28 n. 55 & 57, 31, 48, 58, 86, 86 n. 69, 87, 113, 122, 140, 173, 191, 197 n. 102, 202, 214 Frankfurt-am-Main, Imperial Free City: 41, 53, 132, 133 Kaiserdom Sankt Bartholomäus: 53 Frawenzimmer, female courtly retinue: 71, 75, 76, 76 n. 23 & 24, 77 n. 26, 78, 78 n. 31, 81, 81 n. 46, 83, 83 n. 54, 85, 86, 86 n. 70, 87, 87 n. 72, 88, 101, 101 n. 124 Free Tournament, Munich (1568): 89 Friedensfeste, peace festivals: 140, 140 n. 118-21, 218 n. 60 & 61. See also Kinderfriedensfest Friedrich Achilles (1591–1631), First Duke of Württemberg-Neuenstadt (from 1617), son of Friedrich I, Duke of Württemberg, and Sibylla of Anhalt, named after Achilles, Greek mythological hero of the Trojan War: 54, 83 Friedrich I Barbarossa (1122–1190), Holy Roman Emperor from 1155: 63 Friedrich Ulrich (1591–1634), Duke of Braunshweig-Lüneburg (BrunswickLüneburg), Prince of Wolfenbüttel (from 1613): 40, 121, 122 Friedrich I (1557–1608), Duke of Württemberg, son of George (Georg) I of WürttembergMömpelgard and Barbara of Hesse, admitted to the English Order of the Garter (1605): 41, 126, 135, 157, 159, 216 Friedrich V (1596–1632), Elector Palatine (1610–1623), leader of the Protestant Union, m. Princess Elizabeth Stuart (London. 1613), King of Bohemia (1619–1620): 17, 37, 40, 41, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 63, 64, 66, 67, 93, 99, 117, 119, 128, 134, 148, 149, 155, 156, 163, 166, 184, 193, 194, 200, 211, 212, 213, 218, 219. See also Elizabeth Stuart
Friedrich, Caspar David (1774–1840), German Romantic painter: 205, 205 n. 15 friggots: 184 Frischlin, Jakob (1557–1621), humanist scholar and book-seller, court historian to the Dukes of Württemberg: 53 fruit(s): 115, 121 Fugger, Hans (1531–1598), son of Anton Fugger and Anna Rehlinger, worked for the Fugger family business and briefly sole head of the business from 1597 until his death: 46 Fugger, Jakob (1459–1525), known as Jakob Fugger the Rich, Augsburg merchant and banker elevated to nobility of the Holy Roman Empire (1511), Reichsgraf (Imperial Count) of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn (from 1514): 45 Fugger, Markus (‘Marx’) (1529–1597), eldest son of Anton Fugger, served as Chamberlain to Archduke Ernest of Austria: 46, 47 Fugger, Otto Heinrich (1592–1644), Count of Kirchberg and Weissenhorn, acted as a Bavarian general during the Thirty Years War and as governor of Augsburg, awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece (1628): 47 Fuggers (family): 45, 46, 69 funeral(s): 52, 75 Further Austria. See Austria galleon: 52 galleys (Christian): 33 (Turkish): 184, 185 Garden of Eden (biblical): 128, 152 genealogies: 45, 50, 138 Georg Friedrich I (1539–1603), Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, m. Sophie, Duchess of BraunschweigLüneburg (1579): 54, 54 n. 37, 79
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Georg Rudolf (1595-1653), Duke of Silesia, Liegnitz and Brieg, m. Sophia Elisabeth, eldest daughter of Johann Georg I, Prince of AnhaltDessau (Dessau, 1614): 92, 92 n. 87 German cavalry sword: 62 German Peasants’ War (1524–1525): 17 Germanafides: 27, 64, 200 Germania, German lands: 62, 65, 67, 111, 118, 119, 126, 166, 195, 212, 218 Germania, personification of Germany: 43, 65, 73, 73 n. 9, 84, 84 n. 56, 120, 121, 141 Ghiselin de Busbecq, Ogier (1522–1592), Flemish, Habsburg ambassador to the Ottoman Empire: 182 gift-giving: 28, 48 globe: 88, 114, 121, 153, 154, 171, 203 globes: 114, 131 Gloria (Glory), personification: 81, 82, 83, 140 Glory: 140 gold (precious metal or material): 76, 78, 80, 94, 97, 104, 104 n. 137, 121, 121 n. 47, 146, 147, 150, 176, 182, 186, 187, 187 n. 66, 190 gold/yellow, heraldic colour: 63, 64, 137 Golden Bull, issued by Imperial Diet at Nuremberg and Metz (1356): 59 Golden Fleece, Greek mythological quest of Jason and the Argonauts: 53, 56, 57, 99. See also Jason and Order of the Golden Fleece Granada, kingdom of: 192 Grimm, Sigmund (1480–1530), doctor and publisher in Augsburg: 37 Hailbrunnern (also spelled Heilbronner, Heilbrunner), Jacob (1548–1618), doctor of theology, Reformed Protestant court chaplain to Wolfgang Wilhelm, Duke of PfalzNeuburg, from 1580: 148, 148 n. 29 Halle: 104
Harrison, John, English writer (fl. 1610–1638): 38, 38 n. 106, 149 n. 36, 219 n. 66-68 heavens: 86, 131 Heidelberg: 40, 41, 42, 42 n. 113, 53, 57, 61, 63, 93, 99, 118, 119, 119 n. 33-35, 120, 120 n. 36 & 37, 121, 122, 122 n. 56 & 57, 124, 127 128, 148, 149 n. 30-35, 155, 156, 170, 181, 211, 211 n. 38 & 40, 212, 213, 213 n. 48 City Gate: 211 market place: 63, 121, 211 University of, theological faculty: 163 hell, fires of: 158 hell-mouth: 165 helmets: 62 Henri IV of France (1553–1610), King of Navarre (from 1572) and of France (from 1589), assassinated by the fanatical Catholic François Ravaillac in 1610: 60, 61 Hercules, Greek mythological figure: 53, 141 Pillars of: 52 heresy, personification: 160-61, 162, 165 hermits: 124, 127 heroic virtue(s) (aretē): 19, 102 Hesse-Kassel: 40 Holy Sepulchre: 56 horses: 80, 82, 83, 88, 95, 136, 136 n. 108, 138, 172, 179, 180, 190, 212, 215 palfrey: 180 horseback: 82, 97, 176 horsemanship: 136 horse-master(s): 136, 137 Spanish: 180 Turkish: 180 Hulsen, Esaias von (c. 1570–c. 1626), Netherlandish artist and goldsmith, worked in Stuttgart including producing images for festival books: 40, 41, 47, 54, 81, 82, 88, 90-91, 95, 96, 122, 123, 137, 138, 139, 159, 169-61, 162, 173, 174, 186, 188, 207, 216, 217 humility: 147, 151, 155 Hungarian: 183, 190, 196
index
Hungary: 178, 184, 190, 206 n. 23 hunting: 88, 136, 137, 138 Hus, Jan (c. 1372–1415), Bohemian theologian and religious reformer, excommunicated and later burned at the stake for heresy in 1415: 165 Husbandry, God of: 122, 124 Hussite Wars (1419–1436), following the execution of Jan Hus for heresy his followers (Hussites) fought against combined Catholic forces of the papacy and Holy Roman Empire: 16 Hypocrisy (personification as cardinal): 156, 159 Illyricus, Matthias Flacius (1520– 1575), Lutheran theologian and editor of the ecclesiastical history known as the Magdeburg Centuries (1559–1574): 50 Imperial Diet (Reichstag): 164 at Augsburg, 1500: 15 at Nuremberg and Metz (1356): 59 at Speyer, 1529: 164 at Worms, 1495: 15 Imperial Eagle: 68, 183 impiety: 154 Inconstancy, personification: 140 India (America): 97, 97 n. 107, 176, 177 n. 23 industry: 131, 132 infidel(s): 63, 127, 159, 159 n. 83-85, 183 n. 49, 191 Ingolstadt: 85, 115, 132, 136, 170, 171, 195 University of: 112, 112 n. 7 & 8, 136 Ingratitude, personification: 140 Inner Austria. See Austria Innocent III (1160/1161–1216), pope (from 1198), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (Lothar of Segni): 176 Innsbruck: 40, 41, 130, 170, 170 n. 2, 172, 172 n. 10, 175, 215 Comedy Houses: 172, 172 n. 10 Schloss Ambras: 130, 170, 172, 215, 215 n. 55. See also Bacchus Grotto
investiture rituals: 67, 68 Isar, River in Munich: 115 Islam: 125 n. 70, 191 Islamic: 28 n. 53, 179 Israelites: 119 Italy: 118 n. 30, 164, 172, 173, 193 n. 84 ivory: 130, 131 Jägerndorf: 40, 51, 64, 170, 180, 185 Jahn, Friedrich Ludwig (1778–1852), German gymnastics teacher and nationalist writer: 205, 205 n. 16 Jakobe(a) of Baden (1558–1597), daughter of Margrave Philibert of Baden-Baden and Mechthild of Bavaria, cousin of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria, m. Johann Wilhelm, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (1585): 196 James I, King of England, James VI of Scotland (1566–1625): 40, 57, 117, 193, 212 Jason, Greek mythological figure: 53, 57, 99, 155, 200. See also Golden Fleece Jesuit: 39, 143, 145 n. 8, 147, 148, 153, 158 College (Munich 1559): 148 (Vienna 1551): 152 schools, Ratio studiorum (regultions), promulgated in 1599: 152 tragedy plays: 148, 151, 152, 154, 217 jewellery: 76, 94 Jews: 157 Jocquet, D., author of festival books (fl. 1613): 128-29, 156 Johann Friedrich, Duke of Würtemberg and Teck (1582–1628), m. Barbara Sophia, Margravine of Brandenburg (Stuttgart, 1609): 26, 40, 53, 62, 94, 95, 96, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 130, 137, 139, 174-75, 180, 188, 200, 217. See also Ulrich, Prince of Würtemberg-Neuenbürg Johann Georg I, Prince Duke of Anhalt-Dessau (1567–1618), a founder of the Fruchtbrigende Gesellschaft (1617) alongside his
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younger brother Ludwig I of Anhalt- Köthen (1579–1650): 40, 92 Johann Georg, Margrave of Brandenburg (1598–1637), m. Eva Christine, Duchess of Württemberg ( Jägerndorf, 1610): 40, 51, 51 n. 28, 180, 181, 181 n. 41, 185 Johann Jakob von Kuen-Belasy (d. 1586), Archbishop of Saltzburg (from 1560): 163 Johann Wilhelm of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (1562–1609), son of Wilhelm the Rich, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, and Maria of Austria, m. Jakobe(a) of Baden (1585) then Antonia of Lorraine following Jakobe’s death in 1597: 196 joust: 83, 92, 101 jousting: 20, 82, 100, 102 joust over the tilt: 92 Jove (usually refers to Jupiter): 56, 118 Judaism: 157 Julian the Apostate (331/332–363), Roman Emperor 361–363: 165 Julius Caesar (100–44 BC), Roman general: 52, 54, 184 Juno, Roman goddess, wife of Jupiter: 118, 122 Jupiter, Roman king of the gods: 134, 140, 143 justice: 20, 83, 104, 120 n. 40, 177, 181, 192 Iustitia, personification: 120 Karl I von Hohenzollern (1516–1576), Count of Hohenzollern, Imperial Archchamberlain and chairman of the Aulic Council, m. Anna of Baden-Durlach (1537): 170 Kinderfriedensfest: 140. See also Friedensfeste knight(s): cover, 51, 53, 57 n. 52, 58 n. 53, 81, 83, 84, 87, 88, 89, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 100, 102, 104, 109, 171, 176, 177, 181, 183, 215 Knights of the Golden Fleece: 56. See also Jason and Order of the Golden Fleece
Knights of St John of Jerusalem: 178 knightly exercises: 88, 98, 104, 207 honour: 177 skills: 89 Kulmbach: 40 Kunstkammer(n) (Cabinet(s) of Curiosities): 125, 130, 130 n. 83, 131, 132, 132 n. 91 & 92, 136, 138, 169, 180, 180 n. 39 La Rochelle: 77, 77 n. 29, 80, 98, 98 n. 108, 104, 134, 134 n. 98, 135 n. 100, 141, 141 n. 123, 173, 173 n. 13, 177, 181, 182, 192, 214, 214 n. 49 Palais de Justice: 104, 181 lance(s): 39, 82, 99, 181, 208 Latin: 53, 54, 55, 63, 79, 81, 152, 171, 173, 196, 200, 209, 218, 219, 219 n. 68 Latinus, King in Roman and Greek mythology, featured in Virgil’s Aeneid (written 29–19 BC): 171 laurel branch: 83 wreathes: 84, 124, 141 Lazius, Wolfgang (1514–1565), court historian to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, author of De gentium migrationibus (1557): 113, 129, 166, 190, 209 Leo III (d. 816), pope (795–816): 57 Leonora (Eleanor) Archduchess of Austria (1582–1620), daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria, sister of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II: 102 leopards: 63 Lepanto, Battle of (1571): 130, 178, 184, 185, 192 n. 77 & 78 liberality, princely virtue: 20 Libertas (liberty), personification: 120 Liège: 196 Liegnitz: 40, 92, 92 n. 87 Lille: 164, 165 Livy (Titus Livius) (c. 64 BC–12 AD), Roman historian: 215
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Löbenigk, Egidius, ivory turner at court of Saxony under Elector August (Elector 1553– 1586): 131 Lothringish. See Lorraine Franconian Lorck, Melchior (c. 1526–1583), artist and maker of woodcuts, travelled to the Ottoman Empire and represented its subjects: 182, 183 Lorraine: cover, 33, 39, 46, 66, 79, 85, 86, 94, 106, 107, 109, 115, 132, 136, 146, 152, 157, 166, 170, 171, 194, 195, 196 Lorraine Franconian (Lothringish), dialect: 39, 194 Louis IV (1282–1347), Holy Roman Emperor from 1328, member of Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty: 39, 66 Louis XIII of France (1601–1643): 88, 214; entry into Paris (1629): 134, 140 Louis XIV of France (1638–1715), meeting with Spanish Infanta (1659): 29 n. 58, 86 love heart(s): 95 Low Countries: 164 loyalty: 27, 45, 64, 66, 68, 165, 196, 204 Lucerne, Switzerland: 165 Ludwig I of Anhalt-Köthen (1579– 1650), a founder of the Fruchtbrigende Gesellschaft (1617) alongside his older brother Johann Georg, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (1567–1618): 196 Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg in Mömpelgard (1586– 1631), m. Magdalena Elisabeth, Landgravine of Hessen (1617): 40, 122, 123, 137, 139, 174, 188, 207 n. 24, 217 lute: 172 Luther, Martin (1483–1546), German religious reformer, composer and priest (from 1507): 16, 60, 61 n. 70, 163, 164, 165, 196, 210 Eine Predigt vom Ehestand (1525): 78 Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi (1543): 157 Von den Juden und Ihren Lügen (1543): 157
Von ehelichen Leben (1522): 78 Von Weltlicher Oberkeit (1523): 60, 60 n. 65 & 66 Lutheran: 17, 40, 56, 60, 61, 62, 73, 79, 136, 149, 158, 159, 162, 164, 167, 183, 202, 205, 216 Konkordienbuch (1580): 144 Lutheranism: 17, 163 Lycia, a region of Anatolia, briefly part of the Athenian Empire and came under the rule of Alexander the Great’s Macedon in 333/334 BC, following his victory over the Persians: 54 Machaud (Machȃult), Jean-Baptiste (1591–1680), Jesuit, author: 134, 134 n. 98, 104 n. 122, 140 Madrid: 31 Magdalena (1587–1628), Duchess of Bavaria, Countess Palatine of Neuburg and Duchess of JülichBerg, daughter of Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria and Renée (Renata) of Lorraine, m. Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg and Duke of Jülich-Berg (Munich, 1613): 47, 47 n. 7 & 8, 48, 74, 74 n. 17, 76, 78, 94, 102, 132, 148, 148 n. 29, 150, 153, 176, 176 n. 22, 210 n. 37, 218, 218 n. 62 Magdeburg: 50 Magdeburg Confession (1550): 60 Magus, Simon, first-century AD Christian convert, said in Acts 8:9– 24 to have been in an altercation with Saint Peter: 165 Mainz: 159 Mannus, German mythological figure mentioned by Tacitus (c. 56-120 AD) in Germania as part of the origin myths of certain German tribes: 61, 62, 64 Mantua: 173 map(s): 113, 113 n. 9 & 13, 141
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Marchese di Gattinara, Mercurino Arborio (1465–1530), advisor to Charles V, made Cardinal in 1529: 159 Maria Anna, Princess of Bavaria (1551–1608), daughter of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria, m. Archduke Charles II of Austria (1571), mother of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II: 75, 116 Maria Anna (1574–1616), Princess of Bavaria, Archduchess of Austria, daughter of Wilhelm V of Bavaria and Renée (Renata) of Lorraine, m. Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (1600): 66, 116 Maria Cristerna (Christina) Archduchess of Austria (1574–1621), Princess of Transylvania, daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria, sister of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II: 102, 103 Maria Magdalena (Maddalena) Archduchess of Austria (1589–1631), m. Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1608), daughter of Archduke Charles II of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria, sister of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II: 102 Magdalena Elisabeth, Langravine of Hessen (1600–1624), m. Ludwig Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg (1617): 40, 118, 122, 123, 137, 174, 217 Maria Maximiliana (1552–1614), Duchess of Bavaria, daughter of Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria, and Archduchess Anna of Austria: 102 marksman: 154 Mars, Roman god of war: 140 masque(s): 22, 87, 88, 118, 139 Maximilian I (1459–1519), Holy Roman Emperor (from 1508): 15, 36, 84, 84 n. 55, 113, 124, 169, 200 Maximilian I (1573–1651), Duke of Bavaria, ruler of Bavaria from 1597, appointed Prince-Elector at the Diet of Regensburg (1623), son of Wilhelm
V, Duke of Bavaria, and Renée (Renata) of Lorraine, m. Elizabeth(a) of Lorraine (1595) then Maria Anna of Austria (1635): 47, 66, 89, 116, 117 Maximilian II (1527–1576), Holy Roman Emperor (from 1564): 42, 66, 170 coronation as King of the Romans in Frankfurt-am-Main (1562): 50, 178 entry into Vienna as King of the Romans (1563): 51, 51 n. 27, 136, 136 n. 106, 185, 208 Maximilian Ernest, Archduke of Austria (1583–1616), member of the Teutonic Order from 1615, son of Archduke Charles II of Austria and Maria Anna of Bavaria, brother of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II: 102 Maxwell, James, London printer (fl. 1613): 57, 57 n. 52, 58 n. 53 Mayer, Johann, writer of festival accounts in Munich (fl. 1607): 46, 75, 89, 93, 102, 116, 131, 132, 135, 151, 152, 210, 213 mealtimes, people watching: 49 mechanical chair: 215 devices: 130 fountain: 135 Meddus, Dr James, London-based cleric (fl. 1610–1630): 148, 210, 211, 212 Mediterranean: 115, 178, 179 n. 34, 184, 192 Melanchthon, Philipp (1497–1560), German Lutheran reformer, professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg, closely associated with Martin Luther: 162, 163 Memory: 26 n. 42, 140, 149 n. 118 merchant families: 19, 45, 48 merchants: 179 Mercury: 140 Mezentrius, Etruscan king in Roman mythology, featured in Virgil’s Aeneid (written 29–19 BC): 171 Milan: 173 Militärgrenze, military frontier between the Habsburg-ruled lands and the Ottoman Empire: 205, 206 n. 18
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mining: 46 Minne (medieval German ideal): 71, 95, 95 n. 101 & 102, 200 minstrel(s): 65, 151 Mithridates VI of Pontus (135–63 BC), King from c. 120 BC, military commander and famed adversary of the Roman Republic: 54 Mohács, Ottoman victory at (1526): 178 Moluccas islands: 113, 114 monk: 158, 164 Mons: 81 n. 49, 173 Moor(s): 24, 127, 128-29, 169, 178, 181, 183, 186, 188, 190, 197, 206 Moorish: 181, 192 Morel, Horace (fl. 1615–1633), Parisian ballet and fireworks organiser and writer of festival texts: 98 n. 108, 135 n. 100 Moritz (Maurice) (1521–1553), of the Albertine branch of the Wettin dynasty, Duke of Saxony. 1541–1547, Elector of Saxony from 1547, killed at the Battle of Sievershausen: 130 mountain (setting for ballet): 124 mountains: 112, 115 Mühlberg, Battle of (1547): 130, 164 Munich: cover, 32, 39, 46, 47, 48, 49, 66, 68, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 83, 85, 86, 89, 92, 93, 94, 97, 98, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 109, 115, 116, 117, 131, 132, 135, 136, 146, 148, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 157, 162, 163, 166, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 176, 178, 179, 183, 186, 194, 195, 210, 213, 214, 217, 218 banqueting hall: 68 Church of Our Beloved Lady: 78, 101, 210 city dance-hall: 78 Jesuit College: 148, 152 Jewish area: 157 Residenz: 131 Steinzimmer: 67, 131 Zimmer der Welt: 131
Münster, Sebastian (1488–1552), German cartographer and cosmographer author of Cosmographia (1544): 113 Muses: 54, 172 music: 41, 65, 150, 151, 172, 173, 209 choral: 150, 173 for dancing: 65, 151 instrumental: 173, 190 musicians: 173, 174, 190 musk: 182 Muslim: 159, 179 mythical creatures: 122, 123 Naples: 173 natural law: 126 n. 72, 127 natural philosophy: 111, 112 naumachia(e) (mock navel battle(s)): 184, 185, 186, 190, 192, 204 naval warfare: 184 Neptune, Roman god of the sea: 134 Nestor of Gerenia, King of Pylos and a Greek leader in the Trojan War famed for his age and wisdom according to Homer’s Odyssey (written c. eighth century BC): 54, 54 n. 38 New Jerusalem: 119 New Testament: 157, 159, 183 New World: 18, 24, 46, 50, 113, 113 n. 13, 125, 126, 127, 135, 169, 178, 191, 206 Nicolay, Nicolas de (1517–1583), Sieur d‘Arfeville & de Belair, French geographer and producer of costume books, famed for his accounts of the Ottoman Empire and its subjects: 186 Nobilitas (Nobility), princely virtue: 20 noble savage: 125 nun: 89 n. 85, 103 n. 131, 158, 164, 186 n. 62 Nuremberg: 59, 170, 216 nymphs: 65, 104, 105, 124, 128 Oberschleiβheim, village of: 117 Österreich (Austria): 32 n. 79, 47 n. 5, 75 n. 22, 102, 103, 116 n. 20, 147 n. 20, 210 n. 34
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Oettinger, Johann (1577–1633), German chronicler and geographer, author of festival books: 27 n. 47 & 48, 61 n. 72, 62 n. 73 & 76, 63 n. 77, 64 n. 81 & 82, 84 n. 57 & 58, 94 n. 96 & 97, 120 n. 39-42, 121 n. 44, 124 n. 58 & 59, 157 n. 56, 158 n. 78-82, 180 n. 40, 200 n. 2 Old Testament: 119, 157 Opitz von Boberfeld, Martin (15971639), German poet: 196 Oppenheim: 42, 42 n. 113, 118 Order of the Garter, English knightly order founded in 1348 by King Edward III of England: 41, 57 n. 52, 58 n. 53, 157 Order of the Golden Fleece, founded in 1429 by Philip the Good of Burgundy: 56 Orlando de Lassus (c. 1530–1594), at the court of Bavaria from 1556 (under Albrecht V and then Wilhelm V), appointed maestro di cappella by 1563: 173 Orpheus, Greek mythological musician, poet and prophet: 180 Osiander, Andreas (1498–1552), Lutheran theologian and reformer: 216 Otto Heinrich, Graf zu Schwarzenberg (1535–1590), President of the Aulic Council and Hofmarschall of the Holy Roman Empire to Maximilian II and Rudolf II: 47, 195 Ottoman(s): 16, 18, 44, 50 n. 22, 125, 127, 157, 159, 169, 178, 178 n. 29, 179, 181, 184, 185, 186, 187, 191, 192, 193, 194, 197, 199, 204, 206 Ottoman culture: 179, 180, 181, 197 Ottoman Empire: 15, 16, 127, 169, 178, 179, 182, 191, 194, 198, 202, 214 Ottoman luxury: 130, 190 Ottoman textiles: 182 oxen: 84, 86, 99, 100, 120, 137
Pacific Ocean: 114 padrini (seconds): 62, 64, 94 Pallas. See Athena pamphlets: 37, 159, 208 panthers: 63 Papacy: 15, 62, 146, 159, 164, 167, 173, 176 Papal legate: 163, 170 Paris: 134, 134 n. 98, 140 Louvre: 98 Tour de Nesle: 98, 98 n. 108, 134, 135 n. 100 peace festival(s). See Friedensfeste Peacham, Henry (1578–c. 1644), English poet and writer: 58 n. 54, 59 peacocks: 122 pearls: 48, 76, 94 Pegasus, winged horse in Greek mythology: 98, 134 Peleus, Greek mythological King of the Myrmidons of Thessaly and father of Achilles: 53 Penthefilia (Panthesilea), Greek mythological Queen of the Amazons who assisted the Trojans during the Trojan War and was killed by Achilles: 83 pepper: 114 perfumes: 182 Perseus, Greek mythological hero, founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty: 98 Peter, Saint, first Bishop of Rome (pope): 162 Philip the Good (1396–1467), Duke of Burgundy (from 1419), first Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece: 56 Philip II of Spain (1527–1598), King of Spain (1556–1598), son of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Isabella of Portugal: 81 n. 49, 164, 165 Philip V of Spain (1683-1746), King of Spain (1700–1724), Bourbon claimant to the Spanish throne during the War of the Spanish Succession: 56
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Philipp Ludwig of Bavaria-Neuburg (1547–1614), Count Palatine of Neuburg (from 1569), m. Anna of Cleves, daughter of Wilhelm IV ‘the Rich’ of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (1574): 75 Philistines: 152 Phoebus, Olympian deity. See Apollo piety: 44, 117, 143, 147, 148, 149, 151 Pighius, Stephanus (1520–1604), Dutch humanist and archaeologist: 215 Pillars of Hercules. See Hercules playing cards: 155, 156, 157 Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus) (23/24–79 AD), Roman writer and philosopher: 117, 153 plough(s): 100, 124 plumes: 62, 64, 82, 83, 94, 95 Plus Ultra, motto of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor: 52 Po, River: 140 Poland: 170 Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius) (106–48 BC), Roman general: 54 Portugal: 21 n. 22, 114 Portuguese: 114 Prague: 37, 38 n. 106, 40, 55, 149 n. 36, 219 prisoner(s): 79, 87, 176, 192 Privilegium Maius, document forged on behalf of Rudolf IV of Austria (1358/1359) which was used to support Habsburg claims to authority: 59 Prudentia (Prudence), princely virtue: 81 psalm: 154, 154 n. 70 pusikan(s), Turkish ceremonial club: 181 Pyrenees, Treaty of (1659), made between Louis XIV of France and Philip IV of Spain, conclusion of the Franco-Spanish war of 16351659: 86
Ramusio, Giovanni Battista (1485– 1557), Venetian geographer and travel writer: 125 reedpipe: 190 Regensburg: 26, 26 n. 46, 55, 55 n. 44 Regino of Prüm (d. 915 AD), Benedictine monk, Abbot of Prüm (892–899 AD) and later of Saint Martin’s at Trier: 166 Reichsacht (Imperial Ban): 164 Reichstag. See Imperial Diet Renée (Renata) of Lorraine (1544– 1602), Duchess of Bavaria, daughter of Francis I, Duke of Lorraine, and Christina of Denmark, m. Wilhelm V, Duke of Bavaria (1568): cover, 39, 46, 66, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 83, 85, 86, 106, 107, 109, 115, 136, 146, 152, 157, 166, 170, 172, 186, 194, 195 Rhine, River: 53, 55, 57 n. 52, 58, 58 n. 53, 59, 61, 66, 85, 117, 118, 141, 166 n. 108 Ribeiro, Diogo (d. 1533), Portuguese cartographer in the service of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, from 1518 and named Royal Cosmographer in 1523: 113, 114 riding: cover, 62, 80, 84, 88, 109, 120, 180, 215 Ritterspiel, knightly tournament or contest: 53 n. 32, 89 n. 85, 90-91, 99 n. 112, 102, 105, 118 n. 28, 155 n. 73, 181 n. 43, 186 n. 62, 200 n. 1 rock: 98, 117, 134, 162 rockets (fireworks): 132, 134, 215 Roma (Gypsies): 127 Roman: 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 62, 95, 115, 144, 152, 205, 213, 215 Romans, ancient: 64 Roman law: 21 Romantic : 195, 197 Romanticism: 205 Rome: 15, 51, 52, 62, 125, 159, 173, 215 Campus Martius, lake constructed for naumachia 46 BC: 184 rosary: 155, 156, 157, 157 n. 74
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Rudolf II (1552–1612), Holy Roman Emperor (from 1576): 139 Rudolf IV (1339–1365), Habsburg, Duke of Austria, Styria, and Carinthia (from 1358), self-proclaimed Archduke of Austria, Count of Tyrol (from 1363), Duke of Carniola (from 1364), ordered the creation of the forged Privilegium Maius which was used to support Habsburg claims to authority (1358/1359): 59 running at the quintain: 89 at the ring: 27 n. 47, 53, 62 n. 72, 84 n. 57, 98, 120 n. 37, 155, 172, 180 n. 40, 181, 183, 201 n. 2 at the tilt: 87, 89, 92 Saint Benedict: 147 Saint Bruno of Cologne, relics of: 147 Saint George: 64 Saint Gwilhelmus (William), relics of: 147-48, 148 n. 28 Saint Ignatius, chapel of: 147 Salic Law: 86 Salzburg, Archbishop of (from 1560). See Johann Jakob von Kuen-Belasy salutes, fired by cannon: 140, 150 salvation: 56, 120 n. 43, 127, 157, 158 Samson (biblical): 152, 154 Saragossa (Zaragoza), Treaty of (1529): 114 satin: 80, 121, 182, 182 n. 46 satyres: 122 savages: 125, 164, 190 Schleiβheim Palace, Wittelsbach summer residence in Oberschleiβheim: 117 Schleiβheim, chapel(s): 135, 147, 148 n. 28 Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck: 130, 170, 172, 215 Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes within the Holy Roman Empire originally formed by a treaty between Philip I of Hesse and Johann Friedrich I of Saxony in 1531: 17, 164
Schmalkaldic War (1546–1547), fought between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the princes of the Schmalkaldic League: 17, 18 Schwertfeger, Johann(es) (1488– 1524), Lutheran Reformer: 162 Scipio Africanus, Publius Cornelius (236/5–183 BC), Roman general and consul: 53 Scultetus, Abraham (1566-1625), Reformed court chaplain to the Electors Palatine at Heidelberg (from 1595) and Professor of Old Testament Theology at Heidelberg (from 1618): 119, 211 Scythian: 58, 125 sea monsters: 98, 134 Seine, river: 98, 98 n. 108, 134, 135, n. 100 sermon: 55, 78, 119, 148, 149, 195 n. 93, 211 Sheba (kingdom of the Sabeans), queen of: 181, 182 shepherd: 122 shield(s): 58. 59, 60, 83, 121, 181, 185, 187 shooting match: 102, 136, 137, 170 Sievershausen, Battle of (1553): 130 silk: 83, 97, 104, 115, 183 singers: 26, 64, 64 n. 82 Solis, Nicolaus (1542–1584), artist: 39 Solomon (conventionally dated c. 970– 931 BC), biblical king of Israel: 182 Sophia Elisabeth, eldest daughter of Johann Georg I, Prince of AnhaltDessau, m. Georg Rudolf, Duke of Silesia, Liegnitz and Brieg (Dessau, 1614): 40, 92, 92 n. 87 Sophie of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (1563–1639), m. Georg Friedrich I (1539–1603), Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1579): 54, 79 Spain: 21 n. 22, 28, 28 n. 57, 50 n. 53, 56, 86, 86 n. 69, 127 n. 76, 164, 170, 191, n. 74, 197 n. 102 Spanish: 31, 86, 114, 171, 180, 184, 192, 193 Armada (1588): 185 Spartan: 102
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Speyer: 164 Gate (Heidelberg): 211 spice trade: 46, 182 spices: 115, 182 stags: 117 Starhemberg: 187 Starnberg, lake: 32, 117 south west of Munich: 116, 137, 151 Strasburg: 179 Stuttgart: 26, 27 n. 47, 37, 40, 47, 52, 53, 54, 61, 62, 62 n. 72, 64, 65, 81, 84, 84 n. 57, 87, 88, 94, 95, 102, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 126, 127, 129 n. 39, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 153, 159, 170, 173, 174-75, 180, 186, 188, 207, 216, 217 Süleyman (Suleiman) I ‘the Magnificent’ (1494–1566), Ottoman Sultan (from 1520): 88, 178 Swabia: 170 Sweden: 85, 191, 191 n. 75 sword(s): 62, 95, 138, 215 Tacitus, Publius (Gaius) Cornelius (c. 56–120 AD), Roman historian and politician, author of Germania or De Origine et situ Germanorum (c. 98 AD): 62, 166 tapestries: 182 Tartars, an ethnic group: 190 tavern dances: 172 Taylor, John (1578–1653), English poet, clerk and prominent member of the London guild of boatmen: 184, 184 n. 56, 185, 185 n. 59-61 Telamon, one of the Argonauts in Greek mythology: 53, 53 n. 32 temperance, princely virtue: 20 Tempus, Time (personification): 120 Teutoburg Forest: 205 Teütschland: 113, 121 n. 49, 126 Thames, river: 117, 118, 134, 139, 184, 186 Thirteen Years War or Long Turkish War (1593–1606), fought between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire: 178
Thirty Years War (1618–1648), series of inter-related conflicts between the major European powers, predominantly fought in central Europe: 17, 18, 60, 67, 67 n. 97, 118, 140, 143, 145, 199, 203 n. 11, 208, 218, 223 n. 79 Tordesillas, Treaty of (1494), agreement between Spain and Portugal dividing ownership of New World discoveries: 113, 114 tournament(s): cover, 20, 21, 39, 49, 51, 53, 83, 87, 88, 89, 92, 93, 94, 97, 98, 101, 102, 104, 109, 135, 153, 176, 184, 186, 198, 207, 208, 209, 216 arena: 86, 171, 172, 186, 190 field: 81 Tournament, Foot (Munich, 1568): 49, 87, 104, 109, 215 Free (Munich, 1568): 89, 92, 95, 97, 99 Tournaments, Hussar: 130 Tranquilitas (Peace/Tranquility), personification: 81 translatio imperii, the transfer of imperial power: 49 Transylvania: 193, 205 travel books: 57 n. 50, 124 n. 61, 125, 125 n. 64-66, 177, 177 n. 17 literature: 182 Trent, Council of (1545-1563), ecumenical council: 144, 164 triumphal arches, ephemeral: 21, 51, 134 Trojans: 53 Troy: 54, 56, 83, 83 n. 54, 153, 153 n. 62 trumpet(s): 61, 83, 127, 140, 151, 151 n. 48 call: 151, 151 n. 46 trumpeter(s): 61, 61 n. 72, 63, 64, 68, 68 n. 100, 94, 127, 128-29, 150, 150 n. 40 & 43 Truth (Veritas), personification: 120 Tübingen: 170 Tunis: 185 turban(s): 183, 187, 192, 193 n. 82 Turk(s): 56, 124, 169, 182 n. 47, 183, 185, 187, 191, 193, 194. See also Ottoman(s)
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Turkish: 25, 104, 159, 159 n. 83, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 190, 192, 193 ambassador(s): 178 carpets: 182 ceremonial club. See pusikan horses: 180 sabres: 180, 181 warrior(s): 183 women: 104 Turnus, legendary King of the Rutuli, featured in Virgil’s Aeneid (written 29-19 BC): 171 Tuscany: 33 Tyrol: 115, 130 Ulrich von Hutten (1488–1523), humanist scholar and Lutheran reformer, a leader of the Knights’ Revolt (1522–1523): 62 Ulrich (1617–1671), Prince of Württemberg-Neuenbürg, son of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, christening in Stuttgart (1617): 40, 122, 123, 137, 139, 174, 188-89, 217 Upper Austria. See Austria Urbanus Henricus Rhegius (1489-1541), Lutheran reformer and poet: 56 Vademont: 86, 86 n. 68 vanity: 98, 154 Varus, Publius Quinctilius (46 BC – 9 AD), Roman general and politician, leader of three legions ambushed in the Teutoburg Forest (AD 9): 62 Vaterland, ‘Fatherland’: 126 velvet: 80, 85, 94, 97, 176 Venice: 48, 118 n. 30, 193 n. 84, 194 Vergerio, Pier Paolo (1369–1444), Italian humanist who served Popes Innocent VII and Gregory XII before moving to the court of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund: 20 Veritas. See Truth Versailles: 30 n. 66, 41, 41 n. 108
vices: 100, 155 Victoria (Victory), personification: 81, 83 Vienna: 30, 30 n. 66, 31, 37, 41, 41 n. 108, 115, 130, 136, 152, 170, 183, 203, 204, 206 entry of Maximillian II (1563): 51, 51 n. 27, 136, 136 n. 106, 185, 208 Hofburg: 173 Siege of (1529): 178, 183 violin(s): 172, 173, 174-75 virtue(s): 13, 19, 20, 21, 27, 43, 44, 48, 64, 69, 71, 81, 92, 93, 95, 97, 98, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 111, 136, 138, 140, 141, 165, 169, 173, 177, 178. 194, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 210 Vogelweide, Walther von der (c. 1170–c. 1230), poet: 95 Volk, ‘people’: 113, 209, 210 Vulcan, Roman god of fire: 134 Wagner, Hans (fl. 1568), official and author at the Munich court of the Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty: cover, 39, 68, 75, 77, 85, 89, 92, 101, 106, 107, 108, 109, 163, 178, 179 Waldseemüller, Martin (c.1470– 1520), German cartographer and humanist: 112, 113 Wars of the Jülich Succession (1609): 196 Wasserbaum (water-tree), Stuttgart 1602: 135, 135 n. 102 water (element): 134 water, entertainments on: 32, 115, 116, 132, 134 Weckhardt (Wecker), Georg, ivory turner at the court of Savoy in the service of Elector August(us) (r. 1553–1586): 131 Weckherlin, Georg Rudolf (1584–1653), poet and humanist scholar: 196 Weimar: 196 Welsche Comedi, ‘foreign comedy’: 174 Welsches Gestech, ‘foreign joust’. See joust over the tilt.
index
Welser Philippine, m. Archduke Ferdinand II of Further Austria (1577) in secret, Baroness of Zinnenburg, Margrave of Burgau, Landgravine of Mellenburg, Countess of Oberhohenberg and Niederhohenberg: 46, 130 Welser, Bartholomäus (1484–1561), banker, financier and privy councillor to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, enobled as a prince of the Empire (1532): 46 Welser, Hans Georg (1534–1601), Nuremberg city councillor: 46 Welsers (family): 45, 46, 69 Westphalia, Peace of (1648), concluding the Thirty Years War: 17, 163 Wheel of Fortune: 158 White Mountain, Battle of (1620): 140, 155, 208 widow(s): 85, 101 wild animals: 117 boar: 138 wild men: 123 wilderness: 122, 124, 127, 128, 141, 162 Wilhelm the Rich (1516–1592), Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (from 1539): 196, 197
Wilhelm V (1548–1626), Duke of Bavaria (1579–1597), m. Renée (Renata) of Lorraine (1568): cover, 39, 46, 66, 68, 74, 75, 77, 80, 83, 85, 94, 115, 117, 136, 146, 152, 157, 163, 170, 172, 173, 186, 196 wine: 136, 150, 154, 176, 180, 215 fountain(s): 136 Wirsung, Marx (c. 1460–1521), publisher in Augsburg: 37 wisdom, princely virtue: 20, 54, 83 Wittenberg: 17, 41, 54, 79, 162 University of: 54, 79 Wolfgang Wilhelm, Duke of PfalzNeuburg (1578–1658), m. Magdalena, Duchess of Bavaria (1587–1628) in Munich (1613): 47, 48, 74, 76, 78, 89, 94, 132, 148, 150, 153, 176, 218 woodcut(s): 37, 38, 39, 124, 162, 182, 183, 208 Zimmermann, Wilhelm Peter (1589– 1630), publisher in Augsburg: 47, 48, 74, 78, 81, 89, 94, 101, 132, 150, 153, 176, 210 zither, type of string instrument: 172 Zwingli, Huldrych (or Ulrich) (1484– 1531), leader of the Reformation in Switzerland: 165, 216
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