Anotation

From August, 1569 through December, 1570, various Habsburg rulers and their entourages travelled across Central Europe, first to the Hungarian administrative centre of Bratislava, and then across Moravia to the Bohemian capital of Prague. After a winter’s stay there, the courts, including those of Emperor Maximilian II and his consort Empress María, along with six of their children, moved again, this time through Nuremberg and other Imperial Free Cities in the Holy Roman Empire, to the Imperial Diet that met in Speyer on the Rhine River from July into December.
This presentation will discuss an ongoing book project designed to analyze how Habsburg rule and the Holy Roman Empire functioned in this important period of peace between the famous Peace of Augsburg of 1555 and the outbreak of the Thirty Years War in 1618. The journeys of the courts provided the opportunity for the rulers to be seen and to interact with their subjects and with the significant political actors in the Empire. Although itinerant kingship is normally associated mostly with Medieval rulers, this presentation will discuss how the movement of the Habsburgs’ courts through space and time continued to be a significant aspect of their rule.

Invitation to download here.