Susana P. Magalhães Oliveira, “Emotions and early modern diplomacy: The case of Iberian ambassadors at the Elizabethan court.” SEDERI 33 (2023): 9–31. (original) (raw)
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Vjeran Kursar (ed.), Life on the Ottoman Border. Essays in Honour of Nenad Moačanin, Zagreb: FF press, 2022
This paper will focus on the emotionological analysis of selected Latin diplomatic reports written by Antun Vrančić (1551-1617) and Franciscus Zay (1498-1570), Habsburg envoys who negotiated a peace-treaty with Sultan Süleyman I and his Grand Vizier Rüstem Pasha between 1553 and 1557. Besides narrative representations of various emotional styles and states of diplomatic actors on both sides which range from hope and pride to anger and frustration, due analytical attention will also be paid to manifestations, functions and meanings of simulatio, dissimulatio and amicitia as typical features of early modern diplomatic practice. The paper will in this way provide an outline of a new diplomatic emotionology as a potentially useful heuristic model for the new actor-centred diplomatic history.
SEDERI Yearbook 32, 2022
The Spanish resident ambassadors at the Court of Elizabeth I are pivotal within the scope of Renaissance diplomacy to understanding the Anglo-Spanish relationships during the second half of the sixteenth century. Out of all of Philip II's ambassadors, Don Diego Guzmán de Silva stands out for his particular connection to the queen. This association is arguably a consequence of a mixture of emotions and diplomatic skill, known as diplomatic emotionology. This innovative approach to the study of diplomacy opens up an array of opportunities for Renaissance studies by focusing on the subject and their agency.
“Control Yourself, Sir!”: A Call for Research Into Emotion Cultures in Diplomacy
2012
This brief essay a call for further research rather than a summary of existing findings speculates on the existence of an area of potential misunderstanding, yet also of potential solidarity, among diplomats: that of emotion culture. All diplomats know that different cultures have different triggers for emotion (e.g., what would be taken as a joke in one culture is heard as an insult in another), as well as different rules governing the expression of emotion (one has but to compare the scene at funerals around the globe).2 Sensitivity to these cultural differences is indeed a key attribute of a good diplomat, whose job so often involves maintaining a cordial atmosphere or defusing an already tense situation. However, here it is argued that diplomats may, in fact, face a further challenge that of deciphering the emotion culture of the international practice of diplomacy itself. This essay first examines and seeks to explode the notion that diplomats are, or should be, immune to emoti...
'Emotional Diplomacy’: Trust and Political Communication in Thirteenth-Century Iberia
A Plural Peninsula: Studies in Honour of Professor Simon Barton, ed. A. Liuzzo Scorpo, 2023
Political and diplomatic exchanges are closely intertwined, framing and defining social dynamics and interactions between individuals, institutions, ethnic and political communities. As Simon Barton suggested in his last book, Conquerors, Brides, and Concubines, in medieval Mediterranean contexts, such as the Iberian Peninsula, interfaith liaisons were powerful tools of political and diplomatic negotiation, while also conveying broader cultural meanings. In this chapter, I argue that the rhetoric of emotion and trust functioned in a similarly multi-purposed way to define and shape political and diplomatic exchanges. Focusing on thirteenth-century Iberia, this study examines the centrality of trust in both political and social contexts, and how this unfolded in a variety of communicative acts, including expressing and managing emotions. The case study of James I of Aragon (r. 1213–1276) and his chronicle-autobiography, the Llibre dels fets, helps us reflect upon modes of political and diplomatic communication and how emotional language, gestures and performance were central to promoting and legitimising different types of connections and exchanges beyond geopolitical, linguistic and ethnic frontiers.
Negative Emotions in Action – two Examples from the 15th Century Ragusan Diplomacy
Hiperboreea, 2019
Emotions shouldn`t be neglected, but rather taken seriously in order to understand better the complexity of political, and socio-cultural processes that they have generated. The study of emotions in the field of diplomacy is particularly promising, but requires precise definition of the term, explanation of the methodological approach and qualifications concerning the research possibilities that depend upon the nature of the archival sources. The goal of this article is to analyze how words used to signify emotions, which could be signified as negative, shaped practical decisions within certain socio-political and cultural contexts; in other words to demonstrate an active role of emotions in shaping and conducting practical diplomatic decisions. The study aims to underpin the reciprocal relations between emotions and actions illustrated by two case studies from the late medieval Ragusan history. The sources of an interest are preserved in the State archive in Dubrovnik, in the archival seria Lettere di Levante, which, among others, contains the instructions written by the city authorities to their envoys. Despite the fact that the instructions were a product of a long and sober-minded discussions, and therefore they aren`t usually abundant with words used to express certain emotions in them, places where those expressions appear are quite significant and can tell us more about how emotions were used as a tool of cognitive processes.
SUSANA DE MAGALHÃES OLIVEIRA, 2020
In the early modern period, ambassadors emerged as metaphorical bridges between two worlds in more than one sense. They were the channel through which sovereigns, which hardly ever met in person, communicated and negotiated with one another. As observers in a foreign court, they also connected sameness and difference, in the sense that they were required to establish alternative strategic approaches to diversity while simultaneously relating to their familiar references of ‘self’ and ‘sameness’. Since ambassadors were often productive writers, some with a clear predisposition for detailed descriptions, diplomatic correspondence encapsulated invaluable information sent to their home courts, much of which included the ambassadors’ own representations of ‘Otherness’. Therefore, these diplomatic written accounts stand as a multi-faceted metaphorical bridge between two symbolic worlds: past and present, manuscript and digital, writer and reader, sameness and difference. It is the purpose of this article to analyse the representations of the Tudor Queen Elizabeth embedded in the written accounts of the ambassadors, including those of the Portuguese ambassadors at the Tudor court, which are rarely mentioned.
»Monitor Yourself!« The Controlled Emotions of Spanish Office Holders in the Early Modern Period
Administory, 2019
The essay is dedicated to the idealized emotionlessness of early modern Spanish office holders. It focuses on the so called corregidores, which represented the king and administered justice in major Spanish cities. Their instructions often idealized the total lack of pasiones or at least their complete invisibility. Such a discarding of all affects echoed the ideals of impartial judges, just kings and uninterested clerics and had specific functions, especially in cities with their high density of mutual observation. To live accordingly, that is, with one’s own emotions permanently held in check, required personal aptitude, appropriate age and a process of education and study which should convert certain habits into a ›second nature‹ and thus distinguish the corregidor significantly from the society over which he was to judge. Constantly checked by society however, this second nature would corrupt, if not protected by a rigid and permanent »vigilance over oneself«
Diplomacy and Culture in the Early Modern World, Oxford. 31 July to 1 August 2014
The conference builds upon the recent ‘cultural turn’ in diplomatic studies that has seen more innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to a subject that was once viewed in heavily bureaucratic and constitutional terms. Scholars are increasingly appreciating the importance of ritual and other forms of symbolic communication in diplomatic practices and the role of diplomatic processes in cultural exchanges. Diplomats were important political brokers whose actions could have profound implications for international relations, but they played an equally important role in the transfer and adaptation of cultural ideas and artefacts through their activities as cultural agents, authors and brokers. The profound impact of diplomacy on culture in this period is, moreover, seen in the increasing prominence of representations of diplomacy in literature and a range of other media. The aim of this conference is to further our understanding of early modern diplomatic practices, of the dynamics of diplomatic exchanges both within and without Europe, and how diplomatic ideas and practices interacted with other cultural and political processes. The keynote lecture ‘Diplomacy as a Social Practice: Recent Research Perspectives’ was delivered by Professor Christian Windler (Bern). The conference featured two panel discussions: one on the impact of the ‘diplomatic moment’ and another on future directions in diplomatic studies. Papers and panels addressed aspects of diplomatic culture in Europe and the wider world including gender, gifts, material culture, the dissemination of information, archival practices, international law, cross cultural exchanges and translation, as well as the impact of diplomacy on literary writing and representations of diplomacy. The paper abstracts are available at: http://www.textualambassadors.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/abstracts1.pdf