Diplomacy, Power and Ceremonial Entry: Polish-Lithuanian Grand Embassies in Moldavia in the Seventeenth Century (original) (raw)
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Diplomats and Diplomacy in the Early Modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (XVII Century)
Eastern European History Review, 2021
Il Comitato redazionale e scienti co è lieto di presentare al pubblico la rivista scienti ca Eastern European History Review. Con un carattere internazionale e interdisciplinare, una cadenza annuale e una fruibilità open access la rivista focalizza i propri interessi sulle dinamiche occorse nell'Europa Orientale durante tutta l'età moderna (XIV-XIX). Eastern European History Review è espressione del Centro Studi dell'Università della Tuscia CESPoM (Centro Studi sull'età dei Sobieski e della Polonia Moderna) nato nel per intuizione del Prof. Gaetano Platania, Direttore Emerito della Rivista. L'iniziativa editoriale che presentiamo nasce dall'evidente mancanza in Italia di una rivista scienti ca relativa alla storia dell'Europa centro-orientale in Età Moderna, nonostante la penisola abbia giocato un ruolo fondamentale per la Storia e la Cultura di una parte integrante del continente, a torto considerata come lontana e periferica. Consapevoli di questo, il Comitato ha posto quale obiettivo primario della Eastern European History Review quello di off rire uno spazio di ri essione e di discussione su temi che appartengono alla storia dell'Europa centro-orientale, e insieme alle relazioni-politiche e culturali-che questa vasta area del Vecchio Continente ha avuto con l'occidente d'Europa, e l'Italia in particolare, incoraggiando il dialogo tra studiosi e esperti di settore, e tra diff erenti approcci della ricerca scienti ca. Il Comitato Redazionale e Scienti co EASTERN EUROPEAN HISTORY REVIEW: THE JOURNAL e Editorial and Scienti c Board are proud delighted to present the Eastern European History Review under the aegis of Sette Città Editore. e Eastern European History Review is an international and interdisciplinary annually online and open access peer-reviewed journal about studies on Ceantral and Eastern Europe in the Modern Age (XIV-XIX). e Journal is also the expression of the Study Center CESPoM (Centro Studi sull'età dei Sobieski e della Polonia Moderna-Center Study on the Age of Sobieski and Modern Poland) of the University of Tuscia, born in , from an idea of Prof. Gaetano Platania, today Director Emeritus of this journal. It publishes articles with signi cant approaches and original interpretations in all research elds concerning Central and Eastern Europe, with speci c attention to the History sciences. e editorial initiative we present comes from the obvious lack of a journal, in Italy, concerning the history of Central and Eastern Europe during the Modern Age, this despite its fundamental role in the history and culture of that part of the continent, wrongly considered distant and peripheral. Quite the contrary is true, in fact. Main objective of the journal is to create a space for re ection and discussion on topics pertaining to Central and Eastern Europe, but also relations with Continental Europe, encouraging dialogue between scholars and experts in the eld, and between diff erent approaches of scienti c research.
Review: Power and Ceremony in European History eds Kalinowska and Spangler
Canadian Journal of History, 2022
The richness and abundance of ritual, ceremony, and performance in European history continue to fascinate historians after decades of description and analysis, and this collection introduces a new series of case studies that gives the reader much to chew on and to draw from in further work. Anna Kalinowska and Jonathan Spangler have brought together a group of papers for the most part devoted to Central and Eastern Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and Scandinavia. The book is valuable for that alone, as it helps to broaden the historiographical lens away from Western Europe and to introduce students to these important areas. The chapters deal primarily with the early modern period, with much of the book occupied with the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Taken as a whole, the collection will serve readers interested in elite ceremonials and courtly rituals well, and succeeds in its goal of broadening the comparative discussion of these important aspects of European history. The book is divided into four parts, plus an introduction by Kalinowska and Spangler. The introduction lays out the rationale and historiographical genealogy of the collection. As the study of political ritual and ceremony moved, over the last decades of the twentieth century, from description to analysis, from curiosity to significance, it became widely acknowledged that the elaborate ritual life of premodern Europeans could and should be read from sociological and anthropological perspectives. All of the essays are therefore indebted to Edward Muir, obviously, but with strong influence from Elias, Kantorowicz, Duindam, Cannadine, and Stollberg-Rillinger. One will not, however, find much in the way of theory in this collection. The editors specify in the introduction that their concern is to promote the analysis of primary sources as the foremost task of historians and history students. All of the essays are, therefore, documentary studies at their core, and the collection excels at bringing forward recent analyses of ritual documents and events. Part one looks specifically at rituals and ceremonies of coronation and enthronement. In sixteenth-century Istanbul (Yelçe), eighteenth-century
Eastern European History Review, 2021
Despite numerous publications regarding the journey of prince Władysław Waza to Western Europe (Czech, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Italy) in 1624-1625, the topic still awaits its fully elaborated monography. One of the issues requiring in-depth reflection is the broadly understood diplomatic dimension of young Vasa’s peregrination. The prince, travelling incognito, was officially a member of Albrycht S. Radziwiłł’s diplomatic entourage. This arrangement caused many problems with regard to diplomatic and ceremonial procedures in the ambassador-prince-host court triangle. The aim of this article is to present relations in said arrangement, especially those related with preponderance during entries, stay and ceremonies taking place at the courts visited by the embassy. The analysis will be conducted primarily from the perspective of the role and functions of the ambassador. Therefore, its important component will also be the description of the political dimension of the journey, which will show Albrecht S. Radziwiłł's activities in this area, including relations and talks with the rulers visited, the political elite and ambassadors present at a given court.
Review of 'Russia and Courtly Europe: Ritual and the Culture of Diplomacy, 1648-1725
Reviews in History, 2017
Complementing the growing academic interest in pre-modern diplomatic ceremonial, Jan Hennings' Russia and Courtly Europe explores the relationship between Russia and Europe beyond the traditional portrayal of political incompatibility and clash of cultures from the Peace of Westphalia (1648) until the end of Peter I's reign in 1725. The monograph examines Russia's place in the wider, transcultural developments in early modern diplomacy through the prism of direct diplomatic encounters, ceremonial conflicts and quarrels, and records of ritual and ceremony. Its objective is to demonstrate that in the context of diplomatic ritual and ceremony the question of who belonged to the society of princes extended beyond the modern ideas of Europe as a geographically defied and unified cultural sphere. Broadly, it considers how dynastic competition and notions of honour and prestige impeded or expedited the standardisation of diplomatic rules and procedures beyond national boundaries. Russia's place in the international order of the states-systems, prevalent in diplomatic forms following the Peace of Westphalia, and its integration into the European precedence system is addressed in chapter one. Departing from the ethnographical uncertainties of travel literature and its anxiety of whether Russia was civilised or barbarous, Hennings examines scholarly and legal texts on the hierarchy of sovereigns and notes that these demonstrate clear tendencies to rank the Russian tsar among powerful European rulers. Balthasar Sigismund von Stosch's Von dem Praecedentz-Oder Vorder-Recht (1677), for instance, places the Holy Roman Emperor as the first secular ruler to follow the Pope, followed (albeit surprisingly) by the Russian
Building large political structures was always closely connected with a fragile balance between military conflicts and peace. Thus, especially in the modern period, diplomats played an extremely important role in managing crisis situations and/or maintaining the status quo. Moreover, they represented the most visible facet of interstate relationships. During the 17th -19th centuries, Europe's tumultuous history, characterised by frequent wars, many of which against the Ottoman Empire, gave the diplomats' services an inestimable value. In this context, Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia usually represented only intermediary points on the route towards the diplomats' final destination, namely the Turks' Empire. The present study aims at revealing the multiple forms of interaction between the Nordic (chiefly Swedish) and Russian diplomats, on the one hand, and the Romanian rulers, on the other hand. In order to achieve this goal, general historical information was intertwined with numerous testimonies pertaining to this special category of foreign travellers, the result being a picturesque depiction of certain typicalities of the diplomatic ceremonial. Rezumat: Realizarea de structuri politice mari a fost întotdeauna strâns legată de un echilibru fragil între conflictele militare și pace. Astfel, mai ales în perioada modernă, diplomații au jucat un rol extrem de important în gestionarea situațiilor de criză și D Revista Română de Studii Baltice și Nordice / The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies 5 (2) 146 / sau menținerea status quo-ului. Mai mult decât atât, ei au reprezentat fațeta cea mai vizibilă a relațiilor interstatale. Pe parcursul secolelor al XVII-lea -al XIX-lea, istoria tumultoasă a Europei, caracterizată prin războaie frecvente, dintre care multe împotriva Imperiului Otoman, a conferit serviciilor făcute de diplomați o valoare inestimabilă. În acest context, Transilvania, Moldova și Țara Românească au reprezentat, de obicei, doar puncte intermediare pe traseul spre destinația finală a diplomaților, și anume Imperiul Otoman. Studiul de față își propune să dezvăluie formele multiple de interacțiune dintre diplomații nordici (mai ales suedezi) și ruși, pe de o parte, și domnitorii români, pe de altă parte. Pentru a atinge acest obiectiv, informații generale de istorie au fost intercorelate cu numeroase mărturii referitoare la această categorie specială de călători străini, rezultatul fiind o descriere pitorească a anumitor tipicuri ale ceremonialului diplomatic.