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European Monarchy: Its Evolution and Practice from Roman Antiquity to Modern Times (German Edition)

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This collection includes fourteen papers selected from those presented at the 2nd International Conference on Rulership in 1990, sponsored by an organization of scholars with what is to me a slightly odd specialty: The ceremonial institutions and ritual displays surrounding monarchs and other hereditary rulers, especially coronations, which combine religious observance with public relations. Almost none of the contributors is especially well-known in the wider (though still relatively narrow) field of aristocracy and peerage studies, though they come from academic institutions throughout the Western world, and their approaches tend to be theoretical rather than descriptively historical. The principal theme is that conceptions of rulership have not remained static but have changed over time, both by slow evolution and through sudden change, and always within the context of contemporary social and political needs. Though the collection's title demarcates its limits, the range of topics is quite broad. Edmond Frézouls, for instance, shows that the concept of "majesty" arose not during the Roman imperium but under the preceding Republic, while Lawrence Bryant restricts himself to a consideration of the image of the king in early modern France -- specifically Henry II in 1549. Michael Flyer investigates the religious rituals in use during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, while David Sturdy recounts the development of "Touching for the King's Evil" (i.e., the relief of scrofula). It's an interesting gathering of viewpoints regarding the mystical and iconographical aspects of kingship. About one-third of the papers are in French or German, by the way.