Description
Book SynopsisBringing together a variety of evidence, such as princely correspondence, travelogues, financial accounts, chronicles, chivalric or Renaissance poems, this book examines marital travels of princely brides and grooms on a comparative trans-European scale.
This book argues that these journeys were extraordinary events and were instrumental for dynastical and monarchical self-representation, and channelled aspirations and anxieties of princely houses when facing each other. Each such journey was a little earthquake that resonated across all layers of society. Hundreds of diplomats, envoys, aristocrats, city officials, low-status personnel, soldiers, artists, musicians, poets, and humanists were involved in preparing, executing, and commemorating them. Stretching far beyond the mere physical movements of the future royal spouse, the journeys snowballed into a myriad of other meanings that epitomised the very character of a society based on prestige, magnificence, honour, and glor
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 2. How to convey a bride or groom? Ways and means 3. ‘Quite inappropriate to let such a lady travel alone’ Entourage 4. ‘Her Highness was greeted in every place of this country’ Festival and ceremony 5. ‘Forget your people and your father’s house!’ Ritual transition 6. ‘The occasion of this sort presents itself rarely’ Princess’s power and agency on the way 7. ‘Now, the day has come, about which I have learned from histories’ Memory and praise 8. Conclusion
