Description
Book SynopsisPrince, Pen, and Sword offers a synoptic interpretation of rulers and elites in Eurasia from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. Four core chapters zoom in on the tensions and connections at court, on the nexus between rulers and religious authority, on the status, function, and self-perceptions of military and administrative elites respectively. Two additional concise chapters provide a focused analysis of the construction of specific dynasties (the Golden Horde and the Habsburgs) and narratives of kingship found in fiction throughout Eurasia. The contributors and editors, authorities in their fields, systematically bring together specialised literature on numerous Eurasian kingdoms and empires. This book is a careful and thought-provoking experiment in the global, comparative and connected history of rulers and elites.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures, Tables and Map List of Contributors 1 Rulers and Elites in Global History: Introductory Observations Jeroen Duindam 2 The Court as a Meeting Point: Cohesion, Competition, Control Jeroen Duindam 3 Not of This World …? Religious Power and Imperial Rule in Eurasia, ca Thirteenth – ca Eighteenth Century Peter Rietbergen 4 The Warband in the Making of Eurasian Empires Jos Gommans 5 The People of the Pen: Self-Perceptions of Status and Role in the Administration of Empires and Polities Maaike van Berkel 6 The Golden Horde, the Spanish Habsburg Monarchy, and the Construction of Ruling Dynasties Marie Favereau Doumenjou and Liesbeth Geevers 7 Narratives of Kingship in Fictional Literature Richard van Leeuwen 8 Prince, Pen and Sword: Eurasian Perspectives Jeroen Duindam Glossary Bibliography Index
