Princes, Patronage, and the Nobility

Download or read book Princes, Patronage, and the Nobility written by Ronald G. Asch and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1991 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using a comparative perspective, this volume studies the court as a crucial center of government and politics, as well as the dominant focus for the ruling elites. The essays explore how the early modern court gradually developed from the medieval royal household to its very different form in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Comparing England, Germany, France, Spain as well as the Netherlands and Italy, the editors find that several common themes emerge: the problem of integrating a number of often vastly different provinces and principalities through the attraction of a court; the capital city's function as the basis of the court and as its rival; the role of the Court during the great religious conflicts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and the court as an instrument for domesticating the nobility and a stronghold of aristocratic influence.