Dynasty in Motion: Wedding Journeys in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Bringing 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 glory. The story of nuptial travelling is fascinating and rich; it is a perfect condensation of monarchical order, dynastic agenda, value system, personal motives, female agency, and social networks in this period. It is dynasty in motion, prestige on wheels, queenly time, place, and time like no other. This volume is the perfect resource for upper-level students and scholars of court studies, the history of monarchy, and for those interested in premodern Europe.