Chapter Six. The Habsburg Theatre State. Court, City And The Performance Of Identity In The Early Modern Southern Low Countries

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the efforts of the Habsburg court to engage with public civic culture in order to appropriate and remould civic identities. The basic assumption of the chapter is that early modern Netherlandish identities, territorial and 'national' identities especially, were highly political, in the sense that they functioned in particular settings and responded to specific situations. The chapter looks at the politics of identity in action. It examines the role of devotional communication, of ritual and of theatrical performances by rulers and civic elites in the creation and negotiation of identities. The chapter also measures the impact of these public performances on the urban population at large. Keywords: civic culture; Habsburg court; Netherland