Dynastic Crisis Research Articles

Shared Heraldry and the Sacred Space: The Building Blocks of João I of Portugal’s Imagery

This study considers the practice of shared heraldry as an instrument of affirmation of late-medieval monarchies, examining the case study of King João I of Portugal. The study of how this sovereign’s heraldry was shared with those close to him illustrates how heraldry was understood as an instrument of propaganda for the cause of independence, in the context of the 1383-1385 dynastic crisis, and subsequently in building the imagery of the King and the dynasty he founded. The transposition of this heraldry to the Monastery of Batalha, erected to commemorate the victory at Aljubarrota and later a dynastic necropolis, established a privileged relationship with this monument’s architecture and iconography, expanding the same theme of shared heraldry (now in a dynastic context) as an expression of the royal power’s legitimacy.

Women and power in times of dynastic crises (selected examples from English medieval history)

The paper examines the connection between women and power during the dynastic crisis. More precisely, the paper primarily refers to members of the high nobility and ruling houses during the dynastic crisis in the fifteenth century in England. In order to achieve a more accurate picture of the possibilities that an aristocratic woman, connected by family ties to the center of ruling power and authority in the person of the ruler - the king, had in order to legitimately possess and retain power, the paper will talk about the changes in social relations that occurred in earlier periods, about the difference in power and ruling authority, and then about similar examples in the wider European context. Special attention will be paid to the female actors of the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487), which culminated in the dynastic crisis, but which was further deepened by it, as well as to the perception of their power.

Prince at War: the Duke of Orleans and France's Conquest of Algeria during the July Monarchy

The article is devoted to the Mediterranean policy of France during the years of the July Monarchy to conquer and colonize Algeria. The article is devoted to the personality and activities of the eldest son of King Louis-Philippe, Duke Ferdinand of Orleans (1810—1842), who repeatedly visited Algeria and took part in hostilities. The article is based on the documentary heritage of the Duke of Orleans. The article concludes that the Duke of Orleans was a supporter of an active policy of conquest, colonization and development of Algeria. At the same time, he saw many of the problems that France faced in Algeria, primarily related to the state of the medical service, the system for placing soldiers in camps, and the state of infrastructure. The Duke of Orleans was sincerely concerned about the need to resolve these issues, took the necessary measures while in Algeria, and proposed methods for solving specific issues. His tragic death caused a dynastic crisis and seriously weakened the position of King Louis Philippe.

The Moscow Strel’tsy in the Dynastic Crisis of 1689

Abstract This article attempts to analyze the role of the Moscow strel’tsy (musketeer) regiments in the dynastic crisis of 1689, which led Peter I to assume real power in Russia. Contrary to the stereotypical understanding of the strel’tsy as loyal supporters of Sophia, their position was, in fact, more complicated. Fully aware of their mutiny’s futility and having just returned from the unfortunate Crimean campaigns, the strel’tsy hardly sympathized with Sophia, the initiator and culprit of repressive “purges” of the strel’tsy after the uprising of 1682, and generally sought to remain loyal to the authorities while staying within the formal framework of the law. The low level of support for Sophia amidst the strel’tsy forced F. I. Shaklovity, their commanding officer, to resort to a palace conspiracy with plans for regicide based on only 4–5 regiments (out of 26), which, if disclosed, would have made Sophia’s position illegitimate and extremely vulnerable. During the “private” crisis of 1689, assessed by Russian society as a “family quarrel” where a compromise seemed quite achievable, Duma and Moscow officials preferred to remain neutral; as such, the struggle for the capital’s strel’tsy garrison was of key importance. On New Year’s Eve (September 1, 1689), Peter’s supporters reached a turning point, having managed to bring the leadership and delegates of almost all the hesitating strel’tsy regiments to the Troitse-Sergiyev monastery and making public the evidence of a conspiracy to kill the tsar and the patriarch: this gained Peter the backing of Patriarch Joachim’s religious authority. It was the position of the Moscow strel’tsy that changed during September 1–4. They ultimately sided with Peter, which ensured his victory and the end of the neutrality of officials. However, this emphasized, for the second time in a decade, the humiliating dependence of the authorities, striving for “absolutism”, on the capital’s strel’tsy garrison: this was probably one of the most powerful motivations for their subsequent liquidation.

Foreign Observers of the Russian Political Crisis: The Case of the Interregnum of 1825

The article examines the events of the Russian interregnum, which preceded the Decembrist revolt, as a phenomenon of European politics, as it focuses on analysing the reports and reasoning of foreign diplomats on the development of the dynastic crisis and the struggle between the Grand Dukes Nicholas and Constantine. These communications, on the one hand, determined the discussion of the Russian crisis in the press and could be used to interpret it. On the other hand, the study of this segment of the information field makes it possible to determine fairly accurately the motivation that European public opinion attributed to Constantine's actions and his bizarre behaviour in November–December 1825. This study takes a different approach to interpreting the logic of an event that shook the European continent than previous historiographical works have done. Drawing on a wide range of archival and published sources, as well as the French press which dominated European political discourse at the time, the author demonstrates that the key issue before Russia and Europe in the crisis in question was the possible emergence of an independent Polish state under the sceptre of one of the Romanovs.

“Childbearing” as a Direction of the Inner Policy of Late 16th-Century Russia

The authors analyze the approaching dynastic crisis in late 16th-century Russia as a special direction of the policy of Tsar Fedor Ioannovich’s government. The policy was concerned, firstly, with the belittling of the dynastic rights of Dmitry of Uglich, and, secondly, with the attempts of Fedor and his wife Irina Fedorovna to bear their own heir. The latter problem was addressed with the use of all medical and non-medical resources available in the late 16th century: from secret diplomacy, invitation of foreign doctors and an English midwife to Russia to votive building, pilgrimage to monasteries, creating icons dedicated to saints who patron childbearing, and so on. Thirdly, the concentration of the ruling couple on pilgrimage, church building etc., for which much money and time was needed, was connected with the activity of Boris Godunov as the real head of the government. The collapse of this policy after the death of Princess Feodosia was the reason why Boris Godunov attempted to found a new, Godunov dynasty on the Muscovite throne.

국채보상운동 과정에서 공동체의식의 심화와 유교적 에토스의 영향

Recently there have been suggestions from both U.S. and Korean academic circles, that the national identity of the Korean people may have been forged during the Goryeo or Joseon dynasty period. These studies have taken notice of an unusual sense of cultural homogeniety that we can spot from the premodern period (a rather unprecedented level of it, even considering other countries’ cases on the global stage), and they also highlighted the actions of the Confucian scholars for example, the Scholars-turned-Righteous Army leaders) who had absolutely no ties with the government yet were just as strongly devoted to the task of overcoming a dynastic crisis as the governmental officials were. However, these studies have somewhat ignored the simple fact that in order for a nation to be formed, an affection for its partners, peers and colleagues that go beyond regions, social classes and genders, should be set in place first. <BR> This article differs from previous efforts and especially the aforementioned studies, as it sees the National Debt Redemption Movement in 1907 as an event that served as a virtual platform for the Koreans to build a horizontal partnership, which could evolve beyond issues such as regions, genders and classes and eventually lead into a Nationalist stand. At the same time, this article also recognizes the possibility that the Confucian ethos -such as the concept of righteousness- could have been contributive to the promotion of this new sense of partnership, and in that regard this article does share the belief of other studies that Confucian culture may have served as a soil for the Koreans’ Nationalistic identity.<BR> In that regard, this article aims to define the relationship between Korean Nationalism and Confucian traditions, by examining the fact that more and more people came to consider the National Debt Redemption Movement as the ‘right thing to do’ after learning all kinds of people from various backgrounds-regions, genders and social classes, etc.- were joining it, and the fact that they too wanted to be recognized as people joining the righteous effort, by publicly declaring their participation in the movement.

Trajan and the revolt of Antonius Saturninus

The article points out that the starting positions of the young native of the Spanish city of Italica were provided by his father, a prominent follower of the Flavian dynasty, who became a consul, a patrician and, yes, was awarded a rare and prestigious award-the triumphal distinctions for the governorship in Syria. The future emperor himself held the position of military tribune for an unusually long time, which provided him with a career in the professional military ( vir militaris ). However, although Trajan the younger, after the military tribunate, passed all the necessary steps of the civil magistracies, up to and including the praetura, instead of the patrician consulship, he receives the unusual appointment of commander of the legion stationed in the province of Hispania Tarraconensis. From the authors point of view, this designation, despite its external lack of prestige, was a sign of special trust on the part of the bearer of supreme power. When a military revolt broke out on the Rhine in early 89, led by the governor of Upper Germany, Antonius Saturninus, Trajan, on the orders of the Emperor Domitian, immediately moved with his legion to campaign against the rebels. The zealous execution of the order allowed him to become one of the most trusted military leaders of Domitian. Trajan may have confirmed in the eyes of the emperor his reputation as a loyal and energetic supporter of the Flavian dynasty by taking part in punitive measures against the minuscule legions. About Trajans subsequent career in the surviving sources is silent, which makes it suspect that he was carrying out new government assignments of the tyrant. By the time of the dynastic crisis of 96-98. Trajan undoubtedly had a reputation as a recognized vir militaris , a major military and administrator.

『일본서기(日本書紀)』 응신기(應神紀)의 성격과 5세기 전반 백제-왜 관계의 이해

Examined in this study is in what fashion the Nihonshok i’s “Oh’ujin-ki(應神紀)” chapter, which has been consulted as an important source of historical information in understanding the relationship between Baekje and the Japanese Wae in the 5th century, was actually structured and what are its genuine characteristics. The purpose of such examination is to enhance our understanding of Oh’ujin-ki, and to determine how certain references to Baekje-Wae relations were actually affected by the chapter’s own nature and intent, as such tasks will undoubtedly lead to better understanding of the 5th century Baekje-Wae relationship.<BR> Oh’ujin-ki as a text seems to be serving the goal of establishing Oh’ujin(應神), who was the Japanese king in a time when the Japanese society was supposedly witnessing the fading of the Days of Gods and the rise of Days of the Humans -at least in terms of the narrative of Nihonshoki-, as not only the founder of the New Imperial Denno family, but also the first ever Denno of Japan to grace the Human era. This kind of essential purpose of the text must have affected the tone and nuances in other parts of the text as well, which describes not only the domestic events of the Japanese society but Japan’s relationship with states on the Korean peninsula including Baekje as well.<BR> Considering how things proceeded on the Korean peninsula, the sort of relationship the states on the peninsula had with the Japanese Wae, and the internal dynamics of the Japanese Wae society, Oh’ujin-ki does not seem to be portraying history of this period as how it really was. For example, there is a description of an event called “(Baekje king) Jeonji’s dispatch.” For Baekje, the occasion in question was rather a choice made out of a diplomatic need to forge a cooperative relationship with Wae, in face of a dynastic crisis triggered by Goguryeo king Gwanggaeto’s southbound expansion. And for Japan, it was really a result of selecting Baekje as a stable provider of advanced culture and assets, out of the three states located on the Korean peninsula.

Dom António and the early modern Iberian world: Global approaches to the Portuguese succession crisis of 1580

AbstractEarly modern Iberian history has enjoyed renewed interest over the last 2 decades or so, with historians utilizing connected historical and global approaches to untangle interactions between various peoples within a vast empire. These studies have accounted for the unique social constructions within the Iberian world, and contended with questions regarding the political integration of Spain and Portugal during the Iberian Union (1581–1640). Scholars have attempted to complicate previous nationalistic interpretations of this period and looked at the institutional and cultural interactions within the Iberian Peninsula and its overseas territories. However, scholars have omitted serious examinations of Dom António's claim to the Portuguese crown during and after the dynastic crisis of 1580, as well as to the imperial and global dimensions of his candidacy. This article considers how the candidacy of Dom António and the Portuguese succession crisis can contribute to understandings of diplomatic interaction and more generally the negotiation of power in the Iberian world.

Unnoticed Coup D’état

The article is devoted to the history of the emergence and development of the political crisis of the Interregnum. The central question of the article is examination of the reason why Nikolai, having received news of the death of Alexander, decided to swear allegiance to Konstantin. An analysis of historiography demonstrates that the most diametrical interpretations of this event are presented in the literature: Nikolai acted under pressure from M. A. Miloradovich and/or Maria Fedorovna, together with the Governor-General and/or Empress Mother. An important aspect of the work is the study of the normative component of the problem of succession. It is shown that by November 1825 a contradictory situation had developed: by law the heir was Konstantin, by family agreement — Nikolai. The article justifiably proves that the Manifesto of Alexander I on the transfer of the throne of Nicholas was a model of separate family law and was never supposed to be published. On the basis of a wide range of sources, the article reconstructs the course of meetings on November 25, describes the features of taking the oath on November 27, and reveals the development of the dynastic crisis arising from them. It is demonstrated that Nicholas had a complex plan to seize power, which implied unification with representatives of the generals and the highest bureaucracy, an oath in favor of Konstantin in violation of the established tradition, pressure on his older brother and, ultimately, the proclamation of emperor. The article presents the question of rumors spread in St. Petersburg society related to the secession of Poland and the hypothetical murder of Constantine.

“S” is for “Seriously?” The Staritskii Plots as “Disorienting Defense”

The role of the succession question in court politics during the reign of Ivan iv has been a recurrent theme in Muscovite historiography, with particular focus on the “dynastic crisis” of 1553 as the first in a series of plots by Ivan’s cousin Vladimir Staritskii to gain the throne. But the true instigator, according to our sole source (interpolations in the Tsarstvennaia kniga segment of the Illuminated Chronicle), was Vladimir’s mother Evfrosin’ia. Somehow she was behind all the treasonous plots involving her son, and indirectly a guiding force behind all Ivan’s problems with disloyalty among the Muscovite elite. How she managed this is not at all clear, given the circumscribed role of women in Muscovy and her own absence from the capital. But the internal logic of the narrative clearly had a powerful appeal, and her image as the wicked witch of Muscovite domestic politics became the basis of “alternative facts” that have deflected historians from considering other explanations of Ivan’s dealings with his court.

Holy Synod and Political Crisis of Interregnum

The features of the development of the dynastic crisis of the interregnum of 1825 through the prism of the functioning of one of the key public authorities - the Holy Synod is discussed in the article. An analysis of the literature allows us to conclude that in modern historiography, the events of the oath to Grand Duke Konstantin received conflicting estimates. It is noted that as a result there were several interpretative schemes of what happened in the capital on November 27. An appeal to the workflow of the Synod makes it possible to assert that from the point of view of the logic of the functioning of the state apparatus, a coup d’etat took place. An analysis of everyday activities, the key bureaucratic formulas in the protocols leads to the conclusion that the bureaucratic reaction to the oath to Konstantin did not correspond to the established traditions and was distinguished by haste and internal contradictions. This was reflected primarily in the decisions of November 27: the Synod decides on the oath, relying on oral reports from the synodal members, but the next day duplicates its own decision, referring to the jurisdiction of the Senate. Moreover, a comparison with the events of December 12-14 shows that the accession to the throne of Nikolai Pavlovich was carried out in accordance with the order established in the previous century and was distinguished by deliberate legal accuracy and consistency.

Translation, Colonization, and the Fall of Utopia: The Qing Decline as Explained through Chinese Fiction

This study focuses on Meiji-period Japanese engagement with the late imperial Chinese novel Sequel to ‘The Water Margin’ (Shuihu houzhuan): an early Qing continuation of the classic Water Margin that focuses on the Liangshan outlaws’ colonization of a mythical “Siam” in the wake of the fall of the Northern Song dynasty. Like its parent work, Shuihu houzhuan found an enthusiastic readership beyond the borders of China. The novel was translated into Japanese several times during the Meiji period: most famously, by the poet and scholar Mori Kainan, whose translation was published by the Tokyo-based Kōin shinshisha publishing house between 1893 and 1895. In addition to the fact that Japan itself appears as a setting in the novel, I argue that Meiji-period interest in Shuihu houzhuan was related to its radically new mode of representing the central characters, who were transformed from rebellious bandits in the original Water Margin into civilized colonizers responsible for protecting and transplanting a reified Chinese essence on an international stage. This interest in expansion and colonization took on new significance against the backdrop of the First Sino-Japanese War, which bisected the publication of the translation and was explicitly addressed in both Mori’s commentary to the novel and the publishers’ marketing of the translation itself. In the context of the shifting relationship between Meiji-period Japan and Qing-period China, “Siam” is ultimately divested of its symbolic significance as a refuge from dynastic crisis and reconstituted as an unintentional trope for the complex linguistic, cultural, and political negotiation underlying Mori’s translation.

Royal Marriage, Frankish History and Dynastic Crisis in Regino of Prüm’s Chronicle

Regino of Prum’s Chronicle (907/908) is one of the most important works of contemporary history written in the era of the Carolingian Empire. In this article we consider Regino’s numerous stories about good and bad royal marriages drawn from the deep past of the Franks, and we show how the historian adapted his source material to late Carolingian sensibilities. We then argue that Regino’s interest in royal marriage can best be interpreted as a reflection of his anxiety about the marital status of the reigning East Frankish king Louis IV »the Child« (900-911). Regino dedicated his work to the king’s godfather and counsellor Adalbero of Augsburg, and he apparently hoped to influence the king and his inner circle in the urgent task of selecting an appropriate royal bride. Regino’s accounts of past rulers and their marital histories therefore give us an insight into how he perceived the political order of his own day and his fears about the future of the Carolingian dynasty.

The Time of Troubles in Alexander Dugin’s Narrative

Alexander Dugin (b. 1962) is one of the best-known philosophers and public intellectuals of post-Soviet Russia. While his geopolitical views are well-researched, his views on Russian history are less so. Still, they are important to understand hisWeltanschauungand that of like-minded Russian intellectuals. For Dugin, the ‘Time of Troubles’ – the period of Russian history at the beginning of the seventeenth century marked by dynastic crisis and general chaos – constitutes an explanatory framework for the present. Dugin implicitly regarded the ‘Time of Troubles’ in broader philosophical terms. For him, the ‘Time of Troubles’ meant not purely political and social upheaval/dislocation, but a deep spiritual crisis that endangered the very existence of the Russian people. Russia, in his view, has undergone several crises during its long history. Each time, however, Russia has risen again and achieved even greater levels of spiritual wholeness. Dugin believed that Russia was going through a new ‘Time of Troubles’. In the early days of the post-Soviet era, he believed that it was the collapse of the USSR that had led to a new ‘Time of Troubles’. Later, he changed his mind and proclaimed that the Soviet regime was not legitimate at all and, consequently, that the ‘Time of Troubles’ started a century ago in 1917. Dugin holds a positive view of Putin in general. Still, his narrative implies that Putin has been unable to arrest the destructive process of a new Time of Trouble.

Imaging Stuart Family Politics: Dynastic Crisis and Continuity, by Catriona Murray

Imaging Stuart Family Politics: Dynastic Crisis and Continuity, by Catriona Murray

Murray, Imaging Stuart Family Politics: Dynastic Crisis and Continuity (Routledge, 2017)

Review of Catriona Murray, Imagining Stuart Family Politics: Dynastic Crisis and Continuity (London: Routledge, 2017).

Review of 'Imaging Stuart Family Politics: Dynastic Crisis and Continuity'

Review of 'Imaging Stuart Family Politics: Dynastic Crisis and Continuity'

The Heart of the Declaration: The Founders' Case for an Activist Government

This book can be read as an extended appendix to its author's major revisionist work 1688: The First Modern Revolution (2009). That massively researched study portrayed the Glorious Revolution not as a moderate and sensibly English response to a dynastic crisis, but as a profound struggle between rival coalitions committed to two strikingly different conceptions of a modern imperial state. The Heart of the Declaration is a more modest venture. Two of its chapters analyze mid-eighteenth-century British imperial policy, and a final chapter extends this analysis to an interpretive reading of the Declaration of Independence. But despite its brevity, this is also an ambitious book in the way it invites American historians to rethink the origins of the Revolution. That enterprise is one that few revolutionary-era historians now pursue. Questions of origins and causation matter less than efforts to deal with the consequences of the Revolution or its impact on individuals, social groups, and localities. The one area in which interest in problems of causation is flourishing is in studies of British imperial policy, a concern that American-oriented historians rarely tackle.