Female Aristocrats Research Articles

Stephan Malinowski. Nazis and Nobles: The History of a Misalliance.

The relationship between Nazism and the German aristocracy tends to be drawn in one of two ways, each verging on caricature—lionization of the heroic, noble resistance fighters behind the July bomb plot, or caustic castigation of the be-monocled Junkers and the Cabinet of Barons who smoothed Hitler’s road to power. Stephan Malinowski’s Nazis and Nobles steers an admirably nuanced middle way between these simplistic poles of wholesale absolution or demonization. The key question Malinowski seeks to answer throughout the book runs as follows: How could a noble caste that valued tradition and aristocratic leadership so highly join forces socially and ideologically with a lower middle-class, ostensibly egalitarian far-right movement? Each of the work’s five chapters then addresses a different piece of this puzzle. The first chapter, “Defining ‘Nobility,’” explores various aspects of the German aristocratic habitus: concern for one’s land, leadership, bloodlines, praise of the countryside, and contempt for intellectualism, capitalism, and the toxicity of urban living, including middle-class wealth and ostentation. These latter bugbears were associated above all with antisemitic stereotypes and exaggerated distaste for nouveaux riches or so-called “clinking goats” (Klirrziegen), bourgeois women who dared to adorn themselves with ostentatious jewelry. All of these ideological elements could potentially be redefined in a völkisch vein even if their roots lay in mainstream conservative rather than radical right-wing soil. Chapter 2, “The Apocalypse and Beyond,” then reveals the extent to which many aristocrats saw Germany’s “November Revolution” in 1918 as heralding the utter collapse of their world of wealth and privilege, as well as rendering monarchism moot after Kaiser Wilhelm’s “shameful” flight to the Netherlands. Many aristocrats even believed that Wilhelm should have been forced to die “honourably” at the enemy’s hands, with plans having been made toward the war’s end to effect this very eventuality. The dissolution of royal courts, Upper Houses, the Army (a preferred haunt for lesser noble sons of little brain), and aristocratic bodies such as the Prussian Heraldry Office, along with the swift descent of many nobles into what they considered to be utter penury (some were “forced” into work as tutors or taxi-drivers) led to increasing radicalization, especially among the genuinely impoverished ranks of the Prussian minor nobility. For every noble who might frown at a classified ad such as “Stony-broke devil, aristocrat, seeks filthy rich angel for marriage,” vowing to cast its author into social darkness, there were others who might seek to follow its lead. The fates of female aristocrats are tellingly delineated too: A significant number became increasingly politicized in tandem with their enforced independence from familial expectations and the certainties of arranged marriage.

O współczesnej powieści angielskiej na łamach „Przeglądu Polskiego” (1866–1914)

The monthly „Przegląd Polski” was published in Kraków between 1869 and1914. It promoted the views of Catholic intelligentsia and conservative writers. At the end of the 19th century it often published essays on British literature. At first the authors preferred to write about William Shakespeare; later on, however, they opted for the reviews of the then contemporary British novels. The monthly in question discussed the works of many well-known writers. These reviews were written by well-educated female aristocrats (such as Konstancja Morawska and Anna Maria Lisicka). They were particularly interested in the works devoted to ‘woman question’. Their attitude was moderately feminist. When we compare the novels reviewed by these essayists with the novels read by average female readers, it turns out that all these women preferred popular realist novels.

Le mécénat culturel et religieux des femmes en Géorgie au haut Moyen Âge

The data related to female art patronage in early medieval Georgia mainly illustrates the history of cultural and religious practices of the elites and shows that the female aristocrats were frequently involved in the acts of donation and actively participated in all forms of cultural intervention. The contribution of women patrons in the arts is significant and their role is not limited to a simple idealistic symbol (mother, wife, daughter). The woman in her position of patron of good deeds and charitable acts is fully associated with the political and religious administration of Georgian society.

“Tutti gli occhi del mondo”: Court Networks between Turin and Madrid, 1640–1700

Although the court of Turin’s role in the new balance of power in Europe during the War of the Spanish Succession is well known, far less is known about the strategic function of its collateral courts, such as the court of the princes of Savoy-Carignano. Based on the correspondence of the Savoy ambassador to Madrid, Costanzo Operti (1690–95), this article focuses on these courts to demonstrate the formal and informal diplomatic interplay among male and female aristocrats from 1640 to the end of the seventeenth century. One such noblewoman, Olimpia Mancini of Carignano-Soissons, was an Italian who grew up in the French court and maintained a close relationship with Louis XIV. As the wife of a prince of the Savoy-Carignano branch, she held important positions in Turin, Paris, and Madrid. Mother to the famous prince and military warrior Eugene of Savoy, after she lost her powerful status in France, she sought to find a place in the Madrid court as lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Louise de Orléans. Her mother-in-law, Marie de Bourbon-Soissons, played an outstanding role in maintaining the honour and prestige of the court of Carignano.

Reisende Frauen im Mittelalter. Literarische Reflexionen europaweit, historisch belegte Reisende (Margery Kempe) und Reiseberichte für Frauen (Felix Fabri)

Abstract This study examines what we know about traveling women primarily in the Middle Ages. As we know already, many female aristocrats were forced to travel extensively for the purpose of marriage; other women went on long or short pilgrimages; women were certainly involved in wars as support staff and as the warriors’ wives. But we do not have many actual travelogues by women, except by the late medieval mystic Margery Kemp. Her Book thus becomes an important document of a traveling woman. The analysis of her work is then accompanied by a close reading of Felix Fabri’s Sionpilger in which the author creates a mental pilgrimage account for nuns who could not travel but wanted to visit the pilgrimage sites in their minds. There is, in addition, much evidence of traveling women throughout all of medieval literature, whether they journey voluntarily or are forced to do so.

Female aristocrats in the natural history world before the establishment of the Geological Society of London

Abstract A fascination with natural history does not recognize class, as is shown through the activities of female aristocrats who, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, contributed significantly by increasing the number of collections at natural history museums. These women were not members of the Geological Society of London because, at that time, women were not even allowed to be members, but they still left their impressive legacy in museums. This paper will focus on three women who made extensive collections that are now incorporated into British museums. The first of these, the Duchess of Portland, made one of the finest collections in England and, possibly, the best collection of shells and fossils in Europe of her time, which was later acquired by the Natural History Museum, London. She was followed by the Countess of Aylesford who made one of the most important mineral collections of her time, which is now at the Natural History Museum, London. Finally, Baroness Brassey collected geological samples during her trips that were used to establish the Brassey Institute in Hastings. These three women used their own income and influence to build collections.

Midwife Diplomacy. The Recruitment of a Midwife for Empress Margarita María Teresa de Austria (1666-1673)

During her stay in Vienna, from 1666-1673, empress Margarita María Teresa de Austria, who was of Spanish origins, gave birth four times and died when she was pregnant with a fifth child. The question of what midwife would best serve her was repeatedly discussed at the highest diplomatic level. The reputation of these midwives depended not only on their performance in the delivery room. Royal midwifery was linked to culture and language, to the intrigues of rivalling parties at court or frictions between the different branches of the Casa de Austria. Midwifery thus offers the opportunity to study from a new perspective the mechanisms of dynastic alliances and the symbolic value attributed to the body of female aristocrats.

Cuerpos Públicos, Cartas Privadas (ss. XVI-XVII)

The analysis of the correspondence between two sixteenth/seventeenth century female aristocrats —Luisa de Carvajal, Magdalena de San Jerónimo— enables us to reect on the value of relics and their relevance in the Spanish Baroque Counter-Reformation. We correlate Luisa's yearning for martyrdom as well as her mystical and religious exaltation with some of Magdalena's commitments at the Penitents House, at the Flemish Court, and as founder of the prison for prostitutes and female delinquents known as the Casa de la Galera, and, therefore, with dierent bodies and semiotics: the ill body of men, that polluting of 'working girls'; the bodies of virgins, of prostitutes, of actresses. These relate to dierent public spaces: the brothel, the theatre, the Magdalene asylum. And, in a very special manner, to the res publica and the Spanish Empire. All this based on the continuous background of Mary Magdalene's myth, a fundamental text that unites all the women considered here.

The Financing of John Wesley's Methodism c.1740–1800

The Financing of John Wesley's Methodism c.1740–1800

Creating their own domains. Polish female aristocrats and gardening during the eighteenth century

Abstract The text examines the meaning of gardens for Polish enlightened female aristocrats at the turn of the eighteenth century, in relation to their personality and against a sociohistorical background. Noblewomen such as Izabela Czartoryska and Helena Radziwill considered gardens as their own domains; due to their activities the landscape garden became part of the emerging aristocratic culture. In search of the individual character of these gardens the text analyses the combination of various decisive factors: specific property rights granted to noblewomen, the national ideal of a country life and the exchange of ideas with like-minded European intellectuals, in which aristocratic women participated. Their gardens had open or hidden agendas, which initially alluded to literary, philosophic or freemasonic topics; by the end of the century they focused on patriotic clues expressing devotion to national traditions. This became all the more important after the partition of the Polish-Lithuania Commonwealt...

Demografia rodziny magnackiej w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim na tle elit zachodnioeuropejskich. Wybrane problemy

The article presents the results of the research on the age of newlyweds, the length of marriages, the number of children in the family and life expectancy for the magnate family in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th–18th centuries, and the comparison of those numbers with the parameters established by West-European historical demographers for aristocratic elites from Britain, France, Germany and Portugal and the families that ruled in Europe. The demographic parameters for the magnate family have been obtained from the database that contains information on particular genealogical facts such as the date of birth, marriage and death, and the number of children (collected in library and archival queries for nine families) and they have been compared with the results arrived at by West-European researchers. The results for the magnate family indicate that the average age of men who contract marriage for the first time is included between over 23 to over 27 years; that is also the age range when European aristocrats contracted marriages, but the average age approached the upper limit more frequently. The age at which women from magnate families contracted marriage for the first time also correlates with the data concerning European female aristocrats, that is to say between 18 and 23–24, and approaches the upper limit of the interval. In the case of other parameters the magnate family were of lower value. The length of marriage in magnate families was shorter than in England, the number of children in a family also was smaller, and life expectancy was usually shorter both for men and women. When we compare the data concerning magnate families with the analogous parameters concerning the West-European elites we can see that the magnate families from Lithuania were generally less healthy. The increase of nearly all the demographic parameters in the 18th century in their case was after all inferior to the ones referring to similar social groups in England and France. There is a possibility that difficulties connected with obtaining complete data and – as a result – a less numerous research sample, as well as taking into consideration only the children that had grown to the adult age (in the West-European samples all the children that had been born were counted) have influenced the values of the parameters and made them less reliable. That is why it is a need to continue the research and to concentrate on other problems (which are important from the point of view of functioning of the family), such as the size of definite celibate in the group in question, the percentage of second and third marriages, the problem of illegitimate children, etc.

Czy królowa Rycheza używała pieczęci?

Did Queen Rycheza Use a Seal? The two extant identical seals supposedly belonging to Queen Rycheza (d. 1063) and accompanying documents allegedly issued by her in 1051 and 1054 are undoubtedly forgeries, but could testify to the existence of the original seals. This supposition is suggested by the bust depiction of the queen, typical for the eleventh century and subsequently vanishing; apparently, the forger executing Rycheza’s seal could have acted in the same way as did the Brauweiler forger (possibly the same person) of the archbishops’ seals, i.e. he copied the bust likeness upon the basis of an accessible eleventh-century original. Just as intriguing is the seal’s rare pear shape – we do not know why the author of the original decided to choose it, and it is even more difficult to explain the selection of such an untypical outline unless the forger resorted to a similarly shaped model. Finally, the hypothetically oldest document mentioning the seal (dated 1054) comes at least from the 1130s. In other words, it originated at a time when seals of female aristocrats and queens were so rare in the Reich that there was still no distinct need for forging them if they were not featured on the original documents. It must be kept in mind that the content of the document in question was recognised by its last publisher as reliable and formulas pertaining to the addition of the seal used therein did not give rise to reservations. The same holds true for their analogous formula inserted into authentic fragments of the corroboration of a document from 1056, known only from later copies. If Queen Rycheza in her capacity as a widow did actually use a seal, which was extremely rare at the time, then it was important evidence of her status and, first and foremost, says a lot about the queen’s conviction relating to her exceptional status and majesty.

Handel at a Crossroads: His 1737-1738 and 1738-1739 Seasons Re-Examined

The years 1738 and 1739 saw a dramatic reversal in Handel's life and career. Wide popularity, admiration, and financial success in the spring of 1738 gave place to unexpected competition and performance clashes with the Italian opera party a year later, spoiling Handel's first oratorio season and exhausting his current account. New documentary evidence culled from a variety of sources allows us to reconsider this period, probe its central episodes, and reveal new ones. Among the topics explored in this essay are a hitherto unknown attempt by female aristocrats to produce Italian operas in 1739, Handel's long-standing interest in musical innovation, a Frenchman's eyewitness account of key Handelian events in 1738, a reconsideration of Saul's and Israel in Egypt's reception in 1739, and the earliest attempt to promote English Oratorio as a British national genre.

Why Weren't They Feminists?

This article examines the responses of Parisian noble women to campaigns for women's rights in France of the early Third Republic. The methodology of the article is based on the works of Pierre Bourdieu. His concept of the habitus is used to analyse the effects of class and gender in noble women's attitudes to French feminisms before the First World War. The conditioning of Parisian noble women explains their resistance, indeed often outspoken opposition, to feminists' demands. These female aristocrats supported their own oppression within a social order governed by the state, the scientific and medical establishments, the expectations of family, and the Catholic Church of the time.

From Impurity to Piety: Mid 17th-Century French Devotional Airs and the Spiritual Conversion of Women

ABSTRACT With his three books of airs de dévotion (1656, 1658, 1662), Father François Berthod offered singers the best of two worlds: newly-written sacred texts set to preexisting love songs by prominent French composers. In his dedications, he indicates that his parodies were written for women, enabling them to sing passionate melodies while maintaining their “modesty, piety, and virtue.” Inspired by the adopted musical settings, Berthod retained the provocative language of the original texts but directed expressions of concupiscent love toward Jesus in lieu of mortal man. Drawing on church documents, devotional treatises, and introductions to sources of sacred music, it can be shown how Berthod's devotional airs—a repertory virtually ignored by scholars—were part of a Catholic campaign to convert female aristocrats from a life of frivolity and immorality to one of religious devotion. This study examines Berthod's choice of airs, his organization of topics, and his parodic procedures as representations of religious “conversions.” Also addressed is the debate surrounding his textual transformations, for some questioned whether women could enter into the spirit of the devotional text without thinking about its “sinful” version. The airs, in fact, embody a central, yet controversial, interpretation of post-Tridentine doctrine: In order to know what is good one must know what is not. Ultimately this study reveals that Church leaders believed that by singing airs de dévotion, a woman, even if married with children, would transcend worldly desire, fantasize amorous conversations with Jesus, and express her love for him “as her true husband.”

Edme Gersaint and the Marketing of Art in Eighteenth-Century Paris

Edme Gersaint and the Marketing of Art in Eighteenth-Century Paris Andrew McClellan In the course of the eighteenth century, dealers became the essential middlemen in a rapidly expanding art market. As collecting increased as a form of recreation and a means of distinction, so did the need for the experts adept at evaluating paintings and managing the flow of art across national borders and through public auctions, which emerged as a crucial site of exchange. We know more about the role of dealers and patterns of consumption in England than in the rest of Europe, but with respect to France, we might begin by examining the career of the most famous dealer in early eighteenth-century Paris, Edme-François Gersaint (1694–1750). 1 We know little about Gersaint beyond the self-image he constructed for himself through a variety of innovative forms of publicity, ranging from the famous shopsign painted by Watteau, the Enseigne de Gersaint, to newspaper advertisements, tradecards, public auctions, [End Page 218] and sales catalogs; yet the sustained campaign to publicize himself and his business is in itself highly interesting and informative on a number of counts. First, the impulse to fashion a public image points to the emergence of a market of potential consumers, and the dealer’s need to foster an appetite for his goods and services. Second, by means of his various marketing tools, Gersaint aimed to define his profession and to forge a space for the commerce of art within the art world and high society more generally. Countering a negative stereotype of the dealer as a greedy man of commerce and parasite on the art world, Gersaint insisted on his status as a gentleman, worthy of comparison with enlightened art lovers while he equated his premises (the shop and auction house) with the refined space of the collector’s cabinet. His attempt to distinguish himself from other dealers and to articulate a new professional profile relied, paradoxically, on the appropriation of the familiar and distinctly anticommercial discourses of the aristocratic collector and cult of honnêteté. The conflation of private cabinet and commercial venue, of merchant and honnête homme, that were key to Gersaint’s professional image and self-esteem underpin the shopsign by Watteau (c. 1720, Berlin, Charlottenburg), painted to hang outside Gersaint’s shop on the Pont Notre-Dame in Paris. 2 The painting is not a faithful record of Gersaint’s boutique, but rather an idealized representation of his business. Against a backdrop of fine paintings, a group of male and female aristocrats are shown engaged in casual conversation and enjoyment of art, evoking the setting and rituals of the collector’s cabinet. Signs of commerce are suppressed as the dealer’s shop is transformed into a locus of elite leisure and self-display. The painting works as an advertisement promising a lifestyle that flows from possession of the objects on sale in the shop. Gersaint, as proprietor of the shop and its contents, becomes the purveyor of the good life. Elegantly dressed and seemingly at one with his noble company, the dealer is assimilated by Watteau into the class of his patrons. During the 1720s and 1730s Gersaint explored other forms of publicity to promote his business. He was the first dealer (apart from print sellers) to use newspaper advertisements. These advertisements appeared in the Mercure de France alongside other notices on the arts; to the extent that the Mercure, as a newspaper, contributed to the formation of a public sphere, in the Habermasian sense, this juxtaposition served to legitimize the commerce of art in the public’s nascent conception of the art world. 3 Gersaint was also the first dealer in France to realize the potential of public auctions (already used in Holland and England), which he organized as a kind of public spectacle and which he recommended to curieux as events both instructive and amusing. These sales were accompanied by sales catalogs, which were his most important and lasting contribution to the art of dealing. Through elaborate texts and engraved frontispieces, his catalogs carried on Watteau’s task of crafting an image of the dealer. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure...