A new and revisionary account of how the nobility grew and developed in late medieval and early modern Germany.

Attempts to present a coherent account of early modern German history are often hampered by the German equivalent of the Whig theory of history, by which all useful roads lead up to the creation of the nineteenth-century power state (Machstaat) or institutional state (Anstalstaat). In this kind of historiography, there are large "blank" areas between the "important" events like the Reformation, the Thiry Years War, the Seven Years War, and the French Revolution. During the intervals of apparent stagnation between these events, "Germany" seems to disappear, to be replaced by states such as Prussian and Austria, Saxony, Bavaria, and the Palatinate. Substantial areas are ignored, and groups such as the parliamentary Estates, which stood in the way of state-building, are virtually written out of most accounts. Rather than focusing on the separate histories of the individual German states, Michael Hughes looks to the structure of the Holy Roman Empire in its final centuries and writes an account of Germany as a functioning, federative state, with institutions capable of reform and modernization. For nineteenth-and twentieth-century historians, the Empire was seen as the embodiment of division and weakness. But by examining the first Reich, Hughes reveals the persistence of the idea of Germanness and German national feeling during a period when, according to most accounts, Germany had virtually ceased to exist. At the same time, he examines "the element of continuity in Germany's development . . . in an attempt to discover how far back in Germany's past it is necessary to go to find the roots of the 'German problem,' the Germans' search for a political expression of their strongly developed awareness of cultural unity."

This groundbreaking book explains the widely accepted practice of feuding amongst noblemen and princes in its social context.

The Zimmern Chronicle: Nobility, Memory, and Self-Representation in Sixteenth-Century Germany brings the history of the Zimmern family to English readers for the first time. In it the author not only offers a new solution to the problem of the text's authorship, but examines the chronicle in the context of broader current debates, including the problem of the relationship of the early modern German nobility to the state; memory studies; and self-representation. The Zimmern Chronicle is arguably the most famous noble family chronicle to come out of sixteenth-century Germany. Unlike other noble chronicles that appeared at the same time, this work is distinctive in that it represents the collective memory of the Southwest German nobility. Not content to give voice only to their own ancestry-and by extension their own existence-the Zimmern authors included the voices of their noble contemporaries. By memorializing relationships within their community, they drew attention to the increasingly important issue of how their lineages had been historically constituted. Bastress-Dukehart first relates the history of the chronicle and introduces the long-standing mystery surrounding the text's authorship. She then draws attention to the importance of inheritance and the obligation for ancestral memorialization that property devolution demands. Put simply, inherited land and ancestral memory together manifested the nobility's social image and demonstrated its political power. She then sets the stage for the history the chronicle tells, recounting a feud between the Zimmern family and the more powerful Werdenberg family and examining how in general feuds helped to shape the German nobility's political relationships and personal values. Thus, Bastress-Dukehart portrays the Zimmern Chronicle as far more than just a family history. She argues that because the Zimmern authors filled their work with legends, sexual tales, and farcical stories of daily life in Southwest Germany, they proved themselves adept at offering their readers puzzles to solve, of sparking imagination and stimulating curiosity. In short, they developed a number of memory devices intended to make certain that their audience, once engaged, would read their work to its conclusion. Who, after all, would not want a glimpse into the minds, habits, and bedrooms of the pre-modern nobility? By adopting these devices, the Zimmern authors have proven the sanctity of the obligation to memorialize ancestral achievements: their chronicle has endured-the memory of the family continues.

Monarchy, Aristocracy and the State in Europe 1300 - 1800 is an important survey of the relationship between monarchy and state in early modern European history. Spanning five centuries and covering England, France, Spain, Germany and Austria, this book considers the key themes in the formation of the modern state in Europe. The relationship of the nobility with the state is the key to understanding the development of modern government in Europe. In order to understand the way modern states were formed, this book focusses on the implications of the incessant and costly wars which European governments waged against each other, which indeed propelled the modern state into being. Monarchy, Aristocracy and the State in Europe 1300-1800 takes a fascinating thematic approach, providing a useful survey of the position and role of the nobility in the government of states in early modern Europe.

For German townsmen, life during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was characterized by a culture of arms, with urban citizenry representing the armed power of the state. This book investigates how men were socialized to the martial ethic from all sides, and how masculine identity was confirmed with blades and guns.

In Status, Power, and Identity in Early Modern France, Jonathan Dewald explores European aristocratic society by looking closely at one of its most prominent families. The Rohan were rich, powerful, and respected, but Dewald shows that there were also weaknesses in their apparently secure position near the top of French society. Family finances were unstable, and competing interests among family members generated conflicts and scandals; political ambitions led to other troubles, partly because aristocrats like the Rohan intensely valued individual achievement, even if it came at the expense of the family’s needs. Dewald argues that aristocratic power in the Old Regime reflected ongoing processes of negotiation and refashioning, in which both men and women played important roles. So did figures from outside the family—government officials, middle-class intellectuals and businesspeople, and many others. Dewald describes how the Old Regime’s ruling class maintained its power and the obstacles it encountered in doing so.