Lectures at GAM, 18. Mai 2022, 18.30–20.00, HS 30

Jonathan Dumont (Wien): Mary of Burgundy and Margaret of Austria. Two Female Rulerships in the Habsburg Low Countries

Hybrid – vor Ort und online unter:
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/65296178004?pwd=NGJVak5VSUlRYmYxaHNuNmk4UkYxdz09

18. Mai 2022, 18.30–20.00 Uhr
Institut für Geschichte, Universität Wien, Universitätsring 1, 1010 Wien, Hörsaal 30

Jour fixe des Instituts für die Erforschung der Frühen Neuzeit in Kooperation mit Geschichte am Mittwoch

Jonathan Dumont (Wien): Mary of Burgundy and Margaret of Austria. Two Female Rulerships in the Habsburg Low Countries

Moderation: Karl Vocelka

 

Abstract:

This lecture will focus on the legitimation of female rulership in the late fifteenth- and the early sixteenth-Habsburg Low Countries. During this period, the Low Countries were ruled by two women: Duchess Mary of Burgundy (r. 1477–1482) as sovereign ruler, and her daughter Margaret of Austria as governor general (1507–1515, 1519–1530). The context and the characteristics of these two rulerships were very different. Mary’s rule was contested by the king of France. She counterattacked by claiming that she was the sole heir of her father Duke Charles the Bold and therefore the only natural sovereign of her lands. Margaret of Austria ruled as governor general by delegation of her nephew Charles V’s sovereignty. She legitimated her position by relying on a very specific conception of power that characterised dynastic rulership: shared sovereignty. This lecture will present the results of two recent collective books codirected by the speaker: Marie de Bourgogne/ Mary of Burgundy. Reign, ‘Persona’, and Legacy of a Late Medieval Duchess/ Figure, principat et postérité d’une duchesse tardo-médiévale, eds M. Depreter, J. Dumont, E. L’Estrange, S. Mareel, Turnhout, Brepols (coll. Burgundica, 31), 2021, 475 p. URL: http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503588087-1), and La Paix des Dames (1529), eds J. Dumont, L. Fagnart, P.-G. Girault, N. Le Roux, Tours, Presses universitaires François Rabelais, 2021 (coll. Renaissance), 464 p. URL: https://pufr-editions.fr/produit/la-paix-des-dames/).

Zum Vortragenden:
Dr. Jonathan Dumont holds a PhD in History, Art, and Archaeology (Université de Liège, Belgium). He is currently Research Fellow at the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Institut für Mittelalterforschung). His work focusses on late medieval and early modern political history and history of political cultures, particularly in France, the Low Countries, and the early Habsburg Monarchy.

Rückfragen: martina.fuchs@univie.ac.at