LUXDYNAST
Du local au global : Gouverner, déléguer et participer dans l’Europe des Luxembourg (1308-1437) (résumé en français)
Europe and the House of Luxembourg. Governance, Delegation and Participation between Region and Empire (1308-1437)
From the election of Henry VII of Luxembourg as King of the Romans in 1308 until the death of Emperor Sigismund in 1437, the territorial network under the control of the House of Luxembourg underwent major transformations. It encompassed very disparate traditions, political realities and temporalities; its management permanently required striking a balance between “thinking global” and “acting local”. The question of how the dynasty coped with this diversity stands at the centre of this project.
The research project, funded by the research programme CORE of the FNR over three years, focuses on the sovereign on the one hand, political society on the other and the continuous reactivation of the link between these two poles. Rejecting the traditional insistence on top-down processes of the exercise of power as well as, conversely, the more recent temptation to exaggerate the role of local communities, the LUXDYNAST project emphasises the multiple interactions between the various political actors and their impact on political communication and institutional functioning. The notion of a political and a social contract is therefore at the heart of the research programme, and related to it the topics of negotiation, political representation and participation.
Objectives: The project will first concentrate on the reigns of Henry VII, John the Blind and Charles IV. Geographically, it will focus on Bohemia, Italy, Tyrol, Brabant, Luxembourg and the central institutions of the Empire. It will be complemented for the occasion of two international conferences by the analysis of the reign of Sigismund and the other regions subject to the authority of the Luxembourg family.
International partners: Regesta Imperii “Spätmittelalter” – Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz; Masaryk University, Brno; Centre for Medieval Studies, Prague – Charles University / Czech Academy of Sciences