Submitted Abstract
The project LUX15/16 is about analysing the political, sociocultural as well as institutional changes in the Duchy of Luxembourg during the Burgundian and early Hapsburg rule (mid-fifteenth to early-sixteenth century), a period that has been widely neglected by historians to this day. The reign of the successors of the House of Luxembourg was marked by important adjustments to their own traditions. The introduction of a Burgundian and Hapsburg administration system and the duchy’s geopolitical situation in between the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of France provide an interesting case study on “the genesis of modern, bureaucratic States”. The central power and the three Estates will be integrated in the present research project. The reaction of the clergy, the nobility and chivalry as well as the Third Estate to the rather new political system will enable an analysis of cultural transfers, linguistic practices as well as political integration and interaction. Fuelled by the House of Luxembourg’s extinction and the linguistic split of the duchy, the analysis of the vectors of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century identities (on a regional, dynastic and social level) and state-building processes constitutes a promising new field of research in Luxembourgish historiography. The comparison to other principalities of the Burgundian and Hapsburg dominion allows analysing these questions on a transnational level. Finally, the application of hypotheses that originate from political studies, sociological research and cultural studies enables an appropriate interdisciplinary approach. Hence, the final aim of this project is a sociocultural analysis of the duchy of Luxembourg’s governance on the threshold of the early modern period.