On the Paths of Peace: The Holy Roman Empire as seen through the Travels of the Habsburgs’ Courts in 1569–1570

You are cordially invited to a lecture by Professor Joseph Patrouch (Department of History, Classics, and Religion, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta), organised by the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, which will take place on 22 May 2024 at 10:00 in the Lecture room of the Institute of Philosophy. 

Invitation

From August, 1569 through December, 1570, various Habsburg rulers and their entourages travelled across Central Europe, first to the Hungarian administrative centre of Bratislava, and then across Moravia to the Bohemian capital of Prague. After a winter’s stay there, the courts, including those of Emperor Maximilian II and his consort Empress María, along with six of their children, moved again, this time through Nuremberg and other Imperial Free Cities in the Holy Roman Empire, to the Imperial Diet that met in Speyer on the Rhine River from July into December. 

This presentation will discuss an ongoing book project designed to analyze how Habsburg rule and the Holy Roman Empire functioned in this important period of peace between the famous Peace of Augsburg of 1555 and the outbreak of the Thirty Years War in 1618. The journeys of the courts provided the opportunity for the rulers to be seen and to interact with their subjects
and with the significant political actors in the Empire. Although itinerant kingship is normally associated mostly with Medieval rulers, this presentation will discuss how the movement of the Habsburgs’ courts through space and time continued to be a significant aspect of their rule.