In state formation research, princely houses have been a blind spot. The development of states has been discussed from many perspectives, like interstate competition, internal social conflicts, fiscal-military developments, etc., but at the centre of most European states, there was a princely house. These ruling houses have been overlooked in studies about state formation. What’s more, when discussing such dynasties, the vertical chronological perspective (grandfather-father-son) is all dominating, for instance in the focus on dynastic continuity, dynastic culture and representation, and the like. This collection of essays highlights the horizontal perspective (ruler, all children, siblings, cousins), in asking how the members of a princely family acted as a power network. The quest is to develop an understanding how this family network interplayed with other factors in the state formation process. This volume brings together existing knowledge of the topic with the aim of exchanging insights and furthering knowledge.

Liesbeth Geevers (Lund University) is Associate Professor of History. She earned her PhD at the University of Amsterdam (2008) with a thesis on the Dutch Revolt. Since then, she has published extensively on the Houses of Nassau and Habsburg, as well as on dynastic identity in the early modern period.

Harald Gustafsson (Lund University) is Professor emeritus of History. After defending his thesis at Stockholm University in 1985, Gustafsson has been affiliated to Lund University (professor 1999-2020). His main focus of research is early modern Nordic and European history, including themes as state formation, political culture, and political influence of ordinary people.

1. Building Dynasties, Shaping States: Dynasty and State Formation in Early Modern Europe (Liesbeth Geevers and Harald Gustafsson)
2. Divine Right of Dynasty. Deposing the God-Given Monarch in Protestant Europe (Cathleen Sarti)
3. Presence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder: Proximity and the Creation of Dynasty (Fabian Persson)
4. The Austrian Nephews: The Offspring of Maximilian II and Maria of Austria at the Service of the Spanish King (Rubén González Cuerva)
5. Sixteen Corpses: The First Reburials in the Escorial in 1586 and the Dynastic Dynamics that Made Them Happen (Liesbeth Geevers)
6. An Elected Dynasty of Sweden? Blood, Charisma and Representative Monarchy (Mats Hallenberg)
7. Narrowing Dynastic Rule. Models of Governance, Social Conflict and the Hobbesian Bargain in Early Modern Sweden (1560–1718) (Joakim Scherp)
8. The Nassaus and State Formation in Pre-Modern Germany (Jasper van der Steen)
9. The Frustrations of Being the Spare: Second Sons in the French Monarchy and their Increasingly Limited Roles in Politics and Society, 1560s–1780s (Jonathan Spangler)
10. Dynastic Marriage Spheres in Early Modern Europe. A Comparison of the Danish Oldenburgs and three Houses of the Empire (Harald Gustafsson)
11. Danish Dynastic Histories in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Claus Christoffersen Lyschander, Vitus Bering, Ludvig Holberg and Hans Peter Anchersen (Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen)