Private Justice or Ducal Power? Testing the Strength of Public Authority and Dynastic Loyalty among Transnational Nobles at the Court of the Duke of Lorraine

Spangler, Jonathan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6938-3607 (2024) Private Justice or Ducal Power? Testing the Strength of Public Authority and Dynastic Loyalty among Transnational Nobles at the Court of the Duke of Lorraine. In: Notions of Privacy at Early Modern European Courts: Reassessing the Public and Private Divide, 1400-1800. Early Modern Court Studies (3). Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, pp. 241-260. ISBN 9789463720076 (print) ; 9789048555154 (ebook)

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Abstract

This chapter uses the case study of the duchy of Lorraine during the reign of Duke Léopold (1679–1729) to investigate the effects of the transnational identities of high-ranking nobles in Europe’s small states. In his efforts to rebuild his state after decades of French occupation and to establish a public sphere, Léopold successfully attracted the high nobility back to his court and re-established a degree of loyalty to his dynasty. However, private interests and established ties to other states and other dynasties gave the high nobility of Lorraine a more independent identity; these interests and ties proved to be strong counter-forces to the task of state-building.