New Princes: Johan of Östergötland (1589–1618) and Archduke Charles of Austria (1590–1624)

The emergence of centralized states in seventeenth-century Europe is among the most significant developments in European history. It not only changed the role of rulers in Europe, but also those of nobles, bureaucrats and other social groups.

Rulers’ relatives, particularly their younger brothers, played a pivotal, yet underestimated, role in this development as well: almost everywhere, younger princes lost their autonomy at the expense of expanding states and more absolutist monarchs, forcing them into a new role, as subordinated princes with little autonomy or power.

This was hardly a smooth process: at first many princes fought tooth and nail to preserve their position, but all had to accept the new reality sooner or later.

This project focuses on two trailblazing ‘new princes’, Duke Johan of Östergötland (1589-1618) in Sweden and Archduke Charles of Styria (1590-1624) in Austria, who were among the first to seemingly willingly adopt a new role.

As such, they form an essential missing link between the corporative dynasties of the sixteenth century in which all males had a role to play, and the absolutist monarchies of the seventeenth which were wholly dominated by dynastic family heads.

Analysing their education, socialization and continuing negotiations with relatives, this project analyses how and why they developed a new princely role and thus facilitated the processes of dynastic centralisation and state formation in the seventeenth century.