SPANGLER JONATHAN
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Parcours
Domaines de recherche/Research Interests
My research is based on the aristocracy of France and its neighbours in the 16th-18th centuries, and the notion of frontier identities. In particular, I am working on a new history of the Duchy of Lorraine, a formerly independent state between France and Germany.
I am also interested in early modern royal courts, in France and elsewhere. I particularly focus on members of royal families besides the king: his wife, his brother, his mother, his cousins.
Three words to describe me? Cosmopolitan, cheerful, erudite.
I enjoy music a lot, especially as a performer, but also exploring new recordings of various historical periods. I love exploring new cities, and long driving tours abroad. I am knowledgeable about old films from Hollywood’s Golden Era. Nothing beats relaxing with friends over a long meal.
Diplômes/Degrees
- First degree (College of William & Mary)
- MSt (Oxford University)
- DPhil (Oxford University) / Dissertation subject: the family of the Lorraine-Guise, as exemplars of foreign princes at the court of Louis XIV, with emphasis on the family's finances, marriage contracts, wills, roles for women, and roles at court, in the French provinces, and on the wider European stage)
Projets en cours/Current Projects
Since publishing my doctoral research on the Guise in a monograph in 2009, I have expanded my research and writing towards themes of elite frontier identies more generally, in an early modern, pre-nationalistic context. This work focuses on the original home of the Guise, the Duchy of Lorraine, and on other similar border regions between France, Germany and the Low Countries. I have embarked on a new study of the court and nobles of the Duchy of Lorraine (16th to 18th centuries), whose identity is "neither here nor there", and in particular the mixed identities of the ducal family, the courtiers in Nancy and Luneville, and the multiplicity of cultural influences on the court of Lorraine.
Other research projects I continue to pursue include an in-depth examination of the political and cultural roles of French kings' brothers (known at court simply as 'Monsieur') in the early modern period; and further exploration of the position in noble society of 'women alone'--widows and spinsters--in early modern France. Both studies help illuminate the functionality of power and patronage in a pre-modern courtly space, by examining generally overlooked yet central figures.