Fürstinnen und Konfession

For a long time the political impact of princesses in the centuries following the Reformation has been largely ignored by historians. This is partly due to the complexity of the existing body of source material, but also to the social conventions in Early Modern Europe that often confined women to operating primarily “behind the scenes”. Recent research on prominent princesses, such as Duchess Elisabeth of Brunswick-Calenberg, Electress Anna of Saxony and Duchess Dorothea Susanna of Saxe-Weimar, have, however, impressively shown that women of high nobility in various situations decisively shaped religious and confessional politics at and beyond the territorial level employing a broad array of means and resources. The present collection of essays examines forms and effectsof this influence, thereby offering a multifaceted series of new studies on women of high nobility in the 16th and 17th century.