The King is dead, long live the King?

The King is dead, long live the King?

Royal Loss: Death, Dynasty and Succession

This project aims to create a collected publication exploring the direct relationship between royal death and succession from the Medieval to Modern periods. How did Kings and dynasties square the fragility and mortality of the individual body natural with the idea of a continuous and sacral body politic? What role did the body of a late King play in the practical, political and cultural processes of succession? How were the deaths of royal heirs and children, and the sudden or young deaths of heirless monarchs, negotiated within individual, dynastic and national concerns over the succession?  Proposals for chapter/case-study contributions are welcomed from researchers at all stages in their career, from doctoral students to established scholars, and from any related disciplines, addressing such topics as:

• Losing heirs to the throne
• Successive royal deaths within a short period of time
• Death of Royal infants and children
• ‘Extinction’ of a dynastic line
• Sudden royal death
• Fear of royal death – concern for dynasty/succession/future etc., life-threatening illness etc.
• Propaganda of royal death
• The role of the Royal funeral in the ceremonies and processes of accession of the new monarch
• Posthumous heirs
• Commemoration of royal deaths, celebration of dead royals for individual/dynastic/anti-dynastic propaganda purposes
• Royal afterlives
• Regicide, assassination and succession
• The role of a dead monarch in the transition to a new ruler, ruling dynasty
• Royal and/or subject concerns over the succession in anticipation of royal death
• Motifs of individual/dynastic/national ‘destiny’ in discussions and representations of Royal deaths
• Government  during the period of dying and mourning of reigning monarch
• Dynastic consequences of royal death in elective monarchies
• Commemoration, mourning or use of death of late head of state during succession period or subsequent ‘reign’ in non-hereditary monarchies or republics
• Succession consequences of the death of a royal consort
• The memory or shadow of a dead predecessor to succeeding monarchs or consorts

 

At this stage preliminary proposals of between 300 and 800 words and should be sent along with your name and institutional affiliation to royallossyork2012@gmail.com by 15th April 2014.