Jagiellonians: Dynasty, Memory and Identity in Central Europe

Jagiellonians: Dynasty, Memory and Identity in Central Europe is a major new Oxford research project funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant (2013-18). The Jagiellonians were one of the leading royal dynasties in Renaissance Europe, ruling lands which constitute 14 present-day states. Originating in the medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Jagiellonians became kings of Poland, Bohemia and Hungary, while Jagiellonian brides became significant figures in the courts of Sweden, Austria and beyond. The dynasty was highly cosmopolitan and international, but has so far been studied overwhelmingly in its local contexts.

The project will, firstly, provide the first study of the Jagiellonians as an international political phenomenon, from the fourteenth century to 1596. It will investigate new, multi-disciplinary ways of writing dynastic history; asking what dynasty was and what it was for. Finally, it will explore the on-going role played by the Jagiellonians in the evolution of national and regional identities in Central Europe, from the late Middle Ages to the present day.

The project aims to offer a meta-history of the Jagiellonians, exploring the meanings attributed to the dynasty over the centuries – by the Jagiellonians themselves, their subjects, successors and subsequent generations.
 

Click here for the project website.

Contact:
Dr. Natalia Nowakowska
natalia.nowakowska@some.ox.ac.uk