In monarchies, power, law, finances, and economy are intertwined aspects of the royal household. More than in other economic units, royal households were not only responsible for the income of an individual or a family, but were also connected with the state, and vice versa.

The aim of this research seminar is to discuss research on economic and financial aspects of monarchies and dynasties from antiquity to present day. In particular, the interdependencies of finances, economics and monarchical rule are of interest. The research seminar, furthermore, hopes to encourage further research into this topic, and to enable comparative and interdisciplinary studies between different times and spaces.

Upcoming Events 2022

9 May, Inês Olaia (Lisbon): The Portuguese Crown’s Struggle to Provide for Early Sixteenth-Century Royal Women

Comment by Cathleen Sarti (Oxford)

16 May, Katarzyna Kosior (Newcastle): Royal Inheritance and Dower Negotiations in a Parliamentary Monarchy: The Case of Anna Jagiellon, Queen of Poland-Lithuania

Comment by Charlotte Backerra (Göttingen)

30 May, Paula Del Val Vales (Lincoln): Reconstructing the Queen’s Personnel in the Thirteenth Century: Possibilities and Challenges

Comment by Chloë McKenzie (London)

13 June, Roundtable on the King's Money, José Eloy Hortal Muñoz (URJC Madrid), James Ross (Winchester), Jan Vojtíšek (Prague)

Past Events 2022

24 January, Korinna Schönhärl (Paderborn): Financing a Newborn State under Precarious Conditions: King Otto I of Greece (1832-1862) and his Sources of Revenue and Credit

31 January, Andrew Hogan (Berkeley): Pharaohs and Finance: Considerations for the Introduction of a Monetized Sector to the Customary Economy in Ptolemaic Egypt

14 February, Jonathan Triffitt (St Andrews): Compensating the King: Royal Property and Finance after the German Revolution, 1918-1930

28 February, Alexander Jendorff (Gießen): Kings of Paradise oder Splendid Loosers? The Case of Count Friedrich Casimimir von Hanau-Münzenberg, the Colonial Project of "Hanauisch-Indien" in 1669, and its Contexts -> postponed

Past Events 2021

1 February, Amalie Fößel (Duisburg-Essen): Marriage and Property: Some basic thoughts on the finances of medieval queens

15 February, Nico Dogaer (Leuven): Putting the King in his Place: Reflections on the ‘royal monopolies’ in Hellenistic Egypt

1 March, Paul P.T. Bovend’ Eert (Radboud): The Royal Income: The Legalities of the Dutch Royal Finances in the 20th and 21st Centuries

10 May, Ferdinand Eibl (London): Royal Inc. Morocco

17 May, Christina Petterson (Australian National University): Colonies, Companies, Counts, and King. Money and Nobility Between the King and his Colonies

7 June, Christa Birkel (Munich, Düsseldorf): Pledging and Politics. The Example of the Late Medieval Duchy of Luxembourg

14 June, Round Table on Economic History of Monarchy with Luc Duerloo, George Tridimas, Elena Woodacre

25 October, Sebastian Ottinger (UCLA), Nico Voigtländer (UCLA): History’s Masters: The Effect of European Monarchs on State Performance

1 November, Lorenzo Bondioli (Columbia): The Fiscal-Commercial Complex: Taxation and Capital in Fatimid Egypt

29 November, Milinda Banerjee (St Andrews), Laura Clancy (Lancaster), Aaron Graham (Oxford), Ilya Afanasyev (Oxford): Roundtable on Political Economy and Monarchy