Dr Jonathan Spangler

Very excited to get this book in the mail today! I'm looking forward to reading it. Congrats to Zita! #queenship #france

SCS is happy to announce it has awarded the 2025 Early Career essay prize to Dr Elizabeth Hines.

Her essay, “How to Pawn the Crown Jewels” demonstrates how Charles I was able to use his networks with agents in the Dutch Republic to raise badly needed funds by pawning items

Dukes of Cleveland: Two FitzRoys and Several Vanes One of the least known dukedoms in the peerages of Great Britain is that of Cleveland. After starting off as a title for one of the most famous duchesses in Europe, Barbara Villiers, the second and…

Today #dukesandprinces revisits Raby Castle in County Durham, home to the Dukes of Cleveland of the Vane family, a title previously held by a son and grandson of King Charles II and Lady Castlemaine (the FitzRoys).
dukesandprinces.org/2025/07/30/d...

The Leslies: Just one Duke of Rothes but many generals in Scotland, Russia and Austria ‘You know nothing, Jon Snow’, is perhaps a fitting introduction to the family history of Rose Leslie, an actress famous for playing Ygritte the Wildling in Game of Thrones. Snow did in fact know no…

Clan Leslie may only have one duke (of Rothes), but its history spans from medieval Scottish lords in Garioch and Fife, to an Austrian field marshal who murdered Wallenstein, to a Russian general, an Irish 'fighting bishop', and the actress Rose Leslie. dukesandprinces.org/2025/06/23/t...

(And I also once met the heir to the Rusdian throne in a Blockhusters in Oxford , but that was less pleasant)

I was shopping at a mall in Northern Virginia and noticed this very tall handsome stranger looking at the same sweaters I was. I went all mushy inside then noticed it was the Prince of Asturias, now the King of Spain.

I walked in on Sigourney Weaver in a changing room (normally a bathroom) in the Puck Building where I worked in New York. The famous photo shoot space was at the other end of our corridor. She didn't seem particularly bothered...

Today in St Andrews, conference on Louis XIV and the provinces. Here, Stanislas Zagun looks at the Duc de Gramont as provincial governor. #FrenchHistory

The MacCarthys—Irish kings to princes … to dukes? Ireland did not have dukes and princes created by emperors or kings in the manner of other European kingdoms in the medieval and early modern ages. There were a few dukedoms (Ormond, Leinster, Aber…

For #dukesandprinces Sunday evening, read how Ireland has native princes too: the MacCarthy princes of Desmond, Carbery and Muskerry. Even an ephemeral 'duc de Montcashel' in the Jacobite peerage? dukesandprinces.org/2025/06/02/t...

I love going to academic conferences now where all you can hear is the tap tap tapping of younger people and their laptops, and not the speaker...

Wouldn't it be great to have a historical drama set in early 17th-century Spain with Bella Ramsey playing Queen Margarita? The resemblance is uncanny--she definitely has a Habsburg lower jaw.

Wouldn't it be great to have a historical drama set in early 17th-century Spain with Bella Ramsey playing Queen Margarita? The resemblance is uncanny--she definitely has a Habsburg lower jaw.

The registration deadline for the @kingjamesconf.bsky.social is quickly approaching! It promises to be a great conference with lots of Royal Studies scholars presenting and in attendance! All information is below 👇

I'm writing a short piece about medieval Irish native nobility. Anyone on here a specialist? I'd like to confirm usage of some specialist words.

We're actually slightly overwhelmed by the number of proposals!

Pleased to share that the first books of the new 'Courts and Courtiers' series from Brepols will soon emerge! Oskar Rojewski's monograph about Sittow, court painter to Isabella of Castile; and a collection of essays about Habsburg royal brothers, wives and bastards! www.brepols.net/products/IS-...

Dukes of Medina Sidonia: Virtual kings of Andalusia One of the wealthiest and most powerful aristocratic families in Spain are the dukes of Medina Sidonia. With their base in the Andalusian seaport town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, huge estates across …

Inspired by my Andalusian adventure: Dukes of Medina Sidonia, oldest ducal title in Spain: includes a commander of the Armada in 1588, a queen of Portugal in the 1650s, a Carlist diplomat in the 1830s, and an anti-francoist 'Red Duchess' in the 1960s. dukesandprinces.org/2025/05/05/d...

So....naturally the main attraction for me at Seville Cathedral, the royal chapel with royal tombs, looks like this, no explanation, nothing. Thanks a lot.

Today we visit the Casa de Pilatos, residence of dukes of Medinaceli

And up close, the arms of Spain and Orléans (note that 'she' is on the 'he' side!)

A second ducal palace on one afternoon: the Palacio de San Telmo, home of the Duke of Montpensier (son of Louis-Philippe) and his wife Infanta Luisa Fernanda (sister of Isabel II)

I'm about to visit the palace of the Dukes of Alba in Seville. Most exciting!

Eulenburg and Bülow princes: two scandals that shook the Prussian court The court of Kaiser Wilhelm II is remembered for its excessive militarism—the Prussian sabre rattling that encouraged the Austrian emperor to send such a strong ultimatum to the Serbs in July 1914 …

Sex, music and high politics: the Chancellor of Germany, Prince Bernhard von Bülow, and the famous conductor Hans--whose wife ran off with Wagner; and Prince Philipp zu Eulenburg, the centre of one of the biggest sex scandals at the court of the Kaiser.
dukesandprinces.org/2025/04/12/e...

A week of inspiring insights into ongoing research projects at #esshc2025 in Leiden, not least the fascinating (and challenging) realm of sources. Historic research is indeed often about drinking an ocean and peeing a cupfull.

This morning's session very much illustrated the point.

Fabian Persson discusses how new monarchs dressed in 'traditional' forms to impress new subjects in the later 19th century, in Leiden @esshc.bsky.social @courtstudies.bsky.social

Seymour of Wolf Hall: the rise and fall and rise again of the dukes of Somerset The woman at the centre of the historical drama The Mirror and the Light—though she doesn’t say very much—is Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII of England and mother of the future king, Edward …

Who are the Seymours? Edward and Thomas in The Mirror and the Light, tonight on @pbs.org @wolfhall.bsky.social. The dukes of Somerset spent a lot of time in the Tower...but are still around today, still in Wiltshire. Here is their story: dukesandprinces.org/2025/03/23/s...

Thursday, 20 March 2025 at 18:00 CET
Milan Svoboda will be presenting a recent project of redecoration of the ca 1590 Golden Hall banqueting table of Kratochvíle hunting lodge, an Italian villa built in Southern Bohemia for Wilhelm of Rosenberg.
Register at:
www.eventbrite.fr/e/mar-vss-th...

Il Gattopardo: The Real Leopard, Prince of Lampedusa The new Netflix series Il Gattopardo (‘The Leopard’) is the third adaptation of the celebrated novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Published in 1958, it was first a hugely successful film by Vis…

This week I have been watching @netflix.com's new gorgeous miniseries 'Il Gattopardo'. So naturally, #DukesandPrinces needed to take a look at the real Princes of Lampedusa. Enjoy some gorgeous Sicilian settings! And one very pious family...! dukesandprinces.org/2025/03/11/i...

Soaked and humiliated: The Danish court’s cruelest joke revealed As students, they were tour guides at Rosenborg Castle, where visitors were fascinated by a prank chair from the royal court. Now, as two young researchers, they set out to uncover the story behind an...

Trapped, soaked, and made a laughingstock in front of the king and his guests. Louise K. Depner and Casper T. Briggs-Mønsted @ctbriggsmoensted.bsky.social looked into the deeper meaning behind a bizarre piece of Danish court furniture from the late 1600s:
uniavisen.dk/en/soaked-an...

The Hills are Alive! Auersperg princes: Lords of Slovenia and Relatives of the Von Trapp Singers I was recently talking to some students about the character Captain von Trapp in the film ‘The Sound of Music’. Students are always curious how someone from a landlocked country like Austria could …

Ever wonder who were the #VonTrapp Family's princely relatives? Auerspergs: Slovene aristocrats who built up an empire of Austrian castles, Tirolean mountain fortresses, a Czech garden and a Polish duchy. dukesandprinces.org/2025/02/17/t...