The Festivals of the Protestant Union
Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (University of Oxford)
Sara Smart (University of Exeter)
Confessional tensions in the Empire were constantly on the increase in
the early years of the seventeenth century and it was these tensions that
ultimately led to the Thirty Years’ War. They were given political
expression in 1608, when a number of German Protestant princes formed
themselves into a power bloc known as the Protestant Union. They were
the rulers of the Palatinate, Ansbach, Kulmbach, Baden-Durlach, HesseKassel and Württemberg. Brandenburg and Hesse-Kassel joined a year
later, as did the Duke of Pfalz-Zweibrücken. One of the ways in which
this alliance was cemented was by means of a series of festivals
celebrating marriage and other alliances between the participants. These
festivals enabled the members of the Union to meet each other in a series
of summit conferences and to articulate a specifically Protestant
iconography, which they then promulgated by means of splendidlyillustrated festival books.
The series of festivals presented in this cluster includes the
investiture of Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, as Garter Knight in 1605,
which the Protestants saw as a sign that James I, King of England (James
VI of Scotland), would support them. Then comes the wedding in
Stuttgart of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, and Barbara Sophia,
Margravine of Brandenburg in 1609, the festival which united two of the
most important powers in the Union. The link between Württemberg and
Brandenburg was further cemented in Jägerndorf in 1610, when Johann
Georg, Margrave of Brandenburg, married Eva Christina, Duchess of
Württemberg, brother and sister respectively of the pair who wed in 1609;
this event is the subject of the third of this cluster’s festival texts.
Two further texts concern Friedrich V, Elector Palatine: one
describes his journey to London in 1612 and his marriage to Elizabeth,
Princess of England, in 1613; another the departure of Friedrich and
Elizabeth for their coronation as King and Queen of Bohemia in Prague.
Two other festivals of the Protestant Union considered in this cluster are
the wedding in Dessau of Sophie Elizabeth, Princess of Anhalt-Dessau,
and Georg Rudolf, Duke of Silesia in Liegnitz, in 1613 and the
christening in Stuttgart of Friedrich, Duke of Württemberg, in 1616. The
cluster finishes with the funeral of an important Protestant prince who
emphatically did not belong to the Protestant Union, that of Ludwig V,
Margrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, in Darmstadt in 1627.
These festivals are not just of political interest. The range of forms
to be found in them–tournaments and ballets in particular–and the
splendidly-produced books in which they are described also make them
worthy of study. The multiple aspects of these festivals—both as events
and as books—are illuminated by four introductions to the texts in this
cluster. These introductions, which begin with the general and become
increasingly specific, are intended to contextualise these festivals in terms
both of contemporary political events and with regard to the history of
court festival forms. The first introduction, by Professor Pierre Béhar
(University of Saarbrücken), discusses ‘The Holy Roman Empire on the
Eve of the Thirty Years War’. This is followed by an essay on ‘Festivals,
festival books, war and politics’ by Professor Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly
(University of Oxford). Dr Sara Smart (University of Exeter) has
contributed the third introduction, on ‘The Württemberg Court and the
Introduction of Ballet in the Empire’. Lastly, Dr Jill Bepler (Herzog
August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel) considers ‘Another Protestant Point of
View – The Funeral Book for Ludwig V of Hesse-Darmstadt (1627)’.
Work on all aspects of this cluster has been coordinated by Professor
Watanabe-O’Kelly and Dr Smart.