Belle van Zuylen: schrijfster van adel, over de adel. Haar correspondentie digitaal beschikbaar

The Dutch-Swiss writer Belle de Zuylen/Isabelle de Charrière (1740-1805) was born in the Dutch noble family Van Tuyll van Serooskerken, but married (in 1771) outside of nobility. As a child she had a Swiss gouvernante, like so many children of the European elites, and in spite of being quite familiar also with the Dutch language, she would continue using French all her life, both for private correspondence and for her literary works. Most of these were published in Switzerland. Indeed, once she had married Charles-Emmanuel de Charrière, former tutor of her brothers, she went to live with him in his family house near Neuchâtel. This is where she started publishing and found recognition with her contemporary readers. In her novels and plays, she tends to confront characters representing different social classes – the reasons of which are often formulated in exchanges of letters with family members or friends who either helped her copying the texts, or were enthusiastic readers. As she wrote to her German translator, in these fictions she could illustrate the potential ‘nobility’ of the ‘so-called lower classes’. This is what she considered ‘her own democracy’.

De heerlijkheid. Een belangrijke maar onderbelichte bestuursvorm

Review of Pieter de Jong, Van macht naar folklore. Heerlijkheden in Zuid-Holland na de Franse tijd (Woudrichem: Pictures Publishers, 2018, 571 p., ill, index).

Dominant vertoog of degelijk naslagwerk?

Review of Kees Zandvliet, De 500 Rijksten van de Republiek. Rijkdom, geloof, macht & cultuur (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2018, 480 p., ill., index).

Legal perspectives on European nobilities

Review of Michael Sayer, Nobles and nobilities of Europe. A history of structures, law and institutions (London etc.: I.B. Tauris, 2020, 4 vols, 1862 p., ill., index).

Valbijl of vangnet? Natuurmonumenten, de adel en de verwerving van landgoederen en buitenplaatsen, 1905-1980

Natuurmonumenten, a Dutch NGO for nature conservation, currently owns a wide variety of landed estates and country houses, formerly owned by nobles. The precarious economic position of the nobility after World War I, forced many to dispose of their costly ancestral estate in the course of the twentieth century. In this article, I explore the relationship between Natuurmonumenten and the nobility by looking at the acquisition history of the properties acquired by Natuurmonumenten. I particularly focus on two case studies, the estates of Hackfort and Eerde, which, after decades of negotiation and discussion, both became property of Natuurmonumenten in the early 1980s. These and other cases clearly demonstrate the vital importance of the board members’ personal networks for the acquisition of landed property. Nobles and nature conservationists – many of the board members of Natuurmonumenten were of noble birth themselves – both wanted to preserve landed estates. This mutual desire is still reflected in the management and preservation of estates and country houses owned by Natuurmonumenten today.

Frontier interactions. René de Challant and transregional lordship

Review of Matthew Vester, Transregional lordship and the Italian Renaissance. René de Challant, 1504-1565, Renaissance History, Art and Culture 5 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020, 329 p., ill., index).

Een ruk naar Brits. De internationale politiek van Anna van Hannover, 1756-1757

From her earliest years, Anne of Hanover (1709-1759), the Princess Royal of Great Britain, grew up to be a politically engaged individual. During the stadholdership of her husband, William IV, Prince of Orange (1711-1751), she could give way to her political ambitions. She frequently took part in his meetings, corresponded with her husband’s closest advisors, and thereby built up a large network of Dutch regents and international politicians. These contacts came in useful when in October 1751 William IV unexpectedly passed away and Anne took over his political functions. This contribution analyses the ways in which the princess built and unfolded her own British orientated politics and used her network as a means to actively exert political power in the turbulent years 1747-1748 and 1755-1756.

Een standmatig bestaan met een prijskaartje

Review of Joost Welten, De vergeten prinsessen van Thorn, 1700–1794 (Gorredijk: 2019, 519 p., ill., index).

The structure of aristocratic society in England and Tuscany

Review of Peter Coss, The aristocracy in England and Tuscany, 1000-1250 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020, 499 p., ill., index).