Today’s #handbook author is none other than our wonderful co-editor @dorotheegoetze.
Goetze is Assistant Professor at the Midsweden University in Sundsvall. If you ask her herself, she is not an historian of #emdiplomacy, but does constitutional history and early modern peace research with a special focus on the #HolyRomanEmpire and the Baltic region. Thus, she brings different perspectives into the field of #NewDiplomaticHistory.
She publishes extensively in German, Swedish and English, e.g. this #openaccess article in English on hospitality and the Riga capitulation in 1710. (2/7)
So, who could be better than to tackle the challenging topic of #emdiplomacy and the #HRE?!
There’s no comprehensive overview on this subject – with good reasons, as Goetze explains, that have a lot to do with the complex constitutional structure of the #HRE as well as its research tradition. (3/3)
To understand #emdiplomacy in the #HRE on its different levels we need to know at least a tiny bit about the constitutional foundation which is, as Goetze puts it, like the “taming of the shrewd”.
According to the institutional structure of the #HRE one can identify three levels of #emdiplomacy: 1) the Imperial level 2) the level of the Reichskreise, that can be described as regional administrative groupings 3) the level of individual Imperial estates. (4/7)
Research generally focusses on #emdiplomacy on the Imperial level mainly at courts, while ignoring the intra-Imperial forms of diplomacy. With regard to the Imperial #diets this means, they are either regarded from an institutional perspective or with a focus on foreign actors who came to the diets to pursue their interests. However, Goetze argues that for the Imperial estates diets and meetings of the Kreise were central not only for discussing matters concerning the #HRE as a whole, but also for bilateral talks between the estates.
Ignoring the intra-Imperial aspects of #emdiplomacy leads to a simplified understanding of #emdiplomacy within in the context of the #HRE and in general. (5/7)
Goetze then turns her attention to #emdiplomacy by individual Imperial estates. Exemplary she focusses on Brandenburg, Saxony and Hesse-Kassel. In general, she again regrets a lack of research. Although there are some studies focusing for example on the relations between Hesse-Kassel and Sweden, such studies are always limited on a particular period and case.
There’s a definite lack on studies who try to give a more concise overview and put the diplomatic activities of the different Imperial estates into context. (6/7)
Summing up, Goetze concludes that the complexity of #emdiplomacy is reflected in the complexity of the #HRE and calls for more a more inclusive approach meaning more exchange between different research tradition, combining constitutional history, court studies and dynastic history and #NewDiplomaticHistory. (7/7)