The Participation of Women in Rulership in Early Modern Times. Regencies in the Holy Roman Empire in a Western European Perspective

通过替代统治领土是近代早期妇女获得政治权力地位的既定可能性。尽管当代对这种做法提出了批评，但在许多欧洲国家和神圣罗马帝国的许多领土上都可以找到女性摄政者。对于后者，这一现象几乎没有人研究过。现有的少数研究集中在女性个体上。对于男性摄政者和集体行使摄政权的男性和女性群体，几乎没有专门的研究。完全缺乏比较研究。该项目旨在用比较的方法调查神圣罗马帝国的摄政王，包括领土和性别，并在西欧王朝国家的背景下解释它们。通过领土比较，可以从调查结果的区域特殊性及其在欧洲的普遍意义来理解调查结果。此外，它使人们能够确定是特定的结构条件还是个别摄政者本身解释了领土之间的相似和不同。这种针对性别的比较将澄清女性摄政者的政治行动是否因为她们的性别而受到限制，或者也适用于男性摄政者的某些结构条件是否更相关。由于监管的频率和持续时间往往很长，监管是主要关注的焦点。该项目的成果将发表在一本基于符腾堡州和萨沃伊州公爵领地案例研究的专著(论文)中。在15世纪和17世纪之间，这两个领地都经历了几次由女性、男性和/或摄政者团体领导的监护摄政。除专著外，还将编写一本《1495-1806年神圣罗马帝国领土摄政手册》。它将提供现代早期帝国领土上所有摄政的基本信息，包括关于文献和档案来源的信息，讨论有关摄政的关键方面，并确定研究视角。

The rule of a territory by substitution was an established possibility for women in early modern times to obtain a position of political power. Despite contemporary criticism of the practice, female regents can be found in many European states and numerous territories of the Holy Roman Empire. For the latter, the phenomenon has hardly been investigated. The few existing studies concentrate on individual women. For male regents and for groups of men and women exercising a regency collectively, there is practically no specialised research. Comparative studies are lacking entirely. The project aims at investigating regencies in the Holy Roman Empire with a comparative approach, both territorial and gender-specific, and at interpreting them in the context of the western European dynastic state. The territorial comparison allows findings to be understood in terms of their regional particularities as well as their general European significance. In addition, it enables one to determine whether specific structural conditions or the individual regents themselves account for similarities and differences between the territories. The gender-specific comparison will clarify if the political actions of female regents were limited because of their sex or if certain structural conditions, also applicable to male regents, were more relevant. Because of their frequency and often long duration, custodial regencies are the main focus. The results of the project will be published in a monograph (dissertation) based on case studies on the duchies of Württemberg and of Savoy. Both territories saw several custodial regencies between the 15th and the 17h century led by women, men and/or groups of regents. In addition to the monograph, a "Handbook of the Regencies in the Territories of the Holy Roman Empire 1495–1806" will be compiled. It will supply essential information for all regencies that were in place in the territories of the Empire in early modern times, comprise information on literature and archival sources, discuss pivotal aspects of the regencies in question and identify research perspectives.