UW-Waukesha Faculty Student Research Program

ARCHITECTURE AND MONARCHICAL POWER

Jane Crisler
History

Philip II of Spain (r.1556-1598) and his great-grandson, Louis XIV of France (r.1643-1713), ruled as absolute monarchs and established their country’s dominance as the political and cultural leader of Europe during their reigns. Like Pericles of ancient Athens, both men were astute in using architecture and ceremony to glorify the supremacy of their country. However, the modern kings also asserted their personal authority through the construction of magnificent edifices outside of their nation’s capitals. For Philip, it was El Escorial, a palace complex that began as a monastery in the mountains north of Madrid. A century later, Louis XIV expanded his father’s hunting lodge outside of Paris into a palace that was first a place of entertainment and then the seat of government.

As my participation in the Faculty Student Research Program, I will work with two students during the 2002-03 academic year to comparatively analyze how the two kings used architecture, decoration, entertainment, and religion in their respective palaces to create and exert political authority. We will begin by reading about the relationship between architecture and political authority. Next, we will learn more about the two men by reading secondary biographies and primary source documents that describe them and their courts. We will also study the edifices themselves to learn about their conception, design, the building processes, decoration, and the activities which were conducted on their premises. This analysis will be conducted against the backdrop of Spanish and French history of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Both students will take HIS 299 for 3 credits, ideally for both first and second semesters. I will meet with them once a week to review and plan work. In addition to the presentation scheduled for December 7, 2002 as part of the Faculty Student Research Program, both students will be required to submit descriptive and analytical summaries of their work, and to make a presentation to my course, HIS 106 Western Civilization since 1500, in spring 2003. (They will essentially teach one class session of both sections of the course.) Our ultimate goal will be to generate a scholarly article for publication, though this is not an essential or immediate requirement. In conducting our work, we will confer with UW-Waukesha librarians to learn about resources to be researched, and discussion of practical research methodology will be an important element of our weekly conferences. Megan Johnson, a continuing second-year student, will focus on El Escorial, and because she intends to major in information technology, her participation will be especially helpful in exploring sources available electronically. Gabrielle Ziehr, an incoming first-year student who is fluent in French language, will focus on Versailles and the use of French primary sources. Nicholas Albers, a second-year student, will concentrate on the political strategies of the two kings.