Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T06:28:44.651Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

In the Name of the Father: Conceptualizing Pater Familias in the Letters of William the Silent's Children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Susan Broomhall  and
Jacqueline Van Gent
Jacqueline Van Gent
Affiliation:
The University of Western Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

For much of their childhood and adult life, the twelve surviving children of William the Silent were separated linguistically and geographically. Many of the children forged important relationships with male primary carers who were not their biological parents. This paper explores the children's correspondence with their biological father William and with paternal figures to understand competing forms of familial authority among William's children. This paper places particular interest on analysis of the gendered negotiation of paternal bonds in the letters of William's sons and daughters, as they established multiple relationships with father figures during their childhood.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , Winter 2009 , pp. 1130 - 1166
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Renaissance Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

For ease of consultation, we cite from published editions of the letters wherever these are currently available. All translations are our own unless indicated otherwise. The independent scholar Jean-Luc Tulot is currently transcribing some of the family's letter collections, available online at http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jeanluc.tulot/01LMDLT.htm. We are grateful for his willingness to share his scholarship in this way.

References

Adams, Julia. The Familial State: Ruling Families and Merchant Capitalism in Early Modern Europe. Ithaca, 2005.Google Scholar
Aird, W. M.. “Frustrated Masculinity: The Relationship between William the Conqueror and his Eldest Son.” In Masculinity in Medieval Europe, ed. , Hadley, Dawn M., 39–55. London, 1999.Google Scholar
Bailey, Merridee L.. “In Service and at Home: Didactic Texts for Children and Young People, c. 1400–1600.” Parergon 24, vol. 2 (2007): 23–46.Google Scholar
Bastl, Beatrix. Tugend, Liebe, Ehre: Die adelige Frau in der Frühen Neuzeit. Vienna, 2000.Google Scholar
Bastress-Dukehart, Erica. “Family, Property, and Feeling in Early Modern German Noble Culture: The Zimmermanns of Swabia.” Sixteenth Century Journal 32, no. 1 (2001): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beer, Mathias. Eltern und Kinder des späten Mittelalters in ihren Briefen: Familienleben in der Stadt des Spätmittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Nürnbergs (1400–1550). Nuremberg, 1990.Google Scholar
Berriot-Salvadore, Evelyne. Les Femmes dans la société française de la Renaissance. Geneva, 1990.Google Scholar
Bowers, Toni. The Politics of Motherhood: British Writing and Culture, 1680–1760. Cambridge, 1996.Google Scholar
Broomhall, Susan. Women's Medical Work in Early Modern France. Manchester, 2004.Google Scholar
Broomhall, Susan, ed. Emotions in the Household, 1200–1900. Houndsmills, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broomhall, Susan, and , Van Gent, Jacqueline. “Corresponding Affections: Emotional Exchange among Siblings in the Nassau Family.” Journal of Family History 34, no. 2 (2009): 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coligny, Louise. Correspondance de Louise de Coligny, princesse d'Orange (1555–1620). Ed. , Marchegay, Paul, intro. and notes , Marlet, Léon. 1887. Reprint, Geneva, 1970.Google Scholar
Couchman, Jane. “La lecture et le lectorat dans la correspondance de Louise de Coligny.” In Lectrices d'Ancien Régime, ed. , Brouard-Arends, Isabelle, 399–408. Rennes, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Couchman, Jane. “‘Give birth quickly and then send us your good husband’: Informal Political Influence in the Letters of Louise de Coligny.” In Women's Letters across Europe, 1400–1700: Form and Persuasion, ed. , Couchman, Jane and , Crabb, Ann M., 163–84. Aldershot, 2004.Google Scholar
Couchman, Jane. “Lettres de Louise de Coligny aux membres de sa famille.” In Lettres de Femmes: Texts inédits et oubliés du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, ed. , Goldsmith, Elizabeth C. and , Winn, Colette H., 89–99. Paris, 2005.Google Scholar
Crawford, Patricia. Blood, Bodies and Families in Early Modern England. Harlow, 2004.Google Scholar
Delaborde, Jules. Louise de Coligny, princesse d'Orange. 1890. 2 vols. Reprint, Geneva, 1970.Google Scholar
Delumeau, Jean, and , Roche, Daniel, eds. Histoire des pères et de la paternité. Paris, 1990.Google Scholar
des Roches, Madeleine, and , des Roches, Catherine. From Mother and Daughter: Poems, Dialogues, and Letters by Les Dames des Roches. Ed. and trans. , Larsen, Anne R.. Chicago, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinges, Martin, ed. Hausväter, Priester, Kastraten: Zur Konstruktion von Männlichkeit in Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit. Göttingen, 1998.Google Scholar
Foyster, Elizabeth. Manhood in Early Modern England: Honour, Sex and Marriage. London, 1999.Google Scholar
Frenken, Ralph. “Changes in Parent-Child Relations from the Fourteenth to the Middle of the Seventeenth Century.” The Journal of Psychohistory 27, no. 3 (2000): 230–71.Google Scholar
Greenfield, Susan C.. Mothering Daughters: Novels and the Politics of Family Romance; Frances Burney to Jane Austen. Detroit, 2002.Google Scholar
Groen van Prinsterer, Guillaume, ed. Archives ou Correspondence inédites de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau. First series. 9 vols. Leiden, 1835–47.Google Scholar
Groen van Prinsterer, Guillaume, ed. Archives ou Correspondence inédites de la Maison d'Orange-Nassau. Second series. 5 vols. Utrecht, 1857–62.Google Scholar
Hendrix, Scott. “Masculinity and Patriarchy in Reformation Germany.” Journal of the History of Ideas 56 (1995): 177–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodson, Simon. “The Power of Female Dynastic Networks: A Brief Study of Louise de Coligny, Princess of Orange, and Her Stepdaughters.”.Women's History Review 16, no. 3 (2007): 335–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, Julius. Die “Hausväterliteratur” und die “Predigten über den christlichen Haus-stand.” Lehre vom Hause und Bildung für das Häusliche Leben im 16., 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. Weinheim, 1959.Google Scholar
Karras, Ruth Mazo. From Boys to Men: Formations of Masculinity in Late Medieval Europe. Philadelphia, 2002.Google Scholar
Kettering, Sharon. Patronage in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century France. Aldershot, 2002.Google Scholar
Larsen, Anne R.., ed. Les missives de Mesdames Des Roches de Poitiers mère et fille. Geneva, 1999.Google Scholar
Lenz, Rudolf. “Emotion und Affektion in die Familie der Frühen Neuzeit: Leichenpredigt als Quelle der historischen Familienforschung.” In Die Familie als sozialer und historischer Verband, ed. , Schuler, Peter-Johannes, 121–46. Sigmaringen, 1987.Google Scholar
Marshall, Sherrin. The Dutch Gentry, 1500–1650: Family, Faith and Fortune. Westport, 1987.Google Scholar
Medick, Hans, and , Sabean, David, eds. Interest and Emotion: Essays on the Study of Family and Kinship. Cambridge, 1984.Google Scholar
Neuschel, Kristen B.. Word of Honour: Interpreting Noble Culture in Sixteenth-Century France. Ithaca, 1989.Google Scholar
Nolte, Cordula. “Gendering Princely Dynasties: Some Notes on Family Structure, Social Networks, and Communication at the Courts of the Margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach around 1500.” Gender & History 12, no. 3 (2000): 704–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nolte, Cordula. Familie, Hof und Herrschaft: Das verwandtschaftliche Beziehungs und Kommunikationsnetz der Reichsfürsten am Beispiel des Markgrafen von Brandenburg-Ansbach (1440–1530). Ostfildern, 2005.Google Scholar
Nolte, Cordula, , Spiess, Karl-Heinz, and , Werlich, Ralf-Gunnar, eds. Principes: Dynastien und Höfe im späten Mittelalter. Stuttgart, 2002.Google Scholar
Ozment, Stephen. When Fathers Ruled: Family Life in Reformation Europe. Cambridge, 1983.Google Scholar
Pascal, Eugénie. “La lectrice devenue scriptrice: Lecture épistolaire dans les réponses d'Elisabeth à Charlotte-Brabantine de Nassau.” In Lectrices d'Ancien Régime, ed. , Brouard-Arends, Isabelle, 409–18. Rennes, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pascal, Eugénie. “Princesses epistolières au tournant du XVIe au XVIIe siècle: Consommatrices de culture, mécènes et/ou propagandistes?” In Patronnes et mécènes en France à la Renaissance, ed. , Wilson-Chevalier, Kathleeen and , Pascal, Eugénie, 101–31. Saint-Etienne, 2007.Google Scholar
Pollock, Linda A.. “Younger Sons in Tudor and Stuart England.” History Today 39, no. 6 (1989): 23–29.Google Scholar
Pollock, Linda A.. “Rethinking Patriarchy and the Family in Seventeenth-Century Europe.” Journal of Family History 23, no. 1 (1998): 3–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollock, Linda A.. “Anger and the Negotiation of Relationships in Early Modern England.” Historical Journal 47, no. 3 (2004): 567–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rasmussen, Ann Marie. Mothers and Daughters in Medieval German Literature. Syracuse, 1997.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, Ann Marie. “Fathers to Think Back Through: The Medieval German Mother-Daughter and Father-Son Conduct Poems Known as Die Winsbeckin and Der Winsbecke.” In Medieval Conduct, ed. , Ashley, Kathleen and , Clark, Robert L. A., 106–34. Minneapolis, 2001.Google Scholar
Reif, Heinz. Westfälischer Adel 1770–1860: Vom Herrschaftsstand zur regionalen Elite. Göttingen, 1979.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roper, Lyndal. The Holy Household: Women and Morals in Reformation Augsburg. Oxford, 1989.Google Scholar
Ruppel, Sophie. Verbündete Rivalen: Geschwisterbeziehungen im Hochadel des 17. Jahrhunderts. Cologne, 2006.Google Scholar
Schama, Simon. “The Siegen Affair.” The American Scholar 66, no. 4 (1999): 13–38.Google Scholar
Scherft, Pieter. Het Sterfhuis van Willem van Oranje. Leiden, 1966.Google Scholar
Schneider, Gary. “Affecting Correspondences: Body, Behavior, and the Textualization of Emotion in Early Modern English Letters.” Prose Studies 23, vol. 3 (2000): 31–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Severidt, Ebba. Familie, Verwandtschaft und Karriere bei den Gonzaga: Struktur und Funktion von Familie und Verwandtschaft bei den Gonzaga und ihren deutschen Verwandten (1444–1519). Leinefelden-Echterdingen, 2002.Google Scholar
Shepard, Alexandra. Meanings of Manhood in Early Modern England. Oxford, 2003.Google Scholar
Shotter, John. “Social Accountability and the Social Construction of ‘You.’” In Texts of Identity, ed. , Shotter, John and , Gergen, Kenneth J., 133–45. London, 1989.Google Scholar
Spiess, Karl-Heinz. Familie und Verwandtschaft im deutschen Hochadel des Spätmittelalters: 13. bis Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart, 1993.Google Scholar
Vogt-Lüerssen, Maike. Anna von Sachsen — Gattin von Wilhelm von Oranien. Norderstedt, 2008.Google Scholar
Wunder, Heide, ed. Dynastie und Herrschaftssicherung in der Frühen Neuzeit: Geschlechter und Geschlecht. Berlin, 2002.Google Scholar