Diplomacy and Communication Networks at the Habsburg Courts in the Early Modern Period
Period: 2025–2026
Team members:
Team Leader: doc. Mgr. Pavel Marek, Ph.D.
Researchers: doc. Mgr. Jiří Kubeš, Ph.D., PhDr. Vítězslav Prchal, Ph.D.
PhD Students: Mgr. Zdeňka Horáčková, Mgr. Martin Zelený, Mgr. Anna Zouhar Adamčiková, Mgr. Veronika Hřebíková, Mgr. Kryštof Halamek, Mgr. Veronika Šubrtová, Mgr. Tomáš Konečný
Master and Bachelor Students: Bc. Natálie Eberlová, Bc. Jakub Šimoníček
Project description:
The research project builds on research undertaken in the period 2022-2024 by Pavel Marek's previous team. The aim of the current team will be to build on previous results, deepen basic research in Czech and foreign archives, and present the results of research through participation in national and international conferences and scientific publications.
The team includes an established generation of historians as well as emerging researchers (PhD and MA students). The team members are strongly anchored in international scientific networks.
The research team will explore the history of diplomacy and the process and strategies of building communication networks in the 16th-18th centuries. This period was characterized by an intensification of political, cultural, religious and material exchanges, driven by dynastic alliances, the movement of people and the broader context of European geopolitics shaped by the Habsburgs. The results of the project will contribute to cultural history, diplomatic studies and the history of intellectual exchange. The research project will offer new insights into the dynamics of elite networks in early modern Europe, expanding knowledge and providing a comprehensive framework for understanding the intersection of culture, diplomacy and power.
Among the expected results of the project, we can highlight the books The Rise of Wallenstein and the Re-Start of the Thirty Years War 1625 (to be published by Boydell Publishers), Ferdinand I and His Times (Brepols) or Jiří Kubeš's Vienna or Malta? Franz Sigismund of Thun (1639-1702): a Bohemian nobleman among his family, the Maltese Knight and the Habsburgs (Brill).
