Call for Papers : Kings & Queens 4 : Dynastic Changes and Legitimacy
24-27 June 2015 at the University of Lisbon (Portugal)

In 1366, Enrique, count of Trastamara, was proclaimed and crowned king of Castile and Léon, thus defeating his half-brother Pedro, son of Alfonso XI by his legitimate wife Maria of Portugal. Three years later, he would definitively avoid the shadow of the rightful king by murdering him. The problem of Trastamara legitimacy would only be solved two decades later with the marriage of Enrique’s grand-son with a grand-daughter of Pedro, who was also grand-daughter of Edward III, king of England.
In 1387, another one of Edward III’s grand-daughters married João I, founder of a new dynasty in Portugal, after the death of King Fernando, his half-brother. Though the new king of Portugal had been born out of wedlock and there were severe doubts about his rights to the throne in face of other candidates, João and his wife Philippa of Lancaster were able to raise a numerous and popular family, and build a successful royal court, that soon cleared up the concern over the legitimacy of the dynasty.
In 1399, Henry of Bolingbroke, the heir of the Duchy of Lancaster and brother to the aforementioned queens of Castile and Portugal, confronted his cousin the king of England, Richard II. After the imprisonment and death of the king without descendants, Henry was enthroned as Richard’s successor.
While these three examples involving three siblings make an excellent example of the key themes of the conference, other examples could be added, in these kingdoms and many others, with diverse causes and very different resolutions in all periods of History.
Our aim will be to examine dynastic changes’ processes in all historical moments and primarily to scrutinize ways of legitimating new dynasties or rulers in every part of the world. This theme, though obviously connected to political, institutional and legal studies, also allows participants to look at a wide range of topics including court studies, women’s and gender studies, especially by the examination of family structures and connections. Other possibilities include analyzing the transmitted memory of those processes in historiography, literature or other forms of art.

We welcome proposals of sessions of three papers and also individual papers. Panel proposals should be presented in about 500 words and abstracts of single papers should be approx 250-300 words.
All abstracts must be sent to the organizers via email to monarchyconference chez gmail.com by 30 November 2014.