To Örebro University

This book examines how dukeship – the position of being a duke – was defined and negotiated in Sweden between the late 1550s and the early 1620s. The aim is to shed light on how the structural problem of royal spares, with dukes as pillars and perils of hereditary monarchy, influenced politics and the integration process of a ruling house. Through an institutional biography approach and a critical perspective on dynasty, the book considers how dukes, kings, and their associates interacted with dukeship by making claims to define its meaning, norms, and im-plications. These claims are seen as expressions of self-identification, categorisation, and legitimation, which are linked to processes of dynastic securing, centralisation, decentralisation, participation, and distanc-ing. In the study, a wide range of sources are examined: testaments, genealogies, ceremonial instructions and accounts, oaths, letters, Diet minutes and statutes, marriage contracts, speeches, sermons, court articles, and the material culture of burial sites. The book shows the diverse ways in which dukeship was continuously negotiated for as long as the ducal positions existed. The malleability and pervasiveness of structures and norms that characterised dukeship and its practices of negotiation are uncovered. The study also demonstrates how notions of lineages and houses – or dynasty – functioned as a symbolic resource in the political bargaining of rulership. The negotiation of dukeship was thus an integral part of the early modern bargaining state and shaped early modern integration processes of the state as well as the royal house. The critical dynastic perspective on dukeship challenges views of the early modern period and its political practices derived from purely statist outlooks. The study compels historians to critically rethink concepts, chronologies, and causes of change that are commonly invoked to make sense of early modern politics and integration processes.