Preliminary Programme

From the 12th Century on the counts of Flanders chose their brides in the far-away Kingdom of Portugal. Even a heiress to the county married a Portuguese prince in the thirteenth Century. The aim of this paper is to investigate the backgrounds and the motivations for this marriage policy and to analyze the political, economical, and cultural results of it. (Show less)

The purpose of this paper is to present the fundaments of the dynastic politics of the Portuguese Royal Family in second half of the seventeenth century, especially the potential marriage alliances with the most important
Royal Houses of the Habsburg Europe.
According to this, we will study the matrimonial contract of D. Pedro 11, king of Portugal, with D. Maria Sofia Isabel de Neuburg, daughter of the count of Palatinate, highlighting the importance of the dowry and of the
estates given to the queen, which supports her household.
In a second level, we will reconstitute the German retinue of D. Maria Sofia de Neuburgo, considering its composition, number and social profile, emphasizing their strong political and social action that contributes to consolidate the political and diplomatic relationships between Portugal
and the Palatinate. (Show less)

Many authors have already stressed that, in the choice of brides for princes and kings (or kings-to-be), factors like the quality of the young woman (in terms of high birth, moral virtues, physical beauty) and the interest of the alliance to the concerned monarchy (in terms of political advantages and territorial control) were paramount. But the economic profitability of the projected union was not neglected. Brides usually brought to their future husbands gifts and dots that could be very useful in times of scarcity of funds. In turn, they had to provide them with dowers – known in earlier times as “the price of the bride’s body” - that would secure their subsistence in case of widowhood. In this paper, we will analyse the matrimonial contracts concerning Portuguese queens and princesses, in order to evaluate the influence of economic factors in the choice of the alliances and to unveil any existing dots traditions and patterns of dower assignement. (Show less)

The choice of a bride for a king or a royal heir has always little to do with individual wishes of the bridegroom. Even today, as in the distant XIVth and XVth centuries, the conveinience of the alliance is weight by criteria of military, political and territorial factors. In this paper we will try to establish the main reasons that lead to the marriages of portuguese kings of tha late medieval age. (Show less)