Philip II’s death in September 1598 coincided with the restoration of Habsburg authority in the southern Low Countries after decades of revolt. Local obsequies for the deceased ruler therefore reclaimed ecclesiastical infrastructure and revived urban cohesion. In contrast to previous funerals, the Brussels service did not significantly stage a transfer of power. Instead, by selectively drawing on traces of former ceremonies, particularly Charles V’s 1558 funeral, the ritual overcame the recent upheavals and soothed the anxieties surrounding the cession of sovereignty to the archdukes. Simultaneously, each important urban center also staged its own ceremonial, thereby stressing local privilege.
This article explores how the ‘royal image’ of the English pretender to the throne, Perkin Warbeck, was created during his stay in the Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire between 1492 and 1495. This process of ‘construction’ was not uniform.
It was ever evolving and unlinear. It contained the formulation of a credible claim to the throne and the adoption of a plausible princely appearance. Warbeck participated in ceremonial and political transactions and affirmed in this manner his new social position. Nevertheless, as well on
the side of Warbeck as Henry VII – the Tudor whose kingship was menaced – a ‘deconstruction’ of the other’s kingship was simultaneously pursued. This also formed an integral part of rulers’ reputations.
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