MONARCHY AND MONEY

I n September , the e-Conference ‘Monarchy and Money. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Economics and Finances of Monarchical Rule’ was organised by Charlotte Backerra (University of Göttingen) and Cathleen Sarti (Oxford University). Although the organizers planned to hold the conference in Herrenhausen, Hanover, the current situation made a physical meeting impossible. Adversities aside, they were able to convert the conference into an online format. The idea worked perfectly and the conference was an outstanding success, allowing more scholars to attend it and participate in the debates from their homes all over the globe. Throughout the conference, questions about economic knowledge, economic practice, handling of finances, abilities, or difficulties in obtaining income were addressed by the speakers. Five panels covering five main topics were presented during these three days. The first panel focused on financial instruments of monarchical rule. Maria Alexandrova (Moscow) gave us insights about Thomas Gresham, the most prominent royal financier who served the Tudor royal family, especially during the reign of Henry VIII, and the importance of the Antwerp Bourse to finance the monarchy. Cristina García (Zaragoza) explored the finances of the Aragonese monarchy and the handling of credit as a part of royal income in the late fourteenth century. In addition to their importance as sources of income, Cristina demonstrated the conditions of loans (long term and short term) and the beneficiaries of an economic strategy that was very lucrative for everyone except the monarch himself. Ana Maria Rodrigues (Lisbon) discussed the complex and sizeable financial administration of the Queen’s Household in Portugal during the fifteenth century and how this income served as a base for the queen’s economic independence, based in six cities in the Lisbon area. The second panel focused on the different kinds of income during the late Middle Ages in three different scenarios. First Lienhard Thaler (Vienna) made use of a statistical study to explain the variety of incomes of the counts of Tyrol. Manuela Santos Silva and Inês Olaya (Lisbon) presented one of the main problems encountered in determining the rights and possessions of Portuguese queens during the fifteenth century. Before becoming queen, these women could be landholders, but as a result of her marriage with the king or his heir, the new queen would receive a different kind of donation such as donatio propter nuptias, dower (arras), dowry and the morning gift. In their presentation, they explained the different arrangements for property management depending on the donation agreements. Katia Wright (Winchester) provided an overview of English queens as landholders. The queen’s income was donated by the king, so an inter-dependence existed between the queen’s patrimony and her