Christening gifts for princely offspring. A tool to switch over political discourse between the ruler and the estates
Abstrakt
The paper reveals (on the example of christening gifts for Wilhelm Heinrich of Brandenburg, 1648-49) a specific character of the christening gifts for princely offspring in the early modern period. Based on the virtual character of the gift, the highly coercive rhetoric on its delivery and the loose norms for the spending, the contribution characterize the vertical christening gift as a tool able to break the common discourse between the ruler and the estates on providing money.
Through it, the political communication was switched to a qualitatively different level, where the usual norms (negotiation culture, adequacy of taxation, consideration of economic condition) weighted less due to the activation of a superior norm (preservation of the dynasty, reverence to the princely child).