Surrounded by Ancestors: Depiction of Luxembourg and Plantagenet Genealogies in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

Abstract

The ruling dynasties quite literally surrounded themselves with their ancestors (real ones, as well as imaginary ones), creating galleries of their predecessors or artifacts, such as scrolls with genealogical diagrams. A lineage represented in such a manner could then be displayed not only for the royal family but also for their courtiers and foreign diplomats, reminding everyone of the position of the depicted dynasty in contemporary political struggles and in the history of Christianity. This argument is underlined by the fact that within the portrayal of the family, the prophecies of the end of the world and the approach of the Kingdom of Heaven were included as well.

The paper examines how the members of two great European dynasties (Luxembourg and Plantagenet) used pedigrees, which real members they emphasized in them, and which imaginary characters they incorporated into their lineage. Two presented case studies consist of an ancestral gallery of Luxembourg from Karlštejn Castle and a pedigree scroll of Edward IV from the Plantagenet dynasty. This project aims to evaluate the material from geographically distant areas and to look for common features of pedigree construction strategies.