FEATURED AUTHOR
Jonathan Spangler
I am a historian of monarchy, of the court, and of the nobility. I specialise in early modern France, but also European elites more generally, especially those with trans-regional identities. Recently I have done work on the trans-regional court culture of the Duchy of Lorraine, and am completing a monograph on the role of second sons in the French monarchy. I am the senior editor of The Court Historian, the international journal of court studies.
Subjects: History, Museum and Heritage Studies
Biography
I am a native of Virginia and have been fascinated in the histories of Europe’s royal and aristocratic families since my own family’s first trip to Europe in the 1980s. After finishing up undergraduate studies at the College of William & Mary (appropriately), I worked in museum and exhibition design firms in Washington and New York, then crossed the sea to complete a doctorate at Oxford University, uncovering new research about the family of the dukes of Guise and the court of Louis XIV of France. I continue to write on various topics about the French court in the early modern period, but also about the Duchy of Lorraine, on France’s eastern borders, and other themes relating to the borderland nobilities of Europe. I teach European history at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK and am a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for Court Studies. I also occasionally comment on royal stories in the British media, particularly those that concern the roles of second sons, or other more junior members of the royal family.Books
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