This collection of essays is a pioneering survey of the spiritual dimensions of kingship in eighteenth-century Europe. It investigates the role of clergymen in the mechanics of the court, the religious observances of monarchs and their entourages, and the importance of religious images and ceremonial in underpinning royal power. The volume compares the British, French, Russian, and some of the German monarchies in order to allow comparisons to be drawn between different national and especially confessional settings. Based on original research and new source material, the fifteen essays by established scholars chart mostly unknown territory. Previous research on the subject has focused on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at the expense of the age of Enlightenment which has widely been regarded as a period of desacralization of monarchy. The essays open up new perspectives on the function of court clerics, conspicuous and internalized forms of aulic devotion, the gendered framing of religion, the purpose of court ritual, and the divide between the public and private spheres of monarchy. Overall the essays maintain that despite the gradual decline of monarchy by divine right, religion still permeated almost all aspects of court life and monarchical representation. The volume thus challenges received wisdom about the disenchantment of kingship and the rise of more rationalized forms of absolutist government during the period between c.1688 and 1789.

Table of Contents:
List of Tables 1: Michael Schaich: Introduction 2: J. C. D. Clark: The Re-Enchantment of the World? Religion and Monarchy in Eighteenth-Century Europe Part I. Religion at Court: Personnel 3: Derek Beales: Clergy at the Austrian Court in the Eighteenth Century 4: Paul Bushkovitch: The Clergy at the Russian Court, 1689-1796 5: Stephen Taylor: The Clergy at the Courts of George I and George II 6: Nicole Reinhardt: The King's Confessor: Changing Images 7: Edward Gregg: The Exiled Stuarts: Martyrs for the Faith? Part II. Religion at Court: Everyday Ceremonial 8: Simon Dixon: Religious Ritual at the Eighteenth-Century Russian Court 9: Gérard Sabatier: Religious Rituals and the Kings of France in the Eighteenth Century 10: Ferdinand Kramer: Piety at Court: The Wittelsbach Electors in Eighteenth-Century Bavaria 11: Clarissa Campbell Orr: The Late Hanoverian Court and the Christian Enlightenment Part III. State Occasions 12: Chantal Grell: The sacre of Louis XVI: the End of a Myth 13: Mark Hengerer: The Funerals of the Habsburg Emperors in the Eighteenth Century 14: Lindsey Hughes: The Funerals of the Russian Emperors and Empresses 15: Michael Schaich: The Funerals of the British Monarchy 16: Eckart Hellmuth: The Funerals of the Prussian Kings in the Eighteenth Century Notes on Contributors Index