Proposals for papers are invited for a workshop organised at the University of St Andrews by the AHRC-funded project “Heirs to the Throne in the Constitutional Monarchies of 19th-Century Europe”. We are hoping to bring together scholars working on the political culture of any of the monarchies of nineteenth-century Europe (1789-1914) and – in line with the central concern of the project – we would like to focus on the political roles played by heirs to the throne within their respective dynastic systems and across a largely monarchical Europe. Hereditary rule meant that heirs to the throne were a crucial component of monarchical systems. At every point in the nineteenth century, millions of Europeans knew with a high degree of certainty the identity of the next holder of the most exalted office in the land. While heirs anticipated the end of the current reign, they embodied both dynastic continuity and the inevitability of change at the very apex of the system. Depending on the specific political, cultural and constitutional contexts as well as on the individuals involved, crown princes and princesses could either consolidate or undermine the status quo, play momentous or insignificant roles, appear high-profile or almost imperceptible, embody change or continuity. The study of heirs will offer new insights into the politics and political cultures of Europe during the Long Nineteenth Century. The overarching objective guiding this workshop will be: to investigate comparatively the contribution made by heirs to the thrones to the functioning and malfunctioning, rigidity and suppleness, successes and shortcomings of the constitutional monarchies whose future pivoted on them. Heirs will be used as prisms to explore Europe's monarchical systems, the institutions, agencies, groups and individuals engaged in either sustaining or challenging them. We will look at the societies and cultures within which heirs existed and operated, were instrumentalised or commemorated.

The workshop will be divided into a number of thematic panels, addressing among others following topics: - Heirs to the throne and their roles within networks, entourages, functional elites and similar sub-national, national and transnational formations; - Publicness of Heirs to the throne and their relationships with different forms of media and representation (press, visual media, public ceremony, theatricality,material cultures etc.); - Heirs to the throne as agents of political change, as vehicles of hope for “progress”; as forces challenging the political status quo; - The “Heir to the Throne” as a legal organ within constitutional arrangements; - Heirs and Heiresses – male and female roles and effects of gender on political cultures; - Heirs to the Throne as epicentres of dynastic and political crisis (scandals, premature deaths, broken successions); - Heirs to the Throne and foreign affairs (discharge of duties as diplomats, military officers, experts etc.); - Heirs to the Throne and soft power (cultural & philanthropic engagement); - Politics of remembrance: Heirs to the Throne as subjects and instigators of (contemporary) memorial cultures.

Please send an abstract (350 words) of a 20-minute paper that would fall under one or more of these headings (together with a one-page CV) to Dr Heidi Mehrkens (hm64@st-andrews.ac.uk) by 31 January 2013. Travel bursaries and free accommodation for speakers will be available.

Conference Date Friday, 30 August-Saturday, 31 August 2013