The Triumphs of the Defeated: Early Modern Festivals and Messages of Legitimacy

The subject of this monograph is early modern European festival culture. The eleven contributions describe aspects of festivities or ceremonies organized by individuals or groups whose power base was threatened or non-existent: refugees, confessional groups, minorities and women. A central question is the complexity of the term "defeated". The contributions investigate the cultural strategies which minorities exploited in order to underpin their claims to legitimacy and retain their identity in the face of a hostile or indifferent environment.