Edition of the French Correspondence of the Peace Congress of Westphalia (May to October 1648)
Final Report Abstract
The subject of the edition in the series of correspondence within the "Acta Pacis Westphalicae" (APW) is a total of 220 letters exchanged between the French diplomats in Westphalia and the Paris court from May to October 1648. The letters, which have so far not been considered at all or hardly at all in research, are made available in the edition. They concern the dramatic last months up to the conclusion of peace on 24 October 1648 and conclude with the message of the following day to Queen Mother Anne that in the process the French interests and the dignity of the King were protected in a special way. The editorial work consists, firstly, to a large extent in opening up the contexts of the events and persons mentioned in the letters for research. This is done in the form of content reviews and personal, place and subject notes, for which research was carried out primarily in the Paris archives and libraries (in particular Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée Nationale, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Bibliothèque Mazarine). Secondly, the findings of the sources are presented in a detailed introduction. They are placed in the historical context of the war and the Congress, the political ideas and actions and the personnel composition of the French legation are presented. Thirdly, the sources are supplemented by an index of the negotiation files and a chronological index. Finally, the sources are made accessible to the users of the edition by a highly subdivided thematic index, which makes many different research perspectives possible. On the one hand, the edition provides a relevant basis for research into the events of the congress as a whole, especially for the last months: the dominant themes of the negotiations, the changing procedural methods and the relationships of the actors to each other. At the same time, however, the correspondence offers uniquely dense insights into French courtly society and the politics of the dawning age of Louis XIV (1638-1715) under the leading minister Jules Mazarin.
Publications
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Der Westfälische Frieden als Chiffre der Hoffnung: Zum 60-jährigen Jubiläum der Acta Pacis Westphalicae (1962-2022). In: Hoffnung handeln – L'espérance en action, 24/10/2022
Katharina Stuhldreher & Michael Rohrschneider
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Friedenshoffnungen verhandeln 1648. In: Hoffnung handeln – L'espérance en action, 15/05/2022
Albert Schirrmeister
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Die französischen Korrespondenzen in den Acta Pacis Westphalicae. Zwischen Bilanz und Perspektiven. In: Francia 50 (2023), S. 347– 366
Michael Rohrschneider & Albert Schirrmeister
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Hoffen und Handeln in den Zeitungsberichten zum Westfälischen Friedenskongress. In: Hoffnung handeln – L'espérance en action, 15/10/2022
Jonas Bechtold
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„Wenn man von Krieg und Frieden spricht, so ist Verhandeln immer schon Hoffnung“ – ein Interview mit Prof. Dr. Anuschka Tischer. In: Hoffnung handeln – L'espérance en action, 15/02/2023
Anuschka Tischer
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Agir avec des informations : la correspondance diplomatique d’Abel Servien en 1648 au congrès de Westphalie. Le Temps des médias, n° 43(2), 171-187.
Schirrmeister, Albert
