Adapted or self-determined?

The systematic analysis of the history of princely women closes an important gap in medieval elite and residence research, which increasingly focuses on the interplay of the sexes. Collective recording opens up new approaches to the reality of life in the social group Princess. On the basis of 22 Princesses who married into the dynasties of the Habsburgs and the Counts of Tyrol-Görz in the 13th and 14th centuries, the dependencies on socially prescribed patterns of action and individual creative possibilities are discussed. The study develops comprehensively relevant aspects that, taken together, enable substantial statements to be made about the role model of the Princess: economical and financial framework conditions, the Princesss political engagement and her function as a social networker, her dynastic tasks as the mother of as many children (sons) as possible, and the complex of emotionality within the family and marriage practice. Particular attention is paid to the Princess as the founder and sponsor of religious institutions, which is particularly evident in the wills. Questions about her share in the cultural profile of the princely court and in its everyday life are central issues that are examined above all with regard to the supra- regional transfer of the cultural areas between which the Princess moved. Apart from the defined framework conditions and norms that characterize the life of a Princess, the scope for individual development also becomes a topic and it is shown how differently this could be used.