The Matter of Nobility: Materially Constituting the Arenberg Family Body in the Habsburg Netherlands 1520-1620

This thesis will explore the material construction of the noble form in the sixteenth and early seventeenth-century Habsburg Netherlands. Understandings of substance and social structures of privilege were in potent and synchronized flux during this era and Flemish noble families, such as the Arenberg clan, were required to consistently reformulate and assert their authority. The Arenberg family were powerful and socially prominent figures in the Low Countries at this time. They were staunch Catholics and active members of the Brussels court but also engaged regularly with the commercial elite... Mehr ...