Rulers and Raptors: Falcons in Courtly Europe, 1600–1793

Rulers and Raptors argues that by studying animal biographies we gain a new perspective on early modern court society. It shows how the presence of non-human creatures shaped everyday life and political representation in Europe’s dynastic centres. Through an in-depth analysis of the symbolic and practical functions of birds of prey in courtly life, the book demonstrates that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, falconry was much more than a hunting technique: it served as a model for the mutual empowerment of the sovereign and his noble subjects—the essence of the Baroque style of government that gave rise to European court society. By paying close attention to the birds’ life trajectories, Rulers and Raptors also shines a spotlight on a large network of agents, including rural bird catchers, bourgeois animal traders, and noble falconers at court who made the aerial spectacles possible. Focusing on these peoples’ interactions with the raptors, the book proposes to rethink early modern human–animal relations, showing that falcons escaped clear distinctions between wild and domestic, nature and civilization. The book thus simultaneously shows how early modern European rulers valued raptors as a key symbol of their power—and how this very symbol of monarchical sovereignty pointed to the limits of human control over the animal kingdom on the eve of the Anthropocene.