'Bordercrossing': Transational nobility, political and confessional loyalty in the Polish-German borderlands, ca. 1600-1720

Building on my previous research on the Western borderlands of Poland-Lithuania, this project will use a new, transnational approach to the interaction between the political and religious cultures of the multi-national Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Brandenburg-Prussia. In particular, the book will address the relationship between religion and politics more generally, analyse the morality of political agents and the impact of ideas on political and social action.
Before the partitions of Poland at the end of eighteenth century, the German-Polish border was one of the most stable in early modern Europe, allowing for communication and an exchange of ideas and populations in both directions. Nationalist historiography of the last two centuries, however, has done much to construct a picture of intense hostility and re-project it into earlier history. Since the 1990s, German-Polish contacts across the border have intensified and much constructive work has been done by historians on all sides to escape old prejudices, though much remains to be done. My previous work on the political culture and identities of Royal Prussia, a province of the Polish crown from 1454-1772/93, on Brandenburg-Prussia (I am currently finishing a history of early modern Brandenburg-Prussia for Palgrave) and on political and religious thought in Poland-Lithuania, position me well to launch a transnational study of key political agents between the multi-national Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its western neighbours.
The pacemaker for change was an eminently mobile noble society, renowned for its tendency to cross political and religious boundaries, contributing to the transfer of ideas but also political and religious practice, thus shaping society in the borderlands as well as policies projected from the centre. An example of such a figure was the Calvinist magnate and later governor of Ducal Prussia, Boguslaw Radziwill, one of the richest men in the commonwealth with connections to several European ruling houses, whose political manoeuvring between Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and Prussia has not been analysed from this binary perspective before. On the basis of ego-documents such as his autobiography and correspondence, Radziwill's role will be explored within the context of a multi-confessional society and the multi-polar power structures of north-eastern Europe. His role will be explored within the wider context of other border families, such as the Lutheran Goltz family, the multi-confessional and multi-lingual Przebendowski and Denhoff, who regularly crossed borders and allegiances, and owned land on both sides of the Polish-Pomeranian/ Polish-Prussian divide. Too often in the past such figures have been dealt with as traitors to their supposed national states; this study will attempt to reconstruct the complex cultural and political world they inhabited.
The book will not take a traditional international relations approach to Polish-German relations, but derives its perspectives from recent work on the history of cultural transfer and a cultural history of politics which takes account of symbolic systems on the macro-level, as well as the meaning of these on the micro-level of personal decision-making, such as the choice of political and religious allegiances. The perspective from the periphery, rather than the centre, will dominate this analysis, as the study will be firmly set into the context of the commonwealth's border provinces, where patronage networks, confessional and military pressures created often unexpected alliances. The analysis and role of these loyalties in early modern politics has gained fresh relevance for Europe in the 21st-century where - although actual border crossings seemed to have lost their former significance in a united Europe - people are keen to assert their cultural, religious and social differences and distinctions with a new sense of urgency.

The study will have an impact on policy-making bodies in the UK, Germany, Poland and the EU in general, who consider matters of migration, civic identity, the duties of citizenship and national, religious and cultural allegiances. It will raise awareness of the role of borders and peripheries for central policy-making.
My work will attract attention to the longstanding multi-cultural legacy of East Central Europe, whose image has often suffered from the memory of 200 years of aggressive and often intolerant nationalism. These echoes still influence historiography, projecting the picture of an 'intolerant' Catholic and 'backward' Poland both in the media and in public consciousness. Against the background of a large Polish immigration to the UK since the expansion of the EU eastwards, such images can prove particularly problematic and need to be set into a historical context. Historical analysis breaks down the 'otherness' which dominates the view of East Central Europe so strongly formed also by the traditions of the Cold War and helps to discover the close ties which linked earlier Polish-Lithuanian traditions to the rest of Europe, not least through extensive religious and political networks, to which universities, courts and diplomatic contacts lent their support. Temporary or lasting migration - the crossing of borders - was often the norm among early modern transnational elites as well as groups of lower ranking than the nobility. Despite the distance in historic time, the process of defending familiar allegiances, as well as adopting new ones, remains part of human nature. The topicality of migration and border crossing today needs historical foundations.
This analysis will also impact on the work of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw and other bodies involved in the improvement of German-Polish relations, including several initiatives of the 'border region', such as the Polish-German University in Frankfurt/Oder, where I maintain contacts. It will further the understanding of the peripheral perspective people adopt when they live far from the political and economic centre, yet create a centre in the periphery, which binds them with rather different loyalties to their regions.
I intend using my research for greater impact by contributing to popular journals and magazines, in Poland such as Mowia Wieki (a popular history magazine with a large distribution) for which I have written before, and aim talks at a wider public audience in local associations, such as the Nairn Literary Society, POSK (the Polish Centre in London) or the Edinburgh Goethe Institute, helping to create a closer understanding of people who cross borders by coming to Britain and Germany. I also have connections mainly through Polish students at the university, the Aberdeen Polish Association, and encounters with Poles in the city due to my knowledge of the Polish language. Our director of research has been active in establishing a knowledge exchange network (KENNOS) in which representatives of Aberdeen City Council are involved, and who will find my expertise on Poland useful for policies involving the local Polish community.
With the publication of an annotated translation of Radziwill's autobiography into English (planned for the longer term) my work shall have an impact on a wider reading public interested in biographies and self-documents, as well as Central Europe in general.