Noé Vagner-Clévenot

I completed my Bachelor's degree in History at University Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne in June 2020. I then undertook the MA programme in History at Durham University before completing a DPhil in History at the University at Oxford in July 2024. I have also worked as a research assistant for the ERC-funded research project, 'The European Fiscal-Military System, 1530-1870', and currently contribute to the Royal Studies Journal as book reviewer and copyeditor.

Research Interests:

My research, at the junction of political, gender and cultural history, studies the agency of princes in the self-fashioning of their image. While my masters research focused on Philip II of Spain as England's first male consort, under Mary I (1554-1558), my DPhil thesis examines the figure of Francis Stephen of Lorraine, the husband of Maria Theresa of Austria, between 1736 and 1745. Through his case, it investigates the structural constraints of an eighteenth-century prince’s agency in his efforts to shape an identity, and the impact of gender barriers in this process. The thesis studies Francis’s ‘exercise of princehood’, a notion coined in this research project that comprises his behaviour at court, his interactions with important individuals composing the latter and with wider socio-political elites, and his overseeing of the spread of his image to various audiences. These audiences are studied using an innovative methodology that structures them in concentric circles around the princely figure.

I am seeking to pursue my study of princely propaganda and gender questions in monarchy in future postdoctoral research.