The three-day international conference at the House of European History in Brussels aims to bring together researchers working on the history of European unions over the last thousand years. Inter-state unions and composite polities have been a significant phenomenon in European history. Often formed on the basis of a legal agreement or contract between the political units that form them, they represent an alternative to imperial power structures mainly based on military expansion and conquest. However, political unions also existed within empires. Unions and composite systems played a greater role in the medieval and early modern history of Europe as a whole than empires. The legacy of these unions, whether regarded positively or negatively, forms an important part of cultures of memory in many European countries; their history is playing an increasingly significant role in the intellectual discourse on the prefiguration and models for the contemporary European Union.
Programme
Monday, September 7, 2026
Opening of the Conference
1:00 p.m.
Registration
1:30 p.m.
Opening
Welcome
Constanze Itzel, Director of the House of European History
Opening remarks
Hans-Joachim Knölker, President of the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities
N.N., Polish Academy of Sciences
Introduction to the conference
Wolfgang Huschner, Vice-President of the axon Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Igor Kąkolewski, Director of the Center for Historical Research Berlin of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Section 1: Long-term existing unions
Moderator: Louis Sicking (University of Leiden)
2:00 p.m.
Carsten Jahnke (University of Copenhagen)
The rise, development, and fall of the so-called Kalmar Union (1375–1523). From shared interests to the struggle between the monarchy and the estates
2:30 p.m.
Ignacio Czeguhn (Free University of Berlin), Aranda Antonio Sánchez (University of Granada)
From the Trastamara to the Austrias (Habsburgs): The universal Hispanic Monarchy – matrimonial and political unions
3:00 p.m.
Discussion
3:30 p.m.
Coffee break
Moderator: Kolja Lichy (University of Vienna)
4:00 p.m.
Sara Moreno Tejada (University of Elche)
From the Habsburgs to the Bourbons: The legal unification of the Spanish monarchy
4:30 p.m.
Petr Maťa (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
The Habsburg monarchy. A laboratory of political Unions?
5:00 p.m.
Discussion
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Moderator: Antonella Ghignoli (University of Rome “La Sapienza”)
9:30 a.m.
Wolfgang Huschner (Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities)
Between Acceptance, Tolerance, and Separation. Unions between the German Kingdom and the Italian Kingdom (10th–12th centuries)
10:00 a.m.
Josep Serrano Daura (International University of Barcelona)
La unión dinàstica en la llamada Corona de Aragón (s. XII–XVIII)
10:30 a.m.
Discussion
11:00 a.m.
Coffee break
Moderator: Maciej Janowski (Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences)
11:30 a.m.
Alvin Jackson (University of Edinburgh)
Comparing the Anglo-Scottish union (1707), the British-Irish union (1801) and their legacies’
12:00 a.m.
Arnd Reitemeier (Georg-August University of Göttingen / Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony)
The personal union between the Electorate of Hanover and Great Britain 1714–1837: expectations and preparations – experiment and institutional consolidation – low-profit but sustainable
12:30 a.m.
Discussion
1:00 p.m.
Lunch break
Section 2: Long- and medium-term existing unions
Moderator: Karin Friedrich (University of Aberdeen)
2:30 p.m.
Miloš Řezník (Chemnitz University of Technology)
The Polish-Saxon Union 1697–1763 and its unexpected consequences
3:00 p.m.
Mindaugas Šapoka (Lithuanian Institute of History in Vilnius)
Union tested, Union endured: Poland–Lithuania and Saxony in the Great Northern War
3:30 p.m.
Discussion
Wappen mit goldener Krone, vier roten Feldern mit zwei weißen Adlern und zwei Rittern, mittig ein Schild mit gekreuzten Schwertern und Streifen
4:00 p.m.
Coffee break
4:30 p.m.
Public Keynote
Robert Frost (University of Aberdeen)
When is a union not a union? Thoughts on composite political systems in late medieval and early modern Europe
Wednesday, September 9, 2026
Moderator: Carsten Jahnke (University of Copenhagen)
9:30 a.m.
Marie Bønløkke (Ryfylkemuseet in Sand)
The North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great: Short-Term Reality with Long-Term Effects?
10:00 a.m.
Stephan Flemmig (Friedrich Schiller University of Jena / Saxon Academy of Sciences)
The Bohemian-Hungarian Personal Union (1490–1526) in the context of Jagiellonian policy in Eastern Central Europe
10:30 a.m.
Discussion
11:00 a.m.
Coffee break
Section 3: Short- term existing unions
Moderator: Ignacio Czeguhn (Free University of Berlin)
11:30 a.m.
Félix Martínez Llorente (University of Valladolid)
Two experiences of matrimonial political union in the kingdoms of León/Castile and Aragon (1109 / 1474): legal and political foundations
12:00 a.m.
José Antonio Pérez Juan (University of Elche)
El proyecto dinástico de Napoleón en España: legitimidad, reforma y fractura política (1808–1813)
12:30 a.m.
Discussion
1:00 p.m.
Lunch break
Section 4: Retrospectives on political unions
Moderator: Robert Frost (University of Aberdeen)
2:30 p.m.
Ian Peter Grohse (Arctic University of Norway)
Between Nordic unity and national-historical identity. The Kalmar Union in Scandinavian historiography
3:00 p.m.
Maciej Górny (Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences)
The Polish-Lithuanian unions in the politics of memory. The long shadow of the Commonwealth: Union and Federation as political concepts
3:30 p.m.
Igor Kąkolewski (Center for Historical Research Berlin, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Political unions and the legacy of premodern multi-culturalism in Central-Eastern Europe in the 20th and early 21st centuries
4:00 p.m.
Discussion
4:30 p.m.
Coffee break
5:00 p.m.
Closing discussion on the forms and structures of political unions in the European history:
Ignacio Czeguhn, Robert Frost, Carsten Jahnke, Maciej Janowski
Agnes Silberhorn
silberhorn@saw-leipzig.de