This lecture explores Martin Luther’s role as a significant political player in the Protestant princely states and their courts. Luther was not only on a par with the princes as a religious leader, but also contributed, along with other reformers, to the princely propaganda and the legitimization of rule.
Andreas Ranft is Professor of Medieval History at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He specializes in urban social history, the culture of the aristocracy, and court ceremonial. He is the author of Der Basishaushalt der Stadt Lüneburg in der Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts: Zur Struktur der städtischen Finanzen im späten Mittelalter (1987) and Adelsgesellschaften: Gruppenbildung und Genossenschaft im spätmittelalterlichen Reich (1994).