He additionally demanded the return of his belongings and gifts kept in the ducal residence (I am not so stupid as not to see the reason of their detention)
This is the sort of thing I love to see in the archive.
4/4

By 1655, the royalist Cogan learned the duke was uninterested and negotiating shipping rights with Cromwell. No longer bothered with French, he wrote in blunt English ([God] will undoubtedly punish these Christian Princes, who […] render no assistance to the legitimate servant anointed by God)
3/4

His first letters in Autumn 1652, are written in charming French with anecdotes of the Indian Ocean and standard elaborate compliments (my wife sends kisses to your Highness/ I pray to the good Lord that He be willing to relieve Your Highness and alleviate her pain, keeping us as long friends)
2/4

Constantly drawn to pettiness, sarcasm and frustration in historical sources.
After being thrown out of the East India Company, Andrew Cogan, co-founder of Fort St George at Madras, wrote to the Duchess of Courland with a plan to use funds from slavery and sugar to purchase Indian diamonds.
1/3

Globalizing the Baltic in the Early Modern Period:

Conference CfP
'The Baltic Sea and Global Currents: 400 Years After the Battle of Oliwa. Maritime Expansion, Domination, and Water Spaces in a Globalizing World'

networks.h-net.org/group/announ...

#earlymodern #History

You've made it when the workshop you co-organised is advertising in the local brasserie. Fantastic keynote by Klaus Weber to open the 'Mighty Ocean – Inland Sea. Connections and Comparisons between the Atlantic and the Baltic, c. 1450-1850' workshop in Greifswald. Looking forward to tomorrow.

There's a call for papers going round everybody! Pleased to announce the BASEES Study Group on the Baltic States' third annual workshop on 30-31 August in Glasgow, welcoming submissions from postgrads and early career researchers.

17. Thinking globally: why the past still connects us. Rozmowa z dr. Johnem Freemanem YouTube video by Wydział Historii UW

Just about caught me before I left, but I was very glad to sit down with dean of the University of Warsaw history faculty, Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spanò, to chat about my research, the early modern Baltic, life in Poland, global history and fascination with historical failure. youtu.be/ZmQlbPrANiQ?...

Thank you all for coming to our panel on Baltic land reforms @CBSE 2025 Cambridge! Nothing more exciting than geographers, sociologists and historians looking at cultural outputs, oral history archival materials, and historical legacies together. Looking forward to CBSE Tartu 2027!

Off to the Netherlands by train from Warsaw for #esshc2025 in Leiden. Looking forward to giving my presentation tomorrow morning!

The Colonial Endeavours of the Duchy of Courland, 1642–1698: A Forgotten Example of German Colonialism? Abstract. The scope of German colonialism has fluctuated as perceptions about what it is to be a participant in colonialism have changed. Recent re-evaluat

Happy to announce that my article 'The Colonial Endeavours of the Duchy of Courland, 1642–1698: A Forgotten Example of German Colonialism?' is up on the German History Journal website for all those who can access a subscription to them: doi.org/10.1093/gerh... #Courland #colonial #Baltic #Germany

CFP: Mighty Ocean - Inland Sea. Connections and Comparisons between the Atlantic and the Baltic, c. 1450-1850

https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-153892

Greifswald, 25.09.2025-27.09.2025, Sünne Juterczenka (University of Greifswald) and John Freeman (University of Warsaw), Bewerbungsschluss: …

Pleased to announce cfp for a new workshop @unigreifswald.bsky.social from 25-27 Sep: 'Mighty Ocean - Inland Sea. Connections and Comparisons between the Atlantic and the Baltic, c. 1450-1850'. Feel free to share around and send papers by 15 April. Details: bit.ly/4kFrDMy
#baltic #maritimehistory

Overlooked Topics and Seeking Recognition: The Changing Representations of Soviet Deportations in Estonian Cinema Hanna Maria Aunin In January 1988, the editorial board of the Tallinnfilm studio signed a contract with Rein Saluri for a feature film script about mass deportations. According to the studio, the topi...

We have more Baltic-focused posts for you courtesy of the @balticbasees.bsky.social. Check out Hanna Maria Aunin's exploration of changing representations of Soviet Deportations in Estonian cinema www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/overloo...

I regard this as a recommend.

Photograph of the Royal Historical Society's BlueSky homepage.

From 21 February @royalhistsoc.bsky.social will be closing and archiving its X account.

From this date all updates from the Society - and its promotion of work by fellow organisations for #history and the humanities - will be via BlueSky.

Please encourage colleagues to join us here #skystorians

Congratulations Stefan!

Peripheral Sexualities? LGBT (Studies) in Lithuania – a conversation with Rasa Navickaitė Rasa Kamarauskaitė (RK)As part of the series that discusses ‘periphery’ in the Baltic states, Lithuanian sexuality scholar Rasa Navickaitė (RN) challenges Western-focused approaches to Baltic sexualit...

Our second post in the Baltic series is an interview with sexualities scholar Rasa Navickaitė on LGBT studies in Lithuania www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/periphe...

Our Baltic series continues with a fascinating new post by Rosario Napolitano on the development of the field of Baltic Studies in interwar Italy: www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/giacomo...

Breaking out of the Baltic Periphery?: The Global Ambitions of the Duchy of Courland in the Seventeenth Century John FreemanThe early modern eastern Baltic Sea has often been considered, with some criticism, a global periphery in comparison to the oceanic ‘core’. Nevertheless, a handful of eastern Baltic territ...

First up in our new Baltic series we have John Freeman's post on attempts to de-peripheralize the early modern Eastern Baltic through Atlantic colonisation www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/post/breakin...

Over the next few weeks, we will have a new series of posts on the website curated by the @basees.bsky.social Study Group on the Baltic States. We will share each post as its published and the whole series will eventually be grouped here: www.peripheralhistories.co.uk/baltic