Georgina Watson

Thesis title: War, Wealth and God's Will: The Order of Saint Stephen between Crusade and Commerce in the Late Sixteenth Century. 

Projecting the cross-purposes and hidden agendas of the Order of Saint Stephen, my current research encompasses early modern Mediterranean trade, crusade and religious interaction between the Italian state of Tuscany and the Ottoman Empire. In focusing on various members of the Order of Saint Stephen, and their political and cultural roles, my thesis concentrates on the political and religious power held by the Order’s Grand Master, Cosimo I de’ Medici, against the backdrop of the relationship between Grand Ducal Tuscany, the Papacy and Ottoman Sultanate of the late sixteenth century.