Changing Elites in Medieval Central Europe

Abstract

This chapter addresses the nobility of Central Europe—first reviewing their self-perception and the modern understanding of what it meant to be noble in medieval Central Europe, then elaborating the stratification of the region’s aristocracies by their roles in administration and land-holding. The emergence of the nobility in medieval Central Europe, part of monarchical or princely administrative social structures, was a mark of increasing sociocultural complexity. It consolidated a hereditary category of landowners (called nobles or boyars) who dominated the exercise of power either on their own demesnes or as subordinates of the monarchs. The nobility, with access to varying economic resources, mainly landed property, were organized in hierarchical ranks, from a wealthy top layer to a low stratum of impoverished nobles barely able to maintain their status. The development of this category of the population in the societies of Central Europe was a phenomenon that began before the turn of the first millennium and lasted well into the modern times. The chapter pays special attention to the lesser nobility—a circle that has often been disregarded in twentieth-century historiography.

Vecinatati domeniale: casatoria in mediul nobiliar din comitatele Banatului medieval (1300–1450)

“…A fost, de asemenea, o uniune care a ţintit menţinerea unui anume statut social, căci Frank a fost consemnat în anii 1437-1438 atât ca vicecomite de Caraș 48 , cât și ca miles aule regie. 49 De cealaltă parte, Ursula pare să se fi bucurat de sprijinul și afecţiunea familiei sale, fiind înzestrată de fratele său, Ladislau de Duboz, cu părţi din moșia Sooth din comitatul Cenad quia nos considerantes tum consanguineitatis, affinitatem tum etiam nobis semper et in omnibus tamquam soror suus ubique complacere et consensu nostri et etiam filiorum nostrorum. 50 Cele câteva exemple prezentate în materialul de faţă sunt departe de a ilustra pe deplin natura și ambientul căsătoriilor din mediul nobiliar al comitatelor bănăţene din perioada medievală.…”