Personal status and social structure in early medieval Bavaria

Abstract

Abstract. The social structure of the 8th c. Bavaria reveals a highly dynamic picture: by the age of the last two ruling dukes of the Agilolfing dynasty, Odilo and Tassilo III, a system of personal statuses had crystallised that can be reconstructed from legal sources and charters, on the one hand; and the development of Bavarian nobility and the manifestation of this process in legislation can be dated to this period, on the other. After outlining the political/historical background (I.); this paper intends to give an in-depth investigation of this issue: following comments on the concept of libertas, the legal status of freemen (liberi) and servants (servi) will be looked at in the mirror of Lex Baiuvariorum (II); then, the relation between the duke and ancient Bavarian genealogiae, the development of the layer of the adalscalhae, the birth of the Bavarian order of nobles and its appearance in the resolutions of the Council of Dingolfing, and the issue of Bavarian counties prior to the Carolingians seizing power will be exposed relying on legal and literary sources (III).