Right of way
The precedence , formerly also known as knight jump, was a feudal privilege for the Upper Lusatian nobility, which was granted to them by the Bohemian King Ferdinand I in 1544 in close temporal, probably also constitutional, context with the Decisio Ferdinandea . This privilege is the first legal source of the Upper Lusatian territorial feudal law. However, precedents had already taken place on the basis of the individual permission of the liege lord. The Vorritt represents a legal ritual that was already known to the Sachsenspiegel - but for the area of application of land law - and to this extent has been treated as a " horse test " in legal historical literature .
According to the strict principles of the (Saxon) feudal law, feudal goods could not be sold during the vassal's lifetime . A fiefdom was only allowed to be bequeathed to feeble heirs in a straight line, i.e. not to daughters. If there was no refractory heir or if it was foreseeable that no more refractory heir would be born, the feudal lord already had an expectant right during the lifetime of the heirless vassal, according to which the fief " fell back " after the death of the vassal to the liege lord, i.e. during the lifetime of the vassal "On the case" stood. This right of the liege lord was therefore not allowed to be breached during the lifetime of the heirless vassal, for example by selling it to a daughter or a third party.
King Ferdinand I granted the Upper Lusatian nobility an exception with the privilege of precedence on February 21, 1544: If the vassal successfully completed the precedence, thereby proving his "youthfulness, health and strength", he was allowed to sell the fief, too if he did not have a feudal heir: “Likewise, if he would not have a male heir and would be so young, healthy and strong that he can sit in his cuirass from the earth on a stallion-like horse; When he shows the same in front of the Landvoigt, he should then also have power to sell his goods [...], masculine undiminished ”.
The challenge was to mount a horse recognized as "stallion-like" without outside help in newly manufactured knightly armor, the strength of which was checked by a pistol shot . It later became customary to ride around and draw the sword as well. The act was not performed often. The precedence took place earlier in Görlitz, and later always at Schloss Ortenburg in Bautzen . The armaments of the "pioneers" were kept in the Bautzener Landhaus, the seat of the estates, until well into the 20th century. The precedence was carried out until the end of the 18th century - with great participation of the population and the nobility, as the contemporary sources say.
The best attested precedence is that of Count Gotthelf Adolph von Hoym from 1777, through whom his daughter, who later became the wife (⚭ 1791) of Prince Reuss-Ebersdorf , became the heir to the Ruhland rule . The last advance took place in 1780. The importance of the precedence as a legal ritual had receded in favor of the importance as a ceremonial.
literature
- Hermann Freiherr von Salza und Lichtenau: The horse test according to Sachsenspiegel-Landrecht I 52 § 2 and a related legal symbol: the Oberlausitzer Vorritt. In: SIGNA IURIS. Contributions to legal iconography, legal archeology and legal folklore. Volume 6, 2010, pp. 151-176.
- Hermann Freiherr von Salza and Lichtenau: The Vorritt. A legal symbol in the legal history of Upper Lusatia. In: New Lusatian Magazine . New series, Volume 11, 2008, pp. 57-67.
- Hermann Knothe : Documentary basis for a legal history of Upper Lusatia from earlier times to the middle of the 16th century. In: New Lusatian Magazine. Volume 53, 1877, pp. 161-421 ( digitized version ).
- General German real encyclopedia for the educated classes . FA Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1836, Volume 9.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sachsenspiegel Ldr. I 52 § 2; see. also Görlitz Law Book 45 § 3
- ↑ Collection of those matters relating to the Statutum des Marggrafthums Ober-Lausitz [...] the state constitution [...] Volume 1, Budissin 1770, p. 1026