Unicorn society

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The unicorn society or society with the unicorn was a Franconian tournament society .

It was founded in 1481 as a union of 72 lower nobility from 29 Franconian noble families (see also list of Franconian knight families ). The Fürspänger Society served as a model .

Like other tournament societies of this time, this society also basically fulfilled the need of the knighthood to differentiate itself from other classes, including from the up-and-coming bourgeois families of the cities, the so-called patricians (in the first place probably the Nuremberg patricians ). The strict admission criteria, which not even every noble family could meet, included proof of knightly ancestors and tournament experience of the parents' generation. The togetherness can be strengthened by cultivating the knightly virtues.

The unicorn society was also intended as a “political lobby” to counterbalance Margrave Albrecht Achilles , who reacted a little later by founding the bear society .

The following families belonged to the society: Aufseß , Giech , Guttenberg , Künsberg , Lüchau , Marschalk von Schney (presumably a tribe with Redwitz ), Redwitz , Schaumberg , Sparneck and Waldenfels .

literature

  • K. Rupprecht: Chivalric rule in Franconia. Neustadt ad Aisch 1994. Pages 371–377.
  • K. Rupprecht: From the Landfriedensbündnis to the nobility: Cooperative organizational forms in late medieval Franconia, in: Franconia in the Middle Ages, Munich 2004, pp. 101–119
  • K. Rupprecht: The Notthracht and the aristocratic unity in Bavaria and Franconia in the 15th century , in: Karel Halla / Volker Dittmar (ed.): Po stopách šlechtického rodu Notthrachtů - Notthrachti v Čechách av Bavorsku - On the trail of a noble family - The Notthaffte in Bohemia and Bavaria - Catalog for the exhibition of the same name in the Regional Museum Eger (Cheb) and in the Egerland Museum Marktredwitz, Cheb 2006
  • Corld Ulrichs: From the feudal court to the imperial knighthood . Verlag Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, page 144 ff., ISBN 3-515-07109-1

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Braun: Order affiliations of the Lords of Sparneck . In: Yearbook 2004 of the BDOS - German Society for Ordenskunde e. V. 2004.