Shield
of medieval society. Heidelberg University Library,
Cod. Pal. Germ. 164, fol. 1r
In the early Middle Ages , the army shield meant the right to set up the army ban . This gave rise to the importance of a military ranking, the army shield order , corresponding to the ability to provide men for a campaign. This hierarchy is reinterpreted in the legal books created in the 13th century . It finally received in the feudal part of the Sachsenspiegel des Eike von Repgow the meaning of a structure of medieval society.
In the Sachsenspiegel the society of the medieval empire was divided into seven army shields. The first shield was the king or emperor as supreme liege lord. In the second army shield follow the spiritual princes , hence bishops and abbots. The third shield was provided by the secular imperial princes, the fourth by the counts and free lords. This is followed in the fifth army shield by the aldermen , feudal men of the free lords and ministerials ; their vassals or feudal people were the sixth shield. The Sachsenspiegel remains vague about the unnamed seventh army shield, both in terms of its composition and whether it actually represents an army shield. Farmers and urban citizens are not named.
Based on this classification, the Sachsenspiegel deals with the feudal rights and obligations of the individual army shields.
Web links
- Army shield in the Heraldry Wiki
literature
- Steffen Patzold : The feudal system. CH Beck, Munich 2012, p. 107 f., ISBN 978-3-406-63235-8 .
Remarks
- ^ Mirror of the Saxons . 1295-1363. Retrieved August 13, 2013.