Robber barons

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As Raubritter refers to those members of the gallant prior extending through road robbery and plundering enriched. This development is said to have started in the late Middle Ages and, above all, to have been a consequence of the displacement of natural economy by money economy . Recent historical works advocate completely avoiding the ideologically burdened term “robber barons” in academic discussions.

term

The term “robber knight” does not originate from that time itself, but is a new creation that was only used on a larger scale from the end of the 18th century. B. in the announcement of the knight novel published in Vienna in 1799 : The robber knight with the steel arm, or the star wreath; a ghost story. in the Wiener Zeitung of September 29, 1798. 2007 Klaus Graf was able to find an earlier document for “robber barons” in a translation from the Spanish in 1781. As early as 1672, the term "robber knight" was used by Christian Augustin Pfalz von Ostriz (1626–1702). The term “robbery castle” of a nobleman who was piled up appears earlier, for example in the Magdeburg jury chronicle or in 1550 in the carnival game The Abbot in the Wildbad by Hans Sachs .

Historical background

The reasons for acts of knights (more precisely: members of the lower nobility ) perceived as " predatory " varied widely. The discharge of feuds had always been part of the chivalrous way of life and became the free , weapons eligible population even long time assured legally in large parts of medieval Europe (since Barbarossa but only from Monday to Wednesday, between was the so-called God's peace ). Feuds were only completely forbidden after the peace treaty of 1495 . In the context of the settlement of feuds, peasants were mostly the ones to suffer, because the plundering or pillaging of the opponents' rear seat was common in order to be harmed for claims or to punish the opponent by damaging his economic basis.

The right to levy road tolls , bridge tolls or ship tolls was originally in the hands of royalty . This right of customs and escort (Latin conductus et theloneum ) was soon given to the sovereigns in the Holy Roman Empire as a fief or pledge of the empire . These raised the customs on their toll castles or at city gates and also enfeoffed ministerials with the survey, which kept a share for themselves that represented an important source of income for them. But by no means every castle that rose near a highway was endowed with the right of customs and escort . The road tariffs were justified in the obligation of the customs officers to maintain the roads and bridges as well as to protect them from highwaymen . However, there were no binding regulations when levying the road toll; the ministerial officials in charge often decided independently on the amount of the tariffs and the remuneration they retained, which was arbitrary. The transition from customs to robbery was therefore smooth.

In the late Middle Ages , the economic livelihoods of the lower nobility deteriorated from the 14th century onwards , when the old feudal armies of the feudal lords who were obliged to serve as vassals were increasingly replaced by professional mercenary troops . The result was an economic decline of the nobility, because wages and spoils of war now flowed into other pockets. At the same time, an increase in the population led to the boom in trade and the increasing prosperity of the cities as well as the decline of the nobility, because the many younger children who were not entitled to inheritance - who were often placed in monasteries - could no longer acquire new manors as easily as they did in the High Middle Ages, for example through land development by clearing the primeval forests, was the case. Divisions of inheritance led to the emergence of Ganerbe castles , where several branches of the family moved closer together. The nobility saw one possibility of remedial action (among others, such as joining the mercenary army or emigrating to underdeveloped, sparsely populated areas as part of the German East Settlement ) in interpreting their traditional duties within the framework of the princely customs levy Increased tariffs or made previously uncontrolled routes subject to duty.

Castles from which tariffs were levied - if necessary by force - which the towns believed to be unlawful, were considered to be robbery . Since the seizure and removal of merchandise due to unjustified or at least controversial customs barriers (or other claims) was considered a violation of the peace , there were often penalties by the contractual partners of peace alliances that were directed against the castles of the customs lords. The robbery houses were besieged as a punishment and often broken. This conflict model - which was common in the late Middle Ages - was based on the clash of opposing legal conceptions. Therefore, the term robber baron - unless pure highway robbery is meant, which also occurred - is misleading in most cases. As a rule, the perpetrators of seizures invoked customs rights and the right to free prostration ; They indignantly rejected the accusation of common street robbery.

Noble societies

Some aristocratic societies in the 14th century (for example Martinsvögel , Sternerbund , Von der alten Minne , Bengler , Vom Horne and Löwenbund ) were characterized, among other things, by policies that were hostile to the city. For example, the reigns of Reifenberg and Kronberg , two declared enemies of Frankfurt , were founding members of such a union. This conflict of interests often led to the declaration of a feud . As part of such feuds, raids on cities occurred. So had z. For example, after 1334 , the merchants of Regensburg suffered eight years after the robbery of the violent mayor Friedrich Auer, who was driven out of the city by a civil uprising and whose large family owned the Brennberg Castle near the city . Some members of these knight associations or knight families are therefore now also referred to as robber barons. Some of the cities took action against these leagues and their members in a warlike manner and destroyed their castles (e.g. Burg Tannenberg , Burg Wildenstein ).

See also

literature

  • Otto Brunner : Land and Dominion . 1965 (5th edition).
  • Werner Rösener : On the problem of late medieval knighthood . In: Festschrift for Berent Schwineköper , ed. Helmut Maurer and Hans Patze , 1982, pp. 469–488 (outdated).
  • Regina Görner: robber barons. Investigations into the location of the late medieval lower nobility, especially in southern Westphalia. Münster 1987, ISBN 3-402-05228-8 .
  • Ulrich Andermann: Chivalrous violence and civil self-assertion . Investigations into the criminalization and fight against robber barons of the late Middle Ages using the example of North German Hanseatic cities, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1991.
  • Kurt Andermann (ed.): “Robber barons” or “righteous people from the nobility”? Aspects of Politics, Peace and Law in the Late Middle Ages . (Upper Rhine Studies 14). Sigmaringen 1997, ISBN 3-7995-7814-5 (basic).
  • Ernst Boll : History of Mecklenburg with special consideration of the cultural history. Anarchist conditions from 1379 to 1480. First part. Neubrandenburg 1855, pp. 147-168. ( online )

Web links

Commons : Robber Knights  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [Anonymous:] The robber baron with the steel arm, or the star wreath; a ghost story. Vienna: Rehm, 1799. M. Kpf. 8 °. LIT .: not in the GM; MM 1799 (Fiche 134), 369; Publisher's advertisement in Richter: The revived Eipeldauer. 6th issue. 1799; WZ No. 76, September 29, 1798, p. 2878.
  2. ^ Word Raub-Ritter 1781 documented In: Archivalia , digital library on Twoday.net
  3. ↑ See Kurt Andermann: Raubritter. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria . April 5, 2017, accessed March 10, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Low German "Rofslot", also "Rofhus"; Karl Janicke (edit.): The chronicles of the cities of Lower Saxony. Magdeburg , Vol. I. The Magdeburg Schöppenchronik . (The Chronicles of the German Cities 7/1). Hirzel, Leipzig 1869. p. 338 (on the year 1414); see. P. 128 and p. 140 ( Google Books ).
  5. ↑ Cf. (in a later edition) Hans Sachs: The third part of the Kurtzweilige Faßnachtspil . In: The fifth and last poetic book. Mancherley Artliche Newe Stuk beautifully bound rhymes , Part III. Christof Krause, Kempten 1616, pp. 1–8, esp. 3 ( Google Books ), dated: December 17th MDL.
  6. ↑ Timothy Reuter , The Uncertainty on the Roads in the European Early and High Middle Ages: Perpetrators, Victims and Their Medieval and Modern Viewers . In: Carriers and instruments of peace in the high and late Middle Ages , Sigmaringen 1996
  7. ^ K. Andermann: Raubritter , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Vol. 7, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, Sp. 474/75
  8. ^ Karl E. Demandt: The history of the state of Hesse.
  9. ↑ A. Funk: The history of the castle hill near Nieder Modau.
  10. ^ Karl Bauer: Regensburg Art, Culture and Everyday History . 6th edition. MZ-Buchverlag in H. Gietl Verlag & Publication Service GmbH, Regenstauf 2014, ISBN 978-3-86646-300-4 , p. 317 .
  11. ^ Karl E. Demandt: History of the State of Hesse , 2nd edition, Kassel 1980, p. 465.