Knighthood

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The term knighthood ( Middle High German ritterscaft ) generally referred to the lower nobility in Germany. To knighthood in the narrower sense, however, only the members of the lower nobility were counted who had knightly possessions ( knightly estates ) and, as part of the estates, formed the knighthood in the diets .

term

The knighthood in the general sense denoted a special birth class alongside the bourgeois and peasant class , the lower nobility, which in turn was to be distinguished from the high nobility . The high nobility did not belong to the knighthood.

The word component “ knight ” in the term “knighthood” has to be put into perspective just like in other modern terms such as “knight union” or the even more extensive term mixture “knight order”. The “dignity of a knight ”, that is, legitimation through the sword or knighthood, was not a prerequisite for belonging to the knighthood. Rather, the focus here was on the quality of the class and not on the actual knighthood.

Classification

The knighthood in the narrower sense or the knighthood in possession was divided into direct or indirect knighthood at the time of the Holy Roman Empire in relation to emperor and empire .

  • The indirect knighthood (sometimes also referred to as direct knighthood ) consisted of the land-based nobility in the German provinces and had to recognize the sovereignty of the imperial class as sovereign in whose country their possessions, the knightly estates were located, which could either be allodial or fiefdoms (or also sovereigns Returnable goods).

Political function

→ See : History of the Estates and History of the Imperial Knighthood .

In the diets , the nobility represented there , along with the other estates , the prelates and the deputies of the cities, referred to themselves as the knighthood . The noble's personal estate depended on the possession of a particular manor and on evidence of several generations of noble ancestors (usually 16 noble great-great-grandparents). The rural families were recorded in a register , which led to a distinction between a registered and a non-registered nobility. Only the registered nobility belonged to the knighthood.

In connection with the exercise of political rights, the knighthood began to organize in associations, which were also referred to as knighthoods . These associations were initially banned again and again, for example in the Golden Bull of 1356 and again in 1396. It was not until 1422 that King Sigismund officially admitted these knights.

They exercised political participation rights in the state parliaments , where the manor owners formed the knighthood within the state estates . The country estates of originally stood for all nobles of a region as a personal right, but was even considered over time in the form of a real right as an accessory of the manors ( nobilitas realis ). In Prussia and also in other countries, registers of the manors were kept because of their importance for the class and landscape elections, the so-called manor register . While originally only aristocrats were allowed to own manors, from the 16th century manors could also be acquired by commoners, whereby the knighthoods had to participate by enrolling. Most of the time, the new manor owners then looked to the sovereign for ennoblement and were often ennobled. In the 17th century there were also increasing numbers of bourgeois manor owners, and the number has increased sharply since the second half of the 18th century.

With the acquisition of a manor, the real rights associated with the property were also transferred to the new owner. This mostly included the lower jurisdiction or patrimonial jurisdiction , more rarely the high jurisdiction (as a rule, the judicial power of the manor owners was abolished with the liberation of the peasants ), as well as the local police power (comparable to a mayor), in some cases until the 20th century. Furthermore, hunting justice , often fishing rights , brewing justice and other ban rights . The ecclesiastical right of patronage is often associated with the possession of a manor to this day.

Examples

literature

  • Barbara Hammes: Knightly prince and knighthood. Competing visualization of knightly and courtly tradition in the vicinity of the south-west German royal courts 1350–1450. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-17-021796-6 . (Publications of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg Series B: Research Vol. 185)
  • Marcus Weidner: The registers of the houses of the Principality of Münster that are eligible for the state parliament (and "dubious") from 1704. Causes of origin - test procedures - function - directory (with a list of the members of the knighthood of Münster who were enlisted in the state parliament around 1655) . In: Westfälische Zeitschrift , vol. 147 (1997), pp. 93-178.
  • Marcus Weidner: Landadel in Münster 1600–1760. City constitution, claim of status and royal court . Aschendorff, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-402-06641-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brockhaus Conversations-Lexikon Volume 4. Amsterdam 1809, pp. 287–288.
  2. ^ Regesta imperii: Sigmund., 1422, Nürnberg: allows knighthood ...
  3. ↑ Membership in the Old Hessen Knighthood has remained a personal right to this day.

See also

Individual knights: