Velvet ruler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A velvet ruler (old form of "general ruler ") is a prince whom a majority of smaller princes from their ranks appoints as their leader. The common rule of several rulers, such as two brothers who rule equally in an undivided empire, is also referred to as joint rule. In Medieval studies , the term is mainly used to denote the medieval grand prince of the Abodrites , Wilzen and Sorbs .

Edmund E. Stengel used the term to describe Germanic tribal constitutions . After that, the velvet ruler had an "outstanding and comprehensive hegemony over other rulers". Wolfgang H. Fritze made the title of velvet ruler usable for the constitution of the Elbe Slavic Abodrites. According to Fritze, the Abodrites were a tribal association whose leader held the central and soon hereditary authority over a large number of smaller tribal princes. The velvet ruler referred to as dux or rex in the Franconian sources - there are no others - came from this class of the Abodritic nobility . In the Franconian annals they are named as reguli , duces , principes , meliores , praestantinores or primores . The velvet ruler was answerable to them internally. Outwardly, the velvet ruler first appeared as the political contact for the Franks and then the Saxons, led the tribe's contingent during the war and possibly also carried out religious duties.

Remarks

  1. Edmund E. Stengel: Imperial title and idea of ​​sovereignty. Studies on the prehistory of the modern concept of the state. In: German Archive for the History of the Middle Ages , vol. 3 (1939), pp. 1–56, here p. 23 ( digitized version ).
  2. Wolfgang H. Fritze: Problems of the abodritic tribal and imperial constitution and its development from a tribal state to a ruling state. In: Herbert Ludat (ed.): Settlement and constitution of the Slavs between the Elbe, Saale and Oder. W. Schmitz, Gießen 1960, pp. 141-219, here pp. 145 f., 178-201.