| Abstrakt: |
Abstract: Ever since the 19th century discussions on the origins of medieval nobility have taken place not merely in Czech historiography but also in Central European historiography as a whole. In Czech conditions it, in fact, involves the issue whether this nobility can be linked to the traditional family and tribal aristocracy, possibly with the numerous so-called „Bohemian dukes“ (duces Boemanorum) from the 9th century and the beginnings of the 10th century or whether such a continuity simply does not exist. In that case the formation of this nobility would have to be connected with its later military and administrative services for the Prince, the dynasty and the „state“, which the Przemyslids only united in the mid–10th century. Another sensitive point in contemporary discussions involves the nature of the dominant features of the Przemyslid nobility of the 10th–12th centuries. Namely, whether this „early nobility“ primarily lived, for a long time, on its share of revenues collected in the name of the Prince from dependent inhabitants, so that its „private“ landed estates were merely an additional source of income or whether it relied on its already sufficiently large and „free“ land ownership from the very beginnings of the state. The solution to this question can be significantly assisted by the results of research on medieval settlements, alongside the probes, undertaken earlier, into the social structure of „the noble“ and „non-noble“ population. |
