Jakub Razim

On the base of the Tyrolean book of fiefs (Tiroler Lehenbuch), this paper aims to prove that in the everyday rule and administrative routine of Heinrich von Kärnten, until now insufficiently studied, Tyrol Castle played a key role. The family residence of the Meinhardiner held within its walls a branching apparatus of officers who had permanent employment at Tyrol. Moreover, thanks to our sources, we have a good reason to believe that some of these members of the castle staff used to amass land and settle in the immediate surroundings, as illustrated by the biography of the scribe Albert of Aichach. Consequently, our findings point to the centralization of government under Heinrich von kärntenrather than to his incompetence in ruling the country.

The late Middle Ages are often referred to as the 'age of pledges' ('Verpfändungszeitalter'). Given the importance of the pledge for the life of noble society, it is only understandable why this legal institution attracted and still attracts the attention of so many scholars across Europe. By contrast, the pledge policy pursued by Henry of Carinthia in Tyrol between 1295 and 1335 has always been a more-or-less neglected topic. However, Henry was constantly on the lookout for money and, throughout his life, surrounded himself with pledgees. This paper thus intends to describe various legal aspects of these pledge relationships. The analysis of the pledge contracts registered in the Innsbruck manuscript IC 18 should eventually result in a new view of the personality of Henry of Carinthia, blamed by historians for squandering the fortune inherited from his father, the great Menhart II.

In a survey into the legal history of the Premonstratensian monastery Hradiště near Olomouc, in which I tried to uncover the details of the border dispute over church land near Domašov around 1220, I placed under a microscope the forged document CDB II 376, which is the result of numerous counterfeiting activities taking place in Hradiště scriptorium since the second half of the 13th century. The diplomatic material of the ancient Moravian foundation has been an interesting subject of investigation both because it is famous for its verbosity, with which it describes legal realities, and because the monastery, as a colonizer, had constantly been involved in conflicts with the surrounding landowners making its destiny an excellent springboard for the research of the Law of Borders in the Middle Ages. However, in order to shed light on one of the long-neglected aspects of medieval legal life that I encounter here, it was necessary to test the factual accuracy of CDB II 376. A comparison with chartes and records on the practices of the Law of Borders, which have been preserved in our region since the Přemyslid period, was chosen as a tool of source criticism. The findings I have reached lead to the conclusion that the forgery fits well into our general knowledge of public administration in the first decades of the 13th century. After all, the justification of the territorial aspirations substantiated in writing had to be acknowledged also by the opponent of the Premonstratensian monastery, Albert of Šternberk.

RAZIM, Jakub: Fidelity in the Chronicle of the Czechs by Cosmas of Prague.
This study focuses on the Chronica Boemorum by Cosmas of Prague, which is one of the most important narrative sources for Czech history in the era of the Přemyslid dynasty. An analysis of this literary work attempts to address the question of how the chronicler worked with the category of fidelity that is nowadays considered to be one of the fundamental ideas and widespread legal forms through which the medieval society expressed its hierarchical order. It is no coincidence that domestic rulers and noble persons closely related to the throne found themselves at the centre of attention, as most of the information that Prague dean Cosmas left behind is related to members of the political elite. Following the pioneering monograph of Dušan Třeštík, the concept of fidelity in the Chronica Boemorum is discussed and reinterpreted. The main reason is that Třeštík’s approach is based on traditional fief terminology and doctrine, which has been recently attacked by postmodern deconstructivists headed by prominent British historian Susan Reynolds. At first, legal rituals, such as promises and oaths, are presented as means to establish, strengthen, or terminate fidelity ties, binding together Přemyslids and provincial magnates. The major part of the study is then devoted to the content of fidelity commitments. Although it was based predominantly on the duty of loyalty and service, medieval fides or fidelitas was not at all uniform. On the contrary, it flexibly adapted to the socio-cultural and geographical context. Therefore, it seems appropriate to examine this topic with the help of an analytical probe that captures the (un)loyal rulers and their servants depicted in the Chronica Boemorum as heroes providing encouragement to be followed, or villains worthy of condemnation. While doing so, a methodological inspiration may be drawn from the classical work of František Graus and, under his influence, it is possible to distinguish one-sided uncompromising obedience (obedientia) from two-sided fidelity based on reciprocity (fides, fidelitas).

The Princely Council of Henry of Carinthia:
This paper describes in detail the activities of the Princely Council of Henry of Carinthia, its personal  composition and the career of prominent councilors in the service of Henry,  the king of Bohemia from the Tyrolean dynasty of Meinhardiner. The main source of knowledge is provided by Tyrolean chancellery registers (co called Tiroler Kanzleibücher), which serve as a replacement for a non-existent modern diplomatic edition for the period of the founder of the family glory, Meinhard II and his son Henry of Carinthia. Registered documents contain either express references to the council and councilors, or extra sigillum notes including people responsible for the preparation of the princely documents, presumably close to Henry of Carinthia.

The transformation of legal culture from oral to written, which was taking place at a different pace and with varying intensity throughout Europe starting in the twelfth century, is the subject that has been regularly neglected by the Czech historiography. Similarly, little attention has
been paid to the co-existence of legal ritual and its written records in diplomatic documents. Based on the analysis of the case from the late thirteenth century, the aim is to determine the way in which ritual circuicio was represented in charters. The question is: What strategies were chosen by the new written legal culture facing the tenaciously resisting old world of rituals? To be able to address the issue, the nature of the above mentioned sources will be defined along with the reconstruction of the intertextual network which they form.

The living standard at the Tirolean court of the Meinhardiner. A contribution to the knowledge of medieval accounting sources.

This article tries to evaluate the living standard of the court of the Meinhardiner dynasty by exploring the evidence provided by the Tirolean Books of Accounts. Inventories originating from the princely chancellery of the Tirol residence are thus brought under the microscope. The subject of analysis is not only a list of the Tirolean “Familia” depicting the personal structure of the court, but the estate inventories of Otto of Carinthia (+1310) and Henry of Carinthia (+1335) as well, both providing a better insight in the aristocratic representation and cultural investments of the counts of Tirol.

Loyal Přemyslids and Barbarian Bohemians. International Relations between Bohemia and Empire in the Annals of Lampert of Hersfeld.
This article seeks to answer the question: How are international relations between political elites of medieval Bohemia and Empire depicted in the historiographical masterpiece of Lampert of Hersfeld? Evidence provided by Lamperts Annals suggests that in the 11th century the model of czech-german integration was based on two rules. Firstly Bohemians had to pay a tribute, secondly Přemyslid Dukes subjected themselves and owed loyalty to the majesty of Salian kings, which resulted into the participation on the military campaigns and court assemblies. However it may seem paradoxical, Bohemian dukes took part in the imperial government but Bohemian nation was labelled as barbarian and „banished from“ the civilized Realm ruled by Salian dynasty.

The feudo-vassalic ritual between historiographical tradition and postmodern criticism: Duke Břetislav´s I. journey of penance to Regensburg in 1041

This article aims to reconsider the historical evidence on the court assembly in Regensburg in 1041, which is one of the most significant events in the medieval history of German-Bohemian relations. In contrast to many postmodern interpreters, who reject the entire concept of feudalism, it is suggested to treat the Regensburg reunion of Bohemian duke Břetislav I. and German king Henry III. as a ritual of submission and reconciliation (so-called deditio), followed by feudo-vassalic rituals of enfeoffment and homage. Arguments for such an assumption are provided by the analysis of the Annals of Niederalteich.

""Hidden dangers of the medieval ritual of deditio
and inglorious end of Přemyslid duke Jaromir

This paper seeks to rethink one well-known event in  the  medieval  history  of  German-Bohemian  relations, i. e.  the  court  assembly  in  Magdeburg  in  1012.  The mentioned gathering of nobility held by Henry II., king of Germany, is usually assumed to have sentenced Přemyslid duke Jaromir to custody in Utrecht as a result of his  command  to  slaughter  a suspicious  Bavarian  delegation, travelling through Bohemia to the Piast court. In contrast to the traditional interpretation, it is suggeted to treat Magdeburg incident as  a failed or  „bad“ ritual of submission  and reconciliation  (so-called  deditio),  performed  by  Jaromir  but  rejected  by  Ottonian  ruler.  Arguments  for  such  an  assumption  are  provided  by  the conceptual  analysis  of  the  chronicle  of  Thietmar  of Merseburg as of our main historical source for that period.""

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In an attempt to reach a comprehensive understanding of medieval people
whose entire lives were anchored in a culture of legal customs, it is only natural that law and its rituals should come into view. Rituals governed society and co-created people’s ideas of what was once perceived as right and just. In the present book, we have chosen the period of the Přemyslids as our time frame and, from the wide variety of legal rituals, we have focused on circuits. As the Czech terms ochoz and objezd suggest, this was a traditional behavior that consisted of arranging a procession on foot or horseback, taking place ceremoniously before the eyes of an audience from near and far. The aim of this practice, widely used throughout Europe, was to identify and secure the boundaries within which people were allowed to exercise dominion or ownership over their formally circumscribed territory.