Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I CROWN AND PRINCE
- PART II PRINCELY TITLE AND OFFICE
- PART III DYNASTIES, PRELATES, AND TERRITORIAL DOMINION
- 8 From consanguinity to dynasty?
- 9 Material foundations: colonization, forest, towns, and communications
- 10 The reform of regional jurisdictions in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
- 11 The anatomy and nomenclature of princely dominion, 1150–1330
- 12 Feuds, inheritance, and partition
- 13 Region and territory: effects and outcome
- Conclusion
- Index
10 - The reform of regional jurisdictions in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I CROWN AND PRINCE
- PART II PRINCELY TITLE AND OFFICE
- PART III DYNASTIES, PRELATES, AND TERRITORIAL DOMINION
- 8 From consanguinity to dynasty?
- 9 Material foundations: colonization, forest, towns, and communications
- 10 The reform of regional jurisdictions in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
- 11 The anatomy and nomenclature of princely dominion, 1150–1330
- 12 Feuds, inheritance, and partition
- 13 Region and territory: effects and outcome
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
The recasting of aristocratic titles (chapters 5 to 7), the establishment of dynastic lineage (chapter 8), and the onset of internal and external colonization (chapter 9) were phenomena whose related effect was to bring forward the regional authority of the princes to such an extent that the amalgamation of their powers into what we can with hindsight discern as territorial principalities was beginning to be made possible in Germany. But the conscious task of the princes was the reform of regional jurisdictions, in part because there was no realistic distinction between justice and administration in medieval times. In addressing the problems of legal reform, we can once more perceive the vigour and inventiveness of the German aristocratic order, its preference for well-conducted legal procedures, its determination to make good use of the royal court and, where necessary, to establish its local claims by force.
In 1186 a charter issued by Margrave Otto of Meissen magniloquently set out the acceptable motives of princes in the sphere of law and government:
Since we possess the government of the March not only to crush the rebellions and insolent temerities of criminals but also to show ourselves prompt and ready to all who expect peace and justice from us, we act by right of our governing power and by God's help, so that all who attend us in whatever difficulties shall find solace and refuge according to the tenor of justice, just as they expect of us.
This is more than rhetoric. It is the programme which justified princely rule in Germany.
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- Princes and Territories in Medieval Germany , pp. 186 - 210Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991