Origin and development
Generally
The
origin
of
the
medieval
nobility
is
controversial.
In
a
study
that
has
covered
medieval
research
since
the
19th
century,
Werner
Hechberger
has
shown
that
"investigations
into
the
history
of
the
medieval
nobility
are
always
-
regardless
of
whether
the
authors
are
aware
of
it
or
not
-
based
on
theoretical
premises
that
form
the
starting
point
for
source
analyses.
These
theoretical
preconceptions
change
with
the
present
day
of
historians."
Time
and
again,
ancient
or
medieval
sources
handed
down
are
interpreted
completely
differently
by
different
authors,
sometimes
the
same
passages
are
interpreted
in
opposite
ways,
depending
on
which
social
model
the
respective author explicitly or unconsciously uses as a basis.
According
to
Marc
Bloch's
fundamental
work
Feudal
Society
(1939),
there
was
already
a
landed
nobility
in
the
Merovingian
and
Carolingian
early
Middle
Ages,
such
as
the
greats
of
the
Frankish
Empire
(e.g.
the
Robertines
as
ancestors
of
the
Capetians),
the
holders
of
Carolingian
countships
(e.g.
the
Guelphs),
some
of
whom
rose
through
the
ranks
in
court
or
church
service,
others
perhaps
even
originally
Germanic
or
Celtic
chieftain
clans
(of
which,
however,
only
a
few
could
trace
their
origins
back
to
the
leaders
of
Germanic
bands
of
followers
during
the
Migration
Period).
Politically,
the
weight
of
this
nobility
(as
well
as
that
of
the
church
and
the
royal
family)
grew
initially
at
the
expense
of
the
other
freemen.
In
the
Carolingian
army,
which
partly
took
over
the
functions
of
the
popular
assembly,
and
in
administration
and
jurisdiction,
the
nobility,
which
grew
together
from
Germanic
blood
nobility
and
Romanic
landed
nobility,
increasingly
dominated.
According
to
Bloch,
however,
during
the
collapse
of
state
order
in
Europe
during
the
attacks
by
Vikings,
Saracens
and
Magyars
from
around
800
to
shortly
after
1000
AD,
this
older
nobility
was
replaced
by
a
spontaneously
formed,
defensive
sword
nobility
(some
of
unfree
peasant
origin,
some
of
free
or
noble
origin),
which
took
it
upon
itself
to
defend
the
peasant
population
as
armored
riders
and
was
fed
by
them
and
equipped
with
(at
the
time
expensive)
horses
and
weapons
as
well
as
soldiers.
This
group
subsequently
formed
the
basis
of
the
feudal
pyramid.
However,
it
can
be
assumed
that
some
of
the
most
powerful
families
of
the High Middle Ages descended from the early medieval elites in terms of genealogy and property.
A
vassal
system
developed
in
which
either
the
more
powerful
transferred
the
means
and
responsibility
for
their
own
maintenance
(land
and
people)
to
their
followers
or
-
more
frequently
-
the
weaker
ones
handed
over
their
lands
to
their
protectors
and
received
them
back
as
fiefs,
in
order
to
then
leave
the
land,
which
was
burdened
with
monetary
or
natural
contributions
and
arable
labor,
to
the
tenants
for
farming.
The
heritability
of
fiefs
and
the
admissibility
of
passing
them
on
as
sub-fiefs
were
established
in
1037
by
Emperor
Conrad
II
with
the
Constitutio
de
feudis.
This
meant
that
by
the
12th
century
all
duchies
and
counties
had
already
been
granted
as
fiefs.
Within
these
individual
spiritual
and
secular
territories,
however, there was again a complex fief system.
In
the
13th
century,
alongside
the
older,
free
nobility,
there
were
more
and
more
members
of
originally
unfree
families
who
distinguished
themselves
as
servants
(“ministerials”)
through
their
military
or
administrative
skills
and
who,
due
to
their
position,
e.g.
as
castle
guards,
soon
received
the
sword-bearing
or
knighthood.
This
lower
group
also
began
to
see
itself
as
nobility
from
the
middle
of
the
13th
century,
even
if
the
social
separation
from
the
“old”
nobility
continued
to
play
a
role
for
a
long
time;
in
documents,
the
free
nobles
are
usually
listed
as
witnesses
before
the
ministerials.
The
emerging
class
ideals
and
cultural
characteristics
of
knighthood,
idealized
by
minnesang
and
forms
of
competition
such
as
tournaments,
contributed
to
the
development
of
a
uniform
aristocratic
culture
among
the
“knights”
and
thus
to
the
fusion
of
free
nobles
and ministerials into the ancient nobility.
In
the
Sachsenspiegel
from
the
13th
century,
the
word
"nobility"
only
appears
once:
a
legitimate
child
is
either
a
noble
child
or
a
serf
child
("adel
kint",
"egen
kint",
Ssp.
Ldr.
I/51,2).
Otherwise,
the
Sachsenspiegel
speaks
of
"freemen".
However,
the
legal
code
indicates
that
this
refers
to
a
warlike
class
that
rules
over
land
and
unfree
peasants.
An
impressive
example
is
the
legend about the origin of the Saxons:
"Our
ancestors,
who
came
to
this
country
and
drove
out
the
Thuringians,
had
been
in
Alexander's
army
...
Since
there
were
not
enough
of
them
to
cultivate
the
fields,
when
they
killed
and
drove
out
the
Thuringian
lords,
they
left
the
peasants
sitting
unkilled and leased them the fields with the same rights as the tenant farmers still have. (Ssp. Ldr. III/44,2 and 3)"
The
Heidelberg
illuminated
manuscript
of
the
Sachsenspiegel
contrasts
the
two
estates,
clearly
separated.
However
one
wants
to
explain
the
emergence
of
the
medieval
nobility,
it
was
already
in
full
bloom
at
the
time
of
the
Sachsenspiegel.
However,
the
nobility
does
not
yet
appear
here
as
a
knighthood
oriented
towards
the
sovereign,
as
is
typical
of
later
centuries,
but
rather
as
a
community
of
knights
who
saw
the
distant,
barely
perceptible
king
as
the
guarantor
of
their
old,
traditional rights.
