šľachta

The study is dedicated to the beginnings and development of the Bohemo-Moravian nobility, the role of the elites and specific terminology used in preserved sources like chronicles and other documents. The greatest attention is paid to legal sources, especially a set of provisions in early provincial law called the Statutes of Conrad Otto from the first half of the 13th century. This work contains important information on the possible stratification of the Bohemo-Moravian nobility as well as their role in the offices and the provincial judiciary.

The current study is devoted to the efforts of the medieval Hungarian nobility to ensure a peaceful afterlife for themselves and their families. This was hoped to be achieved through donations to the church and religious orders serving in the area. The paper begins with a brief focused on donations to the church that members of the nobility made during their lives and the actions they expected from the church or individual clergymen in return for such pious contributions.

In the Middle Ages a good relationship between the ruler and his people was built on loyalty (fidelitas). Loyalty to the king was also very important for the political order and preservation of the power of the ruler as well as his people (magnates, mounted warriors, bishops, abbots and provosts). The oath of personal fidelity, devotion and loyalty was a part of the ritual in strengthening the relationship between the lord and his man. In Medieval Latin the words fides and fidelitas had originally a religious meaning – believer, a Christian, and Faith.

Counties in the early modern Hungarian kingdom despite of their particularities fulfilled much the same functions. However, research had shown that there were some counties that functioned on different principles, such as the special counties occupied by the Ottomans.

After the battle of Mohács, political elite of the Hungarian kingdom was apart from the prelates formed predominantly by aristocracy. They were represented by about fifty families who in the middle of the century owned 45-50 % of the country's land. Their members would hold the highest administrative and military offices, occupy prominent positions at the Diet, become leaders of the Estates Confederated against the Habsburgs, controll majority of the comes posts in the counties and with the help of their familiares practically govern the whole regions.

Research of the oldest aristocratic clans in Hungary encounters several difficulties. Sources of the period until as late as the 12th century usually noted only names of nobles without any mention of their family affiliation, nor any other genealogical relation, such as father or grandfather. Therefore, genealogical trees of most Hungarian aristocratic families can be put together only from the 13th century. However, there are some exceptions, such as the Hont-Poznans, an exceptional family that is written into the early medieval history of Hungary.

The period after the battle of Mohács saw significant migration movements from southern towards northern and north-western parts of the country. The research is delimited to the area bounded by the newly formed border - approximately in the line of the counties of Zala, Veszprém (Weißbrunn) and Komárom (Komorn). Areas behind this line served as a basis for recruitment of new effective troops for the battles against the Ottomans. Landlords in order to be able do protect their property and at the same time to fulfil their duty to defend the country, organised their own armies.

The research of nobility and lives of nobles in the Hungarian metropolis after the battle of Mohács has been rather neglected. The paper attempts to give a basic outline of the problem mainly from a genealogical and partly from an archontological perspective.

The church or liturgical calendar was the crucial factor that influenced differentiation between everyday and festive days in the whole Christian Europe. Religious service divided a day into separate sections; feasts of the church did the same within a year. The church calendar has an ultimate influence on the way how medieval men would spend their days.

Medieval nobility of Hungary comprised about 4 to 5% of the country's total population. From the great part it was represented by lesser nobles with modest property. Among lesser nobles prevailed nobiles unius sessionis, i. e. nobles possessing only one "session" - piece of land. This group is often mistakenly considered as a separate social group and at the same time the lowest strata of nobility. From that reason they are frequently characterised as impecunious, poor or peasant nobles.