Royal Elevations to the Noble Estate and their Significance from the View of the Czech Estates Prior to the Battle on the White Mountain
2018
Abstract
The study is concerned with the issue of social mobility within the estates of the realm in Bohemia and Moravia; more specifically, instances of ascension of the lower gentry to the noble estate in the 1500s and the early 1600s. The issue is examined a priori from the point of view of the monarch'srole in this process, primarily the defining of the normative and factual task of issuing royal decrees of ascension in the context of legally warranted autonomy of estate corporations; the autonomy to accept new estate members at the Bohemian Land Diet.