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An Abbot Negotiates with his Rural Subjects – Weingarten (Upper Swabia) (1432)
The Imperial Abbey of Weingarten, a Benedictine foundation, was among the richest abbeys in the southern German lands. Its abbot, an Imperial prince, ruled over some 306 square kilometers of plough....
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The Grievances of Rural Subjects – Kempten (Upper Swabia) (1492)
Land, marriage, and mobility were the three principal determinants of peasant farming. The Imperial abbey of Kempten, one of the richest in the Empire, got into an unusually high number of conflicts....
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Village Violence, Imperial Justice – Wolfisheim (Alsace) (1524/25)
The consolidation of territorial governance brought villages under closer princely and urban authority. One change was improved Imperial jurisdiction over villages and small towns, a process sometimes....
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A Rural Commune Organizes its own Affairs – Ingenried (Bavaria) (1549)
Most villages in the Empire enjoyed some measure of self-governance. In this document from May 31, 1549, the village mayor, court, and commune of the village of Ingenried, which lay under the authority....
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A Commune’s Oath of Loyalty – Herbolzheim (Upper Rhine) (16th Century)
While villages and small towns normally possessed some rights of self-governance, these were frequently embedded in their relations with their seigneur(s), who might include a noble, a city government,....
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Codifying Customary Law – Germersheim (Palatinate) (16th Century)
The codification of local, customary law was a prime instrument for integrating rural communities into a princely territorial state. The liberties cited presumably extended back to grants by a German....
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