Published: 2025-09-16

On the social and geographical mobility of the incoming knightly elite in thirteen century Central Europe: Herbord of Fulštejn and his family

Marcin R. Pauk
Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej
Section: Studies and Materials
DOI https://doi.org/10.23858/KHKM73.2025.1.004

Abstract

Using the example of a ministerial family of Fülme near Rinteln in Westphalia, which migrated to Moravia in the mid-thirteenth century, it is possible to identify the primary
mechanisms characterizing the social mobility of the lower ranks of the knightly stratum from the German Reich who participated in knightly migrations and peregrinations.
By juxtaposing biographical data concerning Herbord of Fülme and two generations of his descendants, and analysing them against the broader social and legal context,
the article addresses the following issues: the significance of service and the feudovassalic relationship with Bruno of Schaumburg, Bishop of Olomouc; the status of ministerials within the changing legal and constitutional frameworks of the thirteenth century; the role of geographical mobility as a means of advancement; and, finally, the attributes of elevated status acquired through this process — including the possession of a castle, holding of an office, and entry to the landed elite in their new homeland.

Keywords:

Central Europe, 13th c., knightly migrations, ministerials in the German Reich, episcopal domain, Bohemia and Moravia, feudal law

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Pauk, M. (2025). On the social and geographical mobility of the incoming knightly elite in thirteen century Central Europe: Herbord of Fulštejn and his family. Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej, 73(1), 87–110. https://doi.org/10.23858/KHKM73.2025.1.004

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