Krzysztof Fokt Governance of a Distant Province in the Middle Ages Case Study on Upper Lusatia Krzysztof Fokt Governance of a Distant Province in the Middle Ages Case Study on Upper Lusatia Managing Editor: Katarzyna Michalak Language Editor: Adam Tod Leverton ISBN 978-3-11-056928-5 e-ISBN 978-3-11-056931-5 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. © 2017 Krzysztof Fokt Published by De Gruyter Open Ltd, Warsaw/Berlin Part of Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston The book is published with open access at www.degruyter.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Managing Editor: Katarzyna Michalak Language Editor: Adam Tod Leverton Preparation and publication of this book was financially supported by the Faculty of Law and Admi- nistration of the Jagiellonian University. Publication of this book was subsidized by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland through the National Program for Development of Humanities (NPRH) in the years 2016–2017. English translations: Gina R. Kuhn, Biuro Tłumaczeń PWN, Krzysztof Fokt English proofreading: Gina R. Kuhn, Biuro Tłumaczeń PWN, Adam Tod Leverton www.degruyteropen.com Cover illustration: © Krzysztof Fokt Contents Preface XI Acknowledgments XII Conventions of writing proper names XIII 1 A distant province as a challenge: an extreme case study on Upper Lusatia 1 1.1 “Technology” of governance of and in the provinces in the Early and High Middle Ages: basic ideas, notions and methods of research 2 1.2 Conceptual and narrative framework of the study: politics – organization – infrastructure 7 1.3 Upper Lusatia as a suitable sample for an extreme case study of an outlying province 10 1.4 Remarks on the sources of the study and the present state of research 13 2 The borderland is born: short but turbulent history of the Milčane and the Besunzane 20 2.1 Upper Lusatia between the “tribe-full” fringe and “tribe-less” interior of the Western Slavic area 21 2.2 Introducing the “bit players” of history: the Milčane and the Besunzane 25 2.2.1 The localization and territorial scope of the Besunzane 26 2.2.2 The Besunzane as an alleged “sub-tribe” of Milčane 28 2.3 The control grows tighter: semi-independence, conquest, inclusion 30 2.3.1 The Milčane as a part of the Saxon political system and the Eurasian network of long-distance trade 31 2.3.2 The Besunzane and their possible position in the Saxon-Bohemian struggle 35 2.3.3 The conquest of the Besunzane by the Milčane: depopulation or inclusion? 39 2.3.4 The end of a succesful ethnarchy: incorporation of Milsko into the March of Meissen 41 2.4 Upper Lusatia in the tenth century: boundary, but not a margin 45 3 On the fringe of the Empire: Milsko (Upper Lusatia) in the web of political and military interactions (ca. 987/990–1156) 47 3.1 The bone of contention: between the Empire and the Piasts (ca. 1002–1031) 47 3.1.1 The fall of urbs magna Businc in 1015 50 3.2 Under the rule of the margraves (1031‒1081) 53 3.2.1 In the realm of the last Ekkehardines (1031–1046) 54 3.2.2 Under the high-born rebels (1046–1081) 58 3.3 Under the homines novi (1081–1126) 66 3.3.1 Upper Lusatia in the hands of loyal supporters of Henry IV 67 3.3.2 Rearrangements under Henry V 69 3.3.3 Together or apart? The question of division of Milsko into the central- western and eastern parts before 1126 71 3.4 Two lands of one: 1126–1156 76 3.4.1 Görlitz as Soběsláv I’s outpost north of the mountains after 1126 76 3.4.2 Upper Lusatia re–united: under the Přemyslids and Conrad of Wettin 81 3.5 From counts to homines novi and back: preliminary results of Chapter 3 84 4 The structural framework of governance 87 4.1 Marchia Milzania: the status of Milsko in the structure of the Ottonian and early Salian Empire 87 4.2 The status of Milsko in the years 1046–1081: from a separate marca to a distant pertinence of other comitatus 91 4.3 The question of the legal status of Milsko 1081–1126 93 4.4 Various parties, diverging strategies (1126–1156) 101 4.4.1 Soběslav I’s advance under Lothair III: from pagus Isgorelik to the cura Sirbiae 102 4.4.2 The short “return of the king” under the two first Staufers on the German throne 111 4.5 From counties to benefices, back and forth: preliminary results of Chapter 4 116 5 Local infrastructure of governance: behind and besides the ramparts of ringforts 118 5.1 The two civitates of the Besunzane 118 5.2 Possible vestiges of the infrastructure of governance of the Milčane in the Eastern Upper Lusatia 124 5.3 Were there any burgwards at all in Eastern Upper Lusatia? Critical remarks on the approaches of Huth and Billig 129 5.4 Attempting to identify the Ottonic burgwards 136 5.4.1 The Southeast: Bratków vs. Niedów 137 5.4.2 The Northwest: the Landeskrone 148 5.4.3 The southern fringe of the region: another forgotten district? 154 5.5 Infrastructure of governance of Milsko under Piast rule (1002–1004, 1007–1031) and the question of origin of the “ringfort organization” in the Piast realm 154 5.6 Local infrastructure of governance in Eastern Upper Lusatia 1031–1126 157 5.7 Transformations of local infrastructure in the tridecennium 1126–1156 170 5.8 From ringfort districts to royal and episcopal domains: the development of the local infrastructure of governance 172 6 A remote province: a chance, a challenge or a burden? 174 6.1 Dynamics of royal and territorial strategies of governance applied in Upper Lusatia 174 6.1.1 Strategies of the monarchs 175 6.1.2 Strategies of the territorial rulers 179 6.1.3 The “Bohemian gambit” of Henry IV and its legacy 182 6.2 The infrastructure of governance and its developments 184 6.3 Concluding remarks and epilogue 186 7 Appendices 190 7.1 Catalogues of Upper Lusatian silver finds from the ninth/tenth – mid-twelfth centuries 190 7.2 Catalogue of early medieval ringforts and mound cemeteries in Eastern Upper Lusatia 197 7.3 The extension of the Jauernick proto-parish reflected in the tithe registers of the 16th century (after J. Huth and W. Haupt) 211 7.4 A summary of rents in pepper and other spices from places located in Eastern Upper Lusatia 212 List of Abbreviations 219 Bibliography 220 Summaries 246 List of Tables 283 List of Figures 284 Index 286 To the memory of my Grandparents and their fellows, the first Polish generation in Upper Lusatia. Preface Throughout the history, there have always been some places situated far away from political or cultural centers. Obviously, many people search for such destinations while planning their holidays. Are they, however, of any particular interest for a historian? My answer is yes. This is for one obvious reason. The real test for any polity is not to manage its central resources but to efficiently deal with the problems of its outlying provinces and peripheries. In order to investigate how medieval rulers coped with those peripheral challenges, a region for a detailed study was chosen that not only was a political and cultural periphery and borderland from the very moment it appeared in the chronicles, but also never was of central importance for historical research in any of the three countries concerned (Germany, Bohemia and Poland). I hope, therefore, to deliver some fresh insights into the history of a neglected region of East-Central Europe, that could be useful for students of other peripheries and borderlands, as well. Acknowledgments The author would like to express his gratitude to the institutions which supported the research on which this book is based: the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland, the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, and the Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas (GWZO) in the University of Leipzig. An important contribution to this book was brought about by people, who shared with the author unpublished results of their research, especially Lutz Ilisch, Dorota Malarczyk, George Indruszewski, Marek Jankowiak, Joanna Wojnicz and Piotr N. Kotowicz. Furthermore, Jasper von Richthofen, Krzysztof Jaworski, Christian Zschieschang, Marek Jankowiak, Maciej Mikuła, Lech Marek, Paweł Zubrzycki, Marcin Pauk and Waldemar Bena must be acknowledged for their valuable suggestions made during discussions on various topics concerning this book and issues discussed in it, and Tomáš Klír and Christian Speer for providing the author with exemples or copies of important books on the issues discussed in this work but unavailable in Poland. I owe special thanks to my wife, Katarzyna Kuras, who always found enough time and patience to speak with me about various issues concerning the present work. The direct feedback on the theses of this book, obtained by the author from anonymous reviewers and from the audience of his lecture in GWZO in Leipzig on October 18th, 2016, was also invaluable. Conventions of writing proper names While writing a book on the history of Upper Lusatia, one has to deal with various groups of proper names: 1) historical Slavic names, 2) Upper Sorbian names of various topographic objects, 3) German topo-, hydro- and oronyms of Eastern Upper Lusatia, which are no longer in official use, 4) Polish names, which replaced them after 1945.