Durham E-Theses Relations between Townspeople and Rural Nobles in late medieval Germany: A Study of Nuremberg in the 1440s POPE, BENJAMIN, JOHN How to cite: POPE, BENJAMIN, JOHN (2016) Relations between Townspeople and Rural Nobles in late medieval Germany: A Study of Nuremberg in the 1440s, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11492/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Relations between Townspeople and Rural Nobles in late medieval Germany A Study of Nuremberg in the 1440s Benjamin John Pope Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History, Durham University 2015 1 CONTENTS 1. Introduction . 7 The Medieval Debate. 9 ‘Not exactly established’: Historians, Towns and Nobility. .18 Liberals and Romantics . .20 The ‘Crisis’ of the Nobility . 25 Erasing the Divide . .29 The Widening Divide? . 32 Questions and Approaches . 36 Sources . 36 Defining Townspeople and Rural Nobles. .40 Approaches and Objectives. .45 2. The Town. .47 Residence and Property . 49 The Status of Nobles in Nuremberg . 57 Imperial, Princely and Noble Events in Nuremberg . 62 Imperial and Princely Occasions. .64 Noble Occasions . 66 Nobles and Nuremberg’s Churches . 70 The Urban Economy . 72 Hosts and Agents . .78 Conclusion: the distant centre? . 80 3. The Countryside: Lordship and Land. .83 Who’s Whose? Contested Peasants and Burghers . 85 Burghers as Rural Landowners . 90 Townspeople under Noble Lordship . 105 Nobles and Townspeople as Rural Neighbours . 111 Land and Territory . 118 Conclusion: holding the balance? . 127 4. The Countryside: Security and Control. 129 Nobles as Protectors: Roads, Tolls and Markets . 131 Nobles as the Threat: Robbery and Insecurity. 141 Robbery on the Roads . 151 Responses to Insecurity . 173 Patrols, Arrests and Punishments . 179 Nobles’ Reactions . 188 Conclusion: insecurity and ideological control . 194 2 5. Communities and Communication . 197 Contact and Communication . 198 Means and Places of Communication . 199 Information and Suspicion . 203 Messages and Meanings . 208 Political Communities . 214 Imperial and Regional Communities . 217 Peacemaking and Patronage . 230 Princes vs. Towns . 241 Conclusion: growing apart together?. 250 6. Alliance and Service. 253 Allies and Servitors. 254 Duties and Lordship . 262 Recruitment . 270 Conclusion: turning outwards, facing inwards? . 281 7. Feud and Conflict . 285 Background and Origins . 287 The Conduct of Feuds . 303 Diplomacy and Propaganda . 305 The Spiral of Violence? . 309 Settlements and Consequences . 313 Conclusion: feuders together and apart . 316 8. Conclusion . 319 9. Bibliography . 325 Primary Sources. 325 Secondary Sources . 327 Maps 1. Nuremberg in Upper Germany . 6 2. Nuremberg in Franconia and Surrounding Regions . 6 3. Nuremberg’s Noble Allies in the 1440s. 275 4. Nuremberg’s Feud Opponents in the 1440s . 303 Illustrations 1. Mural depicting the legend of Eppelein von Gailingen . 24 2. Tüchersfeld, 42 km north east of Nuremberg . 82 3. Parsberg castle . 252 4. Funerary hatchment for Werner von Parsberg, St Laurence’s church, Nuremberg . 284 3 Abbreviations BB Briefbuch (StAN Rep. 61a Briefbücher des inneren Rats) ChrdtSt Karl von Hegel et al. (eds.), Chroniken der deutschen Städte, 37 vols. (Leipzig, 1862–1968; reprinted Göttingen, 1961–1969) fl. florins Regesta Boica Carl Heinrich von Lang, Josef Widemann, Maximilian von Freyberg, Georg Thomas Rudhart (eds.), Regesta sive rerum boicarum autographa, 13 vols. (Munich, 1822–1854) Regesta Imperii Regesta Imperii, accessed at www.regesta-imperii.de RB Ratsbuch (StAN Rep. 60b Ratsbücher) RTA Deutsche Reichstagsakten, Ältere Reihe, 21 vols. (1867–2001) StAAm Staatsarchiv Amberg StadtAAm Stadtarchiv Amberg StAN Staatsarchiv Nürnberg Names Names of people and places are given in their German form, unless – for places – there is a widely recognized English equivalent (e.g. ‘Munich’ for ‘München’), or – for people – the English form is likely to be more familiar to the reader as an appelation for that particular individual (this applies chiefly to kings and emperors, e.g. ‘Frederick’ for ‘Friedrich’). The names of places outside of the Federal Republic of Germany which had large German-speaking populations during the fifteenth century are given in German, with their modern names in brackets after the first mention (e.g. ‘Eger (Cheb)’), unless this modern name is likely to be significantly more familiar to the English reader (e.g. ‘Bratislava’ for ‘Pressburg’). The names of places in the modern-day Czech Republic which clearly derive from German (and their associated toponyms) are given in their German form only (e.g. ‘Sternberg’ for ’Šternberk’). Of the two most common fifteenth-century forms for the names of German-speaking nobles – ‘Friedrich von Murach’ or ‘Friedrich Muracher’ – the ‘von’-form is used, unless only the latter is found in the sources. The German term Land is difficult to translate. In different contexts it can be rendered as ‘land’, ‘countryside’, ‘territory’, ‘region’, ‘province’ and more besides. To avoid confusion, Land and its compounds are therefore given in German without translation throughout the thesis. The compounds used are: Landgericht – a court with jurisdiction over a Land; Landrichter – a presiding judge in a Landgericht; Landfriede – a peace association of individuals and corporations within a Land; Landvogt – an administrative official with responsibility within a Land, particularly (in the fifteenth century) in the Habsburg dynastic territories. Abbreviations have been silently expanded in transcriptions from manuscript sources. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author’s prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Map terrain layers courtesy of maps-for-free.com, used with permission. All other images created by the author. 4 Acknowledgements The research for this thesis was made possible by funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Institute for Historical Research, the German Historical Institute in London, the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst), the German History Society, the Royal Historical Society, and Durham University. I am very much indebted to my supervisor, Len Scales, who has supported my work with tremendous patience and good judgement. Many other historians have taken the time to discuss my work with me, including Martial Staub, Andy Wood and Justin Willis. I especially thank Joseph Morsel for meeting me at Rouen in May 2011. I am grateful to Gabriel Zeilinger, Bridget Heal, Lyndal Roper and Hannah Murphy for invitations to speak at events which helped me to develop my ideas, and to Peter and Elke Jezler for their hospitality at Schaffhausen in May 2014. Andy Burn helped to set my database on the right track; Suzana Miljan, Katherine Kent and Angela Huang provided useful research leads. In addition, it has been a pleasure to discuss Nuremberg, Germany, and late medieval history with Amy Newhouse, Duncan Hardy and Mark Whelan. The staff of the Hauptstaatsarchiv München, the Staatsarchiv Amberg, the Stadtarchiv Amberg, and especially the Staatsarchiv Nürnberg have been extremely helpful and welcoming, as have the staff of the Germanisches National Museum. The museum’s accommodation for visiting researchers was a perfect lodging during extended periods of archival work. The staff of the Parsberg castle museum were also very generous in allowing me to use their collection. My father and sister, Ian and Emma, proofread the entire thesis, though any mistakes which remain are of course entirely my responsibility. My family, friends and fellow PhD students who have supported me in so many ways over the past five years cannot all be named here, but I am nonetheless grateful to all of them individually. The final word belongs to my mother, Clare, with whom I first explored the world around me. 5 6 1. INTRODUCTION Historians have in recent years formulated a number of dualities to express the essential ambiguity which they see in relations between townspeople and the rural nobility in late medieval Germany: ‘contact and conflict’ (Katrin Keller); ‘cooperation and confrontation’ (Rolf Kießling); ‘enemies and exemplars’ (Klaus Graf); ‘attraction and exclusion’ (Steffen Krieb).1 This ambivalence serves a very definite purpose: it aims to rescue our conception of the relationship between these two social groups from a long-standing belief that their interaction in the late Middle Ages was dominated by differentiation, misunderstanding and mutual antagonism arising from a fundamental clash of cultures which was playing itself out in Germany over many centuries. From the Enlightenment to the early years of the Cold War, a consensus of opinion