The imperial abbey of Ellwangen and its tenants: a study of the polyptych of 1337* the imperial abbey of ellwangen and its tenants by Shami Ghosh Abstract This article presents an analysis of Ellwangen Abbey’s polyptych of 1337, with a view to understanding better the nature of the south German rural economy in this period. It is generally accepted that in England by this time, rural society was highly commercialized, despite (or because of) the survival, at least formally, of the manorial system. In contrast, there was little direct management of demesne lands in much of Germany at this date, but the evidence suggests that rural society was, here as well, highly commercialized. Although this article is an analysis of only one source for one micro-region, its results suggest that the situation in England might have been less exceptional than is often supposed, and in the final section of the article some further suggestions are advanced regarding the implications of this point. The later Middle Ages have been understood as a crucial phase in the agrarian and economic history of England: an ‘age of transition’, a period characterized by changing forms of land tenure, increasing commercialization and social stratification, and, according to one influential thesis, the origins of capitalism.1 Scholarship on England – like scholarship on most other regions – tends to follow a ‘national’ trajectory, and generally avoids comparative analysis as a means of understanding the causes of socio-economic change in the long term. This is a particular misfortune in the case of England because, as a result of its industrialization earlier than other parts of Europe, and because of apparent peculiarities in its agrarian socio- economic system in earlier periods, England tends to be seen very much as an island to itself, unique and following a different path from the rest of the world. Whether deliberately, as * I would like to express my thanks to Richard Hoyle and the two referees for the Review (one of whom subsequently revealed himself to be Chris Dyer) for their extremely useful suggestions. I am also grateful to Tom Scott for his encouragement and comments, and to the Interlibrary Loan staff at the John P. Robarts Library in the University of Toronto for their prompt and efficient assistence in supplying me with material. 1 The period between c.1300 and c.1550 was most recently characterized as an ‘age of transition’ by Christopher Dyer, An age of transition? Economy and society in the later Middle Ages (2005). On processes of commercializa- tion, see the seminal work of Richard Britnell, The commercialisation of English society (sec. edn, 1996). For the arguments regarding the origins of ‘agrarian’ capitalism in the period following 1350, see Robert Brenner, ‘Agrar- ian class structure and economic development in pre-industrial Europe’, Past and Present 70 (1976), pp. 30–75; Brenner, ‘The agrarian roots of European capitalism’, Past and Present 97 (1982), pp. 16–113. Both papers are also reprinted in T. H. Aston and C. H. E. Philpin (eds), The Brenner debate: agrarian class structure and economic development in pre-industrial Europe (1985). AgHR 62, II, pp. 187–209 187 188 agricultural history review in the case of Robert Brenner (who did indeed adopt a comparative framework, but only in order to prove that England was unique), or unwittingly in the case of most other more recent historians (whose narratives about England normally betray no hint that similar developments might be found elsewhere), England tends to be presented as exceptional with respect to agrarian commercialization, and as a region that appeared to have some sort of drive towards capitalistic development earlier and to a greater extent than can be found elsewhere. The only way one might genuinely establish just how exceptional England was, however, is by means of detailed comparison with other regions. The basis of any comparative work must necessarily be rigorous empirical analysis, and the purpose of this article is to provide a comparandum from a region – southern Germany – that tends not to loom large in discussions of agrarian commercialization and transitions to capitalism, while also providing some stimulus for the more theoretical debate regarding these issues and the question of how unique England’s situation on the eve of the Black Death actually was.2 Agrarian historians in the English-speaking world seeking comparative empirical material from the German lands are relatively well-served by scholarship on the sixteenth century and later periods.3 For the Middle Ages, however, most work in English on Germany concerns political history.4 Although Werner Rösener’s survey of the medieval peasantry focuses on Germany and is available in English translation, with the exception of some articles by Michael Toch, there is a lack of detailed studies of single estates or landlords that could stimulate further comparative research.5 This article intends to take a first step towards filling this gap, providing an examination of the economic relations in the 1330s and 1340s between the principal landowner of one south German micro-region, the abbey of Ellwangen, and its tenants; this will be the first study in any language of Ellwangen’s agrarian history in this period. The first part of this article introduces Ellwangen and its surroundings, and the primary source on which this study is based. Part II provides an analysis of the economic organization of the abbey’s holdings. Part III discusses briefly some of the theoretical implications arising from the foregoing empirical analysis, with reference to scholarship on both southern Germany and England in the same period. 2 A more lengthy theoretical discussion is forth- Scott’s survey are very useful: Society and economy in coming elsewhere: see my ‘Rural economies and tran- Germany, 1300–1600 (2001), pp. 76–90, 153–99. sitions to capitalism: Germany and England compared 4 This scholarship tends to ignore economic history (c.1200–c.1800)’, J. Agrarian Change (forthcoming). altogether; however, a useful, brief survey on peasant 3 Exemplary studies in English are provided by life can be found in Benjamin Arnold, Power and prop- Thomas Robisheaux, Rural society and the search for erty in medieval Germany: economic and social change order in early modern Germany (1989), and Govind c.900–1300 (2004), pp. 35–74. P. Sreenivasan, The peasants of Ottobeuren, 1487–1726: a 5 Werner Rösener, Peasants in the Middle Ages rural society in early modern Europe (2004). See also most (1992; originally published as Bauern im Mittelalter, recently Katherine M. Brun, The abbot and his peasants: 1985). Toch’s work on this subject is collected in his territorial formation in Salem from the later Middle Peasants and Jews in medieval Germany: studies in Ages to the Thirty Years’ War (Quellen und Forschungen cultural, social and economic history (Variorum Col- zur Agrargeschichte, 56, 2013). For the seventeenth and lected Studies Series, 757, 2003). See further Ludolf eighteenth centuries, see William W. Hagen, Ordinary Kuchenbuch, ‘Links within the village: evidence from Prussians: Brandenburg Junkers and villagers, 1500–1840 fourteenth-century Eastphalia’, in Del Sweeney (ed.), (2002), and David Warren Sabean, Property, production, Agriculture in the Middle Ages: technology, practice, and and family in Neckarhausen, 1700–1870 (1990). For the representation (1995), pp. 138–62, for a study of rural period 1300–1600, the sections on rural society in Tom social structures. the imperial abbey of ellwangen and its tenants 189 figure 1. Ellwangen within southern Germany I The town of Ellwangen is situated in the north-eastern corner of what is now Baden-Württemberg, roughly in between two geological areas: to the south and south-east are rolling hilly landscapes of rich clay and marl soils, well-suited to arable cultivation, while the north and west are characterized by more wooded areas with rocky soils. A number of rivers flow through the region, including the Jagst, on the banks of which the town of Ellwangen came into being. A Benedictine monastery was founded here by Hariolf, Bishop of Langres, in 764.6 From 814, Ellwangen was an imperial abbey, with no regional overlord.7 An Ellwangen penny is mentioned in a charter of 1147, and although it does not occur in any other document, its existence suggests that there was by this point a market at Ellwangen; by the middle of the fourteenth century there is evidence for four regular markets held in the town.8 The town 6 There is no original foundation charter. A narra- zur Zwölfhundertjahrfeier (1964), pp. 14–18, where the tive of the abbey’s foundation is in the ninth-century founding of the abbey is described; Württembergisches biography of Hariolf by Ermenrich, a monk of Ellwan- Urkundenbuch (hereafter WUB), I, no. 281, pp. 357–8. gen who later became bishop of Passau, and the date of On Ermenrich, see Lexikon des Mittelalters, III, col. foundation is given in a charter of 1124 recording the 2157. rebuilding of the abbey after its destruction by fire in 7 WUB I, no. 71, pp. 79–80. 1100. See Viktor Burr, ‘Vita Hariolfi’, in Viktor Burr 8 WUB II, no. 325, p. 41. On the history of markets (ed.), Ellwangen 764–1964: Beiträge und Untersuchungen in Ellwangen, see Immo Eberl, ‘Der kalte Markt und 190 agricultural history review itself makes its first documentary appearance in 1229 when Ellwangen is mentioned as a civitas.9 From entries in the polyptych (Urbar) of 1337 it is clear that the abbey remained the overlord of the town.10 There was another market about 20 kilometres away to the north west at Bühlertann, where the abbey had a number of holdings, and a further market within a day’s journey of Ellwangen was located in Aalen, roughly 15 kilometres to the south; the abbey was a major landowner here as well.