Nobility, castles and lordship in the Lower Mühlviertel

The aim of the project is an assessment of the nobility of the Lower Mühlviertel (Unteres Mühlviertel, Upper Austria) in the 11th -14th centuries. Foremost attention will be paid to the efforts of greater lords with their power bases in Bavaria, Austria and Bohemia to colonise the land and to dominate space, a task they only could achieve by establishing their retainers from the "lower nobility" in the region, who are documented in the period in question in written source material, mainly charters, and who, by their "castles" (tower-houses, fortified manors, earthworks), have left material traces in the countryside. Information on settlement procedures and the carving of lordships out of the wooded region can only be obtained by observing the formation and distribution of networks of these nobles, formed vertically by bondage and vassallage to greater lords and horizontally by intermarriage, family relations and neighbourhood. Observing the role of the lower nobility in the colonisation process and, on the other hand, this process`s impact on noble society and its appearance in the sources, will contribute to international research on European nobility, focussing on its social and legal structure, retainership, bonds of vassalage, clientele and patronage, its economic ressources, and, as a material as well as symbolic "site of power", its castles. This cannot be limited by present-day borders, but has to take into account contemporary conditions, and for this reason it is a major concern of the project to pay close attention to the contacts and interrelations with the nobility of Southern Bohemia, both the great lords and their retainers, and to build up contacts to Czech researchers. By collecting and analysing broad prosopographical evidence and interpreting the person-related terminology of the sources, the persons, kinship groups and networks will be identified and their shifting observed, allowing to assess the conditions, risks and chances of social rise and decline. The lower nobility will be placed into its political and ecclesiastical framework, with special regard to the formation of the territory as a political community of land-owning nobles. The position of the region under review in a zone of overlapping interests of various lordships (bishopric Passau, principalities of Austria, Bohemia and Bavaria; princes, nobles and monasteries) offers highly interesting prospects, as the question of the political orientation of the region and its inhabitants arises, and when, where and how borders were defined. Much importance will be attached to interdisciplinary discussion, especially with archaeologists working on noble material culture and castle archaeology in the same region (Lower Mühlviertel), based on topographical studies and a vast collection of artefacts ("Sammlung Höllhuber"). As it proves difficult to bring together written and material evidence for the castles, an open discussion between historians and archaeologists, each of them assessing their kind of evidence and bringing in their expertise, will reveal the potentials and limits of each method to answer common questions. Current approaches in environmental history, taking into view contemporary concepts of colonisation and the transformation of natural to culturally formed landscapes, will be used as well, pivoting on the castles. Interdisciplinary discussion, cross-border research and a "bottom-up" approach to the nobility and the building of lordships are important innovative aspects of the project.

The aim of the project is an assessment of the nobility of the Lower Mühlviertel (Unteres Mühlviertel, Upper Austria) in the 11th -14th centuries. Foremost attention will be paid to the efforts of greater lords with their power bases in Bavaria, Austria and Bohemia to colonise the land and to dominate space, a task they only could achieve by establishing their retainers from the "lower nobility" in the region, who are documented in the period in question in written source material, mainly charters, and who, by their "castles" (tower-houses, fortified manors, earthworks), have left material traces in the countryside. Information on settlement procedures and the carving of lordships out of the wooded region can only be obtained by observing the formation and distribution of networks of these nobles, formed vertically by bondage and vassallage to greater lords and horizontally by intermarriage, family relations and neighbourhood. Observing the role of the lower nobility in the colonisation process and, on the other hand, this process`s impact on noble society and its appearance in the sources, will contribute to international research on European nobility, focussing on its social and legal structure, retainership, bonds of vassalage, clientele and patronage, its economic ressources, and, as a material as well as symbolic "site of power", its castles. This cannot be limited by present-day borders, but has to take into account contemporary conditions, and for this reason it is a major concern of the project to pay close attention to the contacts and interrelations with the nobility of Southern Bohemia, both the great lords and their retainers, and to build up contacts to Czech researchers. By collecting and analysing broad prosopographical evidence and interpreting the person-related terminology of the sources, the persons, kinship groups and networks will be identified and their shifting observed, allowing to assess the conditions, risks and chances of social rise and decline. The lower nobility will be placed into its political and ecclesiastical framework, with special regard to the formation of the territory as a political community of land-owning nobles. The position of the region under review in a zone of overlapping interests of various lordships (bishopric Passau, principalities of Austria, Bohemia and Bavaria; princes, nobles and monasteries) offers highly interesting prospects, as the question of the political orientation of the region and its inhabitants arises, and when, where and how borders were defined. Much importance will be attached to interdisciplinary discussion, especially with archaeologists working on noble material culture and castle archaeology in the same region (Lower Mühlviertel), based on topographical studies and a vast collection of artefacts ("Sammlung Höllhuber"). As it proves difficult to bring together written and material evidence for the castles, an open discussion between historians and archaeologists, each of them assessing their kind of evidence and bringing in their expertise, will reveal the potentials and limits of each method to answer common questions. Current approaches in environmental history, taking into view contemporary concepts of colonisation and the transformation of natural to culturally formed landscapes, will be used as well, pivoting on the castles. Interdisciplinary discussion, cross-border research and a "bottom-up" approach to the nobility and the building of lordships are important innovative aspects of the project.