Methodological Issues Concerning the Study of Armigerous Burghers: The Example of Brno in the Network of the Lands of the Crown of Bohemia in the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

Abstract

Using the example of Brno, one of the leading royal cities in Moravia (as one of the lands of the Czech Crown), the author outlines methodological issues related to the study of the so-called heraldic burghers. In towns located on the territory of Bohemia, Moravia and Bo-hemian Silesia, they constituted a kind of transitional group between the townspeople and nobility, based on a royal privilege granting them a coat of arms, occasionally supplemented with an actual ennoblement. However, admission to lower nobility was conditioned by ac-ceptance from the relevant noble community. Most of the privileged burghers thus preferred to live in the city, making their living by practicing occupations typical of the urban en-vironment. For her study, the author uses sources of Brno provenance for the early modern period, when this class of burghers was created in connection with the so-called closing of the noble estates, as well as sources of provincial provenance previously processed in thor-ough editions and monographs. The urban sources include not only written materials, but also preserved burgher epitaphs and possibly also burgher seals. The author pays particular attention to the social and professional composition of the armorial burghers, their share in the city administration and, last but not least, to the creation and inheritance of their coats of arms.

Keywords

• brno
• burghers
• cities
• privileges
• administration