Zbornik Znanstvenih Razprav (Dec 2020)
Territorial Estates and Diets of Carniola Until the Early 16th Century (Deželni stanovi in zbori na Kranjskem do začetka 16. stoletja)
Abstract
The author presents the current state of knowledge on the development of the Carniolan Estates and Diets before the first decades of the 16th century, i.e. during the time when the estates corporation began to take shape and gain actual political power. In the intro-duction, the author goes back to the early beginnings of the Estates and briefly discusses the conditions and circumstances that gave rise to their formation, as well as tackles some of the terminology issues involved. The core of the article provides an analysis of the structure of the four estates (prelates, lords, knights and squires, towns), their num-ber and their power. The author singles out the diets as the fundamental and the most important form of the Estates’ operation and briefly describes the provincial diet proce-dures and the subjects discussed at such sessions. The land of Carniola was characterised by its division to the sphere of the territorial prince and the sphere of the Estates, which had a profound effect on the period of transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era. The author also discusses the issue of the legal position of the Estates and their relation to the territorial prince, and, as conclusion, draws the reader’s attention to the remarkable work of Sergij Vilfan and the significance of his research in the topics discussed.
