Petra Meuwsen Ministeriale und Ritter an der mittleren Ruhr bis zum Jahr 1350

About this book

Ministerials and Knights at the middle Ruhr area until 1350

Case study based on the families Altendorf, Eickenscheidt, Duker, Holtey, Horst, Leithen, Leythen, Lüttelnau, Schalke und Vittinghoff

The process of emergence of the knighthood from the ministerials in the 13th and 14th centuries is part of a period of incipient territorialization and economic and social changes. In this volatile environment, the ministerial knights acted as the upper leading class of the ecclesiastical and secular rulers. Their social order, their networks and their economic situation are researched for the first time in this book for the area of the Ruhr with its complex medieval structure. The study traces the multifaceted development and diverse aspects of ministerial-knightly life on the basis of ten families from their perspectives and thus makes an innovative contribution to the current discussion on medieval feudalism.

The comprehensive indexing of the printed and unprinted surviving documents as well as a database based on them form the basis of the analysis, which is presented in Part 1. The results are embedded in the context of contemporary texts and current research in order to find answers: What was the process of becoming a prominent leadership group? What career options existed and how did they affect the family? How did the men take advantage of their opportunities? What did their wealth situation and economic activity look like? How did the feudal situation and vassalage manifest themselves? What rights and duties were derived from this? What tasks did the ministerials assume for the various lordships? What were their networks like? What was their conflict behavior and their self-image? What conclusions can be drawn from their seals and residences? The descriptive and quantitative evaluations reveal new and partly surprising insights about persons, families and the social group.

The book of regests forms part 2, in which all documents with mentions of persons of the treated families were compiled according to scientific standards. Attached are family trees, an index of seals, the possessions of the families as well as a detailed register. Thus, an important contribution to the research of regional history has been made.