Thursday, November 21, 2019

Estates II - How it all happened?

I explained what's an estate, in the previous blog post. But we have to start much deeper in the history to understand this system.

Hluboká castle and town on a map from the first half of 18th century.
Source: State Regional Archive in Třeboň.

All the land in the historical Czech lands was originally owned by the King. The King then gave the authority to administer the estate to his tenants - it could have been a nobleman (prince, count, knight), the church or a royal town (such as Prague, Písek, Hradec Králové; there will be another blog post about royal towns too).

There were more reasons why the King usually gave away the authority over an estate - he wanted to reward one of his loyal knights (this is how the nobility was created), he wanted to ensure a support from some nobleman (so he gave his the estate to "bribe" him), he needed money, he wanted to build a monastery to secure the church's support and so on. But even the fact the King gave away the authority to administer the estate, in the medieval ages he still owned the land and he was allowed to take it away from the holder.

Situation in the 16th to 19th century was different. As the King was elected by the estates of the realm (nobility, church, towns) he was not anymore an owner of all the land. He owned royal estates and towns, but not the whole country anymore.
Map of Orlík and Zvíkov estates, 1830. Source: State Regional Archive in Třeboň.

There were four different "types" of land owners in the 16th to 19th century - the King (he owned royal estates such as Smiřice), nobility, the church and the royal towns. And one owner could own more than just one estate - for example Schwarzenberg family owned tens of estates all over southern Bohemia.

How it all ended? Why there are no more estates in the Czech lands today? Check in few days for another post!

13 comments:

  1. I'm wondering, when doing 3 centuries of family history in northwest Pilsen area, why my lines didn't move out of a 10 mile radius. Would you please shed some light on this?

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    1. Hi, it is easy. Most of the pleople were serfs until the serfdom was abbolished in 1781 and could not move from the estate without the landlords approval. And until the 1848 reforms they were still bonded to the landlord's land.

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  2. Do you know of a list of historic Czech estates? Also, would there be a list of estate owners? One more question, as a result of the 30 Years War, were estates managed by Protestant owners confiscated by the Hapsburgs?

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    1. There were around 1400 estates, sometimes tens were owned by the same nobleman/noblewoman. There is map of some of them online http://gis.fsv.cvut.cz/student/panstvi
      As for the confiscations, not only by king/emperor but land was confiscated by catholic noblemen in a big way.

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    2. Popis Králowstwí českého čili, Podrobné poznamenání lists villages and their estates. https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_TbcDAAAAYAAJ/page/n5

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    3. Thank you very much Judi for that cite. I had been hoping to find something like that. It is very useful.

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  3. Did the estate system cease to exist following World War I?

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    1. Hi, In its main role as part of state control it ceased to exist in 1850 with introdution of reforms that created districs that took over from estates. And estates continued as large land owners = big farms and in that role it ended after WW1 during 1st land reform in 1919.

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  4. I enjoy your blog and was registered to attend the last conference, but unfortunately, I had a family emergency and had to cancel the trip. I am interested in finding an estate map for Zdechov/Hovezi if one exists. I checked out the link shared above and have no clue what I am looking at. If a map is available, I am willing to pay a fee for someone to help me acquire one. Is this a service you provide or do you know someone who does? Debbie from Texas

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  5. This is great! As I review the old Czech Parish records, the estate is always noted. This has brought a few questions to my mind. (1) is there anywhere where I can find a map of the estates. I wonder if the pre-1790 marriages were driven by estate geography, and (2) were there differences in how estates were managed if they were owned by the king, nobility, church, or a royal town? I have instance of royal town vs. nobility as owners.

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  6. Thank you for the incredible amount of historical information. If possible, please refer me to a quality professional genealogist. My family is from the Haberles/Ovesne area and I think there are some that come from Cesky Krumlov. Thanks and stay safe.

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