The Emergence of the Nobility in East Central Europe between the Eighth and Thirteenth Centuries

Robert Antonín, Jiří Macháček

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040681640
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Eastern European History
• Index: History

The Emergence of the Nobility in East Central Europe between the Eighth and Thirteenth Centuries explores the formation and evolution of medieval elites in the frontier and peripheral regions of the Frankish/East Frankish Empire and East Central Europe between the eighth and thirteenth centuries. It addresses the dynamics of elite emergence during a transformative era marked by the interaction of established centres and developing borderlands. By focusing on regions such as Saxony, Poland, the Baltic, Bavaria, Carinthia, the Czech lands, Great Moravia, Hungary, and Croatia, the book offers a geographically broad perspective on the mechanisms of power and social hierarchy in early and high medieval Europe.

This book presents the results of comparative research into how elite status was constructed and legitimised, investigating whether this occurred through centralised imposition or organic processes of alliance-building, gift exchange and negotiation. It draws on Pierre Bourdieu's Theory of Practice to analyse the economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital that defined elite status. The volume also considers the influences of indigenous development versus cultural transfer in shaping elite identities and practices. Each contribution offers a case study or regional focus, collectively illustrating both shared patterns and local specificities in elite transformation across centuries.

Targeted at scholars and students of medieval archaeology and history, this interdisciplinary work is equally relevant to researchers interested in social structures, cultural exchange and political power in premodern Europe. Its synthesis of theory, comparative methodology and empirical data makes it a valuable resource for both academic study and future research on elite formation in medieval frontier societies.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• Introduction
• 1 From kinship to nobility: the emergence of the elite in early medieval Croatia
• 2 Governance and social structures in the early medieval eastern Alpine region
• 3 Transforming the might of the mighty in northeast Bavaria in the Early and High Middle Ages
• 4 The formation of a new type of medieval elite on the eastern frontier of the Frankish Empire: the Great Moravian case from an archaeological perspective
• 5 Great Moravian nobility? From confusion of concepts to the search for continuity of early medieval elites
• 6 From clan leaders to medieval nobility: The elites of Bohemia in the eighth to twelfth centuries as an interpretative challenge
• 7 The elites of tenth- to twelfth-century Bohemia: the perspective of a historian
• 8 The development of elites in Polish lands between the eighth and eleventh centuries
• 9 Dynamics of diversification: medieval elites in the territory of the first Polish state (second half of the tenth to the fifteenth century)
• 10 The elites of the Northwestern Slavs in the Early Middle Ages
• 11 The development of medieval elites in the territory of Romania
• 12 Emerging elite in the early Lithuanian state: from debates about origin to the search for sources of power
• 13 Continuity or significant shift? The evolution of ruling elites in the early Grand Duchy of Lithuania
• Conclusions: the emergence of the medieval nobility in East Central Europe and the sources of their power: cultural, symbolic, economic and social capital
• Index