From Gentry to Aristocracy: Economical and Political Succes of Bohemian Lesser Nobility in the Hussite Revolution
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The paper focuses on important participants in the Hussite Revolution (1419-1434), the lesser nobility. Before the revolution, it was a second-tier social group in the noble society1 but it seized the opportunity of revolution and became participants in governing the kingdom beside the king and the barons. The gentry’s key to success was in its military skills and experiences, which had been gained in the pre-Hussite era and which could be used to reach a leadership position of some warring party. The most successful warriors became captains and governors of conquered towns, castles and monasteries with domains. This entrusted possession was often transformed from the party’s common property into the private property of the former governor. So, at the end of the revolution and after the re-establishment of King Sigismund’s rule, the new powerful political class appeared in the political scene, which historian Josef Petráň has called a “Warrior Aristocracy” due to its background. But in peacetime, it was necessary to figure out a modus vivendi by former enemy parties and to legitimize revolutionary economic and political gains by the king. |
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