The social structure of medieval society. Three-part model and its origin. General characteristics of social ties. The social structure of society in Western Europe The social structure of medieval society in brief

The social structure of medieval society was quite simple. In the "dark" ages, more than 90% of the population were peasants (colons, villans, litas, serfs), more or less personally dependent on the owner of the land - a spiritual or secular feudal lord. The share of the middle strata (artisans, soldiers, monks, servants, officials, merchants) was about 7-9%. The upper stratum (feudal lords, nobles, higher clergy) did not exceed 1.5-2%. For simplicity, we can assume that one hundred peasants could feed ten artisans and two idlers.

During the period of communal revolutions, the proportion of the middle strata rapidly increases and reaches 15-20% of the population, while the proportion of peasants decreases to 80%. By the end of the Middle Ages, the share of peasants in the most developed countries was reduced to 75%, while the share of the middle strata increased to 25%. True, in the middle urban strata there is a significant stratification. A significant part of them gradually passes into the state of paupers - hired workers, whose situation is in some ways even worse than that of the peasants.

The social structure in the Middle Ages was very rigid. A person's position was determined by birth. It was extremely difficult to move from the peasant class to the handicraft class, and to the upper stratum it was almost impossible. Mixed marriages were practically excluded, especially since marriages were concluded, as a rule, within a workshop, guild or community. The only career ladder that a commoner could climb was the church hierarchy, and such cases were isolated.

medieval life

The German emperors, from the Carolingians to the Franconians, remained faithful to Frankish customs and dress. On the other hand, as the heirs of the Roman Empire, they adopted the Roman-Byzantine dress of late Antiquity for solemn occasions. Late antique elements in men's clothing are, first of all, a long, to the heel, tunic or dalmatic with rich decorations, for women - a semi-long or freely falling tunic, and under it - a long and wide undershirt. Traditionally, Germanic men's clothing was a wide, mostly belted jacket in the form of a long-sleeved blouse and long trousers tied at the calves - windings went further to the feet. In itself, quite modest clothing among the nobility was made from expensive, brightly colored fabrics with decorative trim along the edges. The shoes were leather “peasant shoes” without heels, tightened with straps.

Hats were strictly different: married women covered their hair with a scarf or veil; girls walked around with their heads uncovered.

Knightly poetry and the norms of behavior of the era of the Crusades, brought sophistication to personal and social relations. Religion, the honor of weapons and the cult of the lady - these are the three shrines that the knight served. It was considered especially important to master the seven knightly arts: horseback riding, swimming, archery, fisticuffs, birding, playing chess and writing poetry.

The combat equipment of a warrior and a knight complemented the picture of medieval male attire. Before the Crusades, the Normans had scaly shells and ring shells. In the XII century. chain mail appeared: thin iron rings were not sewn to each other, but were woven into one another and fastened so as to form a dense, elastic mesh, more convenient and reliable. The costume was complemented by helmets of various shapes and camisoles with coats of arms.

In the middle of the XIV century. fundamental changes in clothing take place, a genuine “domination of scissors” sets in. The new trend was to shorten, narrow and lace up clothes. Since the clothes that used to be worn over the head became very narrow, they had to be cut in front and provided with a clasp. The jacket appeared - tight-fitting outerwear with sleeves and fasteners, barely reaching the hips. Shoes became long beyond measure, therefore, to facilitate walking, they wore wooden shoes - clogs.

No sooner had the new fashion become ubiquitous than the first dress laws were introduced to curb the passion for fashion and luxury, and especially to preserve class distinctions.

The architecture was distinguished by a harsh, "serf" character. The use of stone as a building material has become almost universal. The weight of the stone vaults was supported by thick walls with narrow windows sparingly cut through. According to their plan, the church buildings reproduced the cruciform type of the Roman basilica with its longitudinal and transverse naves and a portal at the western end. The new architectural style was called Romanesque.

In France, the most consistent process was the formation of Romanesque art, primarily architecture, especially monastic. The monasteries took care of the construction of bridges, the laying of new roads and the restoration of old roads, along which there were monastery shelters and church bell towers. It was the monasteries that were the centers of education. In monastic schools, ancient disciplines were taught, called the “seven liberal arts”: grammar, rhetoric and dialectics (the first stage of education); arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music (second level). They learned to read by memorizing prayers, the psalter and the gospel. The medieval school did not know the age limit, children were taught to read and write along with adult boys. The merchants brought up their children separately, as church moralists condemned trade and credit practices. The widespread spread of literacy led to the appearance in the XII century. the first major private libraries. One of these libraries belonged to Robert de Sorbon, who donated it in 1253 to the college named after him.

The medieval city was characterized by tightness, overcrowding of buildings, unsanitary conditions and the constant danger of fires. Sewage and garbage, which were mostly dumped into rivers or city ditches, were a source of infectious diseases. Plague, cholera, gastrointestinal diseases throughout the Middle Ages remained primarily urban diseases.

Urban houses differed little from rural ones. They were erected from willow covered with clay, wood plastered on top or poorly hewn stone. Wooden buildings of the "shtenderbau" type were widely distributed from portable elements: pillars, from which the building's foundation was made, and beams. Such a house was considered movable property, because in the event of termination of the land lease agreement, the structure could be dismantled and taken away by the tenant. However, in large cities such as Paris, London or Cologne, stone houses of 4-5 floors were also built. On the ground floor there was a workshop, a craftsman's or merchant's shop, on the second - a living room, a refectory, above the master bedroom, even higher - rooms for servants, apprentices, guests, closets and pantries.

From the 12th century cities become poles of attraction for pilgrimage - this "medieval prototype of tourism" (in the words of Le Goff). Pilgrims rushed to the city to venerate the holy relics kept in the city's cathedrals and churches, as well as to gawk at city sights, various buildings and monuments.

The people of the Middle Ages had a lot of free time, loved and appreciated the holidays and amusements timed to coincide with numerous church holidays, on which it was impossible to work, like on Sunday.

The nobility regularly arranged knightly tournaments, feasts and balls, with the participation of musicians and minstrels, which lasted 3-5 days. The common people were content with fisticuffs, archery, performances by comedians and circus performers, gratuitous food and drink offered by the workshop or guild. Church processions and services attracted the entire population of the city, without distinction of class, sex and age.

Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes for 36 hours did not get up from the festive table. Behind him (and under him) they slept, relieved themselves, had sex. The smells in the castle were very strong - a mixture of aromas of kitchen, sweat, urine, leather, dogs roaming freely through the halls and chambers, as well as perfumes specially invented to somehow drown out this bouquet. However, the people of the Middle Ages were not squeamish. They rarely bathed - from twice a month to twice a year. Cleanliness was generally under suspicion - after all, Muslims and Jews - non-Christians often and thoroughly washed. In the late Middle Ages, however, public baths came into fashion, in which men, women and children washed both separately and together. In the latter case, we are dealing with the prototype of a visiting house.

Morality in the Middle Ages was low, in today's sense of it. Men, of course, sought to limit the sexual freedom of their wives, in order to ensure “legitimate” offspring, but they themselves enjoyed a fair amount of freedom. Ladies from the upper stratum could have official lovers, especially after the “invention” of courtly love.

When studying a medieval city, the problem of the social structure of its population inevitably arises. There are many aspects to this problem. Chief among them: who are they, medieval townspeople, where did the urban population come from, what are its economic and social specifics? Other questions are also touched upon: property and social differentiation among the townspeople and at the same time the integration of various elements and groups into the estate of townspeople, full rights and lack of rights within the urban mass, etc. Who did the urban population consist of? From heterogeneous elements: from merchants who originally lived in isolated settlements, which in Germany were called "wik"; from artisans free and not free, dependent on the feudal lord, the lord of the city; from the vassals of the city lord, from his servants who performed various administrative duties - they ruled the court, collected taxes from the population, they were called ministerials. Most of the townspeople were originally not free peasants, artisans, fugitive rural people (who fled from their former masters). Most of the land on which the peasants worked, by the XI century. belonged to the feudal lords. The peasants, whose life was especially hard, were called in France -serves, and in England - villans. During the continuous internecine wars, the peasants sought protection from a neighboring lord or monastery. Having found a powerful patron, the peasant was forced to admit his dependence on him, to transfer his land allotment to him. The dependent peasant continued to farm on his former allotment, but for the use of it, the master demanded the execution of corvée and the payment of dues. The power of the feudal lord over the peasant was manifested not only in the fact that he worked on the corvée and paid dues, he was personally subject to the feudal lord, the landowner judged him in his court, the peasant did not have the right to move to another area without the permission of his master. However, despite the land and personal dependence on the feudal lord, the peasant was not completely powerless. The lord could not execute him, drive him off his allotment (if he performed his duties), sell or exchange him without land and separately from his family. A huge role in the life of medieval people was played by the custom, which was observed by both peasants and seigneurs. The amount of dues, types and duration of corvée work did not change from generation to generation. What was established once and for all was considered reasonable and just. The lords could not voluntarily increase peasant duties. Seigneurs and peasants needed each other: some were the "universal breadwinners", the working people expected protection and patronage from others. In the Middle Ages, the entire population of Europe was divided into three groups - three estates (people included in the three estates had different rights and obligations). The ministers of the church (priests and monks) made up a special layer of the population - the clergy, it was believed that it leads the spiritual life of people - it takes care of the salvation of the souls of Christians; knights protect the country from foreigners; peasants and townspeople are engaged in agriculture and handicrafts. The fact that the clergy was in the first place is not at all accidental, because the main thing for a medieval European was his relationship with God, the need to save his soul after the end of earthly life. The clergy had their own ecclesiastical hierarchy and discipline, as well as a set of privileges that sharply separated them from the secular world. The ministers of the church as a whole were more educated than the knights and, especially, the peasants. Almost all scientists, writers and poets, artists and musicians of that era were clerics; they often occupied the highest government positions, influencing their kings. The clergy was divided into white and black, or monasticism. The first monasteries - communities of monks - appeared in Europe after the fall of the Western Empire. Mostly deeply believing Christians who wanted to devote their lives exclusively to the service of God became monks. They made vows (promises): to give up the family, not to marry and not to marry; give up property, live in poverty; unquestioningly obey the abbot of the monastery (in women's monasteries - the abbess), pray and work. Many monasteries owned vast lands, which were cultivated by dependent peasants. Schools, workshops for copying books, and libraries often arose at monasteries; monks created historical chronicles (chronicles). In the Middle Ages, monasteries were centers of education and culture. The second estate was made up of secular feudal lords, or chivalry. The most important occupations of the knights were war and participation in military competitions - tournaments; The knights spent their leisure time hunting and feasting. Teaching writing, reading and mathematics was not compulsory. Medieval literature describes the rules of worthy behavior that every knight had to follow: to be selflessly devoted to God, faithfully serve his liege, take care of the weak and defenseless; keep all obligations and oaths. In fact, the knights did not always follow the rules of honor. During the wars, they often did all sorts of atrocities. The feudal lords lived in strong stone castles (there were about 40 thousand of them in France alone). The castle was surrounded by a deep moat, it was possible to get inside only with the drawbridge lowered. Defensive towers rose above the walls of the castle, the main one, the donjon, consisted of several floors. In the donjon there was a feudal lord's dwelling, a banquet hall, a kitchen, a room where supplies were stored in case of a long siege. In addition to the feudal lord, his family, warriors and servants lived in the castle. The bulk of the population of Europe in the Middle Ages was the peasantry, who lived in small villages of 10-15 households each. The peasants tried to free themselves from the oppression of the feudal lords by participating in the crusades, pilgrimages, fled to the forests, to the cities that were being revived and were being born. They could really free themselves only by fleeing to the cities. Thus, most of them were freed from personal dependence. We can verify this by reading article 2 of the city law of the city of Goslar, granted by Emperor Frederick II in 1219: he will not convict him in a servile state, may he rejoice in freedom, which is the common property of other citizens, and after death no one will dare to make claims against him as to his serf. A city man, a craftsman or a merchant, ceased to be a serf if he managed to live in the city for a certain period. He no longer felt the oppression of the landlord regime over him. The city air became magical, and made the serf free. Only in the city, independently engaged in crafts or trade, did the peasant get the opportunity to develop his activities. But this freedom was not absolute freedom. This was freedom from feudal-local oppression. The city seigneur nevertheless taxed the townspeople, but this taxation could no longer absorb the entire mass of the surplus labor of artisans and the entire trade profit of merchants. On the economic basis, a new social stratum, previously unknown to feudalism, was formed and rallied - the townspeople. Within the framework of the ruling class - the feudal estates, in turn, there were more or less large estates, belonging to which ensured a certain social status.

CM. Stam points out that the townspeople were a very heterogeneous layer. But they were united by a common interest in the greatest freedom for the development of urban commodity production and exchange. The objectivity of this social community was realized in the communal struggle, in the development of city law. City law is recorded in the sources as a privilege. But how could it be otherwise in a society where law was the monopoly of the feudal class, and all others were deprived of rights? Citizens, of course, had to win back their rights and fix them, so to speak, as an exception. But these were not the privileges of the masters, but the conquest of the oppressed. For the first time in a feudal society, urban law violated the legal monopoly of the feudal lords and protected the interests of the common people, giving them full civil rights. ON THE. Khachaturian draws attention to urban corporations and notes that in order to realize his ability to work, an artisan had to be part of a guild organization that unites artisans of a given specialty and strives for a monopoly on production. Inside the guild, he was forced to obey the guild regulations with their characteristic egalitarian tendencies, which can be seen as a kind of non-economic coercion of the guild organization in relation to its members.

The workshop is not the only type of community organization in the city. The form closest in nature to it was the merchant guild - an association of merchants with a certain discipline, common capital and common property in the form of an insurance fund and warehouses. Even the unions of apprentices - organizations already associated with the category of medieval labor, with a common mutual benefit fund, control over working conditions and discipline - paid tribute to medieval corporatism. Finally, the city community itself should be mentioned as a whole, within which the unity of small professional corporations (workshops, guilds) or larger social groups (patriciates, burghers) was realized and a social community of citizens was formed.

The history of the city community itself, finally, which can be observed in the change of the leading forces of the city community and forms of government, as well as changes in the status of full rights, which gradually became the property of a very narrow circle of people who not only own real estate, but also have access to city government, will reflect deep shifts in the social structure of the urban estate, which became more complex as feudalism developed.

The urban community appears more united and cohesive when it comes to its vital economic, social and political interests. The main enemy, the main danger was the lord, everything else receded into the shadows and was rarely found. In economic terms, the new estate was most connected with trade and craft activities. Usually the urban estate is identified with the concept of "burghers". The word "burgher" in some European countries originally denoted all city dwellers. Later, the "burgher" began to be used only for full-fledged citizens.

Nowhere did cities play such an enormous political role in the Middle Ages as in Italy, and nowhere was the scope of their commercial relations as great as in this country. In addition, not only the emergence, but also the heyday of Italian cities belonged to an earlier time than in other Western European countries. However, the various Italian cities differed greatly from each other both in their economy and in their social structure.

Some of these cities (Venice, Genoa, Pisa) during the entire Middle Ages played mainly the role of the largest trading centers and were mainly engaged in foreign trade. At the same time, the growth of handicraft production in the cities of Central and Northern Italy increased the need for workers employed in urban crafts, and, consequently, in the influx of people from the village to the city. But this could only become possible by breaking the feudal fetters of the peasants' personal dependence on the feudal lords. Meanwhile, although in the XII - the first half of the XIII century. among the peasantry of Northern and Central Italy there were a large number of personally free holders - libellarii, a significant part of the peasants continued to remain not free (serfs, masnaderii).

The liberation of the peasants, which took place on a large scale in the second half of the 13th century. in Central Italy, expressed in the personal liberation of the peasants for ransom, without land. From the end of the XI century. groups of personally free peasants began to create so-called rural communes, which had self-government and their own elected officials. These rural communes arose at a time when the cities, in their struggle against the lords, supported the peasants' desire for independence from the feudal lords. But after the victory over their own lords, the cities began to subjugate the rural communes and cancel their self-government. They seized the communal lands of rural communes, and wealthy townspeople bought up peasant allotments. By the end of the XIII century. in Florence, various sections of the townspeople with directly opposite interests were already sharply identified. Merchants, money changers and moneylenders, united in seven "senior workshops" - were called "fat people". Members of the junior workshops, their apprentices and the urban plebeians made up the majority of the population of Florence, they were called - "skinny people".

The problem of the social structure of the city of Southern Italy is quite complex. The social and economic appearance of cities was determined by many closely related factors, both pan-European and specific to the region. The patriciate of the large cities of the Adriatic coast - Bari, Brindisi, Trani - received even in the XII - early XIII centuries. active participation in trade with Byzantium and other Mediterranean countries. Another area of ​​activity that gave the patriciate a large profit was the credit business. It was not uncommon for individuals or companies to combine maritime trade with ship operations. The other part of the patriciate was more closely connected with the royal power than the commercial usury: from these families came officials who played a leading role in the internal political life of the city - bayuls, catepans and numerous judges. There were knights only in individual patrician families, and this did not change the social appearance of the upper stratum. The Normans settled in the cities in small numbers; meanwhile, it was they who, before the Angevin conquest, constituted the main backbone of chivalry. The urban chivalry was distinguished by its originality not only in its occupations.

The social structure of the large cities located on the Tyrrhenian coast was somewhat different. If we exclude Amalfi (whose merchants settled in other cities, forming entire colonies there), the merchants of the ports of Salerno, Naples, Gaeta in the XII century. little involvement in foreign trade. Partly for this reason, the nobility was more reserved here. In the XIII century. members of noble cities begin to use relatively widely typically urban sources of income: they own shops and warehouses, sometimes rent out houses and commercial premises. Profits received by a noble person from shops and houses sometimes serve as an object of donation to the church. Artisans made up the bulk of the middle stratum of the urban population. The increasing lag of the craft of the South from Northern and Central Italy at that time is primarily due to the economic policy of the Norman kings, and especially Frederick II, who provided patronage to the Venetian, Genoese and Pisan merchants who delivered handicrafts here and exported grain and other agricultural products. In the cities of Campania - Naples, Salerno - artisans often passed on the profession by inheritance and were closely connected with each other, settling on

Literature one street or around one church. Even in large cities, there were many small owners who cultivated their lands, which were located not far from the city. Many of these proprietors, as the city economy weakened and the fiscal oppression increased, became poorer and joined the heterogeneous motley mass of the urban plebs - laborers, loaders, day laborers. As you can see, they were people of different social status. But over time, these differences are smoothed out, and a diverse, but in its own way, united population is created, bound by common rights and the duty of mutual assistance, just as it was in a rural peasant community.

Finally, the townspeople used the labor of dependent people, as well as slaves, mainly for domestic work. Even in the thirteenth century there were quite a few of them, especially in Bari - the main market for slaves captured on the Balkan Peninsula. Slaves were included in the dowry, bequeathed to heirs, pledged upon receipt of a loan. In the 13th century, when the opportunity to engage in a craft in the city or find a profitable occupation narrowed, the influx of rural residents to a large city decreased. The exception was Naples, turned by Charles I into the capital of the kingdom. After the Angevin conquest, many small and medium-sized cities were distributed as fiefs to the associates of Charles I, which significantly influenced their future fate. But the character of the big city, the position of certain sections of its population, underwent a noticeable transformation. The agrarianization of the city began, associated with the entry of the economy of southern Italy into a long period of decline.

With the fall of the Roman Empire under the onslaught of barbarian tribes in Europe, a new form of social organization begins to take shape. The slaveholding system was replaced by feudal relations. It is important to remember that feudalism is a form of social organization where power belongs to those who have personal land ownership and extends to those who live on this land.

The structure of medieval feudal society

The feudal system was an inevitable process for its time. Barbarians, unable to manage vast territories, divided their countries into fiefs, which were much smaller than the country. This, in due course, caused the weakening of royal power. So, in France, by the 13th century, the king is only "first among equals." He was forced to listen to the opinion of his feudal lords and he could not make a single decision without the consent of the majority of them.

Consider the formation of a feudal society on the example of the state of the Franks. Having occupied the vast territories of the former Gaul, the Frankish kings endowed large land plots to their prominent military leaders, famous warriors, friends, prominent political figures, and later ordinary soldiers. Thus began to form a thin layer of landowners.

The land plots that the king endowed his entourage for faithful service were called feuds in the Middle Ages, and the people who owned them were called feudal lords.

So, already by the 8th century, a feudal system was formed in Europe, which finally took shape after the death of Charlemagne.

Rice. 1. Charlemagne.

The key features of the formation of feudalism include:

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• the predominance of subsistence farming;
• personal dependence of workers;
• rent relations;
• the presence of large feudal landholdings and small peasant land use;
• the dominance of a religious worldview;
• a clear hierarchical structure of estates.

An important feature of this era is the formation of three main classes and the basing of society on agriculture.

Rice. 2. Hierarchy of estates in Europe

Table "Estates of feudal society"

estate	What is responsible for
Feudal lords (dukes, earls, barons, knights)	Serve the king, protect the state from external aggression. The feudal lords collected taxes from those who lived on their plots, had the right to participate in jousting tournaments and, in the event of hostilities, had to come with a military detachment to the royal army.
Clergy (priests and monks)	The most literate and educated part of society. Were poets, scientists, chroniclers. The main duty is to serve the faith and God.
workers (peasants, merchants, artisans)	The main duty is to feed the other two estates.

Thus, members of the working class had their own private farms, but remained dependent, like slaves. This was expressed in the fact that they were forced to pay rent to the feudal lords for land in the form of corvée (obligatory work on the lands of the feudal lord), dues (products) or money. The size of the duties was strictly established, which made it possible for the workers to plan the management of their economy and the sale of their products.

Rice. 3. The work of the peasants in the fields.

Each feudal lord allocated to his peasants those forms of duties that he considered necessary. Some feudal lords abandoned the slavish attitude towards the peasants, collecting only symbolic taxes in the form of products for the use of land.

Such relationships could not but affect the development of agriculture. The peasants were interested in increasing the level of land cultivation in order to obtain a larger harvest, which affected their incomes.

What have we learned?

The feudal system was a necessary element in the development of society. In those historical conditions, it was possible to raise the level of production only with the use of the labor of dependent peasants, by offering them a personal interest in labor.

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4. The social structure of late medieval society

Hungary, including the territory of Slovakia, was still a typical medieval kingdom in the 15th century; political, economic, social structures, despite some new elements, remained unchanged. It was still an agrarian country, the overwhelming majority of the population was the feudal-dependent peasantry, the nobility was the determining social force.

The population of all Hungary, according to the latest demographic studies, ranged from 3-3.5 million at the beginning of the 15th century. to about 4-4.5 million people at the end of the century (together with Slavonia and Transylvania), the population of Slovakia is about 500-550 thousand people. These data, however, are very approximate, their sources are the lists of duties (urbaria), which have survived only in very rare cases and in fragments, moreover, they only record the number of taxable units in a given area, and not the population. The vast majority of the population lived in rural areas, the number of inhabitants of cities and towns was presumably about 8.2% of the total population (in Western Europe, a slightly larger percentage, as well as in neighboring countries - Poland, the Czech Kingdom - about 15% of the inhabitants). Even the most significant and largest free royal cities (for example, Kosice, Bratislava) by European standards were cities of medium size (5-10 thousand inhabitants). In general, in Slovakia at the end of the 15th century there were about 200 urban-type settlements.

Assumptions regarding the population density in the Kingdom of Hungary range from 10 to 32 people per square kilometer on average. km, but these are very approximate data, in the elevated regions of Slovakia, inhabited mainly by Vlachs who were engaged in cattle breeding, the population density is much lower, for example, in the Liptovska and Orava zhupas - up to 5 people per square meter. km, in most of the territory of Slovakia 5-12, in Gontska and Abovska (in the vicinity of Kosice) zhups even 15 people per sq. km. km. The numerical composition of households, that is, the number of people living in one house, within the borders of Hungary, was supposedly about 6.3 souls. Compared to the neighboring Czech kingdom, the population of Hungary (and hence Slovakia) was rarer, as evidenced by some surviving monuments: for example, in 1471, the Hungarian embassy, ​​which defended the right of Matthias Korvin to the Czech crown in the elections in the Sejm in Kutna Hora , compared both kingdoms in her speech; Hungary was drawn by them as a country famous for the abundance of all things, and the Czech Republic - a country of outstanding population and fertility.

Population density was determined by various factors, during the XV century. commonplace was the depopulation and even the complete desolation of some settlements or entire regions. The number of estates that paid taxes (taxes were paid from one “gate”, from one “entrance”), from the time of King Sigismund to the end of the 15th century, decreased by 1/3. The decrease in population was caused by various reasons - mass death from starvation due to sudden changes in weather conditions, for example, a long winter or excessive heat and drought (which befell Hungary, in particular, in 1473). The reason for the decline in the population was also plague epidemics that recurred several times over a decade, limited opportunities to earn a livelihood (if, for example, too little land belonged to a single estate), violent actions and civil strife of individual landowners, invasions of foreign troops (for example, Hussite invasions troops on the territory of Slovakia in the first third of the century or the attacks of Polish troops at the end of the 15th century). Despite all these negative factors, the demographic development in Slovakia in the XV century. tended to moderate growth.

The determining force of social development in medieval society was its elite - the nobility, although it was only a minimal percentage of the population. According to the latest hypotheses, within the whole of Hungary it was less than 5% of the total population, of which the wealthy (middle and upper) nobility made up about 1.5% of the total population. The basis of the foundations of the nobility was land ownership, the nobleman lived on his own land and his only duty was military service. Thus, as the owner (homopossessionatus) he was different from the rest of the population (homines impossessionati). In addition to owning land (at least a piece of land or even just a manor), the nobles also enjoyed complete personal freedom, tax exemption and other privileges, of which the most important was the fact that without a legal order, trial and sentence, a nobleman could not be sent to prison. , moreover, the nobles were subject only to the king (they had the right to be judged only by the king himself or his dignitaries, i.e., the judge of the region or the palatine).

The structure of the nobility throughout the 15th century did not undergo significant changes. Only the most powerful or richest group, often referred to as the aristocracy, oligarchy, magnates or nobles, played the decisive role. Although formally all the nobles were equal among themselves (this principle was formulated in the decree of King Louis of Anjou in 1351), in reality the situation was not at all like that, the nobility as a class was divided into certain, relatively isolated layers. The middle and especially the most numerous petty nobility in that period were not allowed almost any participation in power. The fate of the country was decided by a group of aristocracy or its top - barons, who, together with church hierarchs - prelates - made up the royal council. The title of baron originally belonged exclusively to holders of the highest ranks in the royal service, formally the barons were separated from the rest of the magnates by title magnificus, magnificus dominus or dominus. During the reign of the Angevin dynasty there was a group of magnates, almost identical to the category of barons and prelates. Subsequently, however, there was an increasing number of rich and powerful magnates who did not get positions of high rank, so there was an increasing tendency to expand the circle of barons. Already from the end of the XIV century, but especially in the XV century. with added title magnificus the descendants or members of the family of the barons began to be named. During the reign of Matthew Korvin, such barons were called "barons by name" or "by birth", in contrast to "real" barons, i.e. dignitaries. Increasingly, the designation "tycoons" began to be used, which eventually prevailed. Thus, the decisive factor in belonging to this group was not dignity, but the size of the estate; during the reign of King Matthew Corvinus, this group of magnates began to stand out as a special stratum of the nobility, which also differed in formal features (for example, the use of a red seal).

Most of the representatives of the middle and petty nobility found a use in the service of high-ranking feudal lords as familiars. The institution of familiars to a certain extent resembles the Western European fief system. Nobles - familiars of some feudal lord (in familiaritate et comitiva, in sequela et familiaritate), like vassals in the countries of Western Europe, they served in the military with their lord, fought in his banderia (sub eius vexillo), were his castellani, clerks, podzhupans, exercised judicial power over his serfs during his absence, and so on. To the category of the most serious crimes of the Middle Ages - betrayal, treason (nota infidelitatis), for which the punishment was applied in the form of deprivation of the head and property, included not only treason to the king, but also the betrayal of his master. Each nobleman sought to find for himself the richest and most influential master, because through the family led the way up. The top of the aspirations was service at the royal court, there were unlimited opportunities, and from a representative of the petty nobility (under Matvey Korvin even from the ranks of the feudal-dependent peasantry) one could become a magnate. For the most part, however, this path was only open to more or less wealthy nobility. At the royal court, men from childhood began their careers, becoming pages, later - court knights. But the group of court knights was not homogeneous either. In addition to ordinary knights, among the nobles there was a group of close associates, royal familiars, advisers, companions at feasts, zhupans (heads of committees), castellans, as well as representatives of prominent magnate families who were still just waiting for their appointment to the position. These people called themselves strenuus miles or strenuus vir, from the 15th century very often used and the title egregius. This group of nobles could be attributed to the middle and higher nobility, and in the sources it is sometimes referred to as proceres. As a rule, they owned 10-25 villages and one castle as a residence and administrative center.

The most numerous stratum of the nobility (about 2/3 of the total number) had one estate and several dependent peasants. For this reason, the vast majority of the nobles led the same way of life as the feudal-dependent peasants, their position was better in the sense that they did not pay taxes to their master. The impoverishment of many noble families was due to the principle of inheritance (aviticitas), which operated in Hungary and according to which all male descendants of the family inherited (not only the eldest son, as was customary in other countries). The complete loss of the estate, this basis of the nobility, meant living under someone else's roof, therefore, falling into the category of non-nobles and living on the land of their master in the position of a worker, in complete dependence on him. The solution to the problem was to become hired soldiers, to trade, to seek fortune in the city, and the like. In the worst case, such impoverished nobles became robbers, as evidenced by the lists of criminals, the so-called proscriptions, compiled at meetings of various committees, where nobles are represented in large numbers.

The greatest opportunities for the petty and middle nobility opened up during the accession to the throne of the new king. In most cases, he first had to win a power struggle with influential magnate families, so he looked for allies and created his own aristocracy devoted to him. This situation developed with the accession of Sigismund of Luxembourg, as well as Matthew Corvinus. Many representatives of the petty nobility and even philistinism then penetrated into the relatively closed layer of the aristocracy; under Matvey Korvin, this path was not closed even for feudal-dependent peasants.

The fifteenth century gave birth (not only in Hungary) to a new type of nobleman, the entrepreneurial nobleman. A good example of such nobility was the Thurzos. Juraj Turzo, a nobleman from Betlanovec in Spis, said goodbye to the lifestyle of a village nobleman and settled in Levoča, where he achieved great success in trade. His son Jan became a businessman and entrepreneur on a European scale. First, he founded a branch of the company in Krakow (he himself became a tradesman from Krakow) and gradually turned it into an international company with branches in Lewoča and Košice. Abroad, he was successfully engaged in new technologies for pumping water from mines, so he received permission for similar activities in Hungary. Over time, Thurzo managed to lease copper mining in the vicinity of Banska Bystrica from the king, he teamed up with the South German banking house of the Fuggers from Augsburg and created the Thurzo-Fugger company, which exported Bansko Bystrica copper to many European countries. But most of the nobles in their way of thinking and lifestyle belonged to the Middle Ages. In that era, one of the attributes of the nobility was still the castle. In addition to the defensive and economic function (ownership of villages and land was associated with the castle), the castle also performed a representative function, served as a symbol of the status of its owner. But only the richest could own the castle, the vast majority of the nobility lived in small castles or in noble estates. The number of castles during the XV century. did not change much, but the number of small castles (castellum - a fortress) and fortresses grew with amazing speed, which was due to the turbulent period of the civil war.

The nobility and the clergy were the two fundamental estates that made decisions about the fate of the country. The hierarchy of the clergy was almost identical to the hierarchy of the nobility, representatives of the upper stratum - prelates, i.e. archbishops and bishops, and rectors of some order communities - almost always came from magnate families (this situation changed only during the reign of Matthew Korvin), the middle stratum - the canons and priests of the profitable parishes actually coincided with the average nobility, and even their way of life was the same. The lowest layer was represented by village priests, chaplains, who often came from families of dependent people or from impoverished nobles.

The third estate, the formation of which began during the 15th century, was the inhabitants of cities. However, their political significance did not match the pace of their evolution. The number of cities grew rapidly during the 15th century, but for the most part they were feudal towns, and they received their privileges through the petitions of their landowners. At the end of the XV century. 90% of all towns and cities were in the hands of the feudal lords. In legal terms, only free royal cities remained cities in the full sense of the word.

The urban population was also differentiated, but it did not reach more or less serious conflicts and struggle for power. The upper layer of the bourgeoisie was a wealthy patriciate - merchants and property owners. The members of the city council and the burgomaster were elected exclusively from their ranks. Craftsmen and small traders made up the middle layer, the very bottom of the urban population consisted of very heterogeneous elements, this included apprentices who were waiting for an opportunity to become masters, servants, day laborers, those whose occupation was considered unworthy (executioners, comedians), as well as marginal elements ( prostitutes, thieves, vagabonds). The number of urban lower classes (plebs) presumably amounted to about 1/3 of the urban population. The fifteenth century was still a period of internal stability in the cities, power was firmly held in the hands of the patriciate, there were no internal struggles and unrest. The exception was probably only inter-ethnic tensions in some cities, due to the dominance of the German patriciate (for example, under 1468, a message was preserved about the rivalry between Slovaks and Germans for the place of burgomaster in Trnava).

The vast majority of the population (as much as 80%) were not free. These were those whose destiny, according to the medieval political doctrine of people of the threefold kind, was to work (people of the threefold kind are those who fight, bellatores,- the nobility, those who pray, oratores,- the clergy and the working people - laboratores). But the category of the dependent population was not homogeneous, in legal terms, they included residents of privately owned towns, as well as the rural population from wealthy peasants to farm laborers who did not have any land ownership. According to studies by Hungarian historians, for every 100 dependents there were 25 laborers, 10 of them had a house, 15 did not have their own housing. The rural population also included servants who worked on the estate of a feudal lord or a more or less prosperous peasant. Among the dependents were also free, who were exempted from paying taxes to the feudal lord - for merits in the master's service, millers of feudal lords, etc.

There was also a significant property stratification between the dependents. Each feudal lord was interested in keeping as many successful dependent people as possible, because each dependent brought him income. Throughout the Middle Ages, the main problem was the lack of population, so the feudal lords tried, on the one hand, to keep their own dependents, on the other hand, to lure residents of other regions to them. Housekeeping by the feudal lord himself, that is, on his own estate, in the 15th century. not yet widespread, the economic activity of the landowner consisted in the fact that he gave the land to his dependents for use on certain conditions. Until the middle of the fifteenth century. dependent peasants had the right to freely move from one feudal lord to another (in those days, amendments to laws sometimes appeared that limited the resettlement of dependents for one year), that is, in case of dissatisfaction with their position, they could, having paid a certain amount, go to where they were more terms acceptable to them. This the circumstance could entail serious economic consequences, especially for low-income nobles. Therefore, disputes between feudal lords over dependent people in that period were one of the most frequent causes for conflicts.

Despite the fact that there were also wealthy peasants - dependent, the majority of the population was forced to get their piece of bread in a hard struggle. The harvest itself, on which the dependent still had to give the obligatory shares of the church and his feudal lord, was not enough to feed the family. Weather conditions, on which medieval man was completely dependent, often left without a harvest and became the cause of general famine. Therefore, the peasants also found other ways to earn a livelihood - they raised livestock, uprooted new lands, on which (if natural conditions allowed) they cultivated grapes, planted orchards or grew vegetables. An important source of food near the rivers was fishing, in the forests - the gifts of the forest, and almost everywhere - hunting. The fact is that the feudal-dependent peasants in Hungary, unlike other countries, until the beginning of the 16th century. (1504) had an unrestricted right to hunt.

So, neither in the structure of the population, nor in the economic and political structure of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 15th century, more or less noticeable changes occurred. Despite the quantitative growth of urban-type settlements, Hungary still remained an agrarian country with relatively underdeveloped trade and crafts. This does not mean that the development process has completely stalled; simply quantitative, let alone qualitative, growth in production was not able to saturate domestic markets (during the 15th century, their network expanded significantly, almost all more or less large settlements and towns had the right to trade). Therefore, exports were minimal, only about 10% of the total foreign trade, while imports accounted for almost 90%. First of all, cattle, sheep, animal skins were exported, after the creation of the Turzo-Fugger company - copper. Wine was also an important export item, in the 15th century. viticulture gained significant momentum. An important role in the production of wine was played by cities (in Slovakia - in the southwestern region: Bratislava, Trnava, Pezinok, Modra, and Kosice in the southeast), which rented vineyards outside their territories. In southwestern Slovakia during this period, about 100 thousand barrels of wine were produced per year, part of the wine was exported (to Poland, the Czech Kingdom and Northern Germany), but most went to the domestic market, because wine was the main drink of the medieval a person (especially in cities - for hygiene reasons, drinking water was rarely used).

Quality handicrafts and luxury items had to be imported into Hungary. These were primarily high-quality cloth and other fabrics, iron products, clerical supplies - parchment and paper, spices and fruits of southern plants. The largest centers of foreign trade throughout the 15th century were the cities of Bratislava and Kosice.

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In later periods, the number of middle strata increases to 20-25% at the expense of the peasantry, which, accordingly, decreases to 80-75%. But the quantitatively increased middle layer undergoes significant stratification. The number of employees is growing significantly. The Middle Ages were distinguished by a very rigid social stratification. The position of a person in medieval society was determined by birth, and it was almost impossible to overcome the barriers of the tribal estate. If there was still a chance of breaking out of the peasant class into artisans, soldiers or monks, then there was no question of getting into the upper stratum. Medieval society practically did not allow mixed marriages. When concluding marriage unions, first of all, the interests of the community, workshop or guild were taken into account. The only opportunity for a commoner to climb higher on the social ladder was a church career, but these were isolated cases. Around 1000, Western literature began to describe Christian society in a three-part scheme that was immediately accepted. "Three people" - priests, warriors, peasants - made up society. The three-part scheme symbolized social harmony. On the one hand, it was designed to consolidate the subordination of the workers to two other classes, on the other hand, it made the soldiers the defenders of the church and religion, thereby subordinating them to the priests. In the late Middle Ages in France, this scheme became the basis for the division into the clergy, the nobility and the third estate. From the second half of the XII century. the tripartite scheme of society collapses and gives way to a more complex and flexible one.

19. Demographic processes in the Middle Ages and modern times: content, social consequences.