Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Status symbols of the ruling elite in the early Middle AgesThe image of Polish nobility as pictured by Gallus Anonymous in his chronicle, contains the fundamental elements that make up a set of determinants of the elite position in the early Middle Ages suggested by British historian Chris Wickham.There is wealth, including the disposal of landed property, noble origins, the exercise of offices, Königsnähe (closeness to the king), and competences, understood as a powerful set of attributes attributed by Gallus to the shakers and movers, such as reason or courage.There is also ostentation, e.g. the display of wealth described by the chronicler when during meetings, the monarch distributed gifts among the powerful, or the consumption of luxury goods.The same is true of the need for recognition of the elite position by other privileged, as emphasised by Wickham.Therefore, the chronicler's account bears traces of more than just legal privileges of the nobility.It is extremely difficult to identify the extent to which the image of Polish nobility and their complex relations with the princes, as covered in the sources, especially Gallus' chronicle, was affected by the literary topos or the authors' own ideas, and to what extent it referred to the social and political reality of the Piast monarchy of the early Middle Ages, or to the views and perceptions of the participants in the events they described.
Source: Historia Slavorum Occidentis
DOI: 10.15804/hso250105
Author: Zbigniew Dalewski
Institution: Polish Academy of Sciences
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409248113
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