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

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.

About the Author

Robert Antonín is a professor of medieval history at the Department of History of the Faculty of Arts, the University of Ostrava (Czech Republic), where he has also been the dean since 2018. His long-term research interests focus on the issues of political, social, economic and cultural development of Central Europe during High Middle Ages and on the topics related to the limits of interpretation of (not only) medieval historiography. He is the author of several monographs, including The Ideal Ruler in Medieval Bohemia (2017); numerous research articles on medieval history and the main editor of the collective monograph The Fourth Lateran Council and the Czech Lands in 13th and 14th Centuries (2020).

Jiří Macháček is a professor at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He specialises in medieval archaeology, archaeological methods and computer applications in archaeology. His work has been published in international journals such as the Journal of Archaeological Science , the Journal of World Prehistory , Medieval Archaeology , and the Praehistorische Zeitschrift , as well as by publishing houses including Brill, Leiden-Boston; Habelt, Bonn; and BAR Publishing, Oxford. He studied archaeology at universities in Brno, Bamberg and Vienna. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Bamberg and a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Frankfurt am Main and Göttingen.