Ministerialis (plural ministeriales); a post-classical Latin word, used in English, meaning originally servitor, agent, in a broad range of senses. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States In Germany, in the High Middle Ages, the word and its German translations, Ministeriale(n) and Dienstmann, came to describe those unfree knights who made up a large majority of German knighthood during that time. The High Middle Ages was the period of European history in the 11th 12th and 13th centuries (AD 1000&ndash1299 The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages.
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Origins to 11th century
Ministeriales were at first bondsmen or serfs who were entrusted with special responsibilities by their overlords, such as the management of a farm, administration of finances (chancery) or of various possessions. From the 11th century the term came to denote functionaries living as members of the knightly class with either a lordship of their own or one delegated from a higher lord as well as some political influence (inter alia the exercise of offices at court).
11th–12th centuries
As the need for such service functions became more acute, (as for example during the Investiture Controversy) and their duties and privileges, at first nebulous, became more clearly defined, the ministeriales developed in the Salian period (1024–1125) into a new and much differentiated class. The Investiture Controversy or Investiture Contest was an 11th century dispute between Henry IV Holy Roman Emperor and Pope Gregory VII over See also Salian Franks, Salic law The Salian dynasty was a Dynasty in the High Middle Ages of four German Kings (1024-1125 They received fiefs, which to begin with were not heritable, in return for which they provided knightly services. Under the system of Feudalism, a fiefdom, fief, feud, feoff, or fee, often consisted of inheritable lands or revenue-producing They were also allowed to possess, and often did hold, allods. Allodial title is a concept in some systems of property law It describes a situation where Real property ( Land, Buildings and Fixtures) is owned
From the reign of Conrad II (1024–1039) they were employed as stewards (Vögte), castellans (Burggrafen) and judges in the administration of the imperial territories, and in the lay principalities. Conrad II (c 990&ndash June 4, 1039) was the son of a mid-level nobleman in Franconia, Count Henry of Speyer and Adelaide of Alsace who inherited A burgrave is a Count of a castle or fortified town The English form is derived through the French from the German Burg Graf As Imperial ministeriales (Reichsministerialen) they upheld the Salian, and particularly the Hohenstaufen, imperial polity. See also Salian Franks, Salic law The Salian dynasty was a Dynasty in the High Middle Ages of four German Kings (1024-1125
Over the course of the 13th century their status was slowly assimilated to that of the free nobility, or vassals. A vassal (also called feodary or fedary) in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudalism of Medieval Europe, The remaining traces of the taint of servility gradually faded, and the "fiefs for service" turned into proper hereditable fiefs, partly also because impoverished free nobles, while reserving their personal free status, voluntarily became ministeriales.
13th century onwards
By the 13th and 14th centuries the ministeriales formed an intrinsic part of the lower nobility, and in the 15th century formed the core of the knightly class (Ritterstand).
References
- Arnold, Benjamin, 1985. German Knighthood 1050–1300. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
This article is based on that in the German Wikipedia
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