Abstract
The article inquires into selected chapters from the late medieval history of the town Prachatice. It deals especially with the unclear legal status of the town and with the issue of its promotion to the royal town in 1436 by the Czech king Zikmund of Luxembourg and its subsequent pawnings in the 15th century.
It is a question that has not been sufficiently reflected in literature yet and there is also no agreement whether Prachatice was a royal pawned town or a liege town during the 15th century. The legal status of the town was also complicated because of the persisting relations to its original pre-war owner, the Vyšehrad Chapter.
This problem leads to lately discussed issues of the pawnings of the church property during and after the Hussite Wars. Pawnings of the church property represented a significant component of the financial policy of the Czech king Zikmund of Luxembourg.
The aim of this paper is to clarify the complicated legal status of the town Prachatice with regard to the above mentioned factors. Revised and detailed summary of the holders of Prachatice during the 15th century is also integral to this article.