Heritability of Silesian Principalities in the Female Line in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period
2022
Abstract
In the 14th century, Silesia became one of the lands of the Bohemian Crown. In reality, however, it was a collection of small duchies whose rulers recognised the sovereignty of the Bohemian kings.
In the event of the extinction of the ruling family, its land was forfeited to the king and the fiefdom became an immediate duchy. This study aims to address the question of the extent to which Silesian dukedoms were hereditary in the female line.
To this end, individual specific cases in which this question was solved in the 14th-17th centuries are collected and these are then comprehensively evaluated.