The Territorial Aristocracies

This chapter looks into the political culture of landed aristocracy and explores how it changed over time following the advent of the princely state. The discipline imposed by the prince on the nobles involved, at least in principle, burdensome renunciations, which included the abandonment of all those aspects of noble culture incompatible with the culture of the principality, starting with ius ad bellum, the right to carry weapons freely, the possession of castra (fortresses of various sizes) and fortalices, with associated government prerogatives, ritual violence, and so on, none of which rights were acknowledged by the prince. This gave rise to tension and conflict.