Dědici, dědiníci, svobodníci – právněhistorický pohled

Abstract

The paper focuses on the historical development of the free (as opposed to subject) farmers in Bohemia from the High Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period. As the terminology was changing from inheritor (heres, dědic) to freeholder (dědiník) to yeoman (svobodník), their legal status was varying as well. While the number and significance of inheritors declined to the complete end in the mid-14th century, freeholders rose to full recognition as a class a hundred years later. Comparing the primary medieval legal sources, we conclude that freeholders descend largely from impoverished squires, though some may have their origin also among royal servants or villagers disenthralled from serfdom. By the early 17th century, their Czech name “dědiníci” (freeholders) was replaced with “svobodníci” (yeomen).