The Rural Community in the Estates of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Miechów in the XII–XVIII Centuries – Introductory Remarks

The purpose of this article is to analyze the position of the peasant population in the estates of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher until the collapse of the Polish state in 1795. The development of the order and its territory was possible thanks to numerous endowments, the location of villages under German law and the purchase of villages around Miechów thanks to which the Miechów key, consisting of twenty-six villages, was formed by the 16th century. Its area was dominated by the peasant population, divided into categories ranging from peasants to tenants, with different social and property statuses. Peasants, as subjects of the order and renters of the feudal lord's land, were obliged to pay rents in the form of natural products, victuals and money and from the end of the 14th century serfdom began to be introduced which developed here. Some of the peasantry unable to find their way in the realities of backbreaking labor fled the monastic estates or tried to make their way into other social states (including the noble state) through promotions or marital colligations. The nupturiens most often came from the territory of the land key of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher, but there were cases of marriages with people from outside this area.