Prūsijos dvarai Žemaitijos pasienyje 1540 m.

LTXV a. 2-ajame dešimtmetyje - XVI a. viduryje Prūsijos dvarų formavimasis suteiktų valdų pagrindu Žemaitijos pasienyje vyko visuomenės virsmo iš nuolat pasiruošusios karui į dirbančios rinkai metu. Jį veikė naujos vertybinės nuostatos. Geopolitinės aplinkybės lėmė lėtą 4-5 kartas trukusią raidą ir laipsnišką jų priėmimą. Posūkis į valstybės sekuliarizaciją ir reformaciją šiam procesui suteikė naujų postūmių. Žemvaldžių santykius su korporatyviu siuzerenu Vokiečių ordinu per šios struktūros atstovus pakeitė desioginis ir asmeninis priesaika sutvirtintas ryšys su konkrečiu valdovu - Prūsijos kunigaikščiu. Toks ryšys išlaisvino asmeninę žemvaldžių iniciatyvą, atvėrė didesnes tarnybos valdovui galimybes. Kartu buvo pradėtos brėžti naujos pavaldinių atsakomybės, iniciatyvos, pasirinkimo laisvės ribos. Šio monografijos skyriaus tikslas - nagrinėjant valdų transformacijos į dvarus problematiką apčiuopti esmines pasienio visuomenės gyvenimo pokyčių tendencijas. [Iš teksto, p. 198]

ENResearch into the transformation of land holdings into manorial estates help us to understand the basic tendencies in transformations of Prussian social life along the border with Žemaitija. It also offers us the opportunity to see how far this process was similar to, or different from developments in the borderlands of the neighbouring Grand Duchy of Lithuania - western Žemaitija. Between the second decade of the fifteenth century and the middle of the sixteenth century the formation of manors in Prussia on the basis of lands granted by the central authorities meant that society along the border with Žemaitija transformed from one constandy ready for war to one which laboured for the market during new times of peace. New ideas and practices spread more slowly in the north-eastern borderlands of the Teutonic Ordensstaat than in the more densely populated southern and western areas of the country, which had been colonised earlier. The land charters issued in the Com-mandery of Memel (Klaipėda) do not mention the landowners' right to hold a small or a great court. In texts emanating from the Teutonic Order's Ragnit Commandery and the area around Tilsit prevalent mention is made of military duties according to 'local custom'. This meant that when the Order's brethren demanded, landowners were to provide war horses and weapons (shields, helmets, armour), build new 'houses' (casdes) or repair or demolish old ones. A similar tendency is to be seen in the writs of the Insterburg Commandery, but here from the fifteenth century another tendency emerged, namely that in return for rnilitary service much larger land-holdings and even small casdes were entrusted to noblemen. Charters mention the landholder's right to hold great and small courts, Strassengerichte, and sometimes they even name the people who were subject to such courts. War influenced the ways in which manor estates formed in this region.Along the Samland border with Žemaitija the oldest manors formed further away from areas that were open to attack and closer to central Samland. For many a year landholders had to contend still with proximity to the poorly-controlled, sparsely-populated Wildnis with its fluctuating inhabitants. The Turkensteuer (Turkish Levy) records from between 1539 and 1562 show just how slowly the Teutonic Ordensstaat was transformed into the secular Duchy of Prussia. In the middle of the sixteenth century the social and economic organisation of the border Amte (districts) still reflected ways of life inherited from earlier times alongside the rudiments of new tendencies. The process of forming large landholdings along the Žemaitijan border was hindered not only by the threat of military conflict but also the internal policy of the Teutonic Order. The Order preferred to setde along the border those loyal farmers who were more able to work new land and perform military service rather than privileged, less dependent landowners, who enjoyed tax relief. As the significance of hired soldiers increased, the need for local cavalry decreased, even as the costs of maintaining an army rose. For a while the status quo was frozen by a shortage of funds, attempts to squeeze out more income by the usual methods and the aim of relying on self-maintaining conscripts to defend the border with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1540 barely 25 chartered landowners (noblemen, high freemen) who had built a manor estate were recorded in the Amte which bordered on Žemaitija. Before then there were even fewer such men. The new impetus for estate-building came from the state's turn towards secularisation and the Reformation. New value requirements led to social change. However, geo-political circumstances determined a slower acceptance of these new values which took several generations to take root.The landowners' relations with a corporate suzerain, the Teutonic Order, mediated via the representatives of this structure, were replaced by a personal oath-bound connection with a specific ruler, the duke of Prussia. Such a connection liberated the landowners' personal initiative and opened up the prospects of greater service to the ruler. At the same time new boundaries began to be drafted for the responsibilities, initiatives and freedom of choice of the duke's subjects. The majority of the privileged landowners along the Zemaitijan border had been connected with the Teutonic Ordensstaat but they extended their estates and influence after they took the side of the duke of Prussia. Service and family connections held these landowners together. The taxed property (their herds, arable land, farmland or appurtenances) of only a few of them was much larger than that of the larger farmers. Not all estate-builders owned peasants or bondsmen dependent on their person. The wealth of some of them was equal to the property of a large farmer. It was not size or production level which determined whether landholdings were transformed into a manorial estate, but the land's legal status and its owner's personal relationship with the ruler, be that the Teutonic Order or the duke of Prussia. The Teutonic Order's structure stood between the Order's representative, the grand master, and its/his subjects. This structure limited subjects' initiative at local level where the will of the Commandery's administrators was unconditional, as summed up in the motto: irWir sint euer recht' ("We are your law"). When an oath was sworn to the duke in the secularised state a mutual relationship was established and the way to opportunities was opened in the ducal service. Rights, service, loyalty and usefulness to the secular ruler became a condition for estate-creation in this duchy. [From the publication p. 323-325]