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SOCRESTA - Social Relations and the State in Renaissance Germany

@socresta.bsky.social

SOCRESTA - Social Relations and the State in Renaissance Germany: Feud and the Law in the Prince-bishopric of Würzburg, 1500-1600. MSCA grant no. 101201419, funded by the European Union (2025-7). #earlymodern Fellow @omandrziga.bsky.social at @york.ac.uk

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SOCRESTA - Social Relations and the State in Renaissance Germany @socresta.bsky.social · 16h

Four weeks, seventy archival documents (single folios to thick registers), and some 5,600 photos later, it is time to start writing. Danke und tschüß vorerst, Kitzingen!

Brick path leading to a building, with young trees on the left and flowerbeds on the right. In front stands a sign with the Bavarian coat of arms (blue-white diagonal checkers under a yellow crown) and the inscription Staatsarchiv or State Archives Kitzingen, with the address Deuster-Park 1.

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SOCRESTA - Social Relations and the State in Renaissance Germany @socresta.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

When archives move, historians follow. Happy to be reunited with my sources, now that their residence has finished its long migration from Würzburg to Kitzingen. Let’s see for how long I’ll have the reading room practically all to myself.

A path leads to a building in the distance under overcast skies. Various plants grow on either side of the path, on its left a street lamp and an wiry outdoor art installation.

A wall of light grey brick with the inscription Staatsarchiv Kitzingen (State Archives Kitzingen).

A reading room with several desks. Trees and cloudy skies can be seen through the large windows. A sixteenth-century register lies on the desk in front.

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SOCRESTA - Social Relations and the State in Renaissance Germany @socresta.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Very happy to have participated at this conference and grateful for the feedback on my paper, which made me rethink an important aspect of pardoning feuds. More on that in a future post.

Man with glasses reading a paper at a conference next to a monitor with slides.

Man presenting a paper at a conference, with slides on the monitor. Several peasants are fighting with swords on the copperplate engraving on the slide.

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SOCRESTA - Social Relations and the State in Renaissance Germany @socresta.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

While there was a steady overall decline of these remissions in the 1500s, and they stopped after Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn was elected prince-bishop in 1573, contrary to entrenched belief the practice itself weathered both the Peasants’ War and the civil wars of the 1540s and ‘50s. (2/3)

Graph showing the decline in the average annual number of remissions (pardons) for feuding per decade in the Prince-bishopric of Wurzburg in the 1500s.

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SOCRESTA - Social Relations and the State in Renaissance Germany @socresta.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

The Würzburg data provides the thus far richest proof that plebeian feuds (Fehden) and their mediation by the state continued well after the practice was banned in the Holy Roman Empire in 1495, as is demonstrated by princely remissions (Landshuldung) or ‘pardons’ for feuding. (1/3)

Graph showing the number of remissions (pardons) for feuding in the Prince-bishopric of Wurzburg in the 1500s.

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