Urban Governance and the Conduct of Civic Violence in Silesia, Poland, and Prussia, 1300 – 1500

This thesis investigates the causes and conduct of violent conflicts in the urban communes of Silesia, Poland, and Prussia and their significance for civic governance during the later middle ages. The thesis compares various examples of civic conflicts from across the three regions to consider (1) what variables led individuals and groups involved in urban politics to turn to violent strategies, (2) what types of factions, interest groups, or coalitions were more likely to use violent means to pursue their aims, and (3) how various episodes of collective violence unfolded, whether as planned conspiracies or spontaneous riots. The first chapter discusses the legal structures and governing systems of towns in Silesia, Poland, and Prussia. The second chapter pays special attention to the management of guilds and laws affecting craftsmen’s capacity for political violence, demonstrating that the guilds’ ability to pursue violent strategies was heavily circumscribed. The third chapter identifies the issues – including political legitimacy, representation, taxation, and security – that led various groups of urban citizens to challenge governing authorities and discusses the generally peaceful strategies they adopted when pursuing these objectives. The fourth chapter focuses on the actors who took on leading roles within insurgent citizen movements, often elite urban residents or privileged citizens, and the organisational and communicative infrastructures they wielded in pursuit of anti-council actions. The fifth chapter considers the particular circumstances that led to the outbreak of collective violence within an urban commune and the relation of such violence to political conflicts. The sixth chapter discusses how lords would respond to intraurban conflicts in their subject communes and how such responses could alternately suppress intracommunal tensions or fuel them further. The seventh chapter presents a case study of how particular urban elites and interest groups fuelled political confrontations in mid-fifteenth-century Wrocław. The final chapter draws upon cases of extramural civic violence, especially political murder, to further consider the capacities of urban elites to implement violent strategies and the significance of violence by and against urban elites for communal memory. Across many of these chapters, the thesis compares the role and mechanisms of civic violence in Silesia, Poland, and Prussia with other cases from Central and Western Europe.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Banach, Stanislaw

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Berend, Nora

• 14th-15th centuries
• middle ages
• Poland
• Prussia
• revolt
• Silesia
• urban history
• violence

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/a41d7d95-9bad-4809-832d-ba1426a92c42/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.130066

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/402836