12 - From Lordship to Government?

Summary

This chapter surveys the proliferation of different types of advocates from the late thirteenth century onward, not only in the German-speaking lands but also along the Baltic coast. It begins by demonstrating that, despite churches and monasteries’ efforts to buy back their advocacies from local nobles, many church advocacies survived throughout the period 1250 to 1500. It then turns to urban advocates, who were responsible for providing protection and exercising justice in many towns in the German-speaking lands, and territorial advocates, who exercised authority on some large conglomerations of royal and aristocratic estates. The central argument of this chapter is that these new types of advocates should not be understood as officeholders in developing bureaucracies. Although there is evidence of rulers trying to hold these advocates accountable, the sources on their local activities show them pursuing many of the same corrupt practices of justice and protection as advocates of the period before 1250.