Proměny opavsko-krnovské stavovské obce v tereziánském období
Changes of the Opava-Krnov estate community in the Theresian period

Summary/Abstract: The estates municipality of the Opava-Krnov principality existed in the Theresian period in a much more active form than in other Czech Crown Lands, and the local estates enjoyed a certain acceptance of their share of power at a time when absolutism, centralization and bureaucratization were reaching their peak. The gradual loss of the infrastructural power of the estates with reference to the Empress and the princes of Lichtenstein did not become apparent until the 1750s and 1760s in connection with the Empress’s resignation of her objective to regain possession of the whole of Silesia. The princes of Lichtenstein, having adapted the form of provincial administration after the merging of the two principalities, also began to adjust provincial institutions to fit their ideas so that they would be in complete accordance with their interests. This process is illustrated with concrete examples of the development of interest in the situation at a provincial level, and also of the fact that this was an active factor in local events, especially in wartime, when it was necessary to address procedures relating to tax issues and coordinate the requirements of both warring armies. From the second half of the 1750s, the estates municipality was transformed into a more or less formal member of the provincial administration, and with this the involvement of the estates representatives in events at the provincial level and a transformation of the staffing of the estate municipality came about.

• Details
• Contents