Drogi i bezdroża średniozamożnej szlachty do stanu magnackiego. Wewnątrzrodzinne uwarunkowania awansu w czasach wczesnonowożytnych

Abstract

In the hitherto scholarly debate on the ways gentry had be en promoted to the highest circles of the Polish social elite, the background of the individual, the size of his estates, war merits, the influence of his protectors, and above all, royal favours have been emphasized. AlI the above-mentioned factors can be considered external with regard to the person aspiring to be promoted, although they did resalt from his political choices, range of activity or determination to succeed. There was, however, the other side of the problem, on which the individual had limited influence or even was deprived ofit entirely. These were inborn traits of his character as wen as his family environment, which conditioned the start of a man into an independent adalt life. The personal qualifications of promoted individuals, their character traits, outward appearance, eloquence or health have not be en secured sufficient place in historiography so far. Similarly, there has almost been no reflection in the literature on the subject of the family environment, which significantly determined the individual's promotion possibilities. In the present study, which only signals the issues, a number of source examples of personal circumstances are cited, such as greater or lesser disability (blindness, deafness, mental or physical handicap), which can be described as subjective, as wen as the family situation, which from the point of view of the individual could be considered objective. The latter category includes the longevity of fathers, which often hampered the good start in life of their sons, the quality of economic behaviour, displayed, among others, in the manner family estates were divided, as wen as the sheer number of men and women in each new generation of the family. The marital policy and the quality of relations between individual family members were important objective aspects too. In summary, the individual's career and lasting social advancement of the family could have taken place only when the favourable external factors, the most important of which was the monarch's favour, co-occurred with internal one s that guaranteed harmonious family life, mutual solidarity and rational management of inherited and acquired estates. For obvious reasons, however, the advantageous psychophysical features of the individual lay at the foundation of the individual careers too.