Szlachta duńska i jej państwo

Abstract

Three major elements have been taken into consideration in this paper, which analyses the form of Danish nobility's position and power in the period of adelsveldet (nobility's reign) in the 16th and 17th centuries. The first element is the legal and political status of noblemen, based mainly on the regulations and privileges included in Haandfestning (electoral capitulation), the supreme position of the Realm's Council and the nobility's monopoly in admission to the local administration. The ideological justification came from the ideas of the Royal Council Constitutionalism (rigsraadkonstitutionalisme). The second problem which is presented in the paper is the shape of noble estate, its inner divisions with its most peculiar characteristic: the evolution of the whole group toward aristocracy dominating the power and wealth in the country. The third aspect is the transformation of the nobility after the introduction of absolutism: the loss of political privileges and the process of forming noblesse de robe, which gradually replaeed the hereditary nobility as the king's close eo-worker and became - together with the non-noble civil servants (including pastors) - the pillar of Danish absolutist state.