by Duke Vladislav II to the church of Olomouc ca. 1146–48. The laymen listed, not including Přemyslids, are as follows: “Comes Drslav, Miroslav, Časta, Soběslavec, Conrad dapifer, Budislav pincerna, Ruprecht, Beneš, Svojša, Slava with his son Braniš, Zbraslav, Bavor, Střežimír, Mstihněv, Marquard of Doubrava, Budiš, Zaviše, Načaz, Jurík agazo, Bun with his brothers Přibran and Bicen, Němoj, Jarohněv, Chválek, Vecel, Hrděbor, Olen, Zvejs-lav, William, Vacek, Jarohněv of Žatec, Velislav son of Peter.”63 This group of names, the same in both charters, is the only witness list for another dozen years.64 All the witnesses are men; some are listed with their titles, several stand with their relatives, a few have explicitly German names, two are distinguished by a place designation and another by a patronymic. Jarohněv was probably castellan of Žatec, though the inclusion of de Satc seems chiefly to distinguish him from the other man of that name present. Men from these charters appear in the later documents as well: in 1159, Načaz was castellan of Prague, Chválek castellan Vadicensis, Zvejslav castellan of Hradec, Zaviše castellan of Sedlec, Vecel pincerna, and Marquard chamberlain.65 By 1160, Drslav had become castellan of Plzeň.66 Though one Henry held the position in 1159, Jarohněv is named as castellan of Žatec again in 1160 and 1165.67 Marquard “of Doubrava” remained among the most prominent magnates at Vladislav’s court, and his sons feature in witness lists throughout the twelfth century. This earliest witness list and those that follow provide dramatically different information than the chronicles do, for they show these men in groups, ranked perhaps in some order, sometimes with place or patronymic designations, and occasionally bearing the titles associated with their ever-shifting appointments to court offices and castellanies.
TABLE 2. SOBĚSLAV II’s OFFICERS
| February 1177 (CDB no. 279) | |
| Zdeslav | chamberlain |
| Vítek | dapifer |
| Dluhomil | pincerna |
| Hermann | marscalcus |
| Čéč | judge |
| Jarohněv | castellan of Žatec |
| Sežima | castellan of Plzeň |
| Blah | castellan of Litoměřice |
| Rivin | castellan of Kladsko |
| (and others) | |
| March 1177 (CDB no. 280) | |
| Zdeslav | castellan of Žatec |
| Blah | castellan of Litoměřice |
| Sežima | comes of Bílina |
| Dluhomil | marscalcus |
| Vítek | castellan of Kladsko |
| Čéč | judge |
| Hermann | chamberlain |
| Stephen | pincerna |
| (and others) |
Among other things, the witness lists conclusively demonstrate the rotation of castellans and court officers among various high-level posts. The most dramatic evidence comes from two charters expressly dated to February and March 1177, which reveal a shuffle among Soběslav II’s officers in the space of a month, although the chroniclers give no indication that these were weeks of particular turmoil (Table 2). The list and titles given in the first charter, on the whole, accord with an earlier document of Soběslav’s from 1175, except that Hermann was there agazo.68 In the late winter of 1177, however, Hermann was promoted from marscalcus to chamberlain and Dluhomil from pincerna to marscalcus, while an apparent newcomer, Stephen, became pincerna. Two men moved from court to castellany: Vítek, from dapifer to Kladsko on the Polish border, and Zdeslav, from the office of chamberlain to Žatec. Sežima was transferred from Plzeň to Bílina. Neither Rivin nor Jarohněv appears in the second document, and the posts they held at Žatec and Kladsko have been reallocated.69 The two may have died, “retired,” or fallen permanently from favor; for all we know, these events may even have initiated the rotation. Not every office experienced a turnover: Čéč remained court judge and Blah retained Litoměřice.
One of the preeminent administrative posts in Bohemia, without any doubt, was that of duke’s chamberlain; like all other offices, it was filled on a temporary basis. King Vladislav had four chamberlains in ten years: in 1159, Marquard; in 1160, Němoj; by 1165, Stibor, promoted from castellan of Bautzen;70 and by 1169, Bohuslav.71 Adding the chamberlains of his successors shows a small group of prominent magnates dominating the office, but still rotating in and out. Zdeslav was Soběslav II’s chamberlain, although Hermann, son of Marquard, held the post in March 1177.72 Frederick had three: Hrabiše, Hroznata the “Curly-Haired,” and Lothar, with Hrabiše appointed again at the end of his reign.73 Hermann, son of Marquard, returned to the position under Conrad Otto in 1189.74 After him, Hrabiše was reappointed, serving from 1192 through 1197 under both Duke Přemysl and Duke/Bishop Henry.75 Some correspondence patently existed between turnover among chamberlains and a change on the ducal throne. Mentioned for the first time by Cosmas (concerning the year 1088), ducal chamberlains had existed well before the later twelfth century; yet, as with castellans, their precise duties remain obscure.76 The chronicler’s remarks concerning the duke’s camera invariably involve sums of money, yet the privilege granted the Prague Germans ca. 1174 indicates a judicial function for the camerarius.77
These charters from the second half of the twelfth century provide the first indication of the organization of offices at the duke’s court; not only chamberlains and chancellors appear but, as we have seen, men bearing the titles dapifer, pincerna, and agazo. The nature of these offices, traditionally translated “seneschal,” “butler,” and “footman,” remains altogether obscure (and for this reason are here given consistently in the Latin). They may have been merely honorary titles, or ones superficially adopted from foreign courts. Although the shift in documentation, whereby witness lists are recorded in charters, may account for the apparent innovation of these court offices, it may also be that Vladislav, during his long reign as duke and then king, reorganized the court: the first references to a chancellor, as well as pincerna, dapifer, and agazo, and especially the “court judge” (iudex curie) appear under his rule.78 The first chancellor named, Bartholomew, also appears at this time; while no charter mentions his name, Vincent reports that he died in 1147.79 Certainly, by the late twelfth century, both the ruler’s wife and the bishop of Prague adopted a similar court organization.80 Queen Judith, for instance, sent her “highest chamberlain,” Sežima, to escort her granddaughter for marriage to the grandson of the Byzantine emperor, in 1165. Ultimately, we simply do not know what it meant for a man to be, for instance, the “seneschal” or, literally, “plate-bearer” of the duke of Bohemia.
The witness lists provide evidence concerning the constitution of the duke’s court and about the nature of office-holding among leading freemen, but may also be analyzed as a corpus for more general patterns.
