Vogt
Encyclopedia
A Vogt; plural Vögte; Dutch
(land)voogd; Danish
foged; ; ultimately from Latin
[ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire
was the German title of a reeve
or advocate, an overlord (mostly of nobility
) exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice (Blutgericht
) over a certain territory. The territory or area of responsibility of a Vogt is called a Vogtei (from [ad]vocatia).
reeve
or bailiff
— to the very elevated. At the upper end of its social range the office of Vogt was frequently held by noble and princely families in relation to ecclesiastical territories, a position which such families often exploited to their own advantage, and it is in this connection that it is most commonly referred to.
The concept of the Vogt was related to the Old German
idea of the Munt, or guardian, but also included some ideas of physical defence and legal representation (whence the connection with advocatus
or advocate).
From the time of Charlemagne
, who had such officials appointed in ecclesiastical territories not directly under the control of his counts, the Vogt was a state functionary representing ecclesiastical dignitaries (such as bishops and abbots) or institutions in secular matters, and particularly before secular courts. Such representatives had been assigned to the church since late antiquity, as it was not supposed to act for itself in worldly affairs. Therefore, in areas such as the territories of abbeys and bishoprics, which by virtue of their ecclesiastical status were free (or immune) from the secular government of the local count (Graf
, in origin an administrative official in charge of a territory and reporting to the emperor), the Vogt fulfilled the function of a protective lordship, generally commanding the military contingents of such areas (Schirmvogtei). Beyond that, he administered the high justice instead of the count from the Vogt court (Vogtgericht or Blutgericht
).
s.
) the proprietor himself often also held the office of Vogt, frequently retaining it after reform of the propietorship (see also Lay abbot
).
The three-way struggle for control of the Vogtei of the more important abbacies, played out among the central monarchy, the Church and the territorial nobility, was pretty well established as a prorogative of the nobility; the Hirsau formulary
(1075) confirmed count Adalbert of Calw as hereditary advocate of the Abbey, an agreement so widely copied elsewhere in Germany that from the tenth century the office developed into an hereditary possession of the higher nobility, who frequently exploited it as a way of extending their power and territories, and in some cases took for themselves the estates and assets of the church bodies for whose protection they were supposedly responsible. In Austria, the teaching of the Church that, according to canon law
individuals were prohibited from exercising authority over Church property, was only with reluctance accepted by the nobles. The rights of advocacy were bought back by the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century abbeys in alliance with the Babenberg and early Habsburg dukes; the abolition of the Vogtei (Entvogtung) thereby exchanged local secular jurisdiction for the protective overlordship of the duke of Austria, sometimes by forging charters that the duke confirmed.
. When the imperial cities gained more independence, the office was split into city vogt (Stadtvogt) for the cities and land vogt (Landvogt) for other areas. The offices of city vogts were usually bought by the imperial cities by the late Middle Ages, which led to the independence of the cities. Most land vogt offices became meaningless as the amount of royal property was reduced more and more in favor of territorial rulers (such as dukes and counts).
The land vogt office of the Alsace
, consisting of the ten imperial cities of the Décapole
, was ceded to the king of France in 1648, but the cities remained part of the Holy Roman Empire. However, the cities were soon thereafter annexed by France.
Several small land vogts continued to exist until the end of the Empire in 1806, mainly in the Swabian Circle
.
in 1415. A Landvogt ruled a Landvogtei, either representing a sovereign canton, or acting on behalf of the Confederacy, or a subset thereof, administering a condominium (Gemeine Herrschaft) shared between several cantons. In the case of condominiums, the cantons took turns in appointing a Landvogt for a period of two years.
In exceptional cases, the population of the Landvogtei was allowed to elect their own Landvogt. This concerned Oberhasli
in particular, which was nominally a subject territory of Berne
, but enjoyed a special status as a military ally. The office of Landvogt was abolished in 1798, with the foundation of the Helvetic Republic
.
throughout the Middle Ages, is without close parallel. There is no single equivalent in English history. The office of reeve
was much the same at a village or peasant level, and in other contexts the roles of sheriff
, bailiff
, seneschal
and castellan
of course included similar elements. In France, the office of vidame
, the temporal administrator for certain bishoprics, showed some connection. The most frequent translations in that connection are either advocate or lord protector.
the title of Wójt was used to denote hereditary heads of towns (under the overlordship of the town's owner - the King, the Church or a nobleman). Today Wójt denotes the elected mayor of a rural commune (gmina
), i.e. one consisting only of villages (mayors of towns and cities take different titles).
the word vogt carries different connotations, all pertaining to guarding or keeping watch over something. In modern Danish
law, the fogedret (vogt court) administers the forcible enforcement and execution of judgments or other valid legal claims.
(distrainer
) is called kihlakunnanvouti, where kihlakunta is a local judicial district. Their duty is to enforce the financial judgements of the local courts. In practice, the vouti leads a team of assistant distrainers who process most distrainments/garnishment
s.
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
(land)voogd; Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
foged; ; ultimately from Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
[ad]vocatus) in the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
was the German title of a reeve
Reeve
Reeve may refer to:*High-reeve, a title taken by some English magnates during the 10th and 11th centuries*Reeve , an official elected annually by the serfs to supervise lands for a lord*Reeve , an elected chief executive in counties...
or advocate, an overlord (mostly of nobility
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
) exerting guardianship or military protection as well as secular justice (Blutgericht
Blutgericht
Blood Court or high justice in the Holy Roman Empire referred to the right of a Vogt to hold a criminal court inflicting bodily punishment, including the death penalty.Not every Vogt held the blood court...
) over a certain territory. The territory or area of responsibility of a Vogt is called a Vogtei (from [ad]vocatia).
Frankish Empire
The range of social status and degrees of responsibility of persons so titled varied greatly, from the humble — the equivalents of the EnglishEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
reeve
Reeve (England)
Originally in Anglo-Saxon England the reeve was a senior official with local responsibilities under the Crown e.g. as the chief magistrate of a town or district...
or bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
— to the very elevated. At the upper end of its social range the office of Vogt was frequently held by noble and princely families in relation to ecclesiastical territories, a position which such families often exploited to their own advantage, and it is in this connection that it is most commonly referred to.
The concept of the Vogt was related to the Old German
Old German
Old German usually refers to Old High German, but it could also refer to:*Old Low German *Altdeutsche Tracht , a dress style popular among early 19th century German radicals...
idea of the Munt, or guardian, but also included some ideas of physical defence and legal representation (whence the connection with advocatus
Advocatus
An advocatus, or advocate, was generally a medieval term meaning "lawyer". The term was also used in continental Europe as the title of the lay lord charged with the protection and representation in secular matters of an abbey, known more fully as an advocatus ecclesiae.-Middle Ages:The office is...
or advocate).
From the time of Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
, who had such officials appointed in ecclesiastical territories not directly under the control of his counts, the Vogt was a state functionary representing ecclesiastical dignitaries (such as bishops and abbots) or institutions in secular matters, and particularly before secular courts. Such representatives had been assigned to the church since late antiquity, as it was not supposed to act for itself in worldly affairs. Therefore, in areas such as the territories of abbeys and bishoprics, which by virtue of their ecclesiastical status were free (or immune) from the secular government of the local count (Graf
Graf
Graf is a historical German noble title equal in rank to a count or a British earl...
, in origin an administrative official in charge of a territory and reporting to the emperor), the Vogt fulfilled the function of a protective lordship, generally commanding the military contingents of such areas (Schirmvogtei). Beyond that, he administered the high justice instead of the count from the Vogt court (Vogtgericht or Blutgericht
Blutgericht
Blood Court or high justice in the Holy Roman Empire referred to the right of a Vogt to hold a criminal court inflicting bodily punishment, including the death penalty.Not every Vogt held the blood court...
).
Holy Roman Empire
In the German-ruled Holy Roman Empire, the term Vogt can refer to two different offices: church vogt or imperial vogt. Imperial vogts are further subdivided into land vogts and city vogts. In addition, the term vogt was used for administrative officers of territorial rulers, such as bailiffBailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
s.
Church vogt
In private and family monasteries (see proprietary churchProprietary church
During the Middle Ages, the proprietary church was a church, abbey or cloister built on private ground by a feudal lord, over which he retained proprietary interests, especially the right of what in English law is "advowson", that of nominating the ecclesiastic personnel...
) the proprietor himself often also held the office of Vogt, frequently retaining it after reform of the propietorship (see also Lay abbot
Lay abbot
Lay abbot is a name used to designate a layman on whom a king or someone in authority bestowed an abbey as a reward for services rendered; he had charge of the estate belonging to it, and was entitled to part of the income.This custom existed principally in the Frankish Empire from the eighth...
).
The three-way struggle for control of the Vogtei of the more important abbacies, played out among the central monarchy, the Church and the territorial nobility, was pretty well established as a prorogative of the nobility; the Hirsau formulary
Hirsau Abbey
Hirsau Abbey, formerly known as Hirschau Abbey, was once one of the most prominent Benedictine abbeys of Germany. It was located in the town of Hirsau, in the Diocese of Speyer, near Calw in the present Baden-Württemberg.-History:...
(1075) confirmed count Adalbert of Calw as hereditary advocate of the Abbey, an agreement so widely copied elsewhere in Germany that from the tenth century the office developed into an hereditary possession of the higher nobility, who frequently exploited it as a way of extending their power and territories, and in some cases took for themselves the estates and assets of the church bodies for whose protection they were supposedly responsible. In Austria, the teaching of the Church that, according to canon law
Canon law
Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
individuals were prohibited from exercising authority over Church property, was only with reluctance accepted by the nobles. The rights of advocacy were bought back by the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century abbeys in alliance with the Babenberg and early Habsburg dukes; the abolition of the Vogtei (Entvogtung) thereby exchanged local secular jurisdiction for the protective overlordship of the duke of Austria, sometimes by forging charters that the duke confirmed.
Imperial vogt
An imperial vogt (Reichsvogt) was an officer of the king, who served as administrator and judge of a subdivision of royal property, or of a royal abbey. The seat of an imperial vogt was often at an imperial cityImperial City
-Places:* Imperial City, Beijing, the central section of Beijing* Imperial City , a walled fortress and palace in the former capital of Vietnam.* Free imperial city, city formally responsible only to the emperor in the Holy Roman Empire,....
. When the imperial cities gained more independence, the office was split into city vogt (Stadtvogt) for the cities and land vogt (Landvogt) for other areas. The offices of city vogts were usually bought by the imperial cities by the late Middle Ages, which led to the independence of the cities. Most land vogt offices became meaningless as the amount of royal property was reduced more and more in favor of territorial rulers (such as dukes and counts).
The land vogt office of the Alsace
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
, consisting of the ten imperial cities of the Décapole
Décapole
The Décapole was an alliance formed in 1354 by ten Imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire in the Alsace region to maintain their rights, it was disbanded in 1679....
, was ceded to the king of France in 1648, but the cities remained part of the Holy Roman Empire. However, the cities were soon thereafter annexed by France.
Several small land vogts continued to exist until the end of the Empire in 1806, mainly in the Swabian Circle
Swabian Circle
The Swabian Circle was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1500 on the territory of the former German stem-duchy of Swabia. However, it did not include the Habsburg home territories of Swabian Austria, the member states of the Swiss Confederacy nor the lands of the Alsace...
.
Old Swiss Confederacy
The title of Landvogt appears in the Old Swiss ConfederacyOld Swiss Confederacy
The Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day Switzerland....
in 1415. A Landvogt ruled a Landvogtei, either representing a sovereign canton, or acting on behalf of the Confederacy, or a subset thereof, administering a condominium (Gemeine Herrschaft) shared between several cantons. In the case of condominiums, the cantons took turns in appointing a Landvogt for a period of two years.
In exceptional cases, the population of the Landvogtei was allowed to elect their own Landvogt. This concerned Oberhasli
Oberhasli
Oberhasli may refer to:* Oberhasli, a historical region in the Bernese Oberland in the canton of Berne, Switzerland* Oberhasli District, a former district* Oberhasli , a breed of goat named after the Bernese district...
in particular, which was nominally a subject territory of Berne
Berne
The city of Bern or Berne is the Bundesstadt of Switzerland, and, with a population of , the fourth most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 43 municipalities, has a population of 349,000. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000...
, but enjoyed a special status as a military ally. The office of Landvogt was abolished in 1798, with the foundation of the Helvetic Republic
Helvetic Republic
In Swiss history, the Helvetic Republic represented an early attempt to impose a central authority over Switzerland, which until then consisted mainly of self-governing cantons united by a loose military alliance, and conquered territories such as Vaud...
.
Parallels in medieval England and France
The status of protective lordship, however, in relation to ecclesiastical estates as held, and notoriously abused, by the nobility in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
throughout the Middle Ages, is without close parallel. There is no single equivalent in English history. The office of reeve
Reeve (England)
Originally in Anglo-Saxon England the reeve was a senior official with local responsibilities under the Crown e.g. as the chief magistrate of a town or district...
was much the same at a village or peasant level, and in other contexts the roles of sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
, bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
, seneschal
Seneschal
A seneschal was an officer in the houses of important nobles in the Middle Ages. In the French administrative system of the Middle Ages, the sénéchal was also a royal officer in charge of justice and control of the administration in southern provinces, equivalent to the northern French bailli...
and castellan
Castellan
A castellan was the governor or captain of a castle. The word stems from the Latin Castellanus, derived from castellum "castle". Also known as a constable.-Duties:...
of course included similar elements. In France, the office of vidame
Vidame
Vidame, a French corruption of the official Latin term vicedominus , was a feudal title in France...
, the temporal administrator for certain bishoprics, showed some connection. The most frequent translations in that connection are either advocate or lord protector.
Poland
In PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
the title of Wójt was used to denote hereditary heads of towns (under the overlordship of the town's owner - the King, the Church or a nobleman). Today Wójt denotes the elected mayor of a rural commune (gmina
Gmina
The gmina is the principal unit of administrative division of Poland at its lowest uniform level. It is often translated as "commune" or "municipality." As of 2010 there were 2,479 gminas throughout the country...
), i.e. one consisting only of villages (mayors of towns and cities take different titles).
Denmark
In DanishDanish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
the word vogt carries different connotations, all pertaining to guarding or keeping watch over something. In modern Danish
Courts of Denmark
The Danish Supreme Court is the highest civil and criminal court responsible for the administration of justice in Denmark. The Kingdom of Denmark, consisting of Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, does not have a single unified judicial system – Denmark has one system, Greenland another, and...
law, the fogedret (vogt court) administers the forcible enforcement and execution of judgments or other valid legal claims.
Finland
The local bailiffBailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
(distrainer
Distraint
Distraint or distress is "the seizure of someone’s property in order to obtain payment of rent or other money owed", especially in common law countries...
) is called kihlakunnanvouti, where kihlakunta is a local judicial district. Their duty is to enforce the financial judgements of the local courts. In practice, the vouti leads a team of assistant distrainers who process most distrainments/garnishment
Garnishment
A garnishment is a means of collecting a monetary judgment against a defendant by ordering a third party to pay money, otherwise owed to the defendant, directly to the plaintiff...
s.