Property Owning

The peasants obtained the right to appoint their heirs or sell the use of the farm first under the Rozmberks in the late 16th century. However, the Catholic nobility stopped that after the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and it took some time before it was re-instated as a legal right. However, the peasants did not really own the free-hold until the 19th century, they could only sell or inherit the right of use, not the actual estates. It is strange because after the first Austrian Constitution of 1848, most farmers had to really buy their farms from the nobility, even though they already had sold and bought the right of use for decades or were living there for several centuries. The lands they owned somewhat earlier sometimes. We saw some really nice land deeds from 1772 with all nobility stamps and regal writing explaining everything in detail..........

Additional reading on the subject of life in Bohemia in earlier centuries is the series The Past Millennium in the Czech Lands, published in Koreny (Roots), Journal of the Czech & Slovak American Genealogy Society of Illinois, P.O. Box 313, Sugar Grove, Illinois 60554 (see Home Page for a link to their website). Paul Nemecek who has written many interesting and informative articles for Koreny extracted information from The Story of Czechoslovakia by Joseph Pesek.

The articles:

Part I - Life in Old Bohemia, Vol. 4, No. 2, Winter 2000.

Part II - Castle Life, Knighthood and the Rise of Towns, Vol. 4, No. 3, Spring 2000.

Part III - Charles IV - King of Bohemia and Father of His Country, Vol. 4, No.4, Summer ‘00

Part IV - Jan Hus, Jan Ziska and Revival of the Bohemian Nationality, Vol.5, No.1, Fall 2000.