Would appreciate a contact with anyone researching in Wöbbel.
fred richter
I'm transcribing a document "Plan vom Adlichen Guthe W�bbel, Anno 1757". I keep running
into the word 'belehnt' which none of my sources has a translation, and I could use some
help, please.
This is one of the text it's been used in -
Im Jahre 1550 �berlie� der Lippische Landesherr Bernhard VIII. (1536-1563) den Anton von
Donop das Gut W�bbel in Pfandschaft. Seit ist das Rittergut W�bbel in Besitz der Familie
von Donop. Zum Gut geh�rten damals 548 Morgen Ackerland und 120 Morgen Wiesen. Die
nachfolgenden Generationen der von Donops wurden dann immer wieder von dem jeweiligen
Lippischen Landesherrn mit dem Gute W�bbel neu belehnt.
fred
I do not pretend to be an expert, but it has to do with a fief, and I think
it translates as "enfiefed.", a term not much used in modern English but
common in earlier times.
In other words, the land was granted as a fief to the von Donop family and
the fiefdom was renewed continuosly in succeeding generations.
I always like to jump in on things like this then have fun when the native
Germans tell me how wrong I am. It's how I learn.
Roy Johnson
Searching Schnake/Schnacke worldwide
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~schnake
Hello Fred,
adding my two cents' worth:
Bernhard VIII owned Gut W�bbel amd gave it as a fief to Anton von Donop. The
right to hold this fief was inherited by the following generations of
Donops.
A similar system, probably derived from the system of granting fiefs was in
place for quite a few of the farms in Westphalia. The land did not belong to
the farmers, but they had the usage of it, paying for this usage in
different fees, taxes and services. However, the right to work and live
there was inherited. New contracts were drawn up with each new landholder.
Kind regards,
Petra 
-l
Thanks, Petra. This was basically my understanding but you added some
points.
When I taught medieval history in high school, the textbooks different the
two systems that you compare as the feudal system and the manorial system.
The feudal system military-political arrangements among lords) rested on and
depended on the manorial system, an economic arrangement between peasants
and landowners (nobles or the church).
The feudal system involved the granting of fiefs in return for personal
allegiance and military service. The holder of the fief was granted the
land (called the Gut in German) to govern and to reap the benefits from the
peasants living on the land. That made him a vassal to the higher lord and
he was supposed to serve in the lord's army. He would serve as a knight
since this is an arrangement only among nobles.
This arrangement developed when Roman central authority broke down and so
did the monetary system, with no government to enforce it. With no money,
land was used as payment for military survive. The only problem was that
you can't keep paying in land, so you gave a fief and bound the fief holder
and his heirs to your service. It made a weak system, because once the land
was given out, you had very little hold over your vassal. Sometimes the
vassal became powerful enough to challenge his lord. The Duke of Normandy,
for example, held over half the Kingdom of France, in theory as a fief from
the King. When William the Conqueror conquered England, he was both Duke of
Normandy and King of England, and the poor French king could hardly control
this powerful vassal. That's what the hundred years; war and Joan of Arc
was all about. It took that long for the French kings to subdue their
rebellious vassals from Normandy and their English subjects and regain
control of the territory.
The manorial system, on the other hand, was the economic arrangements that
you have described. The peasants held the land as an Erbpacht, or perpetual
leasehold, and they had to pay feudal rents to their lord. At first those
were in kind--grain, chickens, pigs, etc--but eventually it became a money
arrangement. The two systems were similar but the one was
military/political, the other economic. The specifics of the system varied
from place to place and from country to country. The textbooks showed a
neat picture of a manor with the lord's castle in the middle and the peasant
lands spreading out from it. I have found that in practice, the Gut could
either be in one piece or scattered all over.
Without the economic manorial system, the nobles would not have been able to
maintain their military/political arrangements; they would have had to work
for a living. That's why it was said that the feudal system depended on the
manorial system.
The granting of the fief in this instance was part of the feudal system. It
would be interesting to see the terms and to see what service was owed by
Anton von Donop and his heirs to Bernard VIII and his heirs.
Roy Johnson
Oops
Roy, Uta, Petra, and Inga, thanks to a great bunch of guys and dolls. Your detailed
explanations make understanding this document a lot clearer, and will let me sleep nights.
Fred
Roy,
as you probably know it's a bit more complicated then your
description but then you couldn't write a book in email. 
Roman authority really had very little influence in Germany
and there was no need for it to break down over there. What
happened was that the Franks had some expereince with
how the Romans did their thing and they in turn via their
Domus Major arrangement brought their own version over
when they subdued the Saxons and other Germanic peoples.
It really started out as a tax collecting system and to do this
somebody had to be given authority from the king. This
authority meant he could run things in the name of the king
but the land really still was not given or lieged to anybody
until the function turned into a heriditary thing. The heirs built
their own powerbase and as such it served the king or
central authority to have strong liegelords who could manage
well and send tribute up the line. So one hand washed the
other as the king could not do it all.
If the system was weak it served its purpose as nothing else
had been invented yet. Modern statehood did not exist.
Niether did the concept of owning land outright. The pyramid
started with God passed through the Pope to the secular
lords but at the base was the fact that God created and
owned everything and man was only a temporary
administrator.
Fred
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