In the recent discussion of the origin of the surname MEYER / MEIER...
1492 wurde diese Eidesformel im Bereich des Stiftes Verden umgewandelt in ein verbrieftes Bauernlehen, den sogenannten Meierbrief.
She describes in a definitive answer how the MEIER relationship with his feudal lord was confirmed in a Bauernlehen document... the so-called Meier letter / document.
Uwe says (my understanding) that in earlier times the MEIER relationship involved an oath to be faithful and devoted to the feudal lord. However, by 1492 the arrangement was documented in the "Meierbrief". The Meier document spelled out the Meier's obligations to his feudal lord, which might be money, a number of days labour, or goods perhaps including seeds, sheaves, manure, a "meat tithe" or a tenth of the new-born foals, calves, piglets, lambs as well as of chickens, geese and bees, and so on.
Can anyone help with these questions:
(1) What is the meaning / origin of the word Bauernlehen? It is not in any modern German dictionary. My guess it is a farm agreement, but the ending "lehen" puzzles me?
Die Suche nach Bauernlehen lieferte keine Treffer
(2) Was the Bauernlehen the arrangement and the Meierbrief the necessary documentation?
(3) What happened in 1492 to change the relationship between the Meier and the feudal lord from an oath to all this documentation?
I just checked Wahrig (that's like Webster's) and the only word they had was
Bauernlegen. If you found this word in literature, can you give me the
sentence? Was this written in old script? Heide
Meyers Konversationslexikon
Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, Leipzig und Wien, Vierte Auflage, 1885-1892
Band 2 von Atlantis bis Blatthornkäfer
Seite 476: Bauernlehen bis Bauges, Les