Die Narrationes der Urkunden Kaiser Sigismunds für böhmische Empfänger aus den Jahren 1433–1437 und die Umgestaltung der Erinnerung an die Hussitenkriege

Abstract

This study focuses on the memorial function of charters in the Late Middle Ages based on narrationes in Sigismund of Luxemburg's charters for Czech recipients from 1433 to 1437. This dramatic period saw the culmination of the Hussite Wars (the siege of Plzeň, the Battle of Lipany), while at the same time there were negotiations between the Hussites and the Council of Basel which resulted in the issuing of the Basle Compacts and the acceptance of Emperor Sigismund as King of Bohemia in July 1436. The author gradually describes narrationes in Sigismund's charters for Bohemian Catholics from 1433 to 1435 and 1436 to 1437, and finally also for the Utraquists from 1436 to 1437. He demonstrates that while from 1433 to 1435 the charters were a means of fixing the Catholic towns' and noble families' memory of their continued and gallant struggle against "Hussite heresy" in writing, from 1436 to 1437 Sigismund's chancery retrospectively modified the memory of the previous wars in an effort to harmonise the image created in these charters with the religious reconciliation of July 1436.