Nobility in Towns and Urban Elites

Abstract

This article discusses the presence and activities of nobles and patrician elites in the urban settlements in the territory of present-day Slovenia —both inland and Istrian towns, between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. Of the continental towns, Maribor, Ptuj and Ljubljana are discussed, and from Istria Piran, Koper and Izola. In that period, nobles from Carniola, Styria, Carinthia and other local nobles increasingly stayed in the inland towns, where they may have been looking for entertainment, sociability, goods and services, etc. Towns in Istria were different. The ancient tradition persevered to a large extent, and they were also marked by Venetian rule. Members of the urban elites in Koper, Izola and Piran were not descendants of feudal noble families, but of bourgeois origin, who managed to attain a privileged position and retain hereditary political power, predicated on real estate and capital. The privileged position of an Istrian urban elite family was reflected in the right to membership in the Great Council—the most important governmental body of a city or town.