Great Moravia; medieval nobility; medieval elites; middle ages; early medieval state

The question of the process of the formation of early medieval elites in the geographical region of Great Moravia is one of the cyclical themes of historical research and is closely related to the question of the formation and form of early medieval statehood in Central Europe as such. The prevailing view of social stratification in Great Moravia was canonised in Czech historiography in the twentieth century. Its central idea is the notion of dominant princely power as the basic building block of a social hierarchy that emerged hand in hand with Christianisation. This is why this hypothesis uses the metaphorical term princely village to define the Great Moravian “state” of the last third of the ninth century, or speaks of a medieval “state of the Central European type”.

The question of the process of the formation of early medieval elites in the geographical region of Great Moravia is one of the cyclical themes of historical research and is closely related to the question of the formation and form of early medieval statehood in Central Europe as such. The prevailing view of social stratification in Great Moravia was canonised in Czech historiography in the twentieth century. Its central idea is the notion of dominant princely power as the basic building block of a social hierarchy that emerged hand in hand with Christianisation. This is why this hypothesis uses the metaphorical term princely village to define the Great Moravian “state” of the last third of the ninth century, or speaks of a medieval “state of the Central European type”.