Identity of the Carniolan Provincial Estates in the Early Modern Period

Abstract

The contribution describes the identity of the Carniolan Provincial Estates between the early sixteenth and mid-eighteenth centuries, particularly the elements that reflected in political life. The corporation of the Provincial Estates in the early Modern Period represented the provincial political class, whose otherwise diverse composition contained a few elements that underscored the identity of all its members. Most attention in this contribution is devoted to the nobility, represented by the second and third curiae, which played the central role among the four curiae of prelates, lords, knights and esquires, and provincial princely cities. The examination of archival materials and two topographic descriptions of the province, dating to the seventeenth century, has identified seven crucial factors in determining the identity of the Provincial Estates, which, however, did not affect all their members to an equal degree.