ministeriale

Most, however, were ministeriales, or members of the lower nobility, who depended on court patronage for their livelihood; from the vicissitudes of such an existence come many of the motifs in their poetry.

…of unfree knights, known as ministeriales. These knights had first become important as administrators and soldiers on the estates of the church early in the 11th century. Their status and that of their fiefs was fixed by seignorial ordinances, and they could be relied on and commanded, unlike the free…

…of the empire, employing imperial ministeriales for this purpose. These were originally servants of unfree origin who had risen to become important administrators in the imperial government of the Hohenstaufen. Henry gave the trusted ministerial Markward of Anweiler the duchy of Ravenna and the march of Ancona as hereditary fiefs,…

…the 12th century were usually ministeriales (servants who had originally been bondsmen) and were used by their lords for cavalry service or for higher administrative duties, for which they received a fief. It was not until the 13th century and, in many places, even later that the feudal nobility and…

…ruled by imperial ministerials (ministeriales imperii). These men had great power because many of them belonged to the Emperor’s circle. The most famous of them was Kuno of Münzenberg, whose castle is preserved in the Wetterau north of Frankfurt and who founded the town of Friedberg. The territorial “peace…

…of unfree servants known as ministeriales and also the towns, thus provoking the antagonism of the princes. Rebellion soon broke out; Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz fomented unrest in the upper Rhineland, and the revolt of Lothar of Supplinburg (later to become king as Lothar III and emperor as Lothar II)…