10.6094/helden.heroes.heros./2016/QMR/05
27
Katharina Jeckel
The Envoy’s Honour and Reputation
in Fifteenth-Century Urban Diplomacy
The purpose of this paper is to provide a new
perspective on embassies and political commu­
nication in imperial cities in the fifteenth century.
It will focus on two different sources for an en­
voy’s motivation to perform his duty: an internal­
ised sense of honour and a reputation which was
assigned by others. First I will introduce Nördlin­
gen, the city which I am using as my case study,
and its council. With the help of an example,
the second part positions my project in relation
to previous scholarship. The third part explains
how the common good was one possible motiv­
ating factor for an envoy to accomplish his duty
conscientiously, and finally I will describe how
the envoys were seen as experts and how this
enhanced their reputation.
Nördlingen: City and Council
The city of Nördlingen, its foreign affairs and its
envoys, can serve as a model for smaller German
imperial towns: With 6,000 to 8,000 inhabitants,
fifteenth-century Nördlingen was average-sized
and, based on its own political networks, can be
seen as a sub-centre in the network of the south­
ern German imperial cities (cf. Bátori 86; Frieß).
In addition, the written records, the council files,
and accounts are well preserved in the archives
and provide the researcher with rich source ma­
terial.
Nördlingen first appears in a ninth-century
charter. It officially became an imperial town in
1235, which means that it answered directly to
the Emperor. Nevertheless, throughout its his­
tory, Nördlingen always had to fight for its auton­
omy because it was surrounded by princedoms
who sought to integrate it into their dominions.
One result of this permanent struggle was a
heightened sense of self-esteem within the gov­
ernment (cf. Kudorfer 135-140). Nördlingen’s
councilmen were active members of the Swa­
bian Alliance of Towns, and they frequently acted
as the alliance’s spokespersons. Its economic
importance added to the town’s self-confidence.
helden. heroes. héros.
In particular, Nördlingen had a great annual mar­
ket of supra-regional importance – a trade fair
(cf. Kießling 84-87, 107). This provided the basis
for the town’s political development. During the
1260s a new political and social structure arose
when, along with the commune, a permanent
council was formed. It consisted of twelve coun­
cilmen who all belonged to the trading elite. In
the early fourteenth century, the guilds became
much more powerful so that the council had to
be reformed. Under the umbrella of the newl­y
established Great Council, two sub-councils
were established: the original council, hence­
forth known as the Old Council, and the newly
founded Guild’s Council (cf. Bátori 89-90).
The Old Council replaced two of its mem­
bers each year. Therefore, while a great part of
its members still came from the upper class for
a long time, the boundaries between the upper
class and the guildsmen were permeable and,
by the fifteenth century at the latest, several for­
mer master craftsmen gained access to the Old
Council (cf. ibid.). However, it must be pointed
out that the lower and poorer craftsmen were
not the ones to benefit from this new situation;
in fact, the rich craftsmen gained the majority in
the Old Council as well as in the Guild’s Council
(cf. Brenner 58-59). Because of the shared inter­
ests of these two interconnected groups, for­
eign affairs were discussed in both councils. In
practice, however, envoys were exclusively dis­
patched by the Old Council (cf. Bátori 89). These
envoys were considered experts in foreign af­
fairs and essential for the town’s communication
and information politics. Envoys represented the
council at various political forums and were held
responsible for their own diplomatic missions (cf.
Jörg 52-53). The envoys acted as a link between
their council and their missions’ addressees,
such as the German Emperor or the Swabian Al­
liance of Towns. Furthermore, they were agents
within this communication process and used this
position to further their own political ambitions
within the town’s political structure.
Katharina Jeckel
28
Jeronimus von Bopfingen:
Puppet or Expert?
The interpretation of the role of the envoy out­
lined above is different from that usually present­
ed in the traditional literature. In order to clarify
my argument and position it within extant re­
search on late-medieval urban envoys, I will use
an example: On 17 November 1440 the envoy
Jeronimus von Bopfingen wrote a letter to his
councilmen colleagues. In this letter he appears
troubled and confused. In the war between Earl
Johann of Oettingen and the Swabian Alliance
of Towns, he was not only the envoy of Nördlin­
gen but also an advisor to the commanding of­
ficers. The war had started cumbersomely and
made the mercenaries resentful. Even when
the Alliance’s forces were able to carry some of
the enemy’s positions, this did not change the
atmosphere of battle fatigue. Nördlingen’s mer­
cenaries were no longer willing to continue the
fight.1 At first glance, Jeronimus appeared help­
less. The commanding officers insisted upon
continuing the war; the mercenaries insisted
on dropping out. In order to buy himself some
time, Jeronimus told the commanding officers
that he was not authorised to proceed and that
he had to talk to his council first. Consequent­
ly he wrote the letter mentioned above in which
he explained his woes to the council and asked
for further instruction. It appears that he want­
ed to deny all accountability. He warned his
colleagues that abandoning the Alliance would
cast a damning light on Nördlingen for which he
did not want to take responsibility.2 According to
this reading, it is perhaps not surprising that the
older research tradition, strongly influenced by the
ideas of Prussian diplomacy, considered smalltown envoys to be puppets of the Council.3
Contrary to the findings of this older research
literature and drawing on the most recent ap­
proaches,4 I consider envoys as reputable ex­
perts for foreign affairs and will offer an alterna­
tive interpretation of the situation.
Jeronimus von Bopfingen had no other
choice but to ask for official instruction. Since
the campaign had been a disaster from the very
beginning, it was not easy to retain Nördlingen’s
mercenaries, which was necessary if Jeronimus
wanted to save his honour with regard to his
function as advisor to the commanding officers.
Writing his letter actually meant buying time.
Jeronimus was aware of rumours that other
cities were about to withdraw their mercenaries.5
Accordingly his letter was more a warning about
the low morale of the Alliance and less of a call
for help. Jeronimus was experienced in dealing
with very different interest groups and under­
stood the power of self-staging. He was the one
who had the relevant news and first-hand infor­
mation, and he himself decided how to proceed
on his mission. As will be shown in the following
section, there were two major motivations for
the envoys to act so independently: on the one
hand their obligation to act in accordance with
the common good, and on the other hand their
status as experts.
Common Spirit and the Envoy’s
Professional Honour
The council and citizenry expected the envoy to
be committed to the common good of his home
city. The envoys made great efforts to preserve
the honour and well-being of their council and
city, and to maintain its safety, legal capacity and
economic capability (cf. Rogge 46-47; Rublack
30-31). Furthering their own reputation through
their service was merely a welcome sideeffect. Even though there are no autobiographic­
al docu­ments which would give us information
about the personal attitude of an envoy, there
are indications that improving one’s own reputa­
tion was not the exclusive motive for his efforts.
The social system of Nördlingen had mechan­
isms to ensure that the envoys had an internal­
ised sense of honour. As in most other imperial
towns, Nördlingen’s citizens swore the Burgher’s
Oath once a year, on Monday before Whitsun,
the so-called Schwörtag. The oath (established
in 1450) emphasised loyalty, friendship, unity
and peace.6 In addition, the mayors and coun­
cilmen vowed a separate oath in which the
mayors committed themselves firmly to the com­
mon good,7 and the councilmen swore to be loya­l
and to make fair, conscientious judgements.8
The council regulations of 1480 even start with a
theological justification of the council’s authority,
which adds gravity to the responsibility of act­
ing honourably.9 The periodic renewal of these
oaths helped to ensure stability within the city
and served as a mechanism of integration that
furthered the affiliation between city and council.
Furthermore, the oath-takers were encouraged
to internalise the moral concepts of the oaths
through their annual repetition.
The envoys’ second motivation was his ex­
pertise and know-how. My thesis focuses not on
diplomacy from the perspective of progress but
on diplomacy as an evolving and consolidating
culture of expertise and thus on its experienced
agents, the envoys. But what is an expert? Frank
Rexroth describes the expert as a type, a social
model, one who – in a situation of communi­
cation – distinguishes himself or herself from
others by having the relevant knowledge at hand
(cf. Rexroth 22).10 I apply this understanding of
helden. heroes. héros.
The Envoy’s Honour and Reputation in Fifteenth-Century Urban Diplomacy
expertise and expert knowledge to my theoretic­
al approach to diplomacy and develop it further
within the context of my case study. There ap­
pear to be three conditions for an expert culture
within Nördlingen’s council and embassy:
(1) It is possible to counteract ignorance
and incompetence by consulting some­
one who knows better how to solve a
specific problem; someone who carries a
special knowledge or competence in this
specific well-defined case (cf. ibid.; Berger
and Luckmann 47).
(2) This special knowledge or competence
has to have a relevance that goes beyond
any particular or current matter. To expand
on this: A person may maintain social,
family or business networks in other cities
and he may also carry special knowledge
or know-how; however, this person would
not be considered an expert in foreign af­
fairs. In contrast an alderman with a guilds
council or a merchant background who
fostered these relationships as a coun­
cilman, would be called an expert in this
specific field (cf. Rexroth 23-24).
(3) Experts depend on institutions. Know­
ledge is transmitted in institutions where it
is also stabilised and consolidated.
All three conditions can be illustrated by the situ­
ation in Nördlingen: First, the Council of Nördlin­
gen had already experienced first-hand that
not all councilmen were equally qualified to be
envoys. The result was that the pool of envoys
was drastically reduced in number during the fif­
teenth century. It also led to the emergence of
specialists, for instance, envoys who were ex­
clusively responsible for missions to the Imperial
Court or missions to the Alliance.11 These spe­
cialised envoys gradually learned how to han­
dle different conventions and customs of their
purview and were able to steer clear of potential
embarrassing faux-pas.
Second, a councilman’s and envoy’s repu­
tation involved possessing the necessary skills
and knowledge in the field of foreign affairs, and
in the case of council members from the elite,
this had been handed down in their families for
generations (Kintzinger, Wissen 25-30; Borgolte
948). Therefore, at least at the beginning of the
fifteenth century, this type of councilman had
a noticeable advantage in terms of knowledge
compared to the councilman from the guilds.
Nevertheless, regarding the council’s ability to
integrate inexperienced councilmen or men with
different prior knowledge, it can be assumed that
this specialist knowledge became independent
of the individual; that is to say it became more
generally accessible to the Old Council’s mem­
bers. The specialist knowledge was not only
influenced by the upper-class councilmen, but
helden. heroes. héros.
also strongly affected by the merchants and
craftsmen. They gained their reputation from a
more practical knowledge of economic struc­
tures and trade connections.12 At the beginning
of the fifteenth century, this knowledge was per­
sonal as well. However, it blended gradually into
the expertise of the upper-class councilmen and
transformed into an expert knowledge with re­
gard to the council.
Third, even though being an envoy was not a
profession during the fifteenth century, there are
noticeable traces of institutionalisation. In the
first third of the fifteenth century envoys acquired
their skills mostly by trial and error – not the most
efficient way of training. However, by the last
third of the century the council had established,
albeit not formally, a kind of proto-apprentice­
ship. More specifically, an embassy consisted of
at least one experienced envoy and a relative­
ly inexperienced one. The senior envoy passed
his knowledge on to the junior envoy, who thus
learned the most important rules and procedures
of diplomacy and adopted the correct habitus (cf.
Rexroth 22-24).13 He could build up his person­
al network of contacts, take part in negotiations
and, in short, experience the progress of a dip­
lomatic mission. Beyond that he could contribute
his own knowledge to the council’s accumulated
expertise.
Concluding Remark
To come full circle, the envoy Jeronimus is indeed
a good example for the development described.
He was a respected elite council member and
a noted, long-term envoy who acted honourably
on behalf of his council and home city. His repu­
tation was based on his expert knowledge, which
derived from two sources. First, his knowledge
was handed down in a family that counted many
councilmen, envoys and several mayors among
its ranks. Second, Jeronimus was a former mer­
cenary in the Hussite Wars (1419-1434/39),
where he gained considerable practical experi­
ence in foreign affairs and a high standing. At
first he represented the council at various pol­
itical forums, such as the Emperor’s Court or
the Alliance of Towns where he distinguished
himself by acting prudently in Nördlingen’s inter­
ests. Later in his career, however, the council en­
trusted him almost exclusively with embassies to
the Court of the Emperor, and he became one
of Nördlingen’s first expert envoys. During this
latter part of his career he was often accompa­
nied by younger and inexperienced councilmen
whom we find at the Emperor’s Court in the sec­
ond half of the fifteenth century.14 Jeronimus had
trained and established his successors.
29
Katharina Jeckel
30
Katharina Jeckel is the Academic Coordina­
tor of the Graduate School Humanities and
a member of the Department of History at
the University of Freiburg. She is currentl­y
working on a thesis on fifteenth century diplo­
macy in Nördlingen, supervised by Prof.
Dr. Birgit Studt and Prof. Dr. Felix Heinzer.
1 StadtA Nördlingen. Missiven 1440 fol. 40.
2 Ibid.
3 Typical representatives of the older research tradition
are Menzel and Mandel.
4 An extensive research survey of older and recent litera­
ture is found in Liening 130-132, note 4-5, and Jörg and
Jucker 22-30.
5 StadtA Nördlingen. Missive 1440 fol. 436-437.
6 Cf. “trew und fraintschaft […] ainigkait frids“, Müller 552
[Nördlinger Ordnungsbuch II, fol. 42a].
7 Cf. “was ain gemain nutz und notdurft antrift strenglich
und vestiglich zuohandthaben”, ibid. 155 [Ratsordnung B 8,
fol. 2a].
8 Cf. “getrüwer ratgeb […] redlich urteil zuo geben […]
nach ewrer besten verstentnus”, ibid. 165 [Ratsordnung B
44, fol. 8a].
9 “Wann wir in der hailigen Schrift finden, das aller gewalt
von Gott dem herren von oben herab ist, und das die ding,
die von Gott sin, gar wol geordnet sind, us dem mügen wir
verstan, wer zu gewalt erwelt wirt, das der den gewalt soll
ordentlich gepruchen”, ibid. 154 [Ratsordnung B 1, fol. 1a].
10 This is a definition that is used in the context of the Re­
search Training Group “Expert Cultures from the Twelfth to
the Eighteenth Century” in which Prof. Dr. Frank Rexroth ex­
plores the expert as an agent of knowledge. 19 November
2015 <http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/100303.html>.
11 Cf. Bátori 99-103. At the beginning of the fifteenth cen­
tury, the widespread use of practically all councilmen as
envo­ys can be noted. During the second half of the century,
however, only one-third of the councilmen served as envoys.
12 This derives from traditional school knowledge and a
commercial education; cf. Denzel 425-426; Kintzinger, Scholaster 360-62, and in great detail Bruchhäuser.
13 Examples for this development are the envoys
Jeronimus von Bopfingen and Paul Strauß and in 1471 and
1485 Gabriel Eringer and Ott Vetter; cf. Bátori 101.
14 An early example is Jeronimus von Bopfingen, who ac­
companied and trained the former guild master Paul Strauß
during his first mission in 1449. Report from Ulm (1449 June
22), NöStA Missive 1449 fol. 38. Cf. Ibd. 101, 105.
Archives
Müller, Karl Otto, Ed. Nördlinger Stadtrechte des Mittelalters.
2. Munich: Verlag der Kommission für Bayerische Landes­
geschichte, 1933.
StadtA Nördlingen. Missive 1440 fol. 40, 1440 XI 17.
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31