Page 192 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

192 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

For this reason on 5 October 1630 Emperor Ferdinand II issued the Statuta Valachorum,
a unification and summary of all previous privileges and already existing legal principles,
which was to become the legal basis for the development of a free Frontier-men society and
exactly redefined their rights and duties – they were guaranteed land, which was free from
duties, taxes, and manorial jurisdiction in return for unpaid military service against the Ot-
tomans and the participation in the building of fortresses. In the case of an enemy attack all
male Walachians above 18 were obliged to show up at a certain place as soon as possible. In
this way up to 6,000 or 7,000 Walachians could be mobilized (In 1620, at the beginning of the
Thirty Years War, 5,000 Walachians were recruited, in 1632 3,000). If the frontier men had to
serve abroad, they had to serve fourteen days without pay in the Ottoman territory, and eight
days in other countries. Powder and lead were delivered by the generalcy. The remainder of
the equipment had to be raised by the Walachians themselves.
These statutes were to be applied for the Varasdin Frontier at first, because it was the stra-
tegically most endangered part of the Slavonian Frontier, but soon they also became effec-
tive in the other parts of the Military Frontier. Thus the existence of the Military Frontier as
well as the independence and self-administration of its population were guaranteed, and the
future development was guided into a certain direction, namely the total militarization of the
Frontier territory, which finally took place about a century later. The privileging of the new
settlers in fact resulted in an expropriation of the landlords. And what is more, the Frontier
territory was taken out of the hands of the Croatian administration and nobility and put under
the direct control of the Austrian military authorities.
13
The civil administration on the lower level was carried out by the Frontier men them-
selves. In large parts of the Frontier territory the smallest administrative unit was the za-
druga, the patriarchal domestic community. Family members of several generations lived in
a common household under a gospodar (patriarch), mostly the oldest among them. All other
male adults assisted him as a family council. The female members of the family were subject
to the gospodarica (housewife), who was responsible for the housekeeping. All members of
the family were obliged to strict obedience to the gospodar and the gospodarica. the prop-
erty, especially the real estate, was common good of the whole family. The Frontier men built
their Frontier houses with the help of all family members on the soil they had received from
the state. (Table 2) Mostly the number of people living therein was from seven up to about
14 persons, but in some houses around 70 persons were counted. In order that the prolonged
absence or death of a man did not mean the ruin of his farmstead and his family, the military
authorities were interested in keeping the Frontier households as big as possible and in fur-
ther strengthening the already existing system of the zadrugas by legal measures. They did
not shrink from approaching this aim by interfering with the lives of the Frontier families, as
e. g. the prohibition of dividing households. (Table 3/walachisches Dorf)
14
The size of the allotted soil varied according to the rank of the individual soldier as well

13 Amstadt, Die k. k. Militärgrenze, vol. 1, 93; Grandits, Krajina, s. p.
14 Grandits, Krajina, s. p. For more information on the zadruga see also Karl Kaser, Die Entwicklung der
Zadruga in der kroatisch-slawonischen Militärgrenze, in Institut für Geschichte der Universität Graz, Abt.
Südosteuropäische Geschichte, Zur Kunde Südost-Europas, vol II/4 (1985), 14 – 25, and id., Freier Bauer
und Soldat, passim.