History of Military Border: 1740-1756

Rothenberg's The Military Border in Croatia, 1740-1881

Period: 1740-1756
Chapter 2: The Military Border Under Maria Theresa: 1740-56

Key Family History Connections / Information of Interest:

• Theresa brought the border under direct control of the crown and then took away some of privileges from people in the border.
• Land was given to families and, by law, had to stay in the family.

[NOTE: The Udbina area is located in Lika which was located in the Karlstadt generalcy.  Any references to these larger units provides insights into life in the Udbina area.]

Quotes from Chapter:

"Officers were unable to restrain the Grenzer, whose passion for drink and plunder was ungovernable and who, even in friendly territory, were a terror to the inhabitants."   (Page 20)

"With the reorganization came changes in the judicial system. Hitherto justice on the border was in the hands partly of military officials, partly of elected judges - the knezovi.... [In 1745]  the code abolished the knezovi in the Karlstadt Generalcy, though they continued to function, albeit with reduced powers in Warasdin.  Finally Hildburghausen curtailed certain of the immunities of the Grenzer, introduced a land tax, and burdened them with heavier corvee duties."   (Pages 22-23)

[SIDE NOTE: Todor Klaich, was the local, elected magistrate for Kurjak (which was in the Karlstadt Generalcy).]

"The culmination of Maria Theresa's early reforms on the border was the promulgation of a new administrative and judicial code, the Military-Granitz-Rechten, of 1754.  An extraordinary mixture of public and private law, the code subordinated all activities in the border region to military considerations.  The document was divided into sever major titles with numerous paragraphs...

The land regulations - Title IV - were the very heart of the code aimed primarily at preserving the communal households - the Hauskommunitaten.  The code proclaimed the land held by the Grenzer crown property, granted to each household as long as it met its military obligations.  Land was the Grenzer's primary compensation, and the size of the grant depended on the quality of the soil and on the type of service, mounted or unmounted, required.  In the Karstadt regiments, for instance, the basic homestead allotment for one communal household supporting one foot soldier consisted of eight yokes of good land, ten of mediocre, or twelve of poor.  Hussar homesteads were larger, rating a minimum of twelve yokes.  There were also double - even triple - homesteads, and in some instances smaller allotments of three-quarter of even one-half homesteads were made.  The basic allotment could not be sold, leased, mortgaged, or given away.  Only when a household possessed land over and above its basic homestead - a rather rare occurrence - could this surplus be disposed of. Even then it could be transferred only to another Grenzer family, and the transaction had to be approved by the proper military authorities.  The restrictions against traffic in land were reinforced by Title V - regulating inheritance - which specified that the Grenzer could freely dispose of their movable goods, but the homestead had to be passed on to heirs capable of meeting the military obligations."   (Pages 26-27)

[SIDE NOTE1: This means that people who lived in the same area were part of the same extended family. And people who lived in the same house, were almost certainly the direct descendants of those who lived there before.  The military records include house number, which allow us to infer some familial relationships.]

[SIDE NOTE2: Some of the maps named different areas based on the family living there.  Some of those areas retain the family areas to this day.]

"Title VI dealt with the criminal procedure and the penal system... the code introduced the principle of communal responsibility. In cases of murder, or highway robbery - banditry was endemic, especially in the Karlstadt Generalcy - it made the nearest village, even if it was not implicated, subject to a heavy fine."   (Page 28)

"[T]he transformation of the border into an integral part of the Austrian military establishment encountered violent resistance, riots, mutinies, and rebellions, culminating in the great Warasdin revolt of 1755."   (Page 28)

Links to the posts for the various time periods (each covered in a chapter of the book):
1500-1740
1740-1756
1756-1780
1780-1790
1790-1809
1804-1814
1815-1847
1848-1859
1859-1871
1871-1881