Ius caducum in Lublin in the Second Quarter of the 17th Century

Abstract

The study is devoted to the research on the institution of the escheat law within royal cities, carried out on the example of Lublin. The sources used in the work are primarily royal documents regarding the granting of escheat goods from the books of the Crown Records, as well as documents of the city of Lublin. The king’s prerogative of taking over the heirless property of the deceased Lublin burghers and transferring it to those who rendered meritorious services to the king and to the Republic of Poland was analysed. At the same time, the work took into account the provisions regarding the application of ius caducum and limitations on the monarch’s powers contained in the parliamentary constitutions.

Royal provisions indicated the type and scope of rights granted to the recipients, which applied to the goods which were the subject of by the escheat law, including movable and immovable goods, as well as sums of money. Royal documents other than the acts of granting escheat estates per se were also described. Documents from the royal chancellery also concerned legal actions undertaken in connection with the exercise of the escheat law. These were primarily legal acts appointing proxies and mandate holders by the parties to the escheat proceedings. In addition, a number of royal property grants of various types bestowed on the 17th-century official of the royal chancellery, Andrzej Bujalski, were indicated. The article also covers the issue of the procedure for the implementation and execution of ius caducum, according to which the enforcement of the king’s will was entrusted to the municipal and town offices subordinated to the monarch’s authority, as well as to the biographical data of the townspeople who left the escheat property and of the representatives of the nobility who received them.