Duchy of Żagań

Collection

Scope and content:: The collection consists of materials collected by the administration of the Duchy of Sagan/Żagań. They are divided into the following groups:

1. The duke’s relationship with his duchy: charters/privileges: 1616–28.

2. Management of the Duchy – inventories: chancellery and archival, correspondence registers, land and mortgage registers, document recording (item entry) registers, testaments/wills, property/estate purchase and sale contracts, feudatory/liege affairs: 1557–1858.

3. Legal and judicial system: feudal courts [Manngericht], property/estate purchase lists, tax-related matricules: 1528–84.

4. Annex: court regulations, mortgage affairs: 1651–18th century.

Jewish-related items are scarce, appearing in the following units (inter alia):

Ref. no. 26: ‘Grund- und Hypothekenbuch des Saganischen Kreises’, 1410–1856.

Ref. no. 29: ‘Grund- und Hypothekenbuch des Priebusischen Kreises’, 1738–1855.

Ref. no. 26: ‘Grund- und Hypothekenbuch des Naumburgischen Kreises’, 1561–1853.

Archival history:: The materials contained in the fund were produced and collected by the Duchy administration. Before World War 2, the resource formed part of the Staatsarchiv Breslau; during the war, for the sake of protecting them, the files were dispersed and kept in various localities; some were destroyed, including, probably, a portion of Jewish-related items. After World War 2, the files were included in the State Archive of Wroclaw, the legal successor of the former German-owned archive.

Administrative/biographical history:: The Duchy of Żagań emerged in 1273/1274, after the death of Conrad I, Duke of Głogów. Przemko and Conrad II the Hunchback were the first Żagań dukes. The history of the Duchy is interwoven with that of the Duchy of Głogów [Glogau], both being ruled by the same line of Silesian Piast rulers. In 1472 and 1488, the Duchy was twice sold to princes of Saxony. It was subsequently governed by Ferdinand I, king of Bohemia (1549), Prince Lobkowicz (1646), Courland duke Peter von Biron (1785) and in 1844 became a domain of Princess Dorothea of Courland (Dorothée de Talleyrand-Périgord/von Sagan). Boson, Prince of Balancy, was the last proprietor of Żagań.

System of arrangement:: The collection consists of books/registers and unbound items, manuscript and printed.

Access, restrictions:: The collection is available in the reading room of the State Archive of Wroclaw.

Author of the description:: Anna Grużlewska, Leszek Ziątkowski; University of Wroclaw; 2015