Guardianship of Minors in the Gentry Families in the Crown in the 17th Century. An Introduction to the Problem and Research Prospects

The article outlines the problems and research prospects of one of the most common legal institution that was typical of the old-Polish gentry families – the guardianship of minors, which has not been researched in the historical literature so far. The author reminds that in the ancient Polish law there were four ways of establishing the guardianship of minors, which were called: paternal, natural, official and autocratic. Each one of the four might commence only when the previous one had ceased. The author presents the most important findings made by law historians and underlines that they treat with the practical functioning of the guardianship in the reality of the 17th-century gentry of the Crown only superficially. We might familiarise with that practice thanks to other than normative sources, massive in character, namely the old-Polish last wills. In addition to establishing the guardianship, they contain many hints on how to educate and bring up minors. Undoubtedly, the most interesting question is what the guardians were actually doing. And here the essential question is whether their guardianship was good enough, whether they took care of the child (upkeep, upbringing, education) and of the child’s property. One of the objectives of the author of this article will be to present the most common activities undertaken by guardians, that is to say the ‘model’ behaviour of guardians. At the same time – wherever it is possible – it is worth attempting to present the reaction of the children to their guardians’ actions. In this context, there appears a fundamental problem of the scale and kinds of the abuses committed by the guardians, first of all concerning the minors’ land properties, including delaying the people they were in charge of entering into marriage in order to extend the period of their running their land property. An exceptionally important function of the institution of guardianship in the life of the gentry family combined with the research possibilities included in the 17th-century sources offer optimistic prospects for a comprehensive study, which would present the guardianship in gentry families and facilitate a better understanding of how the gentry family functioned in the Crown in the modern times