Page 121 - Changing Living Spaces

The Transformation of the Migratory Strategies of the Rural Population

military service several times. The return home took place within an in-
terval of 7 to 21 years from enlistment. Some of the returnees resisted
carrying out hard agricultural work, instead seeking to learn a craft and
practice that occupation.

Old and Sick People
A serious problem was represented by the need to care for old and sick
people. Serf applications show that the closest relatives were held re-
sponsible for providing for people in illness and old age. In such cases
there were two possibilities. Ageing individuals sometimes applied for re-
lease letters that would enable them to live with offspring elsewhere, who
promised to take care of them. Alternatively, adult offspring might apply
for a release letter so they could return home to help their parents. The
desire to take over ageing parents’ property was another motivation for
applying to return home to provide care in old age. In Bohemia until 1787,
the youngest son was preferred as heir to the landholding, whereas after
that year it was the eldest son who was supposed to inherit.24

Better Livelihoods for Young and Old
Other documents preserved in connection with release letters provide ev-
idence not only of care for ageing parents, but also of efforts to provide for
physically handicapped children. Most frequent were applications from
parents who connected the change of their place of residence with the
possibility of providing a better subsistence for such children. In several
cases they explicitly stated that they would be able to live from begging
in another locality.25
Scholars should scrutinize the reasons serfs gave on these applica-
tions. In order to obtain the issuance of a release letter and, above all, to
avoid the fee for the issuance of the document, some exaggerated their
age, sometimes even claiming to be over 100 years old. Advanced age was
combined with illness, difficult living conditions, and alleged poverty
(Grulich 2007, 271–5). In the case of men, poor physical condition could be
further emphasized by a note stating that the man in question could not
be drafted into the army. Many applicants tried to get permission for a
‘soft job’ by referring to their poor health. The above-mentioned argument

24 The development of the Bohemian law of inheritance is addressed in Velková
(2009, 150–5).
25 Landlords were unwelcoming toward vagrants and beggars and punished them
by imprisonment, see: Zeitlhofer (2014, 165).

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