Serfdom [Leibeigenschaft] remains in being where it has been introduced and is the custom. Should any person contest this by arguing possession of a prescriptive presumption of freedom, length of time alone is not sufficient to prove his case, but good faith, title, or the cognizance and acquiescence of his lord must also be shown, and even this shall be without prejudice to exceptions, particularly to those arising out of wartime conditions.
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[Art. 23 orders a more careful procedure when civil cases are conducted before a municipal council. The Crown does not wish to interfere with the free election of aldermen, but desires them to carry out their duties in such fashion as to give the burghers no cause for complaint. Arts. 24 to 30 are of minor or local importance, except 28, which rules that a law officer of the Crown cannot proceed directly against a noble nor imprison his subjects, but must send the documentation of the case up to the Supreme Court.
With Art. 31 we come to the question, of great importance to the Knights, of the succession of fiefs. This is solved in a way very favorable, on balance, to the petitioners.]
31. Thirty-firstly, in respect of new fiefs, We are graciously prepared to include the feoffee’s brothers and the children of his brothers in the donation and will also not object to including more remote agnates if they apply to Us and fulfill the conditions. Similarly, while it is the practice of Our Court of Appeal that when a noble fief is distrained it is passed to a noble purchaser and when a fief falls vacant it is always bestowed on a noble, sufficient evidence of which is to be found in the registry of fiefs, Yet We cannot renounce the right to escheat vacant fiefs which are suitable for Our domains and to incorporate them in Our domains and estates, especially in the present condition of the country, in which so many noble estates are lying derelict and empty, with little prospect of getting reclaimed.
We are, however, always graciously prepared, but with reservation of Our rights, to bestow vacant fiefs on nobles and other native families. We cannot, however, completely exclude servants of Ours of burgher quality who have rendered useful and loyal service to Us and to Our Electoral House, and we cannot recall any instance when a vacant and ownerless fief has been incorporated in Our domains; on the contrary, many large and valuable properties have been detached from the Electoral domains and conferred and bestowed in fief on certain nobles.
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