What is "inkolat"

Inkolat is a term from the rights of the nobility. It was obtained by either birth or formal admission into the societies of knights and landed gentry in the old Austrian and Czech lands. Only in Lusatia there was no Inkolat; admission into the community of the state nobility was there much easier.

The award of the Inkolat conferred on the recipient the ability to purchase or acquire noble estates, the right to participate in the state councils, and the permission to apply for positions that were reserved for the members of the Estates. Until the Thirty Years War the award of the Inkolat was the only way to determine the status of a prospective candidate. After the failure of the Bohemian Revolt of 1618 and 1619 Emperor Ferdinand II reserved the right to confer the Inkolat with his Verneuerte Landesordnung [Renewed Constitution] of 1627. With the end of the feudal rights and privileges in 1848, the Inkolat lost most of its meaning and prestige.