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Nobility, Land and Service in Medieval Hungary Martyn Rady Senior Lecturer in Central European History School of Slavonic and East European Studies University College London
in association with Palgrave Macmillan
© Martyn Rady 2000 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-333-80085-0
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2000 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349-42076-6 DOI 10.1057/9780333985342
ISBN 978-0-333-98534-2 (eBook)
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rady, Martyn C. Nobility, land and service in medieval Hungary / Martyn Rady. p. cm. — (Studies in Russia and East Europe) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Hungary—History—1000–1699. 2. Nobility—Hungary—History– –To 1500. 3. Feudalism—Hungary—History—To 1500. I. University College, London. School of Slavonic and East European Studies. II. Title. III. Series. DB930.5 R33 2000 943.9—dc21 00–041491 10 09
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Contents Acknowledgements
xi
Abbreviations used for Commonly Cited Sources List of Maps
xiii xv
Introduction ⬙ 1. Werboczy and the Hungarian nobility 2. A note on sources
1 1 8
1 The Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries 1.1. The work of the early Árpád kings 1.2. Households 1.3. Distinctions of men 1.4. Inheritance and the kindred
11 11 16 20 22
2 Origins of the Hungarian Nobility 2.1. The aristocracy and landownership 2.2. From servientes to nobles 2.3. Nobles and counties
28 28 35 39
3 Territorial Lordship 3.1. Dividing the land 3.2. Castle and lordship 3.3. Immunity and jurisdiction 3.4. Land and status
45 45 48 54 58
4 Authentication 4.1. Oral testimony and the pristaldus 4.2. Loca credibilia 4.3. The loca credibilia and inquisitions 4.4. Language and authentication
62 62 66 70 74
5 Conditional Nobles 5.1. Praediales and nobiles iobagiones 5.2. Landholding in the Highlands 5.3. Szörény and the Southern Danube
79 79 85 90
6 The Kindred and the Quarter 6.1. The solidarity of the kindred
96 96 ix
x Contents
6.2. Inheritance law and the ‘new donation’ 6.3. The daughters’ quarter 6.4. Prefection
97 103 107
7 Familiaritas 7.1. ‘Public’ and ‘private’ power 7.2. Familiares and their duties 7.3. Lordship and its obligations 7.4. Land and service 7.5. The royal aula and the ethos of chivalry
110 110 112 120 123 126
8 Offices and Honores 8.1. Definition and significance 8.2. Castles and honores 8.3. Revenues and distribution 8.4. Honores as ‘fiefs’
132 132 133 137 142
9 Military Obligation 9.1. Personal service and noble taxation 9.2. Banderia 9.3. Reform and differentiation of service 9.4. A note on numbers
144 144 146 149 156
10 Counties and Corporations 10.1. Crown and estates 10.2. Counties and the settlement of disputes 10.3. The counties and the regnum 10.4. The counties and familiaritas
158 158 162 169 173
Conclusion
179
Notes
183
Works Cited
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Index
225
Acknowledgements My first thanks are due to the Council of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, for granting me a year’s study leave in the session 1997–8. The School’s Research Policy and Funding Committee also provided generous support for several visits to Budapest in the autumn of 1998. Earlier drafts of this text were read by Professor János Bak of the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University in Budapest, by Damir Karbi´c of the Croatian Academy of Sciences in Zagreb, and by Professor Pál Engel of the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Professor Engel was also kind enough to let me read a preliminary version of his new history of medieval Hungary. Throughout the writing of the present book, my former supervisor, Professor László Péter of the University of London, has maintained a critical and watchful eye, and has given most generously of his time. I continue to be indebted to his scholarly advice and example. I have also benefited from discussions with my colleagues at the School, Professor Dennis Deletant, Professor Robert Pynsent, Dr Daniel Abondolo, Peter Sherwood, Dr Kieran Williams, Dr Wendy Bracewell and Tim Beasley-Murray, as well as from much earlier conversations in ⬙ and Budapest with the now late Professors Elemér Mályusz, Jeno⬙ Szucs Erik Fügedi. It was the last of these who, more than fifteen years ago, first alerted me to some of the opportunities for research on the medieval Hungarian nobility. Previous versions of parts of the present book were delivered as papers at the School’s annual Romanian Studies Day, to the School’s Centre for the Study of Central Europe, and to the Medieval Nobility Workshop organized by the Department of Medieval Studies of the Central European University in Budapest. I am most grateful for the comments and advice received on all these occasions. MARTYN RADY School of Slavonic and East European Studies University College London
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List of Abbreviations Used for Commonly Cited Sources Árpád-kori történeti földrajz: György Györffy, Az Árpád-kori Magyarország történeti földrajza, 4 vols, 1963–98. AO: Anjou-kori okmánytár (Codex Diplomaticus Hungaricus Andegavensis), (ed), Imre Nagy, Gyula Nagy, 7 vols, Budapest, 1878–1920. AUO: Árpád-kori új okmánytár (Codex Diplomaticus Arpadianus Continuatus), (ed) Gusztáv Wenzel, 12 vols, Pest-Budapest, 1860–78. Blágay család oklevéltára: A Blágay család oklevéltára 1260–1578 (Codex diplomaticus Comitum de Blagay), (Monumenta Hungarica Historica, 28), (eds) Lajos Thallóczy, Samu Barabás, Budapest, 1897. CJH, i: Corpus Juris Hungaricae (Magyar törvénytár), (ed.) Dezso⬙ Márkus, i, 1899. Diplomata Hungariae Antiquissima: Diplomata Hungariae Antiquissima, i, (ed.) György Györffy, Budapest, 1992. Dl: Hungarian National Archive, Budapest, Collectio Ante-Mohácsiana. DRH 1301–1457: Decreta Regni Hungariae (Gesetze und Verordnungen Ungarns) 1301–1457, (eds) Ferenc Döry, György Bónis, Vera Bácskai, Budapest, 1976. DRH 1458–1490: Decreta Regni Hungariae (Gesetze und Verordnungen Ungarns) 1458–1490, (eds) György Bónis, Ferenc Döry, Géza Érszegi, Zsuzsa Teke, Budapest, 1989. DRMH: Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary (Decreta Regni Mediaevalis Hungariae) 1000–1490, (eds) János M. Bak, György Bónis, James Ross Sweeney, Leslie S. Domokos, Paul B. Harvey, 3 vols, Los Angeles, 1989–96. Krassó vármegye története: Krassó vármegye története, (ed.) Frigyes Pesty, vols iii–iv (Oklevéltár), Budapest, 1882–3. Lexikon: Korai magyar történeti lexikon (9–14. sz.), (eds) Gyula Kristó, Pál Engel, Ferenc Makk, Budapest, 1994. Mon. Strig.: Monumenta Ecclesiae Strigoniensis, (eds) N. Knauz, L.C. Dedek, 3 vols, Esztergom, 1874–1924. Oklevelek Temesvármegye: Oklevelek Temesvármegye és Temesvár város történetéhez, iv (Oklevelek, i), (ed) Tivadar Ortvay, Pozsony, 1896. PRT: A pannonhalmi Szent-Benedek-rend története, (eds) László Érdelyi, Pongrác Sörös, 12 vols, Budapest, 1902–16.
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xiv List of Abbreviations Used for Commonly Cited Sources
RR: Regesta regum stirpis Arpadianae critico-diplomatica (Az Árpád-házi királyok okleveleinek kritikai jegyzéke), (eds) Imre Szentpétery, Iván Borsa, vol 1 (3 parts), vol 2 (4 parts), Budapest, 1923–87. Smiˇciklas: Smiˇ ciklas, T. (ed.), Codex Diplomaticus Regni Croatiae, Dalmatiae et Slavoniae, vols ii–xix, Zagreb, 1904–16. ⬙ Tripartitum: Werboczy, István. Tripartitum operis juris, (eds) Sándor Kolozsvári, Kelemen Óvári, Budapest, 1897. Zimmermann-Werner: Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der Deutschen in Siebenbürgen, (eds) Franz Zimmermann, Carl Werner, G. Müller, G. Gündisch, 5 vols, Hermannstadt – Bucharest, 1892–1975. ZsO: Zsigmondkori oklevéltár, (eds) Elemér Mályusz, Iván Borsa, 4 vols, Budapest, 1951–94.
List of Maps 1 Hungary in the fifteenth century 3.1 Kindreds and landholding in Bihar County in the early fourteenth century (Source: György Györffy, Az Árpád-kori Magyarország történeti földrajza, second edn, i, Budapest, 1987, pp. 580–1)
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