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{{Short description|Landholder obliged to provide military services to an ispán in medieval Hungary}}
[[File:Hungary 11th cent.png|200px|thumb|right|alt=Map of the Kingdom of Hungary|The [[Kingdom of Hungary]] at the end of the 11th century]]
A '''castle warrior''' or '''castle serf''' ({{lang-langx|hu|várjobbágy}}, {{lang-langx|la|iobagio castri}})<ref name='Bán_237'>Bán 1989, p. 237.</ref><ref>https://dload-oktatas.educatio.hu/erettsegi/feladatok2007tavasz/emelt/e_tortangol_07maj_fl.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref> was a landholder obliged to provide military services to the ''[[ispán]]'' or head of a royal castle district in the [[Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages|medieval]] [[Kingdom of Hungary]]. Castle warriors "formed a privileged, elite class that ruled over the mass of [[Castle folk (Kingdom of Hungary)|castle folk]]"<ref name='Engel_71'>Engel 2001, p. 71.</ref> (Pál Engel) from the establishment of the kingdom around 1000 AD. Due to the disintegration of the system of castle districts, many castle warriors became serfs working on the lands of private landholders in the 13th and 14th centuries; however, some of them were granted a [[Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary|full]] or "[[conditional noble]]" status.
 
==Origins==
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Although landholders were superior in status to [[Castle folk (Kingdom of Hungary)|castle folk]], royal legislation did not treat castle warriors as full-fledged freemen.<ref name='Rady_20'/><ref name='Zsoldos_715'>Zsoldos 1994, p. 715.</ref> For instance, a castle warrior who had departed from his lord was "regarded as a fugitive in the same way as a runaway serf" (Pál Engel).<ref name='Engel_71'/> Nevertheless, they had the right to appeal to the monarch against the ''ispán'' they were serving.<ref name='Engel_71'/><ref name='Curta_401'/> Moreover, they could not be deprived of the land they owned, which passed to their children upon death.<ref>Engel 2001, pp. 71-72.</ref> Castle warriors were also exempted from the "[[freemen's pennies of freemen]]" (''denarii liberorum'' or ''liberi denarii''), a tax payable by all freemen to the kings.<ref>Engel 2001, pp. 70., 72.</ref>
 
Castle warriors appointed by the ''ispáns'' held the chief offices of the castle districts.<ref name='Bán_237'/> Thus both the heads of the "hundreds" (the basic units of the administration of a district), and the officers of the military contingent of the castle were always chosen from among their number.<ref>Engel 2001, pp. 70-72.</ref> Likewise, the [[castellan]] was always a castle warrior in the first centuries of the kingdom.<ref name='Engel_71'/> Castle warriors were eager to preserve their special status,<ref name='Bán_237'/> thus they frequently sued ''udvarniks'' or castle folk who tried to take their lands or usurp their privileges.<ref name='Rady_20'/> Even so, castle folk were sometimes elevated to the higher status of castle warriors.<ref name='Bán_237'/>
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==Disintegration==
[[File:Visegrád Mountain Fastness 01.jpg|200px|thumb|right|alt=Visegrád Castle|Ruins of the [[Visegrád Castle|royal castle at Visegrád]]]]
The alienation of some pieces of "castle lands" began under the early kings of the [[Árpád dynasty]], which initially always resulted in the resettlement of castle warriors on new lands.<ref name='Rady_31'>Rady 2000, p. 31.</ref> However, King [[Andrew II of Hungary|Andrew II]] (1205&ndash;1235) distributed large parcels of "castle lands" (sometimes whole counties) among his followers. This resulted in a significant number of castle warriors losing their direct contact with the monarchs and becoming subject to the authority of other lords.<ref name='Zsoldos_715'/> Even the status of those who remained on castle lands were threatened from the 1370s by the emerging idea of "royal right".<ref>Engel 2001, p. 149.</ref> According to this concept, all land that was not owned by the nobility or an ecclesiastic body belonged to the monarch, thus the property rights of those who had not been ennobled could be questioned.<ref>Engel 2001, pp. 148-149.</ref>
 
Nevertheless, many castle warriors were granted nobility by the monarchs in order to "remove the 'stain of ignobility' which was attached to castle service" (Martyn Rady).<ref name='Rady_81'>Rady 2000, p. 81.</ref> Even castle warriors living in castle districts distributed to private landholders could receive special collective liberties, although they were never granted "true nobility".<ref name='Rady_81'/> For instance, the "noble ''iobaigiones'' of [[Turopolje]]" in [[Zagreb County (former)|Zagreb county]] were granted the right to elect their own judges, a right which they preserved until the 19th&nbsp;century.<ref name='Rady_81'/>
 
==See also==
* [[Castle folk]]
* [[County (Kingdom of Hungary)]]
* [[Ispán]]
* [[Ministerialis]]
* [[Nobles of Turopolje]]
* [[Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary]]
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==Sources==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{huin iconlang|hu}} Bán, Péter (1989). Entry ''várjobbágy'' in: Bán, Péter; ''Magyar történelmi fogalomtár, II. kötet: L&ndash;Zs'' [=Thesaurus of Terms of Hungarian History, Volume I: L&ndash;Zs]. Gondolat. {{ISBN |963-282-204-8}}.
* Curta, Florin (2006). ''Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500&ndash;1250''. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN |978-0-521-89452-4}}.
* {{huin iconlang|hu}} Dolovai, Dorottya (2006). Entry ''jobbágy'' in: Zaicz, Gábor; ''Etimológiai Szótár: Magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete'' ("Etymological Dictionary: Origin of Hungarian Words and Affixes"); TINTA Könyvkiadó; Budapest; {{ISBN |963-7094-01-6}}.
* Engel, Pál (2001). ''The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895&ndash;1526''. I.B. Tauris Publishers. {{ISBN |1-86064-061-3}}.
* Kontler, László (1999). ''Millennium in Central Europe: A History of Hungary''. Atlantisz Publishing House. {{ISBN |963-9165-37-9}}.
* Lukačka, Ján (2011). ''The beginning of the nobility in Slovakia''. ''In:'' Teich, Mikuláš; Kováč, Dušan; Brown, Martin D. (2011); ''Slovakia in History''; Cambridge University Press; {{ISBN |978-0-521-80253-6}}.
* Rady, Martyn (2000). ''Nobility, Land and Service in Medieval Hungary''. Palgrave (in association with School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London). {{ISBN |0-333-80085-0}}.
* ''The Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary, 1000&ndash;1301'' (Translated and Edited by János M. Bak, György Bónis, James Ross Sweeney with an essay on previous editions by Andor Czizmadia, Second revised edition, In collaboration with Leslie S. Domonkos) (1999). Charles Schlacks, Jr. Publishers. {{ISBN|1-884445-29-2}}. {{OCLC|495379882}}. {{OCLC|248424393}}. {{LCCN|89010492}}. {{OL|12153527M}}. (ISBN may be misprinted in the book as 88445-29-2).
* {{huin iconlang|hu}} Zsoldos, Attila (1994). Entry ''várjobbágy'' in: ''Korai Magyar Történeti Lexikon (9&ndash;14. század)'' [=Encyclopedia of Early Hungarian History, 9th&ndash;14th&nbsp;centuries"]; Akadémiai Kiadó; Budapest; {{ISBN |963-05-6722-9}}.
{{Refend}}
 
[[Category:HungarianKingdom nobleof titlesHungary]]