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[[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''' ({{lang-hu|várjobbágy}}, {{lang-la|iobagio castri}})<ref name='Bán_237'>Bán 1989, p. 237.</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"<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==
{{Quote box
|quote="We wish that each lord have his own warriors and no one shall try to persuade a warrior to leave his long-time lord and come to him, since this is the origin of quarrels."
|source = Laws of King [[Stephen I of Hungary|Stephen I]] 1.23.<ref>''The Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary, 1000–1301'', p. 6.</ref>
|width = 200px
|align = right
}}
The origin of castle warriors can probably be traced back to [[Stephen I of Hungary|Stephen I]], the first crowned [[king of Hungary]] (1000 or 1001–1038), since most royal castles were erected during his reign.<ref name='Engel_71'/> However, the settlement of armed [[commoner]]s around princely fortresses may well have begun under the rule of his father, [[Grand Prince of the Hungarians|Grand Prince]] [[Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians|Géza]].<ref>Kontler 1999, p. 51.</ref> The ''jobbágy'' or ''iobagio'' expression, first recorded between 1127 and 1131, is of [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] origin, connected to the Hungarian word for "better" ''(jobb)''.<ref>Dolovai 2006, p. 354.</ref>
Castle warriors held landed property with a territory carved out from royal estates attached to a royal castle.<ref name='Lukačka_37'>Lukačka 2011, p. 37.</ref> In return for this landholding, they rendered military service to the ''ispán'' of the royal castle.<ref name='Lukačka_37'/><ref name='Rady_20'>Rady 2000, p. 20.</ref><ref name='Curta_401'>Curta 2006, p. 401.</ref> Their property was often quite large, with a territory of about {{convert|70|ha|acre}}.<ref name='Lukačka_37'/><ref name='Rady_20'/>
==Flourishing==
{{Quote box
|quote="Castle warriors shall be preserved in the liberties established by the [[Stephen I of Hungary|holy king]]."
|source = [[Golden Bull of 1222]], article 19.<ref>''The Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary, 1000–1301'', p. 34.</ref>
|width = 200px
|align = right
}}
Although landholders were superior in status to 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 "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 [[udvarnik]]s or castle folk who tried to take their lands or usurpe their privileges.<ref name='Rady_20'/> Even so, castle folk were sometimes elevated to the higher status of castle warriors.<ref name='Bán_237'/>
==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 to new lands.<ref name='Rady_31'>Rady 2000, p. 31.</ref> However, King [[Andrew II of Hungary|Andrew II]] (1205–1235) 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 in castle lands were threatened from the 1370s by the emerging idea of the "royal right".<ref>Engel 2001, p. 149.</ref> According to this concept, all lands that did not belong to 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 never were 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 judges for themselves, which they preserved up until the 19th century.<ref name='Rady_81'/>
==See also==
* [[Castle folk]]
* [[County (Kingdom of Hungary)]]
* [[Ispán]]
* [[Nobles of Turopolje]]
* [[Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary]]
* [[Royal servant (Kingdom of Hungary)]]
==Footnotes==
{{Reflist|2}}
==Sources==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{hu icon}} Bán, Péter (1989). Entry ''várjobbágy'' in: Bán, Péter; ''Magyar történelmi fogalomtár, II. kötet: L–Zs'' [=Thesaurus of Terms of Hungarian History, Volume I: L–Zs]. Gondolat. ISBN 963-282-204-8.
* Curta, Florin (2006). ''Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250''. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-89452-4.
* {{hu icon}} 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, 895–1526''. 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, 1000–1301'' (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 88445-29-2.
* {{hu icon}} Zsoldos, Attila (1994). Entry ''várjobbágy'' in: ''Korai Magyar Történeti Lexikon (9–14. század)'' [=Encyclopedia of Early Hungarian History, 9th–14th centuries"]; Akadémiai Kiadó; Budapest; ISBN 963-05-6722-9.
{{Refend}}
[[Category:Hungarian noble titles]]
[[hu:Várjobbágy]]
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