Kingdom of Hungary

The research of nobility and lives of nobles in the Hungarian metropolis after the battle of Mohács has been rather neglected. The paper attempts to give a basic outline of the problem mainly from a genealogical and partly from an archontological perspective.

The church or liturgical calendar was the crucial factor that influenced differentiation between everyday and festive days in the whole Christian Europe. Religious service divided a day into separate sections; feasts of the church did the same within a year. The church calendar has an ultimate influence on the way how medieval men would spend their days.

The paper analyzes formation of nobility as an independent social group in the early Hungarian kingdom. The first mention of the term "noble" (nobilis) appears in the sources of Hungarian origin in the Law 3 of the king Ladislas I. Persons designated in the contemporary society as nobles were people born into upper class and wealthy families, forming a group which would be nowadays termed "aristocracy". The appearance of the term "noble" is connected with social changes in the 70´s of the 11th century, when a group of extra privileged was extolled from previously compact group of freemen.

The article examines the beginnings of people’s assemblies in the territory of present-day Slovakia. It consists of two parts. While the first one is concerned with the period of the Mojmírid dynasty (the 9th century), the second one deals with the period of the Arpadian dynasty until the 12th century. For both periods, it is typical that assemblies were termed variously, for example as “all the Moravians”, congregatio, consilium, etc. They were mostly juridical bodies for solving conflicts between individuals, but they also functioned as electoral or consultative bodies.

In the Middle Ages a good relationship between the ruler and his people was built on loyalty (fidelitas). Loyalty to the king was also very important for the political order and preservation of the power of the ruler as well as his people (magnates, mounted warriors, bishops, abbots and provosts). The oath of personal fidelity, devotion and loyalty was a part of the ritual in strengthening the relationship between the lord and his man. In Medieval Latin the words fides and fidelitas had originally a religious meaning – believer, a Christian, and Faith.

Typically, aid for the poor in Hungary was the responsibility of church representatives and social elites. However, Christian teachings only requested support for people in need in the form of alms, not permanent provisions. The level of care for the poor in the country adhered to this understanding until the second half of the 18th century when social support and health care became the agenda of the state. During the Enlightenment era, Hungarian elites started to address these issues under the guidance of the Emperor. The initiative was influenced, but not regulated by Maria Theresa.

The text deals with the coexistence of two social classes with different social and legal status – the nobility and burghers within the context of the early medieval towns in the Kingdom of Hungary. The author analyses both members of nobility that settled in towns and burghers who became members of the nobility. At the same time, the author highlights the more complex and structured social and legal differentiation of noble representatives who lived in towns.

Property disputes have always been one of the main reasons of misunderstandings and conflicts among family members. Big conflicts among the family of Pálffy members were caused by the testament of Palatine János Palffy and the consequent property division. The author analyzes the correspondence between Károly Pál Pálffy and Rudolf (I.) Pálffy, and offers a portrait of the complicated family relationships during the long-lasting conflict.

We have only very few sources from the medieval period which can be used for research and reconstruction of families. These are mostly tax registers which don't allow us to make exhaustive demographic analyses. The author uses published tax registers from Košice, Keresztúr, Alsónyék, Sziget and Bardejov to compare demographic situation in those localities. She analyzes differences and similarities and underlines problematic aspects of coefficients used for calculation.

The medieval French chivalric romance, which narrates the adventurous life of Messire Charles de Hongrie, that is, Lord Charles of Hungary, and was written for being read aloud, presents through the figure of its hero the ideal knight to the presumed audience, the inhabitants of the French noble manors. The author of the romance as well as the place and time of its birth are unknown; it has survived in a single manuscript, presumably from the 16th century.