Neumann Tibor: A Korlátköviek. Egy előkelő család története és politikai szereplése a 15-16. században - A Győri Egyházmegye Levéltár kiadványai. Források, feldolgozások 5. (Győr, 2007)
Hely- és névmutató
Tibor Neumann: The Korlátkövi family The History and Political Role of a Wealthy Noble Family in the 15th-16th Centuries (Abstract) Due to the medievalist researches of the past decades the close connection between political power and the ownership of castles in medieval Hungary has become obvious. Thence it follows that even the study of “general history” may not be devoid of such thorough examinations that put those families in the limelight which had a share in power, that is the representatives of the baronial stratum and the castle-owning nobles. The family history approach in the case of these two strata will doubtlessly provide scholarship with political history results beside socio-historical ones. In his work the author has examined the history and political role of such a wealthy family a member of which was a baron in the Jagellonian era, thus played a significant role in the goverment of the two Jagellonian kings. The paper demonstrates the events of exactly a century from obtaining their first and eponymous castle in 1446 until the dying out of the male line in 1546. There were several reasons for choosing the Korlátkövi family. Naturally the author was mostly influenced by his own curiosity in social history, since he intended to deal with the political power and social position of the castle-owning nobles. This social group - the members of which were referred to as egregii from the beginning of the 15th century even if they did not hold the required offices - was different from the medium landowners residing just below them in social hierarchy, because the former usually owned a few forts and hundreds of villein households and often had access to the royal court rarely obtaining barony. After being raised to the western style peerage in the early modern times these families quickly became absorbed in the Hungarian aristocracy of the modern times. On the other hand it seemed obvious to him to begin this examination with a family belonging to this stratum; a family that is from the north-western region of Hungary (Nitra county to be more exact), that the author has been studying for years. At the end of the middle age the Korlátkövi family had - partly due to demographic reasons - the biggest wealth among the other castle-owning families (Apponyi, Cobor, Forgács, Majtényi) in the county, and doubtlessly the biggest influence owing to Peter, Steward of the Royal Household, who was killed at Mohács. Another fortunate reason for a historian is that the family died out two decades after the year that is traditionally considered to be the end of the middle age, therefore it is not necessary to create artificial periods when examining their history. Whilst it is indisputable that Nitra county is in a favourable position as far as family history researches are concerned, it is important to mention that the Elefánthyak from Erik Fiigedi, which is considered to be a classic in Hungarian historical literature, could not provide control material for the author. While the Elefánthy’s were significant medium landowners in the late middle ages, the Korlátkövi’s were a castle-owning family, who later became barons with such wealth and power that their endeavours were completely different from that of the Elefánthy’s.
