Arrabona - Múzeumi közlemények 40/1-2. (Győr, 2002)
Tanulmányok - Pozsonyi József. A rátkai és salamonfai Rátkay család történetének megválaszolatlan kérdései
ARRABONA40.2002. TANULMÁNYOK József Pozsonyi The unanswered questions of the history of the Rátkys of Rátk and Salamonfa The Rátkys are one of the old and noble but less known families in Hungary. The ancestor of the family earned the patent of nobility with the court-of-arms from King Matthias Corvinus in 1462. Nowadays, the descendants of a family in Austria, a family in Hungary and a Hungarian emigrant family in England use the "Rátk and Salamonfa" title of nobility, and claim to be the inheritors of the Rátky ennobled by King Matthias. The estate of Rátk providing the first nobility particle for the family is the present day Murarátka in Zala County. The nobility particle of Salamonfa comes from Salamonfa - now Zsira -in Sopron County that was acquired by marriage at the end of the 16* century. According to the researches up to now the genealogical relationship between the ancient Rátkys of Rátk and Salamonfa and the existing Austrian and Hungarian-English descendants has not been managed to reveal. The members of the Rátkys were the decisive personalities in Transdanubia in the Middle Ages. The Rátkys - familiarly related to the Nádasdys from the middle of the 16 f century on - became the leading military officers of the region from the end of the 1500s until the end of the 17 l century. Menyhért Rátky and György Rátky were the captains of Kanizsa and Egerszeg, respectively, defending the borderland in front of Kanizsa, and they were the vice-generals of Transdanubia. The Rátkys also played significant roles in the public life of Zala, Vas and Sopron Counties. The most prominent member of this branch of the family is György Rátky Hussar Captain, whom Prince Ferenc Rákóczi sent to France where he organised the first efficient light cavalry regiment, the Rátky Hussar regiment. He was the owner of this regiment, and in the 1710s László Bercsényi - who organised the whole French light cavalry following the Hungarian model -served under his commandment. György Rátky achieved such significant successes in his military career that he was made Baron and general by Louis XVI. He earned many military decorations of high rank. He died at the siege of Prague in 1742. The existing Austrian branch of the Rátkys can trace their descent as far back as the very end of the 1700s, but Ludvig von Rátky - who excelled himself in the Battle of Aspern on 6 July 1809 - also used the nobility particles of Rátk and Salamonfa. On the Austrian side many members of the family joined the army and reached high ranks. The Rátkys living in Hungary and the emigrants in England trace the continuity of their descent only from the turn of the 18* and 19* centuries. The characteristic feature of this branch is that throughout many generations - almost 150 years - they were manorial high stewards, first with the Csernovics family, then with the Károlyis, a member of which family became one of the Prime Ministers of Hungary. The most interesting member of this branch is Frigyes Rátky, who co-operated in arranging a honourable funeral for Generals Damjanich and Lahner during the night of 8 October 1849, after the generals of the 1848/49 war of independence were executed and buried in the moat around the fortress of Arad. The great-grandson of this Frigyes - also called Frigyes - created a foundation of considerable amount for the benefit of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Debrecen-Nyíregyháza in 2000, which provides for the tuition - including board, supply and clothing - of a Hungarian student from Transylvania, from Upper Hungary (now Slovakia), from Sub-Carpathia and from the Southland, respectively, at the Saint Joseph Secondary School in Debrecen for 36 months. 205
