Fatuska János – Fülöp Éva Mária – ifj. Gyuszi László (szerk.): Annales Tataienses II. A mezőváros, mint uradalmi központ. Mecénás Közalapítvány. Tata, 2001.

Dominkovits Péter: Nemesek Szombathely szabadalmas püspöki mezővárosában a 16. század végén, a 17. század elején

Noblemen in the society of the market-town Szombathely at the end of the 16th and in the first part of the 17th centuries Péter Dominkovits In Szombathely, which was the privileged market-town of the episcopate of Győr in the estate centre of the episcopal possessions, the noblemen appeared in larger number in consequence of the Turkish occupation. Their number increased rapidly in the 1540s and after this period as well. While in 1545 there were only 18 fugitive noblemen registered, who had been chased out from their possessions or had lost their estates, their number increased to 36 in 1547 and in 1548/49 there were 25-26 of them and this became stable for a while. At this time the fugitive noblemen were free from either the jurisdiction of the town or the taxation. While making efforts to preserve their noble privileges, the ones, who had purchased units of land held in villeinage, had several times been confronted with the inhabitants of the town, who at this time paid their tax {census) to the landlord in total. The tendency of the noblemen's purchasing assessable landed property is being shown by the following data: in 1565 from 207 assessable lands 11 were in the possession of noblemen, in 1577 from 200 serfs 41 were noblemen. In the villein socage documents of 1656 of Szombathely 200 persons were registered, mainly the heads of the family. (The last mentioned persons has to be highlightened because some clergymen were taken into the documents as the Chapter of Vasvár moved to Szombathely in 1578.) In the case of 39 persons (19-5%), who had been registered, the census-takers especially emphasized the noble legal status. This source - even because the time passed by - did not take any distinctions between the episcopal nobles living in dependency (predialists) and the descendants of the already settled, fugitive noblemen. Besides the noblemen, who had fled from Valkó, Várasd, Tolna, Somogy, Zala, Fejér counties or had moved to a safer place within the county, there had been episcopal nobles in a moderate number. One part of the noblemen, who were significant in proportion as well, made their living by handicraft trade while others, according to the official reports, the documents that had been remaining continuously since 1606, on general assemblies and on the administration of justice, acted the part of the judge as the leading position of exercising power in a town (e.g. the members of the Hetéssy family, Mihály Szele, Pál Tapolczay) or they were present at other forums of the town management (e.g. in the jury). As far as the study of sources shows at the moment their economic life was characterised particularly by trade. Several of them had been in connection with tradesmen from Vienna, Nuremberg or with the tradesmen's managing directors. (This fact is worth being emphasized because, according to the sporadic data that could be found in the records of Szombathely, the town might 239