Majorossy Judit: Egy történelmi gyilkosság margójára. Merániai Gertrúd emlékezete, 1213 - 2013. Tanulmánykötet - A Ferenczy Múzeum kiadványai, A. sorozat: Monográfiák 2. (Szentendre, 2014)
I. - Szabó Péter: A pilisi királyi erdő a középkorban
Péter Szabó: The Royal Forest of Pilis in the Middle Ages Late Medieval Period The death of the last Árpád (Andrew III, 1301) marked the beginning of a new era in the life of Visegrád and the surrounding Pilis Forest. Until the 1320s, Charles Robert, the new king, had more important issues to deal with than Royal Forests. But then in 1323 he moved his court from faraway Temesvár (today Timi§oara) to Visegrád. Why he did not choose Buda (or Óbuda) we shall never know for certain, but most probably he valued Visegrád for its geographical position and its strong fortress.43 With this change, the office of castellan of Visegrád (by this time merged fully with the position of the comes of Pilis) increased greatly in importance. For example, in the 1340s Töttös of Becse was castellan for a decade, while simultaneously filling the office of castellan of Óbuda and magister ianitorum; while Benedict Himfy, the next castellan (and comes), v/as later promoted to be ban of Bulgaria.44 The union of the two offices, however, did not last long. The castellans of Visegrád used the title of comes of Pilis only until 1366.45 After this time, the castellans gradually lost control over the county, or, what is equally likely, showed gradually less and less interest in the affairs of the county. There was most probably no need to make a point of demonstrating royal power in a county where it was already so overwhelmingly present. At any rate, what we do know is that the castellans ceased to call themselves comites, although King Sigismund continued to address letters to this apparently non-existent officer as late as 1411.46 Parallel with this, the regular institutions of the county itself began to develop. In 1333, we first hear about the ‘noble magistrates,’ the four-member judicial committee that was the most important representation of the new ‘noble’counties (although for one reason or another there were only two magistrates in County Pilis).47 By the fifteenth century there was little difference between Pilis and any other county as far as administration was concerned. What made County Pilis special is that it had no comes. Yet another inexplicable fact in the late medieval history of County Pilis is that it started to expand in the fourteenth century, acquiring extensive territories south of its core area at the expense of neighbouring counties. This is not quite as unusual as the missing comes, but it still puzzles the modern historian. The resulting comitatus Pilisiensis was then united with County Pest some time in the fifteenth century. One can detect a double structure that influenced the late medieval history of Pilis. On the one hand, there was the newly emerging ‘noble’ county, with its magistrates and territorial expansion. This line of development was entirely independent of the Royal Forest of the thirteenth century. On the other hand, the county was dominated by the castle of Visegrád. The castellan controlled the royal lands in Pilis, in other words what territory was left of Pilis Forest. The Forest, whatever the word meant in physical reality, was treated as existing by King Charles Robert, who issued a charter in 1324 in which he gave the hospites of Maros town the right to cut wood from Pilis to build houses or for firewood without any taxes or seal; however, if they wanted to sell the wood, they could do it only with the consent of the comes of County Pilis.48 This charter reveals the legal system of woodland management in Pilis. The comes controlled woodcutting. It was most probably his seal that was needed in normal cases, and it was also the comes who collected the taxes on timber and wood. The restriction that the hospites may not cut any wood for sale is a commonplace: most privileges concerning woodland rights contained it. Few other such charters survive. In 1388, Sigismund ordered the comes to let the nuns of Óbuda cut wood if they needed it for building or fire. The expression “silva nostra Pilissiensis” in this charter still reflects thirteenth-century royal attitudes.49 A century later in 1468, a mandate was directed to the castellan of Visegrád. The woodland in question was no longer called Pilis; instead we read about the woods of Visegrád. It was from these woods that the nuns acquired the right to take wood “for their kitchen” for a year.50 43 It has often been argued that Charles Robert was not very fond of Buda, which had supported his rivals to the throne. This theory was rejected by István Tringli (Tringli 2001: 76). The suggestion that the king may have especially valued the fortifications of Visegrád has been put forward by Gergely Búzás (Búzás 1995: 9). 44 Engel 1996: 34. The banatus Bulgáriáé was a shortlived (1365-1369) initiative of King Louis I. However, while it existed the ban counted among the barons, the highest officials of the kingdom. 45 It was so, with the exception of Leusták of Jolsva in the late 1380s and early 1390s. The following description of the development of County Pilis is based mostly on István Tringli’s study (Tringli 2001). 46 Kumorovitz (szerk.) 1987: III. 295. 47 Conventionally, we speak about two basic types of county organisation in medieval Hungary. First, there was the so-called royal’ county headed by a comes appointed by the king. Then, along with the formation of nobility and the overall changes in the thirteenth century, counties attained a form of self-governing independence (the best indicators of this are the presence of the noble magistrates and the regular assemblies of the nobles), although the comes was still there and still essentially a royal officer. This model, however lumpy, outlines a basically valid line of development. 48 АО VIII. 10. Maros (today Nagymaros) is close to Visegrád but on the opposite side of the Danube. It has rights in Pilis (and not in Börzsöny) because Eyza (comes of Pilis and castellan of Visegrád in 1285) acquired the rights to settle hospites on its territory. AMTFIV. 710. 49 Kumorovitz (szerk.) 1987: III. 18. 50 MNL OL, DL 16631. 78
