B. Halász Eva - Suzana Miljan (szerk.): Diplomatarium comitum terrestrium Crisiensium (1274-1439) (Subsidia ad historiam medii aevi Hungariae inquirendam 6. Budapest - Zagreb 2014)

Epilógus

Diplomatarium comitum terrestrium Crisiensium (1274-1439)

comes terrestris when discussing the position of the "counties" which did not develop into hereditary lordships, because the nobility within them had to gather into separate organisations headed by those which she terms "zemski župan" and "helpers in the field of the county's counts" (comes comitatus).19

The development of these institutions was dealt with by Croatian legal historian Lujo Margetić, who saw them as an integral element of "an old Croatian system." He explains how the kingdom of Slavonia was formed by the merging of several counties, for which he uses a Croatian version of a Latin word ("komitatus"). He uses this term to refer to the "real counties" of Zagreb and Križevci, as well as those which were in private hands at that time. Although he does not touch upon the role of the comes terrestris, he explains the function of the centurion, a lesser functionary who is also mentioned in our sources regarding Križevci castle.20

In the 1980s Josip Buturac wrote histories of several castle districts, including that of the castle district of Križevci. The castle district he styles with the Croatian terms "župa" [parish or shire] or, from the mid-thirteenth century, "županija" [county] (comitatus) and defines the former as a regional parish where freemen live in community and are obliged to perform military service. He also explore the officials of the government

19 Nada Klaić, Hrvati u razvijenom srednjem vijeku [Croatians in the Central Middle Ages], Zagreb 1976. For the castle districts during the age of the Árpáds, see, for example, pp. 254, 258-262, for the development under the Angevins, see pp. 507, 516- 518, and for the comes terrestris himself, see p. 521. The legal historian Ivan Beuc researched the social structures and territorial organisation within the medieval Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia in his work Povijest institucija državne vlasti Kraljevine Hrvatske, Slavonije i Dalmacije [History of the State Institutions of the Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia] (Zagreb 1985), but he does not deal directly with the issue of the comites terrestres. Borislav Grgin collects together the research of both Ivan Beuc and Nada Klaić, and mentions the problems relating to the comites terrestres as a characteristic of county organisation in the area of Slavonia. Cf. Borislav Grgin, Županije u razvijenom i kasnom srednjem vijeku [Counties in the Central and Late Middle Ages], in: Hrvatske županije kroz stoljeća [Croatian Counties through Centuries], ed. by Franko Mirošević, pp. 21-38.

20 Lujo Margetić, Povezanost strukture hrvatskog društva i političkih odnosa u srednjem vijeku (do pojave staleža) [The Connection of the Structure of Croatian Society and Political Relations in the Middle Ages (until the Beginning of Estates)], Rad Hrvatske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti, vol. 487, Razred za društvene znanosti, vol. 41, Zagreb 2003, pp. 95-98. The problem of the castle system in the Southern part of medieval Slavonia and Croatia was researched by Franjo Smiljanić in his work Studije o srednjovjekovnim slavenskim/hrvatskim institucijama [Studies on Medieval Slavic/ Croatian Institutions] (Zadar 2010).

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