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

Epilógus

Comes terrestris Crisiensis. An introductory study

the sources for the first time in 1416, together with his brother Andrew, and in 1435 with his other brother John among the homines regii.m

In 1439, as the comes terrestris was mentioned Paul, son of Mikčec, who had the noble adjective de Cirkvena, and whose family originated from a certain Isaac.101 102 The first known member of the family who had that noble adjective was Peter in 1266. The family has experienced a social rise during the reign of Sigismund of Luxemburg, especially because of the turbulent period at the turn of the century. Nicholas then started to be called Mikčec, which later became his family name. Two of his sons, Paul and Nicholas, have been ennobled in Regensburg in 1434.103 It seems that they were members of the royal court. Besides being comes terrestris of Križevci, Paul was also comes terrestris of Veliki Kalnik, together with George Piers (a retainer of Count Herman of Cehe).104 Paul was later a proto-notary of Križevci.105 106

The agency of comes terrestris

The legal authority of the comes terrestris is connected with the group of dwellers around a certain castle, in this case those around Križevci. In the fourteenth century, they were called nobiles iobagiones castri and in the fifteenth century, nobiles castri}06 Consequently they will be styled using the latter term in this work. The activities of the comites terrestres which shall be presented in the following lines are merely those we have confirmation for in the sources. Although alongside them, the comites ter-101 10 August 1437 (Documenta 61), 11 October 1437 (Documenta 62). More on the career of later members of the family, see: Tamás Pálosfalvi, The Noble Elite in the County of Körös (Križevci) 1400-1526, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Central European University, Budapest 2012, pp. 242-244.

102 It is necessary to emphasize that family is sometimes defined according to the village of Raven, where they also had estates, but they are not identical to the family of Raven that is frequently mentioned in the sources of the period. Cf. Pálosfalvi, The Noble Elite, p. 131, ref. 1122.

M3 jhg grant 0f arms is kept in the Archive of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, in the collection Annales as A-I-2 (MNL OL, DF 286 305). Its text was published by Ivan Bojničić in his study Najstarija hrvatska grbovnica (litterae armales) [The Oldest Croatian Coat-of-Arms (litterae armales)], Starine Jugoslavenske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti, vol. 16, Zagreb 1884, pp. 113-116.

104 Charters issued on their behalf: 14 May 1451 (AHAZU, D-VIII-112; MNL OL, DF 231 014), 20 July 1451 (MNL OL, DL 33295).

i°5 More details on this and later events in the family, see: Pálosfalvi, The Noble Elite, pp. 131-134.

106 In any case, an old term has survived: 17 May 1408 (Documenta 28).

127