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 One might rightfully assume that after the ennoblement to true nobles the existence of an official as comes terrestris was unnecessary, because, with it, the whole castle district was abolished as well. However, it was not the case. On one side, the jurisdiction of the comes terrestris spread on the lands which were appertaining to the castle or castle district as a whole, thus even after 1430, he could have been considered responsible for the questions of these lands. On the other side, comes terrestris Benedict, son of Paul, in the intitulation of one of his charter has called himself as comes terrestris generationum Prelsa, Matheus et Hegen and not simply comes terrestris Crisiensis, which was usual in other charters.168 It is possible that this formulation reflected the attempt of the former castle warriors to preserve their autonomous organisation under a different name. However, the attempt was not long-lasting because in other charters the comites terrestres have returned to their usual manner of styling themselves in the intitulation. The office of the comes terrestris did not survive for long the collective ennoblement of the former castle warriors to the rank of true nobles, last information on it came from the charter of comes terrestris Paul, son of Mikčec of Cirkvena from 1439. Probably after 1430, not many lands were left as appertaining to the castle, for which comites terrestres were to take care of, and also, the owners themselves were trying to ennoble their lands, thus freeing them from the services connected with them.169 In the mid-1440s, the castle warriors were integrated into true nobility, and they were conducting their legal affairs in front of the county officials, and not anymore in front of their separate body. A recollection on their earlier separate position remained extant only in the fact that some of them (the nobles of Diankovec) sometimes continued to be styled as such in the charters.170 168 5 September 1435 (Documenta 59). 169 On the request of Michael of Raven the king declared as noble property two estates as well, on the same day when he has elevated the castle warriors of Križevci to the rank of true nobles. The estates in question were situated between the estates of the castle warriors, one on the territory of the Hegen kindred, and the other on the one of the Matthew kindred (AHAZU, D-IX-74 and 75; MNL OL, DF 231 098 and 231 099). 170 The best example for this is Phillip, son Matthew, who is mentioned in the sources of the comites terrestres since the beginning of the 1410s, and who is always defined as nobilis castri of Diankovec. His descendants appear in the sources of the turn of the fifteenth to the sixteenth century as the noblemen of Dijankovec. Therefore, for example, they were styled as such on 4 April 1506, when they have sold their noble curia (totalem curiam ... nobilitarem) in front of Ban Andrew Both of Slavonia (MNL OL, DL 37764). 139
