Diaconescu, Marius (szerk.): Mediaevalia Transilvanica 1998 (2. évfolyam, 1. szám)
Relaţii internaţionale
The Political Relations between Wallachia and Hungary 39 Romanian voivode's government over the territories situated within the Carpathians. It was not a complete one, but a commissioned one, as well as the implied attributions. It is about a delegation from the king's sovereignty over a certain territory, circumscribed to the title of duke of Făgăraş. The initial meaning of the title of banus of Severin had by the Romanian voivodes, was that of a dignitary in the Hungarian kingdom213. Only the duchy of Făgăraş, and later that of Amlaş, had the statute of an estate given according to the proper vassality customs and principles. But also with a temporary right, with partial, commissioned attributions. The fact that the voivodes understood something different afterwards and transformed the circumscribed territories in actual feoffs, which they considered to have inherited, was possible because of the internal evolution in Hungary. One has to stress the fact that their ruling did not presume their annexation to Wallachia, hut their administration within the kingdom of Hungary. This conception was at least the point of view of the Hungarian royal office. A proof of the special character of this feoff can even be the name of it: duchy. The Romanian voivode who ruled the duchy automatically became a duke. The importance of the duke title in the medieval hierarchy supports the statute of a pro honore feoff. The title could not be granted but by the suzerain king, suzerain of the new senior. A totally different conception about the rights implied by ruling the Făgăraş duchy was shared by the Romanian rulers. The difference consists in contesting the right of reconsideration of the donation in case of unfaithfulness, as well as the claims for the inheritance of the feoff. Even in the 16th century, many years after Făgăraş was no longer earmarked to the Romanian voivodes, they claimed it with the right of inheritance214. An open question for today's research is the competence of the voivode in his quality of duke of Făgăraş. He made donations in favour of his faithful servants. In the subsequent donation documents, issued later, the king is no longer required to confirm the donation. Which does not mean those similar documents would not have been issued along the time, having been lost. It is certain that beginning with Mircea the Old the Romanian voivodes donate estates, fully or partially, the same way it happened in the actual Wallachia. The Romanian voivodes performed sovereign actions - donation, ennobling - in Făgăraş as in the inner country215. Boyars from the actual Wallachia received estates in Făgăraş while boyars from Făgăraş received estates south of the mountains. These movements in the 15lh century question the voivode's competence, in his quality of duke, to elevate anybody to a nobiliary rank or make donations in the duchy. The Romanian historiography considers that the ruler exerted his complete jurisdiction in Făgăraş216, identical to the one in Wallachia. But it is to be explained by means of 213 N. Iorga, Carp aţii în luptele dintre români şi unguri, p. 89. admits that Vladislav was the Hungarian king's dignitary in his quality of banus of Severin. 214 D. Prodan. Iobăgia in Transilvania in sec. alXVI-lea, II, Bucureşti, p. 10.-15 Ibidem, pp. 12-13. 216 Ibidem, pp. 11-13.
