Diaconescu, Marius (szerk.): Mediaevalia Transilvanica 1998 (2. évfolyam, 2. szám)
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196 Tamás Pálosfalvi Not both of them went to take over their honors immediately after their appointment, however. Újlaki remained with the king and fought alongside him in the Transdanubian campaign32. As for Hunyadi, he seems to have arrived to Transylvania in the beginning of April33, and began his activity there by holding an assembly for the local nobility at Cluj34. He found himself in a much favourable situation than his immediate predecessors: besides having extensive possessions and also a considerable number of familiares in Transylvania35, he also seems to have received a special royal permission to make perpetual grants, a prerogative normally reserved for the king himself36. He could also dispose of the revenues accruing from the royal monopoly of salt and, at least in 1443, of the tax paid by the Romanians37. In view of his overwhelming authority it is not surprising that Dezső Losonci acquiesced in his defeat and decided to make peace with the king. In the second half of May 1441 he appeared in the presence of the king and his barons in the court of Buda and swore an oath of fidelity to Wladislaw. In return for the ex-voivode's submission the king confirmed queen Elisabeth's grant of some villages that were due to Losonci as a compensation for his previous services38. By June 1441 Hunyadi had pacified Transylvania so successfully that he could safely leave the province. On 9 June we meet him at Timişoara39, presumably on his way to take over the castle of Belgrade. On his subsequent campaign against the bey of Smederevo practically our only source is the charter of king Wladislaw, issued on 8 October, which makes the reconstruction of events fairly difficult40. The king's charter says that it was hiis diebus noviter transactis that Hunyadi, together with his fellow-voivode, Miklós Újlaki, was sent to occupy the castle of Belgrade. Unfortunately, we have no evidence at all to retrace the itinerary of the two voivodes before 16 October 1441; all that we know is that 32 14 March 1441: Sopron vármegye története. Oklevéltár, II, ed. by Imre Nagy, Sopron, 1891, no. 173, 25 March: DF 238.204 (Reláció Nicolai de Wylak wayvode Transsilvani); 30 March: DF 279.632 (the same note by the chancery). 33 He is first attested in the province on 8 April 1441, cf. Zimmermann-Wemer, Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der Deutschen in Siebenbürgen (hereafter referred to as: Urkundenbuch), V, no 2413. 34 Dl. 62.821, 10 April 1441: "...cum nos feria secunda proxima post dominicam Ramispalmarum unacum nonnullis nobilibus et proceribus huius regni in civitate Cluswar pro disponendis quibusdam arduis negociisfuissemus constituti..." 35 On his familia see Lajos Elekes, Hunyadi, Budapest, 1952, pp. 135-138. 36 At least this is how we tend to interpret the statement of Hunyadi himself in a charter issued on 14 May 1441, according to which the voivode gave some estates to one of his own retainers serenissimi domini nostri regis in persona auctoritateque eiusdem nobis concessa" (DI. 37.600); it was also íatural that Hunyadi was given free hand to restore peace and order in his distant province without ' aving to consult his king all the time. Cf. L. Elekes, op. cit. (see note 35), p. 137. Dl. 74.078 38 DF 253.704. We publish this charter in the appendix of the present study. See also Zimmermann- Werner, Urkundenbuch (see note 33), V, no. 2400, wrongly dated to 3 February. Dl. 55.237. L. Thallóczy - A. Aldássy, A Magyarország és Szerbia közti összeköttetések oklevéltára 1198- 26, Budapest, 1907, p. 140.
