Drăgan, Ioan (szerk.): Mediaevalia Transilvanica 2003-2004 (7-8. évfolyam, 1-2. szám)
Adrian Andrei Rusu: Românii din Regatul Ungariei şi cetăţile medievale. (Privire specială asupra secolelor XIII-XIV)
Românii din Regatul Ungariei şi cetăţile medievale 105 structures with specific army units as early as the historical sources on the Hungarian Kingdom permit knowing about them. A wide variety of terms describe the ruling elite of the Romanians during the fourteenth century: royal serfs (iobagiones domini regiş), royal serfs ‘cnezi’ (leneşii iobagiones regales), ‘cnezi’ of castles (kcnezii ad castrum), and ‘cnezi’ of the castle districts (kenezu districtuum castri). Romanian scholars defined these terms and associated them with the institution of the ‘cnezi’ and its double character, being landowners and at the same time owing duties to the castles and the king. Starting from this conditionarius state the origin of this social group must date at least to ante 1300, when it was common for the elite of Hungary. On the other hand, it was not possible to build castles in uninhabited territories during the Árpádian period. Castles satisfied existing military and administrative needs, not future assumptions. They dominated an already settled population; they were not the starting point of new colonization processes. In the case of Romanians, therefore, the population was already in the region where the castles were built, and not the inverse, as was believed before. Only the terminology regarding the Romanian elites and their relation to the castles is special, and in the fourteenth century it witnessed an older social relationship. If the meaning of the terms were direct at that time, it would be necessary to construct a special scenario for the Romanians with massive colonization during the fourteenth century and apply to them an obsolete social scheme. In fact, the relationship of the Romanians with the castles is in essence a general solution which was applied throughout the kingdom during the twelfth century or even earlier. The issue of Romanians and castles must be extended to the castles built and owned by noble families of Romanian origin. Their relation to the Hungarian political presence and their beginning remain unclear. Only monuments from the 13th and 14th centuries can be linked without doubt to the Romanian elites. In general these castles are in regions where the royal ‘cnezi’ were mentioned earlier: Cuhea and Onceşti in Maramureş, Colţi, Mălăieşti and Răchitova in Haţeg, Turnu Ruieni, and Ţerova and Reşiţa in Banat. The situation in Făgăraş remains unclear. These small constructions were generally regarded as having had no use, as buildings that were too small, without cisterns and storage rooms. Were they only symbols of social status and refuges by chance? Recent studies have demonstrated, however, that these castles had a practical purpose; they were renewed periodically and archaeological finds suggest everyday use. In addition, they became social symbols, doubling in some sense the role of the noble curia and extending it.
