Századok – 2014

TANULMÁNYOK - Dáné Veronka: Az erdélyi vármegyék tisztségviselői kara a fejedelemség korában (1541-1658) V/1111

AZ ERDÉLYI VÁRMEGYÉK TISZTSÉGVISELŐI KARA A 16-17. SZÁZADBAN 1129

Thanks to their legal expertise, some scions of the petty nobility and the townspeople were able to assume such important offices as those of prothonotary, fiscal director or judicial assessor. At the bottom of the official hierarchy, the deputy noble magistrates came from thinly endowed or landless noble families, and secured for themselves a living by putting their literacy or elementary legal knowledge into the service of the county. The third rank of the county personnel was constituted by the alispáns, among whom we find both the descendants of old comital families and those of newly risen ones. The office provided excellent possibilitiers for networking, and for enlarging a landed wealth that rarely exceded five tenant sessions; several among the incumbents managed to proceed to the office of chief noble magistrate, which was regarded as the second highest at the county level. While this latter dignity was to 90 percent monopolised by the most illustrious families of the pre-Mohács period, the office of főispán remained the privilege of the aristocracy. Generally, they performed their duties and represented the interests of their respective communities with convenient, occasionally outstanding expertise, and several among such families went on to provide officials to their county until as far as the middle of the 20th century.