Dénes György: A Bódvaszilasi-medence 700 éves története (Borsodi Kismonográfiák 16. Miskolc, 1983)

István, but they soon fell into the hands of Bebek Ferenc. His son, György was a great double-dealer in the years when the country was divided between King Ferdinand of Habsburg, King Szapolyai János and the Turks, which resulted in the successful siege of Szádvár on the part of Schwendi Lázár, King Ferdinand's captain general in North Hungary. He managed to take the castle when Bebek György was not there and the castle was defended by his wife, Patócsy Zsófia. The estate with the villages thus came to belong to the royal treasury in 1567 and from that time it was administered by so-called "provisors" commissioned by the treasury. In the meantime the Turks occupied the castle of Fülek in 1554 and their troops regularly attacked the Bódva valley, too. The Szádvár garrison did not allow them to devastate the right bank of the Bódva, but the left bank was undefended. By 1576 the Turks had plundered and burnt to ashes Szentandrás, Kovácsi Hidvégardó and Vendégi. With the exception of Kovácsi life returned to these villages a few decades later. The provisors of the treasury or their tenants ravaged the Szádvár estate and castle for more than a decade. They neglected the castle and were merely exploiting the villages. Then for more than a century the estate was pawned to various families. The last three of these were incessantly engaged in law-suits among themselves, and finally sold part of the Szádvár estate to Esterházy Pál in 1674, and the rest by 1702. The kurucz rebels of Thököly took the castle and the estate in 1682 and the prince himself stayed there several times. King of Poland, Sobieski János, who played a decisive role in defeating the Turks before Vienna in 1683 and in beating the troops of Kara Mustafa in the Párkány battle tried to win Szádvár from the kurucz troops on the way home, but the siege was unsuccesful and the defenders caused severe losses to the Polish army. After Thököly's war of independence Szádvár went back to the imperial side and became once more an Esterházy estate. After 1686 the Vienna court had the castle demolished, and the seat of the estate was transferred to Bodvaszilas where the Esterházys exercised the jus gladii. During the war of independence, led by Rákóczi, the estate belonged to Rákóczi 's treasury, but when the war was lost, the estate went back to the Esterházy family. The descendents of comes Tekus, the Szini family gradually lost their villages in the course of the 15th century. Tornanádaska became first a Gyulay, then in the 19th century a Hadik estate. Zsenge's descandants, the Koszegis and the Komjátis were scattered all over the country, the Lenkeis left no heir. Later on also the Esterházys sold their estate to several lesser families. Bourgeois development left this area almost untouched in the 19th century; no significant industrialization took place. Owing to the backwardness of economic life, extreme poverty prevailed and tens of thousands of people sought a better life in America in the early 20th century. In the more industrialized settlements further off, primarily in the mining villages, the workers'movement appeared. Owing to the losses of the First World War and to the counter-revolutionary regime no significant development could be observed in the settlements of the Bodvaszilas basin. The region was liberated from the fascist regime in December, 1944. 1945 meant the dawn of a new era in the history of the settlements in the Bodvaszilas basin. The redistribution of the land gave land to the working farmers. After the difficulties of the first years the co-operatives became stronger and stronger and created the basis also for industry also. New schools, kindergartens, cultural centres, libraries and health centres have been built, a modern commercial and entertainment network is being organized together with a healthy drinking-water supply. The historic monuments are being reconstructed or renovated and the karstland around the basin has become a nature reserve. Many-sided 152