Berecz Mátyás - Bujdosné Pap Györgyi - Petercsák Tivadar (szerk.): Végvár és mentalitás a kora újkori Európában - Studia Agriensia 31. (Eger, 2015)
SZIRÁCSIK ÉVA: Koháry II. István, a birtokgyarapító katona
Éva Szirácsik ISTVÁN KOHÁRY II SOLDIER AND ACCUMULATOR OF ESTATES The accumulation of estates by the Kohárys is characteristic of the period from Péter Koháry (1593-1629) to András Koháry (1694-1757). The Koháry family’s estates reached their greatest extent during the lifetime of chief justice István Koháry II (1649-1731). This is not surprising considering that as a landowner he was keen to build on what he already had. István Koháry II may have been motivated by the desire to acquire and maintain everything to which he was entitled both on his mother and father’s sides of the family. On his mother’s side he was able in various ways to acquire the lands belonging to his disgraced relations Imre Balassa III and palatine Ferenc Wesselényi. His unquestioned loyalty towards the monarch as well as his own personal qualities served him well in this regard. István Koháry II’s primary motive was to ensure the material security of his family. Unfortunately the advantages arising from his estates could not be enjoyed when, on account of the loyalty he showed towards the Viennese court, his estates were confiscated during the Thököly Uprising and the Rákóczi War for Freedom. Once the wars had passed, however, the estates were returned to the Kohárys, and it was with great gratitude that the Kohárys remembered their estate-accumulating soldier-count István Koháry IL The additions to the estates made during the 17th—18th centuries were subsequently lost in the period up to the death of Ferenc Koháry in 1826, as a result of the respect of pledges and familial agreements. This resulted in major geographical changes in the extents of their lands as the estate network in the counties of Hont, Gömör-Kishont, Nógrád, Heves and Külső-Szolnok, Pest-Pilis-Solt counties were for the most part reduced to just Hont and Gömör-Kishont with the exception of the few smaller estates remaining in the other counties. This shift in emphasis resulted in the estates which the family had in Lower Austria acquiring a great status during this period. 246
