Veres Gábor szerk.: Agria 45. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2009)
Csiffáry Gergely: Bornemissza Gergely deák életrajza
Gergely Csiffáry Gergely Bornamissza's Student Years A quarter of a century ago István Sugár wrote Bornamissza Gergely deák élete (Gergely Bornamissza's Life as a Student). In the intervening years several previously unknown details of Bornamissza's life have come to light. It is not the intention of this study to acquaint the reader with the life of the Eger castellan in its entirety. Rather I would like to present those recently uncovered findings, which are likely to make our image of the man all the more complete. Those parts of his life with which we are most familiar concern his arrival at the castle, his activities during the course of the 1552 siege, and his work as castellan of Eger Castle between 1553 and 1554. As these have already been covered in some detail, I have decided that I will not deal with them here. In my introductory chapter - by way of an overview - I present the reader with those of Gergely Bornamissza's contemporaries who have a similar name. This is an issue that has not been dealt with previously. We then look at the castellan's title of "student", and the kind of studies he was likely to have engaged in at school. We then trace the beginnings of Bornamissza's school career, his first military action in 1547 and then his work as prefect on the Forgách estates between 1549 and 1551. For his contribution to the Î 552 defence of the castle Bornamissza acquired a number of grants of land from both the king and the bishop of Eger. In the autumn of 1555 Bornamissza and his troops were ambushed in the Hatvan frontier region, and all forty of them fell into captivity on October 18 t h in Heves County not far from Pásztó. Although the royal ambassadors made serious attempts to have Bornamissza released, it was never possible to gain him his freedom on account of the fact that the sultan considered him his own personal prisoner. The Grand Vizier Kara Ahmed, who was unable to forgive him for the unsuccessful siege of Eger in 1552, had Bornamissza executed in September 1555 out a desire for revenge. In the final chapter I present the Bornamissza family, in particular the persons of János and György, and their respective families. It was György, the son of the castellan of Eger, who acquired the Adámfölde estate in Sáros County, through which the family acquired a new surname (together with the surnames Pécsi and Kálnai). The boy however was to die without a successor. His brother János and his descendants were to be known under the names Kálnai and Ádámföldi Bornamissza. 103
