B. Gál Edit – Veres Gábor szerk.: Agria 47. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2011)
Havassy Péter: Várnagyok és alvárnagyok a középkori Heves megyében
Péter Havassy Castellans and deputy castellans in medieval Heves county In our paper - due in part to size constraints - we only deal with castles in Heves county, wherein at least one of the Castellans were well known. A number of thus far known 14 t h century Sirok castellans also held a position of land-steward, i.e. the Bebek brothers and Miklós Domoszlai (possibly Imre Visontai). Though László Tari to our knowledge up to now has never been mentioned as castellan, Sirok was in his ownership from 1389, consequently out of King Sigismund's hands. With this, none of the Heves castles remained in possession of the King for the studied period. The bestowal of Sirok may also have contributed to the land-steward title of Heves being linked to the Diósgyőr castellanship. Appearance of the bishop of Eger - presumably already from 1468 - as landsteward initiated a new process within the county's officer corps, as more and more often members from the circle of the Bishop of Eger show up among the office-holders. Thus, the bishop at times leaves the administration of county matters to his castellans (Henrik Scop, Simon Verebélyi), at other times to deputy castellans (Bálint Farnosi) and court justices (Balázs Szóláti, László Liptai), who except for Henrik Scop perform their tasks in a position of sub-prefect. Of the members of the bishop's military escort (Fülöp Encsi, Gáspár Pozsgai, Miklós Apafi) more and more apply for a position of castellan or deputy castellan of Heves county. Office-holders from the bishop's circle were not looked upon with favour by the county's public and demanded the right to appoint a sub-prefect for itself. Out of this contest the bishop still came out victorious at the turn of the 15-16 t h century, however in 1526 the appearance of Boldizsár Spácai the Castellan of Debrő as sub-prefect signalled a victory for the county nobility. At the helm of Szarvaskő, similarly an episcopal castle, an office-holder can be found who earlier served in Eger. It well exemplifies the character of the Eger 'valiant school' that among its 'students' - outside those in possession of the bishop - other subsequent Heves county castle commanders are also found, such as Péter Kis the Castellan of Nana. The majority of castellans and deputy castellans came from the county's (and neighbouring Nógrád and Gömör counties') respectable and wealthy families, hence it is common to find a land-steward and sub-prefect from one family not only at the helm of castles but also of counties. Investigation of the officer corps' education level yielded a negative answer, as registers on university attendance of Hungarian students have not shown a name of either a castellan or deputy castellan from Heves county. 149
