Szirácsik Éva (szerk.): Uradalmak kora - Discussiones Neogradienses 10. (Salgótarján, 2010)

Szalai Veronika: A Batthyány I. Ádámhoz 1649-ben beérkezett kérvénykivonatok statisztikai és tartalmi elemzése

DISCUSSIONES NEOGRADIENSES 10. - URADALMAK KORA

petitions per week were received by the landlord, and the documents were made into booklets by the landsteward, then into fist-sized bundles tied with string and given the title ’’Supplicationum merita”. I read 974 petition extracts, from which

10 were original petitions so they were not examined. The documents preserved in the Batthyány Archive represent a very rare and unique source from a limited area and period and well reveal the relationships of landlords and serfs in the 17th century: they give insight into everyday life of the period.

The aim of my work is to examine in the light of petitions how a 17th century large estate was managed. For an easier review the petitions have been made into

11 groups based on content e.g.:

1. Cancelling, reducing taxes and other duties

2. Request for aid

3. Mixed and legal cases

4. ‘‘Difficult to take into meritum” (The steward did not make an extract but asked the landlord to read the whole text. We do not know the matter.)

5. Petitions for making payment

6. Petitions relating to craftsmen

7. Petitions for landlord’s support

8. Petitions for exemption from punishment

9. Request for bigger parcels

10. Complaints on abuses by soldiers

11. Complaints on Turks

II. Without regard to contents:

1. Petitions by women

The petitions were written for the inhabitants of the estate by a literate person in Hungarian. The extracts contained the petitioner’s name, place of dwelling, and a short summary of the request. Ádám Batthyány then wrote his brief decision next to these.

The decisions of the landlord can be put into three types: the positive ones, the ones asking for further information, and the negative responses. To the 964 petitions we have knowledge of 892 answers, as for a small part no answer could be found or in some cases the handwriting was illegible.

In the study some examples have also been mentioned:

In No 260/29. (26 June 1649) the Voivodes from Körmend György Kelemen, János Szűts and Tamás Kelemen were asking to have some wine given by the landlord. Ádám Batthyány’s decision was to give wine to each: ‘5 akó’.

Tables have also been made to complete the lecture, e.g. content analyses, places from which the petitions were sent.

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