Majorossy Judit: Egy történelmi gyilkosság margójára. Merániai Gertrúd emlékezete, 1213 - 2013. Tanulmánykötet - A Ferenczy Múzeum kiadványai, A. sorozat: Monográfiák 2. (Szentendre, 2014)
VI. English Summaries
To the Margin of a Historical Murder - English Summaries agrees I do oppose not”. This sentence, with some modifications of the stresses and the pauses, could be interpreted as an encouragement for the assault or as a discouragement as well. The philological analysis of the narrative tradition containing the history of this ambiguous letter proved that this amusing anecdote has no historical value, therefore, we have no reason to suppose that the archbishop could have been part of any conspiracy against Queen Gertrude. As for the possible motives of the real murderers (Peter and his accomplices) one cannot do anything else but speculate. The furious anger that led to the death of Gertrude might have been fuelled by the aversions of the Hungarian higher nobles against the German courtiers around the queen of Meranian descent (an explanation that some of the contemporary sources suggest) or by their repugnance against the political influence of King Andrew II’s wife. Some personal (and thus intraceable) motives were also raised by the author as a possible new explanatory element. József Laszlovszky The Burial of Gertrude of Andechs-Meran in the Cistercian Monastery of Pilis. Royal Burials in Hungarian Cistercian Monasteries In the scholarly literature it appears to be an unquestionable fact that Gertrude of Andechs-Meran was buried in the Pilis monastery after her assassination just because it was the closest to the scene of the murder. Such correlation, however, is not based on historical documents, but rather on a construction of historical hypotheses. One of the reasons for burying Queen Gertrude with the Cistercians in Pilis could have been that the murder took place in the proximity, but it would be a false interpretation to consider that this was as the only factor for choosing the place of such royal burial. The traditional Cistercian ties of the Andechs-Meran family in this respect must have been of at least the same importance. The article analyses the funeral of Queen Gertrude within the larger context of Hungarian royal burials, especially with regard to the complex connections of the royal dynasty with the Cistercian order: the waves of the monastic foundations, the donations in favour of the Cistercian monasteries, and the role of the order in royal burials. At the beginning of the thirteenth century the tradition of burying the Hungarian kings in the church of the St. Mary’s provostry in Székesfehérvár, the sacral centre of the Hungarian Kingdom was broken, and thereafter, for a century the possibility of choosing other churches was also left open. First of all, the main episcopal sees (Eger, Varad) appeared as important royal burial places, but these were soon followed by monasteries as well. At the same time, important changes took place within the Cistercian order. Accordingly, the monks not only allowed, but also more and more supported the burials of royals in their monasteries. Moreover, by reallocating the graves, they contributed to the forming of dynastical burial places (for example, Heiligenkeuz). The changes happening within the order are obviously shown by the fact that thereafter not only the founder kings or queens were allowed to be buried inside, but also the donators of the previously established monasteries. In the politics of the thirteenth-century Hungarian kings not only the new monastic foundations were of importance, but also the donations given to monasteries founded earlier, mainly by King Béla III. And the new, permissive attitude of the order made certain Cistercian monasteries particularly appealing. Examples for royal burials appeared in increasing numbers in the central (French) abbeys of the order but also in other territories with important dynastical or conventual connections to the Hungarian Kingdom, such as the Iberian Peninsula, Austria or Silesia. Pilis and Egres were among the most prominent Cistercian monasteries in these decades in the Hungarian Kingdom, thus, it is certainly not accidental that both appeared as royal burial places. The possibility that King Andrew II himself wanted to find his resting place in Pilis after his death is a feasible supposition. Not only because an authentic Cistercian source suggests this, but seemingly his burial at Pilis had also been prepared by significant donations in favour of the monastery that was centrally located within the kingdom, in the vicinity of the main royal centres (namely Esztergom and Qbuda). Due to the lack of relevant sources it remains rather uncertain whether this idea concerning the burial place was already given before the funeral of Queen Gertrude, or whether it occurred only later. Nevertheless, on the basis of a Cistercian document it can be supposed that King Andrew II in some form or another made his decision clear to the abbot and the monks and his wish concerning his burial place was well-known by them. However, Andrew’s wish contradicted the intentions of his own son, King Béla IV, who after the years of permanent conflict with his father came to the position to decide for the place of the funeral. It is possible he did not want his father being buried near his beloved mother, as King Béla is suggested to believe his father responsible for the fact that the murderers were not properly punished. The Cistercian order at the time of Andrew’s burial must have been influential enough to change the first chosen burial place (the episcopal see of Várad) 313
