Piti Ferenc - C. Tóth Norbert - Neumann Tibor: Szatmár megye hatóságának oklevelei (1284-1524) - A nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum kiadványai 65. (Nyíregyháza, 2010)
Előszó
of a new type of county institution emanated from the central power at the very end of the 1270’s.7 The emergence of the germs of the noble county in our region corroborates that it was indeed so. The earliest data about the new institution is from Szabolcs county (December 14, 1284),8 which was soon followed by Szatmár (1284/1285), Ugocsa (ca 1290)9 and finally Bereg (May 1, 1299)10 counties. Just like the royal county, the noble county was led by the ispán {comes), who represented the king, and who, as before, was appointed by the king generally from among the barons. His deputy in the county was the alispán, who was initially called curialis comes and then vicecomes. (It must be remarked here that it is a common but incorrect practice that the head of the county is called főispán. No főispán or supremus comes is referred to in any county in medieval Hungary, only ispán or comes, whose deputy is the alispán or vicecomes.) The ispán was not necessarily a local lord, and his deputy whom he appointed from among his followers was not always one either. Yet a particular phenomenon, which was legally codified only by act 60 of King Mathias’s lawcode of 1486 {Decretum maius), can relatively early be observed in the counties of the region. According to this act, the alispán had to be appointed by the ispán from among the landowners of the county he functioned in.11 By the middle of the Angevin period, sooner or later depending on local circumstances, the ispán disappeared from the county administration, and left the direction of the county court and judicial work there to his deputy or deputies.12 Naturally, the alispán was not alone in sitting in judgement at the sedria and in carrying out inquisitions and examinations ordered by the central courts. Noble judges {indices nobilium, or frequently in the abbreviated form iudlium in the documents) were indispensable “requisites” of a noble county. Sharp debates had been pursued concerning the origins and functions of the office of the noble judge {szolgabíró [servant judge]), but the question seems definitively answered now: the name derived from the judge’s function of helping the alispán, that is, according to a contemporary phrase, his serving him.13 14 A charter issued by Pozsony county in 1464 confirms that it was indeed so: urging for the election of a fourth judge, the alispán argued that the noble judges were the pillars of the county court {colnmpna sedis nostre iudiciarie).'4 Szatmár County, similarly to the above-mentioned four other counties, had four judges. Speaking about the late Angevin period, the county authority means as a matter of fact the alispán and the four noble judges. The county had yet another officer, although he is only rarely mentioned in the sources: namely the county notary. 7 Vö. Zsoldos Attila: Az özvegy és a szolgabírák. Századok 137. (2004) 783-808 8 Piti: Szabolcs I. 19/1 9 C. Tóth: Ugocsa 25/2 10 Neumann: Bereg 27/1 11 Decreta Regni Hungáriáé 1458-1490. Francisci Döry collectionem manuscriptam additamentis auxemnt, commentariis notisque illustraverunt Georgius Bónis, Geisa Érszegi, Susanna Teke. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1989. (Magyar Országos Levéltár Kiadványai II. Forráskiadványok 19.) 299 12 Comp. C. Tóth Norbert: Szabolcs megye működése a Zsigmond-korban. Nyíregyháza, 2008. 27-28., 141 13 Zsoldos Attila: A szolgabírói tisztségnév kialakulásának kérdéséhez. Levéltári Szemle 38. (1988) 4:12-19 14 Vita. Szabolcs megye hatósága a Zsigmond-korban. Szabolcs-szatmár-beregi Szemle 40. (2005) 3:505— 521.; 521 18
