B. Halász Eva - Suzana Miljan (szerk.): Diplomatarium comitum terrestrium Crisiensium (1274-1439) (Subsidia ad historiam medii aevi Hungariae inquirendam 6. Budapest - Zagreb 2014)

Epilógus

Diplomatarium comitum terrestrium Crisiensium (1274-1439)

were ennobled and received the right of free government under a comes terrestris. In this work, of course, the author did not deal directly with the nobles of Križevci castle or their leader.10

Although he did not deal directly with the institution of the comes terrestris of Križevci, Dezső Csánki in his work the Körösmegye a XV-ik században [The County of Križevci in the Fifteenth Century] looks at the existence of the castle warriors in Slavonia and states that they survived there until the end of the Middle Ages, even when the areas in which they resided came into the hands of ecclesiastical or lay magnates. The author mentioned that the castle districts of Križevci and Kalnik remained in royal hands through the entire Middle Ages. Church praediales resided in the areas belonging to the bishop of Zagreb, the provosts of Čazma and of Glogovnica and other ecclesiastical institutions. Some were in private hands, like the castle districts of Rovišće and Greben. Csánki has thought that individuals that resided in the area of the castle district had the privilege of freely electing the comes terrestris coming from their own ranks, who judged their law suits according to customary law and sometimes royal laws. In that manner special territorial units (castle districts, which he refers to as "small counties") were established within the great noble county of Križevci.11

Lajos Thallóczy and Samu Barabás have collected sources which concerns the history of the Blagay family. In the introduction of the diplomatarium, the authors briefly touched upon the history of the castle districts in Slavonia. According to them, in Slavonia the estates of certain kindreds were spread around a certain castle. The noble kindreds lived in property and residential communities, and comites were the most important members of the wealthiest families within the kindred, which together with the heads of families judged disputes related to customary law. "Functions" were not hereditary. The Kings of Hungary implemented this system of kindred organisation on the castle system, but in this case the members of the organisation were drawn not from the kindred members but from the group of castle warriors.12

In 1905 Mór Wertner wrote a review of the Monumenta historica nobilis communitatis Turoplje olim campus Zagrabiensis dictae, a work of Emilij

10 Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski, Grad Veliki Kalnik [Veliki Kalnik Castle], Leptir, Zagreb 1859, p. 255.

11 Dezső Csánki, Körösmegye a XV-ik században [The County of Križevci in the Fifteenth Century], Budapest 1893, pp. 120-122.

12 Lajos Thallóczy - Samu Barabás (ed.), A Blagay-család oklevéltára. Codex diplomaticus comitum de Blagay, Monumenta Hungáriáé Historica - Diplomataria, vol. 28, Budapest 1897, pp. XIII-XX.

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