Esztergom

Who holds it

Name

Job

Title

Archbishop of Esztergom, primate of Hungary

Since

1185

Confidence

high

Born in the early 1150s; studied at St Genevieve in Paris about 1180. Before Esztergom he was a bishop from 1181: of Vác according to Wikipedia, of Pécs according to the Hungarian Catholic Lexicon. Béla III's diplomat (he helped arrange the king's marriage to Margaret of France in 1186); he rebuilt the cathedral after a fire, consecrated in 1196. In 1198 Emeric granted his church the royal castle of Esztergom and a share of the customs, which Innocent III confirmed in 1199.

He later drifts into neutrality between the brothers and by 1202-03 Emeric calls him an enemy. Dies 1 February 1204.

What it holds

• The royal castle and palace on the castle hill of Esztergom (Emeric's charter of 1198)
• Two-thirds of the customs of Esztergom (1198)
• The customs of Pressburg (Bratislava) and Szeben (Sibiu): revenue rights, not lordship (1198; not drawn)
• Estates across the archdiocese (not drawn)
• The right to crown the king; claims over the royal provostries and tithe collection (confirmed by Innocent III in 1203)

How it was acquired

Emeric's charter of 1198, confirmed by Innocent III in 1199; older estates from St Stephen and his successors. The usual account dates the handover of castle and palace to Béla IV, in 1256; Wikipedia's article on Job and the Hungarian Catholic Lexicon both put a grant in 1198, so the king may have kept the use of the palace in between.

How things stand that morning

Held. Job stands with Emeric, whose grant he has just received; his quarrel with Kalocsa and his break with the king come in 1202-03.

Wealth

Customs on the Danube trade at Esztergom, Pressburg and Szeben; estates; the cathedral's revenues.

Threats

• The rivalry with Kalocsa over coronation and jurisdiction
• Royal resentment if Job stays neutral between Emeric and Andrew

Advocates and rivals

The king, who still holds court at Esztergom; the archbishop of Kalocsa, who disputes Esztergom's precedence and jurisdiction; the town's merchants.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1200 (not pinned)A papal legate reconciles Emeric and Andrew; Andrew returns to Croatia and Dalmatia and rules them as duke, minting coin and granting land.Depends on: Both brothers accepting the legate's terms. Stopped by: A new rising by Andrew, or Emeric refusing terms. (Andrew rebels again and is taken at Varaždin in October 1203.)

Places of note

• Esztergom castle hill: Béla III's palace and the cathedral of St Adalbert

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Two independent modern summaries (Wikipedia; Magyar Katolikus Lexikon) give the 1198 grant; Wikipedia's article on Esztergom Castle gives only Béla IV's later handover. The bounds of the castle precinct are not pinned.

On the map: Only the castle hill is drawn; the customs rights and scattered estates are not.

Primary sources for Hungary

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
• The Austrian and Salzburg annals (kept in the 12th and 13th centuries, with continuations to the late 13th century). A family of monastic annals from Austria, Styria and Salzburg, printed together. Read online
• The Hypatian Chronicle (the Kievan Chronicle compiled about 1200 at the Vydubichi monastery; the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle in the 13th century). The southern record. Read online
• History of the bishops of Salona and Split, by Thomas the Archdeacon, Thomas of Split (about 1266). Written two generations later by a Split churchman born about 1200. Read online
• History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
• The Deeds of the Hungarians, by the Anonymous Notary of King Béla, Anonymus (P. magister) (about 1200 to 1210, the date disputed). Not a record of events but a picture of the kingdom's nobility and geography as a courtier of about 1200 wished to see it: the clans and their lands, the castles and counties, the Vlachs, Cumans and other peoples of the Carpathian basin, all projected back onto the conquest. Read online
• The Book of Census of the Roman Church, Cencius Camerarius (Cencio Savelli, later Pope Honorius III) (1192, with later additions). The papal rent roll: every church, monastery, town and kingdom that owed a census to Rome in 1192, diocese by diocese, with the sums, followed by lists of papal lands and castles, the ceremonial Ordo and copies of charters. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online

4 more in the sources library for Poland, Hungary and the Adriatic.