Vlachs of the Olt land

Who holds it

Name

No leader named for 1200 or for any date before the 1240s on this side of the mountains. In 1210 or 1211 the Vlachs marched with the Saxons, Székelys and Pechenegs under the king's count of Hermannstadt.

Title

Vlach communities under their own headmen (knezes), under the king's officers

Since

Not pinned: the first dated records are of 1202-1211

Confidence

low

Makkai: documents of the first third of the 13th century name a 'terra Blacorum' or forest of the Vlachs in the southern Carpathians; the land given to the Cistercians of Kerc, between the Olt, the Árpás and Eger streams and the mountains, was taken from the Vlachs, recorded under Voivode Benedict (1202-1209); the 1224 charter's 'forest of the Vlachs and Pechenegs' lay south-east of Hermannstadt near Talmács; the 1222 Teutonic charter that names the land of the Vlachs is held by Makkai to be a forgery of 1231; Makkai argues Romanian border guards were probably present earlier, organised between 1150 and 1200. Romanian historiography holds a continuous Romanian presence in Transylvania; the dated evidence for 1200 itself is nil. Anonymus, writing about 1200, puts a Vlach duke, Gelou, in Transylvania at the Hungarian conquest: what the court believed then, not a record of 1200.

Overlord

King Emeric, through the count of Hermannstadt (recorded 1210-1211) or the voivode; the king could alter their property rights.

What it holds

• The Olt land below the Fogaras mountains (the later Fogaras land): terra Blacorum
• The forest of the Vlachs and Pechenegs south-east of Hermannstadt near Talmács (1224)
• Probably shepherd settlements by Hátszeg and the castles of the Szeben mountains (Makkai: early 13th century; the Hátszeg land, terra Harszoc, is first named in 1247)

Allies and rivals

Neighbours and comrades of the Pechenegs and the German guests; across the mountains, the Vlachs and Cumans of Wallachia and the Bulgarian-Vlach tsardom.

How things stand that morning

Vlach shepherd and border-guard communities in the Olt land and the southern mountains under royal officers; thin evidence, none dated before 1202.

Wealth

Sheep and cattle on the mountain pastures; customs on the passes.

Military

Border guards; no figures.

Threats

• Royal grants of their land to churches and guests (Kerc, about 1202-1209)
• Cumans beyond the passes

Customs and courts

Communities of shepherds and border guards under knezes (kenéz), a pre-feudal military elite; their own land and the right to levy customs (Makkai). Orthodox in faith (in 1234 a papal letter speaks of Vlachs in Cumania served by Greek bishops). Not pinned for 1200.

Obligations

Border guard duty and service in the royal army under the king's counts (1210 or 1211). A tax in sheep is recorded only later.

Places of note

• Kerc (Cârța): Cistercian abbey, probably founded 1202-1206 from Egres (possibly 1198-1208: not pinned); its land between the Olt, the Árpás, the Cârțișoara and the mountains was given through Voivode Benedict and had been taken from the Vlachs (charter of 1223). Church map matter
• Talmács: Near the forest of the Vlachs and Pechenegs (1224); later royal pass castle
• Hátszeg: Terra Harszoc, a Vlach land named in 1247 (later)

Where the sources disagree

• Makkai dates the campaign beyond the Carpathians to 1211 and the Kerc grant to Benedict's voivodeship (1202-1209); en.wikipedia gives about 1210. The presence of Vlachs in Transylvania before the 13th century is disputed between Hungarian and Romanian historians; no source dated 1199-1200 mentions them.

Evidence: First dated records 1202-1211; the 1222 charter disputed; the polygon follows the later Fogaras land.

On the map: Drawn on the later Fogaras land; on 1 January 1200 neither its bounds nor its people are recorded.

Primary sources for Transylvania (voivode Legforus)

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.

• 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
• Hungarian royal charters: Fejér's Codex diplomaticus and Szentpétery's critical calendar of the Árpád kings (documents of the 11th to 13th centuries; Fejér published 1829 to 1844, Szentpétery vol. 1 in 1923). The documentary base for Hungary in 1200: King Emeric's grants to Pannonhalma, the bishops, the Templars and Hospitallers, Duke Andrew's acts in Croatia and Dalmatia, and the papal letters of 1200 to Emeric about his brother's rebellion and about heresy in Bosnia. Read online