Bár-Kalán kindred

Who he is

Name

No single head. Its great men that winter: Kalán, bishop of Pécs since 1186 (a Church map record), and Bánk, ispán of Újvár (on record 1199, hno's area)

Title

Kindred (nemzetség) of free landholders

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Family

Branches include the Sáp line of Nana I (father of Pousa, later ban and judge royal). Bánk is the later palatine (1212-1213) who will be implicated in Queen Gertrude's murder in 1213.

Confidence

medium

English Wikipedia (Bánk Bár-Kalán, Pousa Bár-Kalán); campaign notes (Kalán of Pécs).

Overlord

King Emeric.

What it holds

• Estates in Csongrád county round Szer (Pusztaszer) and its monastery: villages not itemised for 1200.
• Estates in Baranya and Esztergom (hut's area: not drawn here).
• Bánk's own later estates in Szabolcs, Bereg, Gömör and Sáros are later acquisitions (Zsurk 1212).

How it was acquired

Hereditary; origin not pinned.

Allies and rivals

Bánk plausibly with Emeric in 1199; Bishop Kalán is a power in his own right, at law with Földvár abbey (campaign notes).

How things stand that morning

Holds its estates as its own; its leading men are in the king's service.

Wealth

Estates; the bishopric of Pécs's revenues are the Church's, not the kindred's.

Military

Retainers; no castle recorded for 1200.

Places of note

• Szer monastery: Benedictine monastery of Szer; tied to the kindred by tradition.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The kindred's counties are given by Bánk's article; the Szer monastery's link to the kindred rests on later tradition and is not pinned here.

On the map: Rough block only.

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.