Bars, Hont, Nógrád

Who he is

Name

not pinned for 1 January 1200

Title

the ispáns (comites) of Bars, Hont and Nógrád

Since

not pinned

Confidence

low

No ispán of these three counties is named in a charter of 1199 or 1200 in the sources reached. Mog (palatine 1198-1199, Andrew's partisan) was ispán of Bars only in 1208. The Kacsics tradition makes a Slauiz ispán of Nógrád under King Coloman (early 12th century).

Overlord

King Emeric of Hungary

What it holds

• Bars castle (Starý Tekov) and the castle folk of the lower Garam
• Hont castle and the castle folk of the middle Ipoly
• Selmec (Banská Štiavnica): the miners' land, named in 1156
• Nógrád castle and the castle folk of the lower Ipoly and the Cserhát hills
• the abbeys of Garamszentbenedek (Bars) and Bozók (Hont), and the Premonstratensians at Bozók since 1180-1181 (Church map matters)

How it was acquired

Royal counties of the 11th century; ispáns at the king's pleasure.

Allies and rivals

The Hont-Pázmány kindred holds old estates in Hont and the lower Garam (Bény, Bozók) and leaned to Duke Andrew; the bishop of Vác, Boleslaus, Andrew's partisan, has his see just across the Danube bend from Nógrád (Church map).

How things stand that morning

Royal counties in Emeric's hands as far as known. Their ispáns are not pinned, so how far Andrew's partisans among the local kindreds (the Hont-Pázmány) reached into the county offices cannot be said.

Wealth

Silver of Selmec (the only northern mining place attested before 1200), the Garam and Ipoly valley farms, wine, the Danube-bend crossings near Nógrád and Vác.

Military

The three county castles and their castle warriors. No figures survive.

Threats

• Andrew's sympathisers among the Hont-Pázmány
• Bishop Boleslaus of Vác, exposed as Andrew's man on 10 March 1199

Places of note

• Bars castle (Starý Tekov): County seat of Bars
• Hont castle: County seat of Hont
• Nógrád castle: County seat of Nógrád
• Selmec (Banská Štiavnica): Miners' land (terra banensium, 1156)

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The castles and counties existed (Anonymus's Gesta, about 1200, knows Nógrád and the Ipoly country); their officers in 1199-1200 are not known from the sources reached.

On the map: Drawn from the later medieval counties; the boundaries in the northern hills against the Zólyom forest are approximate.

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.