Ispánság of Kolozs

Who he is

Name

Not named for 1199-1200

Title

Count (ispán, comes) of Kolozs

Since

Not pinned

Confidence

low

Makkai (after the royal charters) records counts of Kolozs in 1177, 1183 and 1201; their names are not given in the sources reached here (Zsoldos 2011 would settle them). Eth of the Geregye kindred, voivode in 1200, is count of Kolozs in 1215 (en.wikipedia, Eth Geregye).

Overlord

King Emeric directly: in 1200 the count of Kolozs still ranks beside the voivode in royal charters and is subordinated to him only in the 13th century.

What it holds

• The castle of Kolozs (Kolozsvár's Óvár) and its castle folk
• The salt of Kolozsakna (Cojocna) and its carriage
• The western gates toward Bihar: the Királyhágó road by Bánffyhunyad and the Meszes road
• The castle lands of the Kalotaszeg and the Mezőség
• Early landholding families in the county (Mikola, Ajton, Zsombor, Agmánd: hu.wikipedia), dates not pinned

How it was acquired

Royal office; the county dates from the 11th century, its count is first recorded in 1177.

Allies and rivals

The king's officer, equal in rank to the voivode in 1200. Neighbours: the count of Doboka to the north-east, the voivode (Torda) to the south, the bishop of Várad's Bihar beyond the gates.

How things stand that morning

A royal count (unnamed) holds the castle and county of Kolozs for Emeric on 1 January 1200, answering to the king, not the voivode.

Wealth

The count's third of the dues of the castle folk; the salt of Kolozsakna is the king's.

Military

The castle warriors of Kolozs, the guards of the western gates and, by hu.wikipedia's account, Pecheneg guards. Earth-and-timber castle. No figures.

Threats

• Andrew's partisans in Bihar (Várad) beyond the gates
• Subordination to the voivode (13th century)

Places of note

• Kolozsakna (Cojocna) salt: The county's salt mine
• Kolozsmonostor abbey: Benedictine royal abbey across the Szamos from the castle (Church map record)

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Counts recorded in 1177, 1183 and 1201 (Makkai); the castle and village dated by archaeology to no later than the late 12th century (en.wikipedia, History of Cluj-Napoca); the gate-keeping and salt duties from hu.wikipedia.

On the map: Drawn on the later county core.

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