Ispánság of Trencsén

Who he is

Name

not pinned for 1 January 1200

Title

ispán (comes) of Trencsén

Since

not pinned

Confidence

low

No ispán of Trencsén is known from a charter of 1199 or 1200 in the sources reached. Do not back-project the Csák lords: Matthew Csák held Trencsén only in the 1290s-1321.

Overlord

King Emeric of Hungary

What it holds

• Trencsén castle and its market below
• the castle folk of the Váh valley (Ilava, Púchov, Bán (Bánovce) areas)
• the Žilina basin (terra de Selinan, first named 1208)
• the border forests of the White Carpathians, the Javorníky and the Kysuce up to the Beskid crest (gyepű)
• the Vlára pass road to Moravia and the Jablunka pass road to Cieszyn

How it was acquired

Royal county since the 11th century; the ispán holds at the king's pleasure.

Allies and rivals

Moravia across the White Carpathians (Margrave Vladislaus Henry), the duchy of Racibórz (Mieszko Tanglefoot, with the Cieszyn castellany) beyond the Jablunka pass. No quarrel recorded for 1200.

How things stand that morning

Royal county in Emeric's hands; the settled land is the Váh valley, and the forests beyond are a lightly guarded border zone. Across the crest: Moravia (Valašské Klobouky, Vsetín) and the Racibórz duchy's Cieszyn castellany (Jablunkov, Cieszyn, Żywiec).

Wealth

Tolls on the Váh road and the Moravian and Silesian passes, the castle folk's dues, timber, cattle and the forest's furs and honey.

Military

Trencsén castle; border guards at the passes. No figures survive.

Threats

• none pressing in 1200; the north-western passes were quiet

Places of note

• Trencsén castle: Royal castle and county seat
• Vlára pass: Road from the Váh valley into Moravia
• Jablunka pass: Road over the Beskids to Cieszyn (Racibórz duchy)
• Zsolna (Žilina): Terra de Selinan, first named in 1208; a village district in 1200

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The castle and the valley are well attested as royal; officers for 1199-1200 are not, and the border forests' extent is a judgement.

On the map: The county's forests were a border zone, not settled land; the crest line is drawn where the later border ran.

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.