Ják kindred (Mika)

Who he is

Name

Mika (I) of the Ják kindred

Title

Palatine of Hungary (nádor); head of the senior line of the Ják

Since

Palatine 1199-1201; earlier master of the treasury and judge royal (1199); ispán of Bihar (1198-1199) and of Bács

Born

Not known; died after 1202

Family

Ják kindred (which traced itself to Vecellin of Wasserburg, a tradition modern scholars doubt); first known member of its Jákmonostor branch. Sons: Csépán (fl. 1206-1216), later ban of Slavonia; Ivan, father of Martin the Great (fl. 1215-1244), builder of the Ják abbey church (the genus article makes Ivan Mika's brother instead). Wife not named; whether the sons are born by 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

Confidence

high

English Wikipedia, Ják (genus), after Zsoldos and Rácz; the palatine list.

Overlord

King Emeric

What it holds

• Ják, the kindred's common seat
• The senior line's estates along the Pinka (round Pornó)
• The Sitke line's estates on the right bank of the Rába
• The Jákfa line's estates on the left bank of the Rába
• Estates in Zala, and in Temes, Bodrog, Csanád and Valkó (hpl)
• As palatine: the palatine's court and revenues; as ispán, Bihar and Bács (hpl)

How it was acquired

Ancestral estates of the kindred; the offices by Emeric's appointment.

Allies and rivals

Emeric and his party (Vejte of the Csanád, the Győr kindred). Enemies: Andrew's party, above all Bishop Elvin of Várad.

How things stand that morning

At the height of his power as Emeric's palatine.

Wealth

Estates in western Hungary and on the plain; the palatine's share of revenues and court fines.

Military

The kindred's retinue; as palatine he leads in the king's absence.

Threats

• Andrew's return to favour, which would weaken Emeric's men
• The excommunication laid on him by Elvin of Várad

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1200-1201Mika stays palatine through the reconciliation and leaves office in 1201 (Benedict follows in 1202).Depends on: Emeric keeping his men in office after the peace. Stopped by: A settlement that gives Andrew's men the great offices.

Places of note

• Ják: The kindred's seat (the great church is later).
• Pornó: The senior line's land on the Pinka; the abbey is later (about 1214).

Where the sources disagree

• Ivan is Mika's second son in the English life of Mika Ják but more likely his brother in the article on the Ják genus.

Evidence: Mika's offices are dated by charter years (Zsoldos); the branches' estates are described for the early thirteenth century and projected back only in outline.

On the map: The estates are drawn round their known centres; their bounds in 1200 are not known.

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.