Palatine Mika

Who he is

Name

Mika (Mika I) of the Ják kindred (Ják nemzetség)

Title

Palatine (nádor, comes palatinus) of Hungary; ispán (comes) of Bács; ispán of Bihar at times

Since

Palatine from 1199, appointed by King Emeric in place of Mog, who had sworn to Duke Andrew; ispán of Bács 1199-1200

Born

not pinned

Family

The first known member of the Jákmonostor branch of the Ják kindred of Vas county (Transdanubia). His wife is not named. Sons on later record: Csépán I (ban of Slavonia 1206-1207), Stephen (became a monk) and Ivan; whether they are born by 1 January 1200 is not pinned. He founded Pornó abbey (finished by Csépán).

Confidence

high

English Wikipedia (Mika Ják), which follows Zsoldos's archontology: master of the treasury 1198; ispán of Bihar 1198-1199 and again 1200-1201; judge royal 1199; ispán of Bács 1199-1200 ('presumably the first ex officio ispánate of the palatine dignity'); palatine 1199-1201 (a non-authentic charter extends it to 1202). The Hungarian Wikipedia list of Bihar ispáns also names a Nicholas (Miklós) in 1199.

Overlord

King Emeric.

What it holds

• The palatine's office: judge over the king's people in the king's absence, commander of the host after the king.
• The county of Bács (Bač) with its castle, castle folk (várnépek) and castle lands, on record for him 1199-1200: the palatine's county.
• The county of Bihar with Bihar castle, on record for him 1198-1199 and 1200-1201; a Nicholas (Miklós) is named ispán there in 1199, so who holds Bihar on the morning of 1 January 1200 is not pinned (see Ispánság of Bihar).
• His kindred's estates round Ják in Vas county (Transdanubia: hut's area; not drawn here).

How it was acquired

By royal appointment in 1199, after the palatine Mog joined Andrew's conspiracy (discovered 10 March 1199).

Allies and rivals

The king's man against Duke Andrew's party. At odds with Elvin, bishop of Várad, Andrew's partisan, who excommunicated him. Vejte of the Csanád kindred is his fellow officer as judge royal.

How things stand that morning

Palatine and ispán of Bács on 1 January 1200, serving Emeric. His hold on Bihar that morning is likely but not pinned.

Wealth

A share of the revenues of his counties (the ispán's third of the county's royal income, as the usage of the age gave it), the palatine's court fees, and his kindred's estates in Vas.

Military

As palatine he leads the host under the king; the castle warriors (várjobbágyok) of Bács and Bihar follow their ispán. No numbers in the sources.

Threats

• The bishop of Várad's ban and the papal inquiry into it.
• A return of Andrew's party to favour, which would weaken the men who fought it.

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 (summer, not pinned)The brothers are reconciled through the papal legate Gregory and Andrew is given back Croatia and Dalmatia; Mika stays palatine and is again on record as ispán of Bihar in 1200-1201.Depends on: Emeric's will to settle and the legate's mediation. Stopped by: A new rising by Andrew or a break with Rome.

Places of note

• Bács castle: Seat of the county of Bács and second see of the archbishop of Kalocsa.
• Bihar castle: The old earthwork seat of the county of Bihar, north of Várad.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign notes name the palatine nowhere; this record follows Zsoldos as summarised in English Wikipedia (palatine 1199-1201).
• English Wikipedia's list of judges royal gives Mika as judge royal in 1199 and Vejte Csanád in 1199-1200, so by 1 January 1200 Mika has moved from judge royal to palatine.

Evidence: The offices come from royal charters as arranged by Zsoldos (2011); the 1199 dates are years, not days.

On the map: A county is the king's castle district with its castle folk, not a closed territory: church estates (Kalocsa, Titel) and kindred lands lie within it. The outline follows later medieval bounds.

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.