Sopron and Vas

Who he is

Name

Not named for 1199-1200 in the sources checked

Title

Ispáns (comites) of Sopron and Vas

Since

Not pinned

Confidence

low

No ispán of these counties is named for 1199 or 1200 in the Zsoldos-based lists and lives consulted. Zala, with its ispán of 1199-1200, is a separate record (Ispánság of Zala).

Overlord

King Emeric

What it holds

• Sopron castle and county (the west shore of the Neusiedl lake, the Leitha hills, the Rosalia, the Répce and the Rábaköz)
• Vasvár castle and county (the Rába and Pinka valleys to the Lafnitz, the Őrség, the northern Prekmurje)
• The border guards and gate keepers of the gyepű
• The royal castle of Németújvár (Güssing), built in the 1180s

How it was acquired

Royal counties since the eleventh century.

Allies and rivals

Across the frontier: the Babenberg duke Leopold VI (Austria and Styria), the Styrian ministeriales of Fürstenfeld and Radkersburg, and Salzburg's lords of Pettau, who beat the Hungarians at Easter 1199 and took Friedau (Ormož) and Polstrau (Središče) on the Drava (by family tradition).

How things stand that morning

Held for Emeric through ispáns whose names are not recorded for that winter. No raid across the Leitha or the Lafnitz is recorded for the winter of 1199-1200.

Wealth

Wine, cattle and the roads west: Sopron towards Wiener Neustadt and Vienna, Vasvár and Szentgotthárd towards Graz. Friesach pennies circulate.

Military

Earthwork and timber castles at Sopron (on Roman walls) and Vasvár; the royal castle of Németújvár; the border guards.

Threats

• Austrian help for Andrew across the Leitha or the Lafnitz

Places of note

• Sopron castle: County castle on the Roman walls.
• Vasvár (Castrum Ferreum): Vas county castle.
• Németújvár (Güssing): Royal castle built by Béla III in the 1180s on the Héder kindred's abbey hill.
• Szentgotthárd abbey (Cistercian, 1184): Béla III's foundation on the Rába at the Styrian frontier (Church matter).
• The Őrség border guards: Settlements of the border guards (őrök) of the gyepű.
• Felsőőr (Oberwart): Border guards' settlement in the gyepű.
• Kapu (Kapuvár): Gate of the border zone on the road through the Hanság marsh (first mention not pinned).

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The castles, abbeys and the border zone are well known; the ispáns of 1199-1200 are not named in the sources checked.

On the map: Drawn on the later county bounds; the western border zone was a belt of wood and marsh rather than a line.

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.