Szerém, Valkó, Keve, Bodrog

Who he is

Name

Not named in the sources reached for 1199-1200

Title

Ispáns (comites) of Szerém, Valkó, Keve and Bodrog; the king's castellans of Zimony and the Danube castles

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Confidence

low

No ispán named for 1199-1200 in the sources reached. English Wikipedia (Andrew II) says Bodrog (with Varaždin) was part of Duke Andrew's suzerainty in 1197-1199; Julius Kán holds Bodrog only from 1206.

Overlord

King Emeric.

What it holds

• Szerém county: Zimony castle facing Belgrade; Szávaszentdemeter; Szalánkemén; Kő and Bánmonostor; Peter son of Töre's estates at Pétervárad (Peter son of Töre).
• Valkó county: Valkóvár on the Vuka.
• Keve county: Keve castle on the Danube.
• Bodrog county: Bodrog castle and its Benedictine monastery (Bodrogmonostor).

How it was acquired

Royal counties since the eleventh or twelfth century.

Allies and rivals

Facing Byzantine Belgrade, Bulgarian Braničevo and Serbia.

How things stand that morning

Royal counties serving Emeric. Bodrog came back under the king's officers after Andrew's defeat at Rád (summer 1199). Across the Sava and the Danube: Belgrade, which Béla III's army ravaged in 1182, was not part of the 1185 dowry and was Byzantine again when Barbarossa's crusade crossed the Sava there in 1189 (it lay in ruins); who holds it on 1 January 1200, Byzantium or Kaloyan's Bulgarians, is not pinned, and the Hungarians seize it only in 1202.

Braničevo, Béla III's dowry for his daughter in 1185, was Byzantine in 1189 and was taken by the Bulgarian tsar Kaloyan 'most probably' in 1199 (Madgearu). The Serbian grand župan Stefan Nemanjić holds the lands south of them.

Wealth

Each ispán takes his share of the county's royal revenues (tolls, court fines, the castle folk's dues); the rest goes to the king.

Military

Zimony, Szalánkemén, Keve, Valkóvár and Bodrog castles; castle warriors. No numbers.

Threats

• Kaloyan's Bulgarians, newly at Braničevo across the Danube.
• Serbian quarrels between Stefan and Vukan, in which Emeric will intervene (1201-1202).

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.

In 1200

1. 1200 (summer, not pinned)At the reconciliation through the legate Gregory, Emeric gives Andrew back Croatia and Dalmatia; whether Bodrog county, part of Andrew's domain in 1197-1199, goes back to him with them is not recorded.Depends on: The terms of the settlement. Stopped by: Emeric keeping the counties north of the Drava and Sava in his own hands.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1202 (later)Emeric's war in Serbia for Vukan; the Hungarians seize Belgrade (1202) and claim Braničevo and Niš; Kaloyan retakes them (1203).Depends on: The Serbian civil war and Emeric's free hands after the reconciliation with Andrew. Stopped by: A Serbian settlement or a new rising by Andrew.

Places of note

• Zimony (Zemun) castle: Hungarian castle facing Belgrade across the Sava.
• Keve castle: County seat on the Danube, first named 1071.
• Valkóvár: County seat on the Vuka.
• Bodrog castle: County seat by the later Bački Monoštor.

Where the sources disagree

• Not in the campaign notes: English Wikipedia (Andrew II, after Szabados and others) counts Bodrog and Varaždin counties in Duke Andrew's domain of 1197-1199.

Evidence: The frontier's general position is firm (1180-1185 settlement, 1189 crusade); the ispáns and castellans of 1199-1200 are not named in the sources reached.

On the map: Later medieval bounds; the Sava and the Danube are the frontier, with no county south of them.

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.