Vejte, ispán of Nyitra

Who he is

Name

Vejte of the Csanád kindred

Title

ispán (comes) of Nyitra; also judge royal (curialis comes) of the realm

Since

attested in 1199 and in 1200 (ispán of Nyitra and judge royal, 1199-1200)

Family

Csanád kindred, whose old land lies on the lower Maros (Great Plain sheet); in 1199 he is also ispán of Csanád and in 1200 the first known ispán of Krassó

Confidence

high

Zsoldos's archontology (as cited in the Wikipedia biography and the list of judges royal) makes Vejte judge royal in 1199-1200, after Mika Ják and before Achilles (1201), and ispán of Nyitra in 1199-1200. Earlier ispáns of Nyitra: Mog, 1188; a Benedict, 1198 (identified by Kádár with Benedict son of Korlát, Emeric's confidant). Later: Thomas of the Hont-Pázmány (date not pinned, dead before 1216); Solomon Atyusz, 1215. In these years the county often went with the judge royal's office: Vejte (judge royal 1199-1200) held it in 1199-1200, Julius Kán (judge royal 1202-1204) in 1204, Marcellus Tétény (judge royal 1207 and 1211-1212) briefly in 1210.

His counties of Csanád and Krassó on the Great Plain are drawn in the Great Plain record Vejte, judge royal; this record draws only Nyitra.

Overlord

King Emeric of Hungary

What it holds

• Nyitra castle (shared with the bishop's church on the castle hill)
• the castle folk of the Nitra valley and the lower Váh (Galgóc (Hlohovec), Sempte (Šintava) areas)
• the Záhorie north of Pozsony county: Holics (Holíč) and Szakolca (Skalica) on the Moravian border
• the upper Nitra valley (Bajmóc (Bojnice), Privigye (Prievidza)) and the Tribeč forest
• Érsekújvár (Nové Zámky) area in the south: the later town is 16th-century; in 1200 villages of the archbishop and the castle

How it was acquired

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

Allies and rivals

Across the Morava and the White Carpathians: Moravia (Margrave Vladislaus Henry), at peace. Within the county: the bishop of Nyitra and the abbey of Zobor (Church map), the archbishop of Esztergom's estates.

How things stand that morning

Royal county in Emeric's hands under his judge royal, Vejte; no fighting recorded. The Moravian border runs along the Morava below Strážnice and over the White Carpathians; Skalica and Holíč are Hungarian, Strážnice and Uherský Brod Moravian.

Wealth

Grain and wine of the Nitra and Váh lowlands, the castle folk's dues, tolls on the roads to Moravia and Bohemia (the Morava crossings at Holíč and Skalica), the markets below Nyitra castle.

Military

Nyitra castle, Galgóc and the castle warriors of the county; the border guards along the Moravian frontier. No figures survive.

Threats

• the loyalty of officers who had ties to Andrew's party
• a Moravian quarrel over the border forests (none recorded for 1200)

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 to 1201Vejte gives up the judge royal's office to Achilles, who holds it in 1201; whether he keeps Nyitra is not pinned.Depends on: the king's appointments Stopped by: Emeric keeping Vejte in office

Places of note

• Nyitra castle: County seat and the bishop's cathedral on the castle hill
• Zobor abbey: Benedictine abbey on Zobor hill, a great landholder (Church map)
• Galgóc (Hlohovec): Castle and ford on the Váh (first mentioned 1113)

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Vejte's offices in 1199-1200 rest on charter evidence collected in Zsoldos's archontology; the county is drawn from the later medieval county.

On the map: Drawn from the later medieval county. In 1200 the bishop's, the abbey's and kindred estates lay inside it; the county's southern edge against Komárom and Esztergom counties is approximate.

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.