Zólyom forest

Who he is

Name

not pinned for 1 January 1200

Title

the king's forest-ispán (comes) of Zólyom

Since

not pinned

Confidence

low

Zólyom was a royal forest county (a vast royal domain, the 'Vetus Zolium') rather than an ordinary castle county; its keeper in 1200 is not named in the sources reached. Liptó, Turóc and Árva became separate counties only in the 13th century.

Overlord

King Emeric of Hungary

What it holds

• Zólyom castle and the upper Garam valley
• the Liptó forest (upper Váh)
• the Turóc forest
• the Árva forest up to the Beskid crest
• the king's hunting rights and the forest folk's dues

How it was acquired

Royal domain since the Árpáds' conquest of the north; kept as the king's forest.

Allies and rivals

Across the Tatras and Orava: the Kraków lands (Podhale forest, Nowy Targ) and, further west, the Racibórz duchy's Żywiec country. No quarrel recorded.

How things stand that morning

Royal forest in Emeric's hands; thinly settled. Across the crest lie the Kraków lands of the Podhale (forest; the Podhale was granted to the Gryfici only in 1234).

Wealth

Hunting, furs, honey and wax, timber, cattle; silver and copper of the Garam valley are worked on a large scale only later in the 13th century.

Military

Zólyom castle; forest guards. No figures survive.

Threats

• none pinned for 1200

Places of note

• Zólyom castle (Pustý hrad): Royal castle of the forest county; keep attributed to Béla III

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The royal forest is clear in later charters; its 1200 keeper and inner divisions are not documented.

On the map: A forest, not a settled county; drawn on the later county lines.

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.