Matthew III Csák
Matthew III Csák | |
|---|---|
Amade Aba & | |
| Native name | Csák (III.) Máté |
| Born | between 1260 and 1265 |
| Died | 18 March 1321 (aged 56–61) |
| Noble family | gens Csák |
| Issue |
|
| Father | Peter I |
| Mother | Unknown |
Máté Csák or Matthew III Csák (between 1260 and 1265 – 18 March 1321;
Early years
He was a son of the Palatine
Matthew was born around 1260s. A diploma recorded his lameness which caused by either birth defect or a result of a war injury. He was presumably first mentioned by a charter issued by the
King Andrew's partisan
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In 1291, Matthew took part in the campaign of King Andrew III of Hungary against Austria.[4] In the next year, when Nicholas I Kőszegi rebelled against King Andrew III and occupied Pozsony (German: Pressburg, Slovak: Prešporok, today Bratislava) and Detrekő (Slovak Plavecké Podhradie), Matthew managed to reoccupy the castles on behalf of the king.[4] Henceforward, the Danube became the border between the developing domains of the Kőszegi and Csák families.[3] King Andrew appointed him to master of the horse and he also became the ispán (comes) of Pozsony County (1293–1297).[5] On 28 October 1293, Matthew issued a charter and promised that he would respect the liberties of the burghers of the city of Pozsony that King Andrew had confirmed before.[3]
During this period, Matthew started to augment his possessions not only by the king's donations, but also by using force.[3] In 1296, he bought Vöröskő (Slovak: Červený Kameň) from its former holders for money; however, contemporary documents prove that he enforced several neighboring landowners to transfer their possessions either to him or his partisans.[3] He even was ready to occupy territories; e.g., around 1296, he took possession of the lands of the Archabbot of Pannonhalma south of the Danube and he also trespassed the possessions of the Collegiate Chapter of Pressburg.[3]
Around the end of 1296, Matthew acquired Trencsén (Slovak: Trenčín) and afterwards, he was named after the castle.[3] In 1296 King Andrew appointed him Palatine,[4] but shortly afterwards the king absolved one of Matthew's opponents, Andrew of Gimes from the Hont-Pázmány clan of all responsibility for the damage he had caused to Matthew.[3] The document proves that the relationship of the king and Matthew worsened and the king deprived him of his office of Palatine in 1297.[3] At the same time, the king granted Pozsony County to his queen, Agnes of Austria.[3]
Kings' rival
Matthew continued to style himself Palatine even after 1297.
In 1298, King Andrew III allied himself with King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia; the alliance was probably directed against Matthew whose possessions lay between the two monarchs' territories.[3] In the next year, King Andrew sent his troops against him, but he could resist the attack;[1] only Pozsony County was reoccupied by the king's partisans.[3]
Before 1300, Matthew entered into negotiations with the representatives of King Charles II of Naples and reassured him that he would assist the claim of his grandson, Charles for the throne against King Andrew III.[3] However, in the summer of 1300, Matthew visited Andrew's court, but the king, the last male member of the Árpád dynasty, died on 14 January 1301, and following his death a rivalry broke out among the several claimants for the throne.[3] At that time, Matthew's brother, Csák died childless and therefore Matthew inherited his possessions.[3]
Following the death of King Andrew III, he became the
King Wenceslaus could not strengthen his rule against his opponent and he had to leave the kingdom (August 1304).[3] By that time Matthew Csák had already left King Wenceslaus' party,[4] and shortly afterwards he made an alliance with Duke Rudolph III of Austria against the king of Bohemia.[3] Although he did not join to King Charles' partisans, but his troops took part in the campaign King Charles and Duke Rudolph lead against the Kingdom of Bohemia (September–October 1304).[3] The internal struggles, however, did not end, because on 6 December 1305 a new claimant, Otto III, Duke of Bavaria was crowned King of Hungary.[3] Matthew Csák did not accept King Otto's rule, and his troops struggled together with King Charles' armies who occupied some castles on the northern part of the kingdom.[3]
On 10 October 1307, an assembly confirmed King Charles' rule, but Matthew Csák and some other oligarchs (
Matthew Csák did not want to accept the king's rule; therefore, he did not attend King Charles' third coronation, when he was crowned with the Holy Crown of Hungary (27 August).[3] Moreover, Matthew Csák still continued to expand the borders of his domains and occupied several castles in the northern part of the kingdom.[3] On 25 June 1311, he led his troops towards Buda and pillaged the surrounding territories and on this account the Cardinal Gentile excommunicated him[1] on 6 July 1311.[3] However, he did not accept the punishment and persuaded some priests to continue their services on his territories.[3]
The indignant oligarch pillaged the possessions of the
Last years
In 1314, the king's armies invaded Matthew Csák's domain, but they could not occupy it.
Charles I launched small campaigns against the Csák dominion during 1314 and 1315. When Matthew invaded
The king attempted to weaken the unity among Matthew's partisans through diplomatic means. According to a royal charter issued in September 1315, Charles I stripped three of the oligarch's servients of all their possessions and gave those to Palatine Dominic Rátót, because they absolutely supported all Matthew Csák's efforts and did not ask for the king's grace. One of these sanctioned nobles was Felician Záh, who later unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate the entire royal family in 1330.[3]
In 1316, some of his former followers rebelled against Matthew, and although he occupied their castle at
The king's armies continued to invade his territories and occupied Sirok and Fülek (Fiľakovo), but Matthew could maintain his rule over his territories until his death.[3]
Domain
Matthew Csák's domain had been developing gradually before the Battle of Rozgony, and it reached its greatest territorial extent around 1311.
Around 1297, he organized his own court, similar to the king's court and he usurped royal prerogatives on his domains, similarly to other oligarchs (e.g., Amade Aba, Nicholas Kőszegi) of the beginning of the 14th century.[3] Thus he became the de facto ruler of his domain and he made alliances independently of the king.[3] He refused to accept appeals to the king against his decisions and he denied to put claimants in possession of lands the king had granted them on his territories.[3] Although some of the local landowners did not want to accept Matthew's supremacy, but sooner or later, they had to leave their possessions.[3]
Following his death, his cousin Stephen Sternberg (or Stephen the Bohemian) became the lord of his domain,[1] because his son (Matthew IV) had died and his grandsons (Matthew V and James) were still minors at the time of his death in 1321.[3] However, Stephen Sternberg could not resist the king's invasion and Matthew Csák's former domain was overtaken by the king's armies in a few months' time.[3]
Legacy in the Slovak romantic movement
Matthew Csák significantly influenced regional history of today's Slovakia in the 13th–14th centuries. Alongside other activities, he founded several new settlements mainly in Trencsén County and supported raising towns.[6] The level of independence he had achieved together with his contacts with the Czech lands (especially with Moravia) positively influenced also the development of local Slovak speaking nobility.[7] Regardless of his relatively short rule his (ex-)domain was called the Matthew's Land (terra Matthei) already in the 14th century. This concept had been preserved until the 15th century, when individuals still used to claim their origin from the Matthew's Land (de Terra Matthei) instead of the official administrative divisions or settlements of the Kingdom of Hungary.[6]
This was later reflected in the Slovak national revival in the 19th century. Although his personality was known to older generation of Slovak intellects (Adam František Kollár, Anton Bernolák), he became a subject of the national mythology only in the period of Ľudovít Štúr. The motive of Matthew Csák was introduced in 1836–37 by a Slovak lawyer Alexander Boleslavín Vrchovský.[8] Thereafter, the topic was covered by numerous Slovak poets and writers like Ľudovít Štúr, Ján Kalinčiak, Jozef Miloslav Hurban, Mikuláš Dohány, Viliam Paulíny-Tóth, Samuel Ornis, Jonáš Záborský, Jozef Škultéty and others.[8] In the romantic national discourse of the 19th century, he was perceived as a Slovak national hero, defender of Slovak interests and/or an uncrowned Slovak king. Matthew Csák and his "realm" became the symbols of Slovak independence with the purpose to expropriate his historical heritage for the emerging national state of Slovakia.[3] Ľudovít Štúr, the most prominent personality in the period of the Slovak national revival presented Matthew Csák in his poem Matúš z Trenčína ("Matúš of Trenčín") as champion of Slovak interests who build on legacy of Great Moravia, predicting that the Slovak nation "will be free one day".[9]
However, such idealized view remained favored only by a narrow group of Slovak intellectuals and was not (in most cases) adopted by ordinary people.[10] The idea of Matthew Csák as a Slovak national hero was already eroded by critically thinking members of the Slovak intellectuals in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century (Jonáš Záborský, Július Botto) and was finally crushed in 1923 by Slovak historian Jozef Škultéty.[11] Similar views are also rejected by the modern critical Slovak historiography and in Slovak historic memory Matthew Csák is perceived simply as a feudal magnate, a notable regional figure and the "Lord of Váh and Tatras".
Matúš Čák was hardly a Slovak patriot as some 19th century historians have claimed. He pursued the ordinary goals of a Hungarian magnate and never did establish a sufficiently well-defined territory or political organization to support any Slovak claims to a heritage.
— Anton Špiesz, Dušan Čaplovič, Ladislaus J. Bolchazy; Illustrated Slovak history: a struggle for sovereignty in Central Europe (2006).[12]
See also
- Beckov Castle – owned and fortified by Matthew Csák
- Amade Aba – oligarch who ruled de facto independently the northern and north-eastern counties of the Kingdom of Hungary[1]
- Ladislaus Kán – oligarch who governed de facto independently the Transylvanian parts of the Kingdom of Hungary[1]
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kristó, Gyula; Engel, Pál; Makk, Ferenc. Korai magyar történeti lexikon (9–14. század).
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8179-9951-3.
...The greatest magnates were Matus Cak (Matthew Cak) of Trencin and the Amadeis of the Aba...The Caks, of Magyar origin, had begun their rise during the rules of Stephen V and Ladislas IV...
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk Kristó, Gyula. Csák Máté.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Markó, László. A magyar állam főméltóságai Szent Istvántól napjainkig.
- ^ a b Zsoldos, Attila. Magyarország világi archontológiája, 1000–1301.
- ^ ISBN 978-80-224-1532-3.
- ^ Branislav, Varsik (1998). Otázky vzniku a vývoja slovenského zemianstva (in Slovak). Bratislava: VEDA, vydavateľstvo SAV. p. 102.
- ^ a b Macho 2012, p. 136
- ISBN 978-0-312-16125-5.
- ^ Macho 2012, p. 137.
- ^ Macho 2012, p. 152.
- ISBN 978-0-86516-426-0.
Sources
- ISSN 0039-8098.
- Engel, Pál (1996). Magyarország világi archontológiája, 1301–1457, I [Secular Archontology of Hungary, 1301–1457, Volume I] (in Hungarian). História, MTA Történettudományi Intézete. ISBN 963-8312-44-0.
- Engel, Pál (2001). The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–1526. I.B. Tauris Publishers. ISBN 1-86064-061-3.
- Fügedi, Erik (1986). Ispánok, bárók, kiskirályok [Ispáns, Barons and Petty Kings] (in Hungarian). Magvető. ISBN 963-14-0582-6.
- Kristó, Gyula (1973). Csák Máté tartományúri hatalma [The Provincial Lordship of Matthew Csák] (in Hungarian). Akadémiai Kiadó.
- Kristó, Gyula (1979). A feudális széttagolódás Magyarországon [Feudal Anarchy in Hungary] (in Hungarian). Akadémiai Kiadó. ISBN 963-05-1595-4.
- Kristó, Gyula (1986). Csák Máté [Matthew Csák] (in Hungarian). Gondolat Kiadó. ISBN 963-281-736-2.
- Kristó, Gyula (1999). "I. Károly király főúri elitje (1301–1309) [The Aristocratic Elite of King Charles I, 1301–1309]". Századok (in Hungarian). 133 (1). Magyar Történelmi Társulat: 41–62. ISSN 0039-8098.
- Kristó, Gyula (2003). "I. Károly király harcai a tartományurak ellen (1310–1323) [The Struggles of Charles I Against the Oligarchs (1310–1323)]". Századok (in Hungarian). 137 (2). Magyar Történelmi Társulat: 297–347. ISSN 0039-8098.
- Macho, Peter (2012). "Matúš Čák Trenčiansky v diele Ľudovíta Štúra". In Mihalkovičová, Beáta (ed.). Nové kontexty života a diela Ľudovíta Štúra:Zborník z vedeckého seminára konaného v dňoch 28. a 29. októbra 2010 v Modre (in Slovak). Modra: Modranská muzeálna spoločnosť. ISBN 978-80-224-1532-3.
- Markó, László (2006). A magyar állam főméltóságai Szent Istvántól napjainkig: Életrajzi Lexikon [Great Officers of State in Hungary from King Saint Stephen to Our Days: A Biographical Encyclopedia] (in Hungarian). Helikon Kiadó. ISBN 963-208-970-7.
- Szőcs, Tibor (2014). A nádori intézmény korai története, 1000–1342 [An Early History of the Palatinal Institution: 1000–1342] (in Hungarian). Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Támogatott Kutatások Irodája. ISBN 978-963-508-697-9.
- Szűcs, Jenő (2002). Az utolsó Árpádok [The Last Árpáds] (in Hungarian). Osiris Kiadó. ISBN 963-389-271-6.
- Zsoldos, Attila (2011a). Magyarország világi archontológiája, 1000–1301 [Secular Archontology of Hungary, 1000–1301] (in Hungarian). História, MTA Történettudományi Intézete. ISBN 978-963-9627-38-3.
- Zsoldos, Attila (2011b). "III. András hat nádora [The Six Palatines of Andrew III]". In Cabello, Juan; C. Tóth, Norbert (eds.). Erősségénél fogva várépítésre való: Tanulmányok a 70 éves Németh Péter tiszteletére [It is Very Well Placed for a Castle: Studies for the 70-year-old Péter Németh] (in Hungarian). Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg Megyei Önkormányzat Múzeumok Igazgatósága. pp. 289–299. ISBN 978-963-7220-75-3.
- Zsoldos, Attila (2012). "Hűséges oligarchák [Loyal Oligarchs]". In Baráth, Magdolna; Molnár, Antal (eds.). A történettudomány szolgálatában: Tanulmányok a 70 éves Gecsényi Lajos tiszteletére (in Hungarian). ISBN 978-963-7228-34-6.
- Zsoldos, Attila (2013). "Kings and Oligarchs in Hungary at the Turn of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries". Hungarian Historical Review. 2 (2): 211–242. ISSN 2063-8647.
External links
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