Simon Kacsics, Count of the Székelys
Simon Kacsics | |
|---|---|
gens Kacsics | |
| Issue | Simon Rado a daughter |
| Father | Michael |
| Mother | N Balassa |
Simon from the kindred Kacsics (Hungarian: Kacsics nembeli Simon; died after 1327) was a Hungarian lord at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, who served as Count of the Székelys from 1321 to 1327.
Family affairs
He was born into the Falkos (or Libercse) branch of the ancient
Simon first appeared in contemporary sources since 1291, alongside his brothers, on the occasion of their father's trial against his brother
Life and career
As almost his whole kinship, Simon served as a familiaris of Matthew Csák, the powerful oligarch, who ruled de facto independently the north-western counties of the kingdom, including Nógrád and Hont counties, where the ancient estates of the Kacsics clan had laid. Only Simon's cousin Thomas supported King Charles I's efforts to defeat the oligarchs, as a result he lost all of his fortune and became penniless, and he could hope the recovery of his lost family landholdings and castles only from a successful restoration of the strong royal power by Charles. On 10 November 1308, Simon was one of the signatories of the treaty of Kékes, when papal legate Gentile Portino da Montefiore persuaded Matthew Csák to accept Charles's rule.[4] After Matthew Csák turned against the monarch in the following year, Simon launched massive attacks against the Diocese of Nyitra in order to expand their influence. Around October 1313, he besieged and captured Nyitra Castle on behalf of Csák, causing serious damage in the walls. He handed over the fort to his lord thereafter. Following that he was appointed castellan of Nyitra, was mentioned in that capacity on 24 June 1317.[5] Subsequently, Simon plundered and looted the surrounding episcopal estates and villages.[6]
However Simon turned on his feudal lord by the following months and joined Charles' partisans, just before the siege of Komárom (today Komárno, Slovakia), when the royal army had captured the fort on 3 November 1317.[7] Simon recognized good sense of pace that the king would sooner or later will overcome the oligarchs, thus he was able to preserve his influence and landholdings successfully, supporting his cousin Thomas Szécsényi's growing power. Soon, they were jointly sent to the Kingdom of Bohemia as representants of Charles, in addition to an interpreter Stephen Sáfár, in order to find a bride for the king (whose wife Maria of Bytom had died in December 1317). There they chose Beatrice of Luxembourg.[8] Despite his oath of loyalty to Charles, John III, Bishop of Nyitra, who had been earlier impaired and expelled by Matthew Csák's violent actions, excommunicated the oligarch's five former familiares, including Simon, on 3 March 1318.[9] The prelate recalled that after the seizure of Nyitra Castle and destroying several episcopal villages, Simon loudly abused and intended to stab John with a sword in the presence of Matthew Csák, but the powerful oligarch prevented him by his admonition. Thereafter, Simon blasphemed the bishop.[10] According to another document from that period, Matthew Csák plundered Simon's nearby villages and lands, as a revenge for his betrayal.[9]
After Thomas Szécsényi was granted large-scale domains in
Simon last appeared as Count of the Székelys on 4 June 1327, when he was a member of an ad litem court led by
References
- ^ Engel: Genealógia (Genus Kacsics 3., Libercse branch)
- ^ Karácsonyi 1901, pp. 270–271.
- ^ Zsoldos 2011, pp. 253–254.
- ^ Karácsonyi 1901, p. 271.
- ^ Engel 1996, p. 378.
- ^ Kádár 2017, p. 12.
- ^ Engel 1988, p. 120.
- ^ Engel 1988, p. 125.
- ^ a b Engel 1988, pp. 120–121.
- ^ Kádár 2017, p. 16.
- ^ Engel 1996, pp. 142, 342.
- ^ a b c Engel 1988, p. 129.
- ^ Engel 1996, pp. 111, 155.
- ^ Kordé 1999, p. 25.
- ^ Kordé 2016, p. 174.
- ^ Kordé 1999, p. 26.
- ^ a b Kordé 1999, p. 27.
- ^ Kordé 2016, p. 175.
- ^ Engel 1996, p. 192.
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.
- Kádár, Tamás (2017). "(III.) János nyitrai püspök (1302–1328) életútja [The Profession of John (III) Bishop of Nyitra (1302–1328)]". Magyar Egyháztörténeti Vázlatok (in Hungarian). 29 (1–2): 5–21. ISSN 0865-5227.
- Karácsonyi, János (1901). A magyar nemzetségek a XIV. század közepéig. II. kötet [The Hungarian genera until the middle of the 14th century, Vol. 2] (in Hungarian). Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
- Kordé, Zoltán (1999). "Károly Róbert székely ispánjai: adalékok az I. Károly alatti arisztokrácia történetéhez [The Count of the Székelys of Charles Robert: Data to the History of Aristocracy During the Reign of Charles I]". In Makk, Ferenc; Piti, Ferenc (eds.). Acta Universitatis Szegediensis. Acta Historica (in Hungarian). MTA-SZTE-MOL Magyar Medievisztikai Kutatócsoport. pp. 21–31. ISSN 0324-6965.
- Kordé, Zoltán (2016). "Közigazgatás [Administration]; Katonáskodó székelyek az írott forrásokban [Székely soldiers in the written sources]". In Benkő, Elek; Oborni, Teréz (eds.). Székelyföld története, I. kötet: A kezdetektől 1562-ig (in Hungarian). Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont, Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület, Haáz Rezső Múzeum. pp. 168–180, 305–320. ISBN 978-606-739-040-7.
- Zsoldos, Attila (2011). Magyarország világi archontológiája, 1000–1301 [Secular Archontology of Hungary, 1000–1301] (in Hungarian). História, MTA Történettudományi Intézete. ISBN 978-963-9627-38-3.