The Seals of the Monarch Electing Lords from the Beginning of 14401
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TÖRTÉNETI TANULMÁNYOK Ádám Novák The Seals of the Monarch Electing Lords from the beginning of 14401 Introduction Following the death of Albert II of Germany on 27 October 1439, the Hungarian Kingdom was left without a crowned head yet again in a short period of time. In January 1440 the lords held a monarch electing diet. On 18 January 1440 they decided on inviting Władysław III of Poland to the Hungarian throne, and sent envoys to Kraków with an authorizing charter. The story is widely known, but what is less familiar is that thirteen seals were put on the charter which phrased the decision. The names of the authenticators were not included in the text itself, however, the monarch- elector barons and prelates can still be identified by analyzing their seals. All thirteen seals were preserved on the document in a remarkably intact form even after nearly seven hundred years. In the present study I attempt to identify these seals. The work is supplemented by the analysis of two other charters. One of these was issued in Kraków by the monarch electing envoys on 9 March 1440, and the other was released three days later in Buda, in which the issuers of the diploma urge the coming of King Ulászló I (Władysław III) to Hungary. Besides the fact that the seals on the three charters can be linked to those politicians who played a determining role in the subsequent infighting, we can also draw a picture of the power relations prior to the outburst of the later conflict. In addition to the description of the seals I also assembled a chronological dataset for the political history of 1439–1440, which may be a baseline for a better, 1 The research was financed by the Project of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office “The Hungarian Military in medieval Europe (1301–1437)” (NKFIH K 131711) at the University of Debrecen. It was supported by the TKP2020- IKA-04 program. The present paper is the revised and extended version of the study in Hungarian titled “Az 1440. januári királyválasztó országgyűlés oklevelének megerősítői” [The charter authenticators of the monarch electing diet of January 1440] Original publication: Mi- cae Mediaevales VII. Fiatal történészek dolgozatai a középkori Magyarországról és Európáról. [Papers of young historians on medieval Hungary and Europe] Ed. Csaba Farkas, András Ribi, Kristóf György Veres, Budapest, ELTE BTK Történelemtudo- mányi Doktori Iskola, 2018. 121–138. Thanks are again due to Pál Lővei and Tamás Körmendi for their remarks on my study. 67 ÁDÁM NOVÁK more recent interpretation of the given period. On the adventurous journey of the charters – some archival history Images of the seals found on the charter issued on 18 January 1440 were published in the relevant chapter of the millennial historical synthesis, the History of the Hungarian Nation.2 In there, the Archive of Moscow was mentioned as the safekeeping place of the charter, despite that we know it as a piece in the Archive of Old Documents in Warsaw (Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych w Warszawie)3. To solve this paradox a brief overview on archival history must be given. Hungarian archival historical literature may be called upon to elaborate the topic. First of all, the synopsis of Adorján Divéky deserves particular attention, who, in 1927, provided information on the fate of the Polish archives known to him on the pages of the then fledging Levéltári Közlemények.4 He himself came into close contact with the Polish libraries and archives during his field trip between 1909 and 1911. He gave a comprehensive description on the individual archives in separate chapters. For us, the section dealing with the Archive of Old Documents in Warsaw is most intriguing. The organization of the country’s state archives began in the Napoleonic era following the third partition of Poland, with the decree of the Duke of Warsaw, Frederick Augustus I of Saxony, issued on 2 September 1808.5 While the material of the regional archives remained more or less intact, the Crown Archive of Kraków (Arhiwum Koronne Krakowskie), which was initially kept in Kraków then transferred to Warsaw, had been dispersed by the powers that partitioned the country. Its largest share was taken to Saint Petersburg as 2 Sándor Szilágyi (editor in chief.): A magyar nemzet története I–X. [The history of the Hungarian nation]. Budapest, 1894–1898. Vol. IV., Book I., Chapter I. – I. Ulászló megválasztása [The election of Ulászló I] 14. cf. http://mek.oszk.hu/00800/00893/html/ img/nagy/24f1.jpg (Accessed on 30 June 2020) 3 Hereinafter: AGAD 4 Adorján Divéky: A lengyelországi könyv- és levéltárak magyar vonatkozású kézira- ti anyaga. [The Hungarian-related manuscript material of Polish libraries and archives] Levéltári Közlemények, 1927. 27–58. Cf. Dr. József Seimienski: A lengyel állami levéltárak. [The Polish state archives] Levéltári Közlemények, 1930. 1–29. See also: Istvánné Fábián: Lengyel levéltárakban. [In Polish archives] Levéltári Szemle, 1970. vol. 1. 233–240. 5 Hanna Krajewska: A Varsói Régi Iratok Levéltárának története és iratállománya. [The history and document substance of the Archive of Old Documents in Warsaw] Levéltári Szemle, 1992. 81–86., 81. 68 SEALS OF THE MONARCH ELECTING LORDS spoils of war in 1794 by Russian general Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov after capturing Warsaw, then it was later transferred to the archive of the Russian Department of State in Moscow. Thus, to be able to examine medieval diplomatic charters at the turn of the century one had to travel to the Russian Empire. When publishing the charter copies of the Historical Committee of the MTA (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) in 1890, Lipót Óváry also referred to the archive in Moscow as the keeping place of these diplomas. The Polish-Soviet war that broke out after World War I ended with the Peace of Riga signed on 18 March 1921, within the frameworks of which the parties agreed on returning the Polish archival material that was taken to Moscow. As we can see, the charter sealed by the magistrates on 18 January 1440 set off to a long journey. The electing envoys took it from Buda to Kraków, whence it was transferred to Warsaw together with the royal archive under the reign of Sigismund III Vasa (1587–1632). Then Russian soldiers moved it – among other charters – first to Saint Petersburg and later to Moscow, and finally returned to Warsaw after 1921. The shattered Crown Archive of Kraków, together with other records, was listed under the fonds Dokumenty pergaminowe, and Dokumenty papierowe at its current place of keeping, the Archive of Old Documents in Warsaw. Naturally, our charter which had seen a lot, found its place within the former, along with 9040 others.6 This unit incorporates all parchment charters kept in Warsaw from the very beginning to 1918. While the document itself wandered around half of Europe, its text had been published several times. Its latest publication can be found in vol. XII of the Monumenta Poloniae Historica7 series, from which it was generally cited by 20th century Hungarian historiographic literature. Meanwhile, under the directorate of Gyula Pauler (1874–1903), the charter collection prior to Mohács had been established in the National Archives of Hungary, which is nowadays known as the Diplomatic Archive (DL). The first pieces of the later Diplomatic Photo Collection were assembled during the field trip of Antal Fekete Nagy and Bálint Ila to Czechoslovakia in 1935. István Borsa set himself the objective of expanding the collection and, over great many years of work he coordinated the accumulation of the pre-Mohács charters on microfilms that were kept outside the National 6 From the research report of Péter Tóth. File reference: MNL-OL, section Y, 12134/87. 7 Monumenta medii aevi historica res gestas Poloniae illustrantia XII. Codicis epis- tolaris saeculi decim quinti II. Ed. Anatoli Lewicki. Cracoviae, 1891. 409–411. 69 ÁDÁM NOVÁK Archives.8 We had to wait for a long time for the Warsaw charters to be photographed. In 1987, Péter Tóth – who was the chief archivist at the Archive of Somogy County in Kaposvár at the time – paid a visit to the archive in Warsaw and selected the Hungarian-related charters to be microfilmed. To his report he also attached registers in Hungarian regarding all 75 diplomas. Subsequently, during their baptism into the Diplomatic Photo Collection these were given the reference numbers 288 959.–289 022., 289 127. and 292 993–293 002. The reference number of our example is 289 005.9 Sealers of the charters – the presumed participants of the diet While the seal-holding vellum strips of the charter inviting Władysław III are not labelled, the owners of the seals can still be determined with a high level of certainty after identifying the seals:10 Dénes Szécsi, archbishop of Esztergom; János de Dominis, bishop of Senj; Mátyás Galgóci, bishop of Vác; Jakab Mikola of Szalánkemén, bishop of Szerém; Ulrik Cillei, Count of Celje and Zagoria; László Garai, Ban of Macsó; János Kórógyi, count of Castell; György Korbáviai, count of Modrua and Cetina;11 Henrik Tamási Vajdafi, former master of the doorkeepers; György Marcali Bánfi; Mihály Jakcs of Coșeiu, former Székely ispán (comes); László Töttös of Bátmonostor, former royal treasurer; János Marcali Vajdafi, former Master of the doorkeepers. 8 Iván Borsa: A Magyar Országos Levéltár középkori gyűjteményei. [The medieval collections of the National Archives of Hungary] Erdélyi Múzeum, 1996. 314–321. 9 Registration number: MNL-OL X 9736. Further information on the archival mate- rial, its research history, and the relevant project may be found in the introduction and the introductory study of the electronic source publication of the MTA–DE „Hungary in Medieval Europe” Lendület Research Group, Fontes Memoriae Hungariae I.