Historical Journal

Historical Journal An academic journal on the history of Slovakia and Central Europe ISSN 008-2575 Volume 60 * 202 * Supplement Historický časopis, 60, Supplement, 2012 C O N T E N T S A r t i c l e s D v o ř á k o v á, Daniela: Nicholas of Szécsény and Salgó – an exceptional man at the court of Sigismund of Luxembourg (A contribution to the court culture and functioning of the court of the King of Hungary at the beginning of the 15th century) ................................................................. 3 D u c h o ň o v á, Diana: “We are pleased to expect you on this joyful day...”. Weddings as an important part of family festivities of the Esterházys in the first half of the 17th century ..................................................................... 19 J a n u r a, Tomáš: Nepotism in the administration of the County of Liptov in the 18th century ............................................................................................... 43 H u d e k, Adam: The Slovak Academy of Sciences and Arts in the years 1945 – 1952 .................................................................................... 67 P e š e k, Jan: The Communist Party of Slovakia 1945 – 1948. Membership, organization, leadership, party apparatus, relationship to the Communist Party of Czecho-slovakia ................................... 97 R e v i e w s T e i c h, Mikuláš – K o v á č, Dušan – B r o w n, Martin D.: Slovakia in History (Adam Hudek) .................................................................................................... 12 D u d e k o v á, Gabriela et al.: On the Road to the Modern Woman. Chapters from the History of Gender Relations in Slovakia (Ivan Kamenec) ... 124 P e t r u f, Pavol: The Foreign Policy of the Slovak Republic 1939 – 1945 (Dagmar Čierna-Lantayová) .............................................................................. 127 T i s o , Jozef. Speeches and Articles. Vol. I (1913 – 1938), Vol. II (1938 – 1944), Vol. III (1944 – 1947). Editors: Miroslav Fabricius, Katarína Hradská, Ladislav Suško (Milan Zemko) .......................................................................... 13 2 art I C L es NICHOLAS OF SZéCSéNy AND SALGó – AN ExCEPTIONAL MAN at THE COurt OF SIGISMuND OF LuxEMBOuRG (A CONTRIBuTION to THE COurt CultuRE AND FuNCTIONING OF THE COurt OF THE KING OF HuNGARy at THE BEGINNING OF THE 15TH CENTuRy) DANIELA D vo ř á kov á DVOřáKOVá, Daniela. Nicholas of Szécsény and Salgó – an exceptional man at the court of Sigismund of Luxembourg (A contribution to the court culture and functioning of the court of the King of Hungary at the beginning of the 15th century). Historický časopis, 2012, 60, Supplement, pp. 3-18, Bratislava. The study is a reconstruction of the life of a Hungarian magnate active at the Hun- garian court of Sigismund of Luxembourg, Nicholas of Szécsény and Salgó. It is also a sounding into life at the court of the King of Hungary. As a result of his eccentric and exceptional character Nicholas of Salgó became a victim of the hatred of some of Sigismund’s courtiers. This led to a plot, due to which he was con- demned and exiled from Hungary. He spent the last years of his life in Venice. The documents in the Venetian archives concerning Nicholas’ possessions, which were not studied up to now, provide substantial additional evidence on the Venetian exile of this Hungarian baron, his eccentric way of life and exceptional education. Hungarian nobility. Royal court. Sigismund of Luxembourg. Medieval aristocratic libraries. Lifestyle of a medieval nobleman. Slaves in the Middle Ages. Lovers and concubines. The remarkable life story of a member of one of the richest magnate families in the Kingdom of Hungary, Nicholas of Szécsény, also called of Salgó, a courtier and baron in the service of King Sigismund, who ended his life in Venice as an exile without property living on occasional deals, is more than the story of an interesting man. It also provides a possibility to look into the situation at the court of the King of Hungary, and not into the official, proclaimed and publicly displayed, but into behind the scenes, hidden relations. The microcosm of court life also included struggles between individual court cliques, competition for property and position, slander, envy and intrigue. The fate of Nicholas, which we can trace in relative detail thanks to fortunate circumstances, also enables us to get an idea of this otherwise hidden aspect of life at the Hungarian court and the cultural world in which the Hungarian courtiers moved. The exceptional character of Nicholas of Salgó is shown among other things by the fact that he was one of the few Hungarian noblemen to receive considerable attention from Sigismund’s biographer and contemporary Eberhard Windecke. The Hungarian 1 The chronicle, or to put it better memoirs of Eberhard Windecke, a citizen of Mainz, who was a courtier of King Sigismund and for some time also a citizen of Bratislava, was most recently published in Hungarian translation: SKORKA, Renata. Eberhard Windecke emlékirata Zsigmond királyól és koráról. (Memoirs 3 Historický časopis, 60, Supplement, 2012 historian Pál Engel2 has devoted attention in an outstanding way to the life of Nicholas of Salgó. However, Engel did not have the complete documents on Nicholas’ property at the time of his death, found in the state archives of Venice. These documents substantial- ly supplement and widen our knowledge of this remarkable figure from medieval Hun garian history.3 Thanks to them we can trace Salgó’s destiny during his exile in Venice, his connections to his Hungarian relations, as well as character traits and eccentric life style, which could have caused his problems in Hungary, as Pál Engel already thought. However, we will begin with the facts known to us about Nicholas and his origin. The members of the Szécsény family were descendants of Falkos’ branch of the Kačič family, or of Falkos’ grandson Duke Thomas (1299-1354), who accumulated immense properties during the reign of Charles Robert. His grandsons, sons of the Bán Kónya, Frank and Simon played a very important role during the reign of Sigismund. Frank was court judge (1397 – 1408), while his brother Simon held various dignities including a short time as court judge and Duke of Transylvania. With a brief interruption from 1403 to 1409, he was a janitor to the king and one of the founding members of the Order of the Dragon. As a result of their functions, both brothers were barons and members of the royal council. Thanks to a skilful marriage policy, they were tied by family relationships not only to the most important magnate families, but also to members of the royal family. Simon was married to Elizabeth, sister of the Palatine of Hungary Nicholas of Gara, and as is well known, the Palatine Nicholas was husband of Anna, sister of the Queen of Hungary Bar- bara of Celje. Simon’s daughter Dorothy was married to a member of the important family from Lučenec (Losonci). Frank’s daughter, another Dorothy, married the the son of the Duke of Transylvania Stibor of Stiboríce, Sigismund’s close adviser and favourite. The lords of Szécsény not only possessed considerable power political influence, but also immense wealth. The main part of their property was located in the County of Novohrad. Apart from the small town of Szécsény in present-day Hungary and its dependencies, they held half the villages of Almás and Sztracsin, and the two castle lordships of Hollókő and Šomoška. They also held four other castles: Hajnáčka (County of Gemer), Bene (County of Heveš), Salgó (County of Hont) and Topoľčany (County of Nitra), as well as a whole series of other properties in different parts of Hungary.4 Both the brothers, Simon and Frank, left sons. Simon and his wife Elizabeth of Gara had two sons, Thomas and Nicholas, but Thomas soon died, leaving Nicholas as their of Eberhard Windecke on King Sigismund and his times.). Budapest : História Alapítvány – MTA Törté- nettudományi intézete, 2008. 2 ENGEL, Pál. Salgai Miklós. In ENGEL, Pál. Honor, vár, ispanság. Válogatott tanulmányok. Válogatta, szerkesztette, a jegyzetek gondozta Csukovits Enikő. (Honour, Castle, County. Selected studies. Editor: Enikő Csukovits.). Budapest : Osiris Kiadó, 2003, p. 409-425. 3 I am deeply indebted to my colleague Martin Štefánik for finding these sources in the Venetian archives (Archivio di Stato, Venezia, hereinafter ASV) and providing them for study, as well as for translating the parts written in the medieval Venetian dialect. From this collection, Pál Engel knew or used only Nicholas Salgó’s will and one other document, using a copy by óváry deposited in the manuscript collection of the MTA. More see ENGEL, Salgai, ref. 2, p. 425. 4 On the properties of the lords of Szécsény: see ENGEL, Pál. Magyarország világi archontológiája. (Se- cular archontology of Hungary.). I.-II. Budapest 1996. 4 Daniela Dvořáková Nicholas of Szécsény and Salgó only heir. Frank had one son, who was named Ladislav. Relations between the two brothers and later between their sons were always free of problems. They often appear in the sources, and no record of any disputes between them has survived. The first to die was Frank in 1409, while Simon died three years later in 1412. Taking over of inherited properties happened without problems, because a short time before the death of Simon in December 1411, both sides confirmed the existing division of the joint properties.5 On the basis of this agreement, Ladislav gained the castles of Hollókő and Topoľčany, Nicholas got the castles of Hajnáčka and Salgó, while the castles of Šomoška and Bene remained jointly owned with each maintaining his own castelan in his half of the castle. From this period, Nicholas of Szécsény began to use the additional name of Salgó. The two cousins, Ladislav and Nicholas stood on roughly the same starting lines for their future careers.

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