Description
Book SynopsisIn an exploration of the life and customs of the Hungarian nobility, this text compares historical reality and legal literature on the example of one noble kindred: the Elefanthy of northern Hungary (present-day Slovakia). The text begins by outlining the customary laws regarding noble status, inheritance and marriage, as summarized in the famous code of Stephen Werboczy (1514). The author then compares these norms with the documentary evidence and establishes that the legal literature differs in regard to social mobility and kindred solidarity. With regard to this information, the fate of the Elefanthy family is traced through several generations, enabling the author to draw conclusions on the inheritance, the rise and fall of various branches, marriage strategies, and the "survival skills" of the kindred. In his summary, the author outlines some of the avenues for further research, including the peculiar Hungarian form of retainership (familiaritas), and the relationships between noble families and between the nobility and local communities.
Trade Review“The Elefánthy was Fügedi’s last, and indeed, posthumous work, originally published in Hungarian in 1992, and is, in this translation, accessible for the first time to a non-Hungarian reader. The editors of this volume have also included, wherever relevant, extensive passages from some unpublished charters and records not easily consulted by readers abroad, as well as additional notes and glosses considered to be necessary for a non-Hungarian audience.” * Medium Ævum *
Table of ContentsForeword (János M. Bak)
CHAPTER I
Introduction
1. The "Lesser Nobility "
2. Seventeen Hundred Case
3. Genus and Generatio
4. Historical Anthropology
5. A Note on Genealogical Terminology
6. Werbőczy as a Frame of Reference
CHAPTERII
The Tripartitum and Reality .
Werbőczy's System
1. The Kindred
2. Father and Guardian
3. The Mother
4. The Offspring
5. The Ancestral Estate
6. Una Eademque Nobilitas
In the Light of the Records
1. A Military Elite
2. The Landowner
3. Marriage
4. The Solidarity of the Noble Kindred
4.1. The Right of Free Disposition and Limited Grant
4.2. Prefection
The Self-government of the County
CHAPTERIII
The Elefánthy Kindred
1. History
1.1. Origins
1.2. Between Matthew Csák and the Angevin King
1.3. A New Generation
1.4. The Fifteenth Century
2. Questions and Issues
2.1. Reproduction
2.2. Marital Strategy
2.3. The Estate
2.4. Giving and Using Names
2.5. Military Service and Familiaritas
2.6. The Church and the King
2.7. The County
CHAPTERIV
1. Epilogue
1.1. Stratification
1.2. Saturation and Impoverishment
1.3. Familiaritas as aStrategy
Notes
Notes to Foreword
Notes to Chapter 1
Notes to Chapter 2
Notes to Chapter 3
Notes to Epilogue
List of Abbreviations
Gazetteer of Geographical Names
List of Figures
List of Tables
