5: Rex and Dux, Mines and Border Guards
<< 4: The Scourge of Europe || 6: How Does it Happen that Three is Really Four? >>
After Stephen strengthened both his position and the position of his
central administrative base, he systematically proceeded to consolidate the
smaller, and thus individually hardly threatening counties, which he then
entrusted to his followers. He also established a network of bishoprics which
covered the entire country and endowed a number of monasteries and chapters.
This naturally extended to Transylvania as well. Here, however, a precise
reconstruction is made difficult, among other reasons, by a delay in written
documentation and by the fact that the numerous wars and internal uprisings
seriously damaged the religious depositories of these documents. Thus, the
medieval material of the archives gives only incomplete information or even
misinformation, since the "earliest" documents that have come down to us are
not truly the earliest documents pertaining to these sites, but only the
earliest that we have been able to discover.
It is certain, however, that the organization of counties in Transylvania
followed a definite pattern, and that these territorial-administrative-economic
units were designed in this area with the defense of the kingdom as the
paramount consideration. Namely, the Transylvanian counties at this time did
not have a defined border toward the "outside", in the direction of the
Carpathians and the castles serving as the administrative centers were
established on their most secure, western segment of the counties. While the
counties and bishoprics -- among them the Csanád bishopric, which was
headed by the tutor of the crown prince Imre, the later martyr and saint,
Gellért -- were the products and depositories of a strong, central will,
there emerged a fateful countercurrent, which we may refer to as the trend
toward regional constitutional laws. Parenthetically : if we accept the
etymology of the name Erdély (Transylvania) - and why shouldn't we? -
namely : Erdõelve = Beyond the Forest (literally Trans-Sylvania), we
must know that it was the central mountains of Erdély, the Bihar
Mountains, that were covered with huge, dense forests beyond which, according
to contemporary thinking, Erdély (Transylvania) was located.
Stephen, having defeated Koppány, and having warded off Gyula's
forceful and Ajtony's less significant endeavors toward independence, was
looking farther into the future. In order to increase the legitimacy of his son
Imre, to guide him into the arduous profession of ruling, and to give him a
taste of its reality, he used not only the Admonitions -- attributed to him but
actually only inspired by him, but he also used the promising crown prince as
an important war leader and, in fact, promoted him to a viceregal position.
Thus, Emericus Dux, appointed by Stephanus Rex, was entrusted with Bihar,
between the eastern border of the Great Plain and the western border of
Transylvania, as a quasi autonomous realm. The new State thus evolved a dual
administrative-economic axis, the first one between Esztergom and
Székesfehérvár, which could be extended toward
Pécs, the other one between Biharvár and Csanádvár,
the northern pole of which was transferred shortly to Nagyvárad.
When Prince Imre was killed in a hunting accident in Bihar, probably along the
upper reaches of the Berettyó, during a boar hunt, Stephen's hopes for a
secure succession were lost. What remained was a dubious precedent, which was
not unusual at this time and which was also familiar in Hungarian traditions.
This was the institution of the ducatus (dukedom). Later, during the
reign of the House of Árpád, this promising office was usually
entrusted to the younger brother of the reigning king, who was then ready and
waiting for the time when he could legally take the single, legal step toward
the throne.
During the 11th century, a number of Petcheneg attacks reached Transylvania
through the eastern passes of the Carpathians, and some of these attacks
extended to the Great Plain. It became apparent that the traditional Hungarian
system of the buffer zone with a wide, uninhabited area separating it from the
neighboring people and countries failed to provide adequate protection, even
though the defenders of this buffer zone were supposed to halt the first
assault of the enemies, and even though there were defensive lines with one
earthen defensive castle in every county. For this reason, additional castles
were built according to a plan that would be called today "a defense in
depth".
As far as the history of the settlements and of the ethnic mix of the
population is concerned, the picture of the first centuries of Transylvania
under Hungarian rule, can be determined from the names of the settlements and
of the rivers. This nomenclature, which persisted even during the subsequent
settlements by Saxons and Romanians with some modification according to their
language uniformly attests that in the 9th and 10th centuries this region was
shared by the remnants of the earlier Slavic population and the conquering
Hungarians, in the most part well separated from each other. This arrangement
was possible because the older Slavic population preferred, for reasons of
defense, the heavily forested areas, while the lately arrived Hungarians
settled in the valleys and basins more suitable for grazing and for
agriculture.
No organic continuity can be demonstrated for the towns or larger settlements
of the former Dacia Provincia. Sometimes even the simplest signs of life are
missing in the ruins which have lain uninhabited for centuries. Their names are
forgotten. They are recalled only by the enthusiasm of recent times, but
initially the impetus is not the Daco-Romanian Continuity hypothesis. It is due
rather to the currently popular and nostalgic retrospection to times long past
and to antiquity. Neo-Latin was an earlier product of the love of Antiquity of
its devotees. It was only later that it fit in well with the romantic,
vigorous, national aspirations of the Romanians, and was most suitable to their
ideology and rationalizations.
During the reign of Stephen and of his first successors, the social structure
of Transylvania showed no difference from that of the country in general. The
stratification, the rule and the subservience evolved in the same fashion as on
"this side of the forest".
Why, and to what extent did this new East-Central European country, the
Hungarian kingdom, need this province, which extended far to the east, and
which differed from every other province by its natural geography? It is
fundamental in this regard that those who rushed hither from the Etelkõz
saw the entire Carpathian Basin as a unit which suited their way of life and
which provided their desperately desired security. It is characteristic that
they very soon relinquished the Viennese basin, which they also conquered as
far as the present Melk, when they realized that it was a poorly defensible
western salient. The correctness of their assessment is shown by the fact that
the realm lasting from the conquest to the 20th century was interrupted for any
length of time only twice. The Turks entered through the soft underbelly along
the lower Danube, while the Germans (Austrians) entered along the upper
Danube, from the Viennese basin.
Salt was the economically most important product of medieval Transylvania. Its
commercialization and distribution was facilitated by the fact that its bulk
could be transported by water, mostly on the Tisza and its tributaries, but
also on the Maros network, which was a part of the Tisza network, but was
important enough to merit special attention. Even though Hungary had
century-long access to the Adriatic, the production of salt by evaporating sea
water was more difficult and its transport more cumbersome than mining the salt
deposits of the ancient seas and distributing of large blocks of rock salt.
Even though the data do not reflect it, it seems very unlikely that the mining
of the previously so important Transylvanian precious metals was not continued
under Stephen and under his first successors. It is also clear that a
significant number of furs and raw hides were obtained from this region. One
part of the very large herd of horses must also have served for export. It was
this that stimulated the rapaciousness of the occasional invaders.
We had some kings whose activities and legends are characteristically related
to a certain part of the country. Ladislas I, who was successful in arranging
the canonization of Stephen, Imre and some others of his favorites, and who
later was himself elevated to the gallery of Hungarian saints, according to
legend, performed most of his great and miraculous deeds in Transylvania. The
best known of these, also known as the St. Ladislas Legend, is a variation on
the theme of his chivalrous deeds and relates how the king saved the daughter
of the bishop of Várad from a marauding Cumanian fighter. This legend,
which is depicted most frequently in Transylvanian churches -- oddly enough,
mostly in the mining communities -- has an additional piquancy. It is not bad
enough that the legend is full of pagan motives and allusions not quite
becoming to a sainted king, but, that after the fight, the maiden saved from
the Cumanian, "looked into the head" of the victorious knight, i.e. picked off
the lice. This motif is disturbing not only because from today's perspective it
is distressing that the knightly king, the future saint, had headlice, but also
because such an intimate, personal activity by the maiden could have been
performed only to her lover, a man who, speaking biblically, "had known her".
Returning to earth from the sphere of legends, it is certain that Ladislas I
extended the borders of Transylvania to the east and settled a privileged class
of border guards in Transylvania with the charge of protecting the internal
foothills of the Carpathians against the bellicose tribes, firmly settled on
the eastern slopes of the Carpathians and usually identified with the
Cumanians. It seems likely that it was this group of soldiers, with whom he
must have had frequent contact in the course of his numerous campaigns, who
created his circle of legends and spread the word about his miraculous deeds,
usually associated with military activities. It may also have been due to them
that when their patron died during the summer of 1095, he was first buried in
Somogyvár, but his remains where soon transferred to Nagyvárad.
Even though a small number of Petchenegs participated in the protection of the
borders on the principle that the robbers make the best thief catchers,
Ladislas also recruited his own bow and arrow cavalry from other parts of the
country, and thus a large number of Hungarians joined those of their
compatriots who remained in place immediately after the conquest. They were
Hungarians, but they were not yet Székelys.
At this time, the internal organization and legal status of the Transylvanian
counties were not in any way special. The counties and religious organizations
followed the same pattern as in the other parts of the country. The one thing
that should be noted is that when Ladislas' successor, King Koloman, brought
Croatia under his rule he sent a voivode to take charge. This Slavic position
of honor, previously unknown in our country, did affect Transylvania fairly
soon and certainly from the end of the 12th century. It will cause many
political problems and, later, will create even more problems for the recording
historians.
The voivode specially appointed over a larger region could enjoy much more
power, or could grasp more power than the ispáns (comes) in
charge of the smaller, individual counties. The temptation was great for the
representative of the central authority to further his own ambitions at the
expense of the regional interests. The voivodes frequently became rebellious
little kings. On the other hand, in the case of the newly acquired Croatia,
this form of legal administration was appropriate, if for no other reason, than
for the pacification of the local southern Slavic people and of their
leadership and reassurance that in this way they may have a certain amount of
autonomy. In the case of Transylvania, it has led to the assumption that there
was such an independence of the region and of its people. For this there is no
evidence and no precedent in the objective study of the 10th and 11th
centuries. If there was any such independence, it was much earlier, at the time
of the gyulas, and certainly no later than the time of Ajtony.
<< 4: The Scourge of Europe || 6: How Does it Happen that Three is Really Four? >>
