Although the Annals o f Hildesheim and Altaich leave no doubt about the en
forced conversions that took place among the mostly pagan population of the region immediately after th e gyula and his family were taken to Pannonia in 1003, there is also some earlier evidence on the organization of political power. Fortresses built with earth-and-timber ramparts were raised on this strip of land as soon as it was annexed to the kingdom. The work was car
ried out under the command of people such as comes (ispan) Doboka (said to be related to the king) and the father of Csankd, the future comes of Marosv&r. At the time of the Pecheneg attack on Transylvania (an event which has been emphasized in all three legends of Saint Stephen and which took place sometime between 1015 and 1030), the village folk were herded within the walls of the castles until the Transylvanian army, commanded by the tribunus of Feherv^r, put the pillaging enemy to flight. The popula
tion who "fled to safety within the w alls" could not have been very num er
ous, although the walls were already standing and, according to the Legenda minor, the castle of Feherv^r withstood the enemy attack.
It was in these years that the system of royal castles introduced by Stephen I were being built over the whole country. By the end of Stephen's rule, they numbered nearly forty. Alba civitas (Gyulafehervar), the most important of them in Transylvania, was protected by the stone walls left by the Romans.
Like Szekesfeherv^r, its sister castle in Pannonia, it was called "w h ite" not only because of its walls but also to mark its position as the first among equals. The city that for a considerable time was only referred to as "A lba Ultrasilvana" or "A lba Transilvana" was called "(civitas) Alba Iule" in the Transylvanian sources. It was only later that the hum anists' predilection for classical languages caused it to be changed to "A lba Ju lia" (the first documented occurrence of the term is in 1496).
Following practice current all over Hungary, the rest of the royal castles were named either after their first ispan, that is the official appointed by the king, who was responsible for administering the region and for the people belonging to the castle (e.g. Dobuka/Doboka, Turda/Torda, Colus/Kolozs, Hunod/Hunyad, Bihor/Bihar and Urod/Arad), or the river flowing by them (e.g. KiikullSv^r, Krasznav&r, Marosvar later called Csan&dv&r, Temesvar and Krassov^r). The direct adoption of personal names in nom inative as place-names is a peculiarity of the Hungarian language. W henever it oc
curs, we can be sure that we are dealing with Hungarian nomenclature, even in instances where the Hungarian origin of the name is doubtful or not verifiable (such as the presum ably Slavic Bihar, D oboka, K olozs and Szatmdr). For example, the names given to the salt mines belonging to these castles had the Slavic word akna (pit) affixed to the nam es of the ruling ispans, and exemplify this use of personal names. (For Kolozsakna, Torda- akna, Desakna, read: Kolozs's akna, Torda's akna and Des's akna).
The early Transylvanian counties were all, without exception, border counties (marchiae, comitati confiniorum), each headed by an ispan. The cas
tles serving as the ispans' seats of government were all built in the inner
1 4 4
-12
. Relics from Late Avar graves: 2. Bronze belt fasteners, Zilah; 2-12. Bronze belt ornaments, uckles, belt fasteners and earrings, AranyosgySres
7
tl. Silver treasure from the eleventh century: earrings ornamented with filigree work, fragment of iendant, silver pearls, KirSlyfftld
p. Relics from graves of Hungarian men from the time of the Conquest: 2. Stirrup and a part of its jnderside, inlaid with silver; 2. Sabretache pendant; 3, 6-7. Silver belt ornaments; 4. Stirrup; 5. Silver iorse accoutrement
12. Spandrel relief showing Christ in glory, Gyulafeherv^r, first cathedral, around 1100 I
13. Spandrel relief showing Christ in glory between two apostles, Gyulafeh6rv&r cathedral, around 1210
4. Miniature depicting the ► Battle of Posada (9-12 No vember, 1330) from the Kepes Kronika (Illustrated Chronicle), around 1358 3 .1. Chalice from the Cal
vinist church at Vizakna, Szeben county. Gilt silver, engraved and decorated with enamelled plates.
Italian work, fourteenth century (?); 2-3. Enam
elled plates from the base of the chalice depicting Saint George and Saint Barbara
western half of the counties, for example Dobokav^r, Kolozsv&r, Tordavar and Gyulafehervar, as well as Hunyadv^r located at the point of entry to the H&tszeg Basin. The situation is somewhat different only in the case of the "eastern m ost" castle, Kiikull6v^r. For a long period, the ill-defined marches marked the eastern, southeastern and southern boundaries of the early border counties. Approaching the Carpathians, regarded as the natu
ral, theoretical border, the frontiers became increasingly blurred, until they disappeared in precisely the same manner as they did in the case of the other border counties of the early Arp&d period (Zala in the west, Borsova, Zemplen, Ujvar and GOmor in the north). The elongated (in the case of Feher county, undetermined) shape of the border counties stretching across the uninhabited or sparsely populated woodlands up to the peaks of the m oun
tains a priori exclude the possibility that they could ever have had any ear
lier precedents, in the form of a voivodate or a kenezate. W ith the exception of Gyulafehervar, no precedents can be verified for the ispan's castles either.
The composition of these counties was essentially sim ilar to that of Szolnok county which was created for the overland transport of Transylvanian salt consignments. The county of "Ktilsd" (Outer)-Szolnok had been established along the Tisza River during the reign of Stephen I between 1018 and 1038.
It was named after the comes Zounuk/Zounok/Zonuk/Zonok (pronounced like the Hungarian word szonok, meaning orator) who lost his life in the pa
gan revolt of 1046. His old Hungarian name has nothing to do w ith the Slavic word "sol" meaning "salt", and used to mean "salt" in the Hungarian language of the Ugric Age. The present form, Szolnok developed in the Late M iddle Ages. This county extended across the region east of the Tisza ("Ko- z6p" [Central] Szolnok) along the salt road of Szalacs (magna via Zoloch, which definitely existed previous to 1067) to include Desvar and Desakna in northern Transylvania under the name of "Bels<5" (Inner)-Szolnok either at the time of King Bela I or King Geza I. It is entirely possible that the later county nam e derives from Zounuk, who in 1073 was one of Prince Gaza's chief advisors.
Some Hungarian historians claim that the county system in H ungary w as organized over the two-thirds appropriated from the lands of the con
quering ancient clans. As far as the Transylvanian border counties were concerned, this is highly unlikely. Although the G yula-Zsom bor clan may have been present (though, more likely, it was not) in Doboka county the inhabitants were simply descendants of the clans of the gyulas. The gyula, w ho only moved to Transylvania in the last third of the tenth century, can
not be regarded as a descendant of the Transylvanian conquerors. Also, the family of the "gyula" (Queen Mother Sharolt, Boja and Bony ha) remained loyal to the end to Stephen I, therefore, their estates were not confiscated.
It can be verified, however, that, in addition to the lands of the royal castles appropriated from the gyula's lands, the queen's estates had already com e into being during the reign of Stephen I. The Hungarian word asszony originating in the Alan-Osset language means "lady, princess, queen" in Old Hungarian. The name of the village of Asszonynepe (Lady's people) in Feher county is the first occurrence, both in type and in time, of composite nam es containing the word asszony (1177: "A scen nepe"). In or around 1030, Queen Gizella (Kesla), "w ith the consent of King Stephen", donated to the 5. Crucifixion. Detail from the high altar in the Lutheran church at Medgyes, Nagy-KtiktlllS county, 1480
Abbey of Bakonybel the nearby village of Lopath (M agyar-LapM ), situated along the same little stream, together with the now vanished Transylvanian village of Abony (Obon), according to the oldest charter m aking reference to "across the snow-capped m ountains", that is Transylvania.
Although m ost of the first ispdns in Transylvania are known to us by nam e, precious little is known about the people they ruled. W e have no information for this period about the landed families (seniores) of independ
ent means (facultas) posing as rivals to the ispdns, with only two possible exceptions, the Kalan and Kajan families in Hunyad county. On the evi
dence of identical place-names in the region east of the Tisza River, how
ever, their ancestors, came to the Strigy and Maros valleys at the time of the gyulas. The Zsombor-clan (as the Zsombor-villages indicate their early es
tates on the northern rim of the county of Doboka in the Alm&s Valley) played only a periferical role or was forced to do so in the eleventh century.
Once the region was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, there is no reason to assume that the social structure in Transylvania was any dif
ferent from that mentioned in Stephen I's law books and Admonitiones. The castles, the swords and the spurs testify to the life-styles of the ispdns (comites), always described as the strongest supporters of the state, and of the sol
diers (milites) who defended the castles. The latter were armed bondsmen (iobagiones) who lived in permanent residences (domus, edificia). Their ori
gins must mostly have been Transylvanian: they were probably the descend
ants of form er border guards (speculatores) and the military escort of the gyulas. There is no indication that Stephen I ever moved significant forces from Hungary into the region. The ijiajority of those living inside the walls of the castles (cives) belonged to the social group of freemen (liberi) who also included the just emancipated, previously partially-free population (liberti).
These are the people who were buried in the cemeteries of the castles with their jewellery and silver coins. Graves totally lacking in grave goods in the castle cem eteries tell of servant burials (servi, mancipii). As anyw here in Hungary, the comm on people and poor freemen (vulgares aut pauperes) in Transylvania, lived in villages (villae), houses (mansi), and semi-subterra- nean huts (mansinculae). Evidence from the cemeteries shows that the popu
lation of these villages were also divided along family lines. Unlike the serv
ants who came with the slave trade, these people almost certainly arrived at the time of the Conquest. In Transylvania, too, the villages were led by a village chief (villicus). Nowhere in the sources can we find any mention of organizations based on kinship or synthetic clans.
There is little sign of change in these social divisions in either the char
ters of the middle third of the century or the so-called Third Law-book o f Ladislas compiled around 1077. There were poor people (ewnek = mek) both among the freemen and the semi-free servants, who nevertheless were fi
nancially and legally in a far better position than the slaves. Considerable changes seem to have taken place, on the other hand, judging by late elev
enth century legislation and charters dated from the turn of the eleventh and twelfth centuries including references to Transylvania. In short, there is no reason to believe that this region differed in its development from the rest of Hungary. The nobility (nobiles, optimates, proceres) and the m ilitary (milites) became the new ruling class. Members of the latter may even, by then, be described as knights. The population of the castles (cives, castrenses)
naturally consisted of freemen (liberi), but by then they had split demon
strably into two groups: the professional soldiers (castellani, cives castrensis) and the bondsmen (iobagiones castri) of earlier times. As their contemporary Latin nam e indicates (ministri, ministeriales = people on duty), the latter were well on the way towards being swallowed up by the great new class of the common people (plebs, plebeia). The trend to growing differentiation is re
flected in the various new designations for the free inhabitants of the castles (civiles, castrenses castri, populi castri, curtes-udvomici). These free and par
tially free people were employed in service but nevertheless were still well above the great strata of slave-servants (servi, ancillae).
The Diocese of Transylvania was most probably established very early on, possibly in 1009, following the personal intervention of the papal legate, Azo, and concurrently with the founding of the dioceses of P£cs, G y6r and Eger. Its seat was established in Gyulafeherv&r, where the Byzantine rite had yet to be completely suppressed. It is for this reason possible that the first episcopal church dedicated to Saint Michael (one which within dec
ades would prove too small) was completed before 1009. The process of Christian conversion could hardly have encountered any serious opposi
tion from the population. Its successes are soon evident from the cemeteries of the counties administered from the castles, although primarily only those with larger populations. It was only later that the Transylvanian bishops began to exert any real power over the counties of Kraszna, Szatmar and Ugocsa, which were sparsely populated, mostly by Slavs. The first bishop of Transylvania known to us by name was called Franco, according to a charter dated from 1075. Franco participated actively in the political life of the country. In Hungarian and foreign sources of between 1071 and 1081, he is referred to as "episcopus Bellegrad(i)ensis", using Gyulafeherv&r's Slavic name. The title of "bishop of Transylvania" (Ultra silvanus) was first used only in connection with his next known successor, Simon. Sim on's succes
sors, however, were all explicitly referred to as " ultrasilvani" (Baran 1138, Valter 1156, and Vilcina/Vulcina 1166). The change of title probably re
flected the marked growth in the territory of the diocese during the twelfth century. By this period, the areas of the early deaneries set up in the first years of King Coloman's reign coincided with the areas of the counties that had since emerged. Probably Coloman was the one who founded the Chap
ter of Gyulafeherv&r.
N ot many major political and military events took place in Transylvania in this period. The only evidence of the opposition to the reign of King Peter in the region is the hoard of silver coins hidden sometime between 1041 and 1046 in L^mkerek (between Sebes and Gyulafehervar).
The army of the Pecheneg tribe Jula29 led by Dux Osul, easily penetrated the marches from Moldavia when it raided Transylvania in 1068. The army 29. The description of the event can be found in the Chronica Hungarorum 102
(SRH 1,367), where Osul was sent by "Gyule dux Cunorum" the late Hungarian personification of the Pecheneg Gula/Jula tribe, who settled west from the Dniester, not far from Turkia. By this time the Hungarian gyula, a name of rank, became an everyday personal name; cf. in the 1075 Charter of Garamszent- benedek: lula comes palatinus. Therefore, with the leadership of Osul, a hostile Pecheneg army attacked Hungary and Transylvania. The story of "Alba Iulia",
1 4
/
the Pecheneg lord of Gyulafehervar is an entire fabrication.reached Biharvkr after burning down O-Kolozsv^r. Returning to Transyl
vania through the valley of the Nyirs6g, the Szamos region and along the Lapos-Ilosva Valley, they hoped to escape with their booty through the Borg6 Pass. The armies of the king and the prince gathered at Dobokav&r — first mentioned in an eleventh-century chronicle in connection with this event
— and cut off the enemy at the confluence of the Saj6 and Beszterce rivers.
The Pechenegs fled to a hill but were completely wiped out by King Solo
mon and his army in a daring frontal attack.
The hill where the battle took place was named after the battle cry of the Hungarians, "K yrie eleis", from which the m odem Hungarian place-nam e
"K erl6s" derives. In Romanian, "K erles" was transformed into "C h irales", although it entered Hungarian poetry in the form of "Cserhalom " as the result of one of Bonfini's mistakes ("Cherhelem "). The memory of the battle itself was merged into the St. Ladislas Legend after going through substantial changes. As the commander of the Hungarians, King Solomon was replaced by Prince (and even King) Ladislas, and it was he who w as described as having rescued the daughter of the bishop of Varad from the hands of the
"C u m an" enemy.
These are very grave anachronisms, indeed, considering that the See of Bihar was only moved to V&rad a quarter of a century later and that the Cumans (Kipcak Turks) were still living east of the Dnieper in 1068, and so on. The mention in the legend of "the bishop's daughter", however, indi
cates that the legend must have been created very soon after the death of Ladislas I, since in the book of his laws King Coloman prohibited the m ar
riage of bishops once and for all. A fter Ladislas I was canonized in 1192, this story — constructed of ancient eastern elements —, lived on along with his church legend. It became the most popular theme depicted in several episodes on cathedral frescoes (Nagyv&rad) and, follow ing Sigism und's reign, in village churches, too. Neither is it a coincidence that it is the village churches of the Sz£kelyfold that most of these frescoes have been preserved.
According to the passage which relates the event in the eleventh-century Old Gesta it was a scout (speculator) from "Ujv&r” (de Novo Castro) who inform ed the H ungarian army stationed at Dobokavar about the escape route of the Pechenegs. It is possible, therefore, that the construction of
"Ujv&r" (Marosujv&r), the fortress securing the salt mines and the salt roads in the vicinity of "U jakna", had been completed by 1068. There was a great need for it because, according to the charter of the Abbey of Garam szent- benedek, which had been given the right to collect salt taxes on the Aranyos River (Aranas in 1075), the castrum quod dicitur Turda ("the castle which is called Torda") (this is the first occasion that the fortress is mentioned) to the west of the already-working salt mine of Tordaakna could not protect the m ine against enemy attacks coming from the Maros River. N evertheless, everything seems to support the theory that the outer ring of fortresses pro
tecting the Transylvanian Basin was built as a response to the incursion of 1068 because the defence system, based on the marches and the uninhab
ited strips of land along them, had proved ineffective against the light cav
alry of the eastern invaders. It is not known exactly how many fortresses were involved. It would be as irresponsible to try and deduce a figure from later evidence as from the sheer existence of the earthworks surveyed w ith
149
out excavations. Only one thing is certain, namely, that in the last third of the eleventh century the populated area protected by fortresses grew sub
stantially.
The new ring of fortresses was put to the test in the spring of 1091. The first real attack of the Cumans, led by Krul's son Kapoltch, probably came through the Ojtoz Pass. Again, passing through O-Tordav&r, 6-K olozsv^r and Doboka they reached V&rad, Bihar and, after crossing even the Tisza
The new ring of fortresses was put to the test in the spring of 1091. The first real attack of the Cumans, led by Krul's son Kapoltch, probably came through the Ojtoz Pass. Again, passing through O-Tordav&r, 6-K olozsv^r and Doboka they reached V&rad, Bihar and, after crossing even the Tisza