The aim of this book is to present the history of the Árpád era. The method applied here differs significantly from the traditional approach of following the chronological order of events, however. The period is presented not as a linear narration of events, but rather in the light of the society of the time. The introductory chapters are followed by chapters portraying a broad range of typical figures of the age, from the king down to the servants and the free peasants. All the knowledge of the full history of the Árpád period that can be expected to be included in a work of such a size has found its place in this social historical overview.
Attila Zsoldos is a full member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He works at the Institute of History of the Research Centre for the Humanities (Budapest, Hungary). His main fields of interest are the social and political history and the institutions of 11-14th century Hungary.

Arpadiana IV.

Tartalom
PREFACE
SOURCES
Annals, gestas, legends
Laws
Charters
Literacy and its institutions in the Árpád era
GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING
The Carpathian Basin
Natural treasures
Overland routes and waterways
Country borders and neighbouring countries
ORDER OF EVENTS
From Verecke to Esztergom
The foundation of the Hungarian state
The completion of the model of Saint Stephen
Decades of reforms
The Mongol invasion and its consequences
The crisis of royal power at the end of the 13th century
THE KING
The coronation
Inheritance, assignments, elections
The power of the king
The economic background to royal power
“They mourned him with the mourning of a faithful heart”
THE QUEEN
Royal marriages
The king’s wife
Gracious ladies – female politicians
The fate of widows
THE PRINCE AND THE PRINCESS
Childhood years
The end of childhood: the prince
From dukedom to junior kingdom
Approaches to being a prince
The princess
THE PRELATE
First encounters with Christianity
The organization of the Hungarian church
The king, the pope and the Hungarian church
Prelates in the kingdom of the Árpáds
The prelates and ecclesiastical society
THE MONK
Monks, knights and hermits
Monasteries and their inhabitants
The abbot, the traveller and the princess
THE BARON
Ispánates, counties, provinces
The evolution of the structure of the royal court
Barons, lords and nobles
Two careers
The nobles in politics
THE OLIGARCH
The road to Zsitva
The formation of provinces
The oligarchs and royal power
THE NOBLE
Freemen, royal servitors, nobles
The county and the nobility
Noble landholdings...
...and landholding nobles
IMMIGRANTS FROM THE EAST
Early immigrants: Muslims and Pechenegs
The Jews
Those arriving in the 13th century: the Cumans, Iasians and Romanians
King Attila’s people
IMMIGRANTS FROM THE WEST
Guests and their rights
Saxons in Transylvania and in the Szepesség
The birth of towns
Natives and immigrants
THE SERF
Forms of servitude
The people of the royal estates: the example of the castle ispánates
The familia ecclesiastica
The serfs of secular landowners
THE FREE PEASANT
Populating the estates: from serfdom to liberty
The free peasant
The world of the village
AFTER THE ÁRPÁDS
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abbreviations
Further readings
Appendix
Index

Oldalszám: 266

Kiadási év: 2020