Product Code Database
Amadeus Aba or Amade Aba (; ; ? – 5 September 1311) was a Hungarian oligarchy in the Kingdom of Hungary who ruled de facto independently the northern and north-eastern counties of the kingdom (today parts of Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine). He held the office of Palatine (nádor) several times (1288–1289, 1290–1291, 1291–1293, 1295–1296, 1297–1298, 1299–1300, 1302–1310), and he was also judge royal (országbíró) twice (1283–1285, 1289). He was assassinated at the south gate in the city of Kassa by Saxon burghers.
Amadeus fought in the Battle of Marchfeld in the troops King Ladislaus IV of Hungary sent to King Rudolph I of Germany against King Ottokar II of Bohemia (26 August 1278). In 1280, Aba became the head of Sibiu (today Sibiu in Romania), i.e., the royal officer appointed to administer the Transylvanian Saxons. Following the dismissal of Finta as Palatine, he rebelled against Ladislaus in 1281. As Peter Aba was appointed Master of the treasury and there is no mention of Amadeus Aba, it is likely to be declared that only Finta rebelled against the king and not the whole Aba clan.
King Ladislaus IV appointed Amadeus to the office of judge royal in 1283. In February 1285, he fought successfully against the Mongols who were pillaging the north-eastern parts of the kingdom. He received land and special privileges in Poland from Wladyslaw Lokietek King of Poland, and was referred to as Amadej in Polish.
When King Andrew III died (14 January 1301), some of the powerful aristocrats became the supporters of Wenceslaus, the crown prince of Bohemia, while others, including Aba, supported the claim of Charles, a member of the Angevin dynasty. Charles laid siege to Buda, the capital of the kingdom, in September 1302, but Ivan Kőszegi relieved the town. Charles's charters show that he primarily stayed in the southern parts of the kingdom during the next years. However, he also visited Amadeus Aba in the fortress of Gönc. In 1304, Scepusian Saxons and the citizens of Kassa supported by Wenceslaus unsuccessfully besieged Amadeus' centre, Gönc.
Later, Wenceslaus left the kingdom (August 1304), and shortly afterwards, Aba concluded an agreement with Charles and Duke Rudolph III of Austria against Wenceslaus' father, King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia. In 1304 and 1305, he gave military assistance to Duke Władysław of Cuiavia against King Wenceslaus II who had occupied Lesser Poland. Władysław also resided in Gönc for several years. This case proves that Amadeus followed an independent foreign policy, similarly to the other oligarchs of the realm. As the Illuminated Chronicle notes, he considered Charles as his King "only with words but not with deeds".
Amadeus Aba was present at the Assembly of Rákos (10 October 1307) where the participants confirmed Charles' claim for the throne. Charles was proclaimed king at the Assembly in Pest (27 November 1308), in the presence of Aba. In 1308, he became the head (ispán) of Szepes. He was present when King Charles was crowned in Buda (15 June 1309). Afterwards, he mediated between the king and Ladislaus Kán, the powerful Voivode of Transylvania who made a promise that he would transfer the Holy Crown of Hungary to the king.
King Charles stripped him of his titles around May 1310, as Amadeus was mentioned as "former palatine" in a royal charter. In the course of the year, Amadeus occupied several castles. He wanted to expand his influence over Kassa, but the citizens rebelled against him and they killed Amadeus in a skirmish on 5 September 1311. Two of his sons, Amadeus II and Dominic were captured and held hostage alongside other 45 family members and vassals.
He usurped royal prerogatives in his dominion, e.g., he granted lands and nobility to his followers. He governed his possessions from his North-Eastern Hungarian castle in Gönc. He also expropriated the judicial function in his territory as he had an own court of justice in Vizsoly. Amadeus arbitrarily imposed duties and built castles and appointed castellans among his familiars without the permission of the king. Amadeus had own provincial court, where he elected chancellors, notaries, judges and even a Judge royal, imitating the functions of royal court. Beside duties, the trade and the business of traders were also under his influence. He continuously harassed and oppressed the town markets and traders, especially Kassa. The local nobles were forced to swear allegiance to the Aba kindred. According to a diploma issued in 1302, his troops seized the possessions of a local noble in Abaúj County and the owner himself was imprisoned and threatened with death to persuade him to pass on the family's deed of gift.
Historian Attila Zsoldos draws a distinction between the "oligarchs" (e.g. Matthew Csák) and "provincial lords" (e.g. Ugrin Csák) regarding the role of the royal power in the provincial administration. Amadeus Aba exercised sovereign rights in his domain but remained loyal to the kings (he rebelled against the central power only once in 1288, when the unpopular Ladislaus IV lost all domestic and foreign support), thus Zsoldos refers to him as a "loyal oligarch", alongside Stephen Ákos.
Following his death, Charles's envoys arbitrated an agreement on 3 October 1311 between Amadeus' widow, sons and the town, which also prescribed that the Abas should withdraw from two counties and allow the noblemen inhabiting their domains to freely join Charles. This marked end of the Aba province in North-East Hungary. However, the Abas soon entered into an alliance with Matthew Csák, the most powerful oligarch in the realm, against the king. Nonetheless, his sons could not maintain his power, and after their defeat at the Battle of Rozgony (today Rozhanovce in Slovakia) his dominion disintegrated. Taking advantage of their downfall, Peter, son of Petenye built up a dominant power in Zemplén County, while some of Amadeus' former castles and possessions were obtained by members of the Drugeth family in the 1320s–1340s.
|
|
