Original scientific paper
The Bátori Family in Slavonia
Szabolcs Varga
; Eclesiastical History Institute of Pécs, Pécs Diocese School of Religious Sciences, Pécs
Abstract
The most influential families of the Kingdom of Hungary had vast estates in Slavonia all the time. At the end of the Middle Ages, it was especially important as a means by which the royal court could impose its will there, relying on these estates. The Bátori family held the estate of Zdenci, the city of Varaždin and certain parts of the Susedgrad (Hung. Szomszédvár) estate in its hands in the first decades of the sixteenth century.
Zdenci did not belong to the biggest estates of the county of Križevci/Kőrös. It had 220 peasant plots liable to tax payment, and its centre was the castle of Zdenci. The Bátori family acquired the estate in 1494, and they held it until the Ottoman conquest in 1543-1544. There are no written sources on its later history.
The most significant Slavonian estate of the family was Varaždin, which they possessed between 1526 and 1541. When civil war broke out in Slavonia following the Battle of Mohács, only a few urban settlements, including Varaždin, remained loyal to King Ferdinand I Habsburg. It was feared that if Christopher Frankapan, a general of King John Szapolyai, were to occupy the city of Varaždin, Ferdinand’s party would collapse and Szapolyai’s army could attack the Habsburg hereditary lands. In September 1527, Frankapan died during the siege of Varaždin and thus Slavonia remained in Habsburg hands. In 1530, Duchess Sophie of Mazovia took up her residence there, and it was also the centre of her new husband, Louis Pekry, under whose control Varaždin became the second most important city in Slavonia. However, the city housed a permanent royal garrison from 1538, which encouraged the Habsburg king to take the castle and the town under his control. This happened in 1541, when Varaždin acquired a key importance within the defensive system of Slavonia.
The Bátori family held certain parts of the estates of Susedgrad and Donja Stubica from 1553 to 1564. However, they were not really significant, and they sold them to Francis Tahy for 50,000 forints in 1564. With that act, the Bátori family gave up their Slavonian possessions for good.
Keywords
social history; political history; Slavonia; the Bátori family; Varaždin; the Late Middle Ages; the sixteenth century
Hrčak ID:
121321
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2013.
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