A letter of reward

Translated letter:

Elizabeth by the grace of God queen of Hungary to all the children of Holy Mother Church, who will have notice of the presents, greetings/salvation in the true Saviour.  The careful providence of reginal(queenly) benevolence should measure the merits of each one, and respond to each according to the need of their merits, so that while those whose services are manifest through the experience of loyalty saw themselves becoming fruitful, they might strive to grow from virtue to virtue, and others, provoked by their example, might be invited to works of loyalty.  Therefore we wish to make manifest by notice to all present and future, that when Guna, son of Gyuga, our cook from the town of Kölked, brought up from the first flowerings of his youth in the home of our Highness, in prosperity and adversity and particularly at the time of our persecution, at which the lord king Béla, and lady Maria, our mother-in-law of good memory, strove to rise against us and fight us in the siege of the castle of Patak, [Guna] exposing himself to various kinds of dangers, tirelessly showed service of devoted fidelity to us; wishing to respond to him with a worthy payment of recompense, we have transferred him and his uterine brothers, namely Noboy, Chaba, and Bolosey, from said town of Kölked, with the land appertaining to them, exempting them from the status of our cooks to the number and freedom of reginal servers, with the will, agreement and consent of our lord king.   Wishing that they and their heirs, those descending in direct line of generation enjoy that same freedom perpetually and irrevocably, which other nobles of our kingdom are known to enjoy.  In memory and perpetual endurance of which thing, lest in the course of time they might be impeded from the arranged freedom by some evil objection, we have granted the present letters to them strengthened by the protection of our double seal.  Dated by the hand of master Nicholas, provost of Transylvania, our loyal vice-chancellor of our court, in the one thousand two hundred seventy second (1272nd) year of our Lord.

Original letter:

 (E)lisabeth Dei gracia Regina Hungarie vniuersis Sancte Matris Ecclesie filijs, presencium noticiam habituris, salutem in uero Saluatore.  Circumspecta Reginalis benignitatis prouidencia metiri debet merita singulorum, et singulis secundum exigenciam meritorum respondere, vt dum hij, quorum seruicia per experienciam fidelitatis patent manifesta, prospexerint se fecundos, de uirtute crescere studeant in uirtutem, et alij eorum exemplo prouocati, ad fidelitatis opera inuitentur.  Proinde vniuersorum presencium futororumque noticie uolumus fieri manifestum, quod cum Guna filius Gyuga, cocus noster de villa Kulked, a primeuis iuuentutis sue floribus in domo nostre Celsitudinis educatus, in prosperis et aduersis, et maxime tempore persecucionis nostre, quo dominus Bela Rex, et domina Maria socrus nostra bone memorie, contra dominum nostrum Stephanum Regem, et contra nos insurgere, et nos expugnare nitebantur, in obsidione castri Potok, varijs se periculorum generibus exponens, deuote fidelitatis obsequium nobis exhibuerit indefesse; volentes eidem condigno retribucionis stipendio respondere, ipsum, ac fratres suos vterinos, Noboy uidelicet, Chaba, et Bolosey, de villa Kulked supradicta, simul cum terra eos contingente, de condicione cocorum nostrorum eximentes, in numerum et libertatem seruiencium Regalium, de uoluntate, conniuencia et consensu domini nostri Regis, duximus transferendos.  Volentes, ut ijdem, et eorum heredes, sev directa generacionis linea descendentes ab eisdem eadem libertate perpetuo et inreuocabiliter gaudeant, qua ceteri Regni nostri nobiles gaudere dinoscuntur.  In cuius rei memoriam, firmitatemque perpetuam, ne processu temporum possint per quempiam super premissa libertate maligna cauillacione impediri, presentes eisdem concessimus litteras, duplicis sigilli nostri munimine roboratas.  Datum per manus magistri Nicolai, Prepositi Transiluani, aule nostre ViceCancellarij, fidelis nostri, anno Domini millesimo ducentesimo septuagesimo secundo.

Historical context:

The junior queen rewards a cook of Kölked who honored himself at her side at the siege of Patak in 1264 with a higher status;  cooks participated in military campaigns.   The castle of Patak (outside present Sátoraljaúghely) was besieged by troops of Béla IV, Elizabeth’s father-in-law, in 1264-5.  See Attila Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives, Queenship in Early Medieval Hungary, 1000-1301 (Rome:  Viella, 2019) 81.

Printed source:

Árpádkori új okmánytár:  Codex diplomaticus Arpadianus continuatus, vols. I-XII, G. Wenzel ed. (Pest-Budapest 1860-74), 3.275-76, #167.

Date: