A letter of confirmation

Translated letter:

Maria, by the grace of God queen of Hungary to all the faithful of Christ who will have notice of the presents greetings in the bestower of salvation.  Since from diversity of times and change formerly [in] the county of Pozsega, our faithful jobbágyok* holding lands in that county were troubled over those lands and could not for a long time possess what they held legitimately in peace and quiet because of the machinations of challengers; their frequent supplication invited us to confirm the land of each of them by our charter.  Indeed since it was not fully clear to us about the quantity and boundaries of their land, by which each was surrounded, we committed to the loyalty and diligence of our faithful Gyleth/Giletus  ispán** of the tavernicorum*** of our illustrious lord king of Hungary and count of our buchariorum,*** so that going to each of their lands personally he might discover the quantity of those which they possessed from the time of Ugrin, archbishop of  Kalocsa of bright memory, and since, and would look at the same time at their boundaries and let us know by his letters the status of the land with new erections beside old boundaries.  Who having faithfully carried out our order and commission, sent us the lands and status of all said jobbágyok holding lands in said county from the time of said archbishop enclosed in a certain charter under his known and authentic seal; among which we found the land Beluch, Sewa and Otrochk, called Oryawicha land held by our faithful jobbágyok to be included under this status and these boundaries.

That first boundary of the land Beluch, Sewa and Otrochk begins in the east over a mountain where there is a land boundary and its coboundary is Bilotha, from which descending by that mountain into a path southward to a road, whence it goes to a pear tree, where the land boundary is and shares the boundary with said Bilota, then through certain bushes it goes directly to a certain embankment at the Oriawicha stream and from there crossing the river Oriawicha it goes to a sorb tree, where there is a land boundary, thence to a wood, crossing which wood it descends to a dry river in the west and there shares a boundary with Draas and from there ascends to a certain road beside which is a land boundary and there its shared boundary is said Draas, from which descending though a certain wood westward it goes to a tree which is call in the vernacular nyrfa and there is a land boundary and there the shared boundary is said Draas, from which it goes to boundaries of Demetrius’s widow’s land and then to the tree which is called narfa and there is a shared boundary with Demetrius’s widow’s land, from which it falls into an embankment which is called Birgnik creek and from there it descends eastward to a certain road up to the river Oriawcha, crossing which it goes east to an embankment and then ascending by a certain small part of the mountain it comes back to the first boundary and thus the boundaries of said land are fixed, which land we have confirmed under said boundaries, Beluch, Sewa and Otrochk, to our faithfuls and their heirs and successors of those heirs by the authority of the present charter in perpetual right under the observance, with duties and services and custom in all things and through all things, under which those holding land in Pozsega up to now have carried on. 
Lest the content of this our confirmation should be weakened by anyone, in which a way of maligning by challengers is providently crushed, we have had the present charter strengthened by the defence of our double seal.  Dated at Buda by the hand of our faithful master Ákos provost of Buda, chancellor of our court.  In the onethousand two hundred fifty-eighth year of the lord, thirteenth kalends of February.

Original letter:

Maria dei gracia regina Hungarie vniuersis Christi fidelibus presencium noticiam habituris salutem in salutis largitore.  Quia pro temporum uarietate et comitum de Posoga quondam mutacione fideles iobagiones nostri in eodem comitatu terras tenentes super terris suis molestabantur, nec poterant a longo tempore legitime possessas per calumpniatorum machinamenta quiete et pacifice possidere, frequens ipsorum nos supplicacio inuitait, vt terram vniuscuiusque ipsorum nostro dignaremur priuilego confirmare.  Verum quia non plene constabat nobis de quantitate terre ipsorum et metis, quibus unaquaque ipsarum cingebatur, fidei et diligencie fidelis nostri Gyleth comitis tawernicorum incliti domini nostri regis Hungarie et comitis buchariorum nostrorum commisimus, vt ipse super unamquamque ipsarum terrarum personaliter accedens quantitatem earum, quas a tempore clare memorie Vgrini Colochensis archiepiscopi et deinceps possessas inueniret ab eis simul et metas inspiceret et iuxta metas antiquas nouis erectis statum uniuscuiusque terre nobis suis litteris intimaret.  Qui mandatum et commissionem nostram fideliter exequtus, omnium predictorum iobagionum in dicto comitatu a tempore prefati archiepiscopi tenencium terras statumque ipsarum terrarum sub suo noto et autentico sigillo in quadam carta clausum nobis transmisit, inter quas terram Beluch, Sewa et Otrochk nomine Oryawicha fidelium iobagionum nostrorum tenencium terram sub hoc statu et sub hiis metis inuenimus comprehendi.  Prima siquidem meta terre Beluch, Sewa et Otrochk incipit ab oriente super monte, ubi est meta terrea et commetaneus eius est Bilotha, inde descendens per eundem montem in semitam uersus meridiem usque viam, vnde uadit ad pirum, ubi est meta terrea et commetatur terre predicti Bilote, inde uero per quosdam rubos dirigit se ad quoddam fossatum ad riuulum Oriawicha et inde transiens riuum Oriawicha uadit ad sorbum, ubi est meta terrea, demum uadit ad nemus, per quod nemus transiens descendit in riuum desiccatum versus occidentem et ibi est commetaneus eius Draas et inde ascendit in quandam uiam iuxta quam est meta terrea et ibidem commetaneus eius est dictus Draas, inde uero descendens per quoddam nemus versus occidentem uadit ad arborem que wlgo nyrfa vocatur et ibi est meta terrea et ibi est commetaneus eius predictus Dras, inde uadit ad metas te(r)re relicte Demetrii, demum uadit ad arborem qui uocatur narfa et ibi est commetaneus terre relicte Demetrii, inde uero cadit in fossatum, quod Birgnik potoca vocatur et inde descendens uersus orientem ad quandam uiam usque riuum Oriawcha, quem transiens uadit ad fossatum uersus orientem et inde ascendens per quandam particulam montis redit ad primam metam et sic mete predicte terre terminantur, quam terram sub metis supranotatis eisdem fidelibus nostris Beluch, Sewa et Otrochk et ipsorum heredibus heredumque successoribus autoritate presentis priuilegii in ius perpetuum confirmauimus sub eadem obseruancia, debitis et seruiciis ac ritu in omnibus et per omnia, sub quibus terram in Posoga tenentes hactenus deguerunt.  Ne igitur huius nostre confirmacionis series a quoquam ualeat infirmari, in qua calumpniatoribus via malignandi prouide est elisa, presens priuilegium dupplicis sigilli nostri munimine fecimus roborari.  Datum Bude per manus fidelis nostri magistri A[chatii] prepositi Budensis aule nostre cancellarii.  Anno domini MoCCo quinquagesimo octauo, tercio decimo kalendas februarii.

Historical context:

At the request of her people, the queen orders an investigation into the changes in the holding of lands in Pozsega where they have had problems.  On the basis of that investigation, she confirms their holdings.  Zsoldos, The Árpáds, 64, notes that the investigation was still ongoing in 1261 (cf. CDCr 5.241-42).  He identifies Giletus as ispán of the reginal butlers and the royal tárnoks, 64, and calls him magister tavarnicorum and ispán of the queen’s cup-bearers in relation to this land inquiry, 106.

Scholarly notes:

* Jobbágyok designated the legally free tenant population living on private estates, by the late 13th century; originally they had been high ranking royal officers, according to Attila Zsoldos, The Árpáds and Their Wives, Queenship in Early Medieval Hungary 1000-1301 (Rome:  Viella, 2019), 208.

** Ispán refers to the head of an administrative and judicial unit, a county, Zsoldos, 207.

*** Zsoldos, 106, says the magister tavernicorum was responsible for queen’s revenue;  since he also mentions cupbearers with a reference to this charter, 107, I assume that is the meaning of burchariorum.

Printed source:

Codex diplomaticus regni Croatiae, Dalmatiae et Slavoniae, ed. T. Smiciklas (Zagreb, 1904-34),  5.84-85, #601.   Also in Az Árpád-házi hercegek, hercegnök és a királnék okleveleinek kritikai jegyzéke, Regesta ducum, ducissarum stirpis Arpadiana necnon reginarum Hungariae critico-diplomatica, E. Szentpétery, A. Zsoldos (Budapest, 2008), 48-49, #51.

Date: