A grant of land

Translated letter:

E[lizabeth] by the grace of God queen of Hungary to all the faithful of Christ who will have notice of the presents, greetings/salvation in the bestower of salvation.  Since well-owed favor is supplied to merits and worthy mercy given to those serving faithfully, God is believed to be pleased, and subjects are provoked and expected to exercize the zeal of loyalty with the hope and desire of similar and even greater repayment to follow.  Therefore we wish to bring to the notice of the present and the future by the content of these, that since Stephen, son of Kustán a noble from the Ákos kin, a faithful youth of our house showed always faithful and laudable service to our highness for a long time with the highest devotion, especially in  carrying out our commissions; when he was sent by us to count/ispán Myze (Misze?), carrying out our missions committed to his industry, as one faithful and suitable, on his return he was mortally wounded by thieves and highwaymen, and later by certain enemies of the reginal crown, so that compelling with various injuries they could remove him from our service and loyalty to us, in abuse of our name and his honor they despoiled [him] of all his goods moveable and immoveable.  We considering his loyalties and services, because of which and many others similar to them which can not be summarily related one by one, he is known to be not unworthily assessed by the multiple voices of praises, in some recompense of his services faithfully given to us, though he would be considered worthy of greater gifts, yet, so that others might be more easily called to exercising services of loyalty to us by his example, we gave, donated, and conferred to be irrevocably possessed by  perpetual right and peacefully  a certain reginal land of ours called Egres in the county of Somogy in the vicinity of the land of Stephen of Darow called Fekete and the town Somodar, on which our conditionaries, namely the salvagers of three weights (?salvatores trium ponderum), resided, taking away from any possessor whatever, and with all the letters and charters in the persons of any others that were given and granted up to this time, revoked altogether and broken, with all their uses and appurtenances of the land, namely arables, woods, meadows, and hayfields and other of its appurtenances within the boundaries and limits which those conditionaries of ours at the time of lady Maria formerly illustrious queen of Hungary our dearest [grand]mother-in-law are known to have possessed, with the fullness of our grace to that Stephen and through him to his heirs and successors of his heirs, we also had him introduced into physical possession of said land Egres through our faithful Michael son of Galus from that county of Somogy.  So that the content of this donation of ours may obtain the force of perpetual stability, and cannot be revoked in the course of time by anyone, we have granted the present letters strengthened by the protection of our double seal.  Dated by the hand of the venerable father lord Benedict bishop by the grace of God of Veszprém, our faithful chancellor of our court in the 1290th year of the Lord.

Original letter:

Elizabet Dei gratia regina Hungarie omnibus Christi fidelibus presentium notitiam habituris salutem in salutis largitore. Cum bene meritis favor debitus inpenditur, et fideliter obsequentibus merces condigna redditur, Deus placari creditur, et subdity [!] ad fidelitatis studia exercenda provocantur attendenturque, spe et desiderio consequende retributionis consimilis et etiam amplioris. Proinde ad universorum tam presentium, quam futurorum, notitiam harum serie volumus pervenire, quod quia Stephanus filius Kustan nobilis de genere Akus fidelis iuvenis domus nostre celsitudini nostre a longo tempore cum sumpma devotione fideles semper et laudabiles exhibuit famulatus, specialiter autem in deferendis legationibus nostris, cum idem ad comitem Myzem per nos fuisset destinatus, legationes nostras, industrie eiusdem commissas, utpote fidelis et idoneus deferens, circa reversionem suam per latrones et viarum insidiatores letaliter extitit vulneratus, ac demum per quosdam reginalis corone emulos, ut eundem a nostro servitio et fidelitate nobis inpendenda variis gravaminibus quoartando possent removere, in desuessionem nostri nominis et honoris ipsius omnibus bonis suis mobilibus et immobilibus enormiter spoliarunt [!], nos considerantes fidelitatibus et servitiis ipsius huiusmodi, propter que et multa alia hiis similia, que de plano non possunt per singula enarrari, multiplici laudum preconio esse dinoscitur non immerito adtollendus, in aliqualem recompensationem servitiorum eiusdem nobis fideliter inpensorum quamquam maioribus donariis censeatur fore dignus, tamen, ut alii ad fidelitatis obsequia nobis exercenda eius exemplo facilius invitentur, quandam terram nostram reginalem Egres vocatam in comitatu Symigiensi in vicinitate terre Stephani de Darow Fekethew vocate et ville Somodar existentem, super quam conditionarii nostri, videlicet salvatores [!] trium ponderum residebant, a quolibet auferendo detentore, et omnibus etiam litteris seu privilegiis, in quorumcumque aliorum personis usque ad hec tempora datis et concessis, revocatis penitus et cassatis, cum omnibus utilitatibus et pertinentiis suis universis terrys [!] videlicet arabilibus, silvis, pratis et fenetis ac aliis pertinentiis eiusdem sub eisdem metis et terminis, in quibus iidem conditionarii nostri temporibus domine Marie condam illustris regine Hungarie socrus nostre karissime dinoscuntur possedisse, de nostre gratie plenitudine eidem Stephano et per eum suis heredibus heredumque suorum successoribus dedimus, donavimus et contulimus iure perpetuo et irrevocabiliter pacifice possidendam, ipsum etiam in corporalem possessionem predicte terre Egrus per Michaelem filium Galus de eadem [!] comitatu Symigiensi fidelem nostrum fecimus introduci. Ut igitur huius nostre donationis series robur obtineat perpetue firmitatis, nec processu temporis per quempiam valeat revocari, presentes eidem concessimus litteras dupplici [!] sigilli nostri munimine roboratas. Datum per manus venerabilis patris domini Benedicti episcopi Dei gratia Wesprimiensis, aule nostre cancellarii fidelis nostri anno Domini Mmo CCCmo [!] nonagesimo. 

Historical context:

The queen bestows land on a youth in her service, who had served devotedly and been wounded on some of her commissions and despoiled of his goods.  The gift revokes any previous charters held by others.   Zsoldos, The Árpáds, 126, says that Stephen of the Ákos kin “can be proven to have belonged to the higher ranks of noble society.”  Conditionaries are people who serve under certain compulsory bonds. 

Printed source:

Az Árpád-házi hercegek, hercegnök és a királnék okleveleinek kritikai jegyzéke, Regesta ducum, ducissarum stirpis Arpadianae necnon reginarum Hungariae critico-diplomatica, E. Szentpétery, A. Zsoldos (Budapest, 2008), 153-54, #242.

Date: