IV. The Integration of Burzenland into the Hungarian Realm and the Following Events
© Klaus Popa
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The province of Burzenland (Tara Bîrsei, Barcaság), situated in the south-eastern corner of Transilvania, had led an existence of its own since its last documentary mentioning in 1294, when king Andrew III. confirmed to Nicolaus of Rosenau (Rîsnov, Rozsnyó;) the donation of some possessions in Burzenland by Ladislaus IV, which had been done in October 1288, when the king visited the province (101). The military visit of Karl Robert to Transilvania in late-summer of 1324 didin't include the Burzenland. Thus the local military leadership which had emerged in the transition period until the accession of Karl Robert to the Hungarian throne and in the first half of his reign had established an independent rule, only very loosely connected to the Hungarian realm. The independent status of Burzenland is evident already in the course of 1324, when voivode Thomas was stationed in the vicinity of Reps (Rupea, Köhalom) (102). There is a strong fortress there, which the voivode appearantly wanted to bring under his control. That's the place where the attempts of the Hungarian authorities to show their presence in southern Transilvania came to a halt, exactly at the gates of Burzenland. A document of Pope John XXII of 1 February 1327 addressed to Comes Salamo of Burzenland, to the Transilvanian voivode Thomas, to the vaivoda Transalpinus Bazaras and to Mikth, banus of Slavonia, which asks help for the Dominican friars sent out against the heretics (103) illustrates the special military, political and ecclesiatical position of Burzenland. Comes Salamo from the Sommer-family is positioned by the Pope on the same political level like voivode Thomas, a fact which proves the important role played by him in the Carpathian border-region of Catholicism. It is indeed the missionary and conversion-offensive started by Pope John XXII in this part of Southeastern Europe which allowed Comes Salamo to consolidate his position especially as against the Anjou-king on the Hungarian throne.
101) Ladislaus IV is attested in Kronstadt on 27 October 1288 (Ub. I, p. 159, nr. 225). The confirmation of Ladislaus's donation was issued by Andrew III in 1294 (DIR, veacul XIII., C. Transilvania, vol. II, no. 451, pp. 403sq.).
102) Fejér, Codex diplomaticus Hungariae ...., VIII 2, p. 589, no. 275; Ub. I, p. 388, no. 426; DIR, p. 133sq., no. 290.
103) Ub. I, p. 408sq., no. 452; p. 410, no. 454. "Banus" is the Slavic for 'margrave' (lord or governor of a border province). Page 21
The fact that the General Chapter of the Dominican Order held in Barchinona in Aragon (Spain) in 1323 voted for the foundation of a monastery in Kronstadt (104) indicates the unison of the political intersts of Comes Salamo and the citizens of Kronstadt and of papal diplomacy. It also proves that the efforts of extending Catholic and thus papal influence beyond the eastern and southern borders of Transilvania into Wallachia, which hitherto had been under Mogolian rule, had started a few years earlier than 1323. The extraordinary position of Comes Salamo of Burzenland is also due to the military success of a coalition of forces against the Mongolian strongholds in Wallachia, formed by him, by the Wallachian voivode Basarab (the Pope calls him Bazaras) and by the Transilvanian voivode Thomas. These men seem to be responsible for the victory of Karl Robert against the "Tartars", who had invaded Hungary and of whom the Hungarians killed 30,000 (1326) (105). And the invasion of the Mongols might be a reaction to the successful imposition of vassalage upon the Wallachian voivode Basarab by Karl Robert in 1324. On 26 June 1324, when the king showed military presence in southern Transilvania, he calls the voivode woyuoda noster Transalpinus (our Transalpinian voivode) (106).
104) Acta Capituli Generalis apud Barchinonam (Aragon) Celebrati Anno Domini MCCCXXIII (1323): Provincie Ungarie concedimus duas domos: unam in Braso, aliam in Gaza ponendas. (Monumenta Ordinis Praedicatorum Historica (MOPH) VIII, Rome 1900, p.150). "Gaza"; is Kaschau (Hung. Kassa, Slov. Kosice) in eastern Slovakia.
105) Peter von Dusburg, Chronik des Preußenlandes (The Chronicle of Prussia), ed. by Klaus Scholz and Dieter Wojtecki, Darmstadt 1984, chapter I,125: "In the year of the Lord 1326 the king of Hungary killed from the army of the Tartars, which had devastated his country, 30,000 men" (Anno domini MCCCXXVI. rex Ungarie de exercitu Tartarorum qui regnum suum depopulaverant, XXX. milia interfecit.
106) Eudoxiu Hurmuzaki, Documente privitoare la istoria romanilor (Documents Concerning the History of the Romanians), vol. I 1, p. 591, no.417.
Dokument...// Erstellt: 14.12.1996. Letzte Änderung: 13.07.2012 ; Autor: Klaus Popa