At first the Magyars only settled the
land sparsely and moved around with their herds. One tribe, or
rather a large family possessed a thousand or even ten thousand
horses and beef cattle. For these animals one needed a very
large pasture, then either pasture or stable feed or some other
intensive methods could be used for these livestock breeds. The
Magyars were the masters and considered land work as undignified
for a free man. Slavic slaves regarded as farm hands did the
grain cultivation. With it they migrated from one permanent
winter settlement annually to a new summer settlement. Otto von Freising reported that on the occasion of the second crusade
through Hungary the Magyars lived in tents in the summer and in
wooden or reed houses in the winter. How such housing looked we
learn from K. Sebestyén: “In the house described as small
cottages and earth huts that consisted of only one room, were
buried in the earth and covered with wood, reed, and straw only
the farm hands, the descendants of Slavs and other prisoners,
lived. The Magyars were tent inhabitants. Pelt tents held
together with a pole framework like the nomadic Turks still use
today, also appeared to be like the construction of living
quarters for nomadic Magyars. The ground construction consisted
of man high, vertical, circular wood grid walls, its inner
surface pulled together, or rather pushed apart to adjust, its
diameter fluctuating between 3 and 10 meters. Over this
circular shaped wall which reminded one of a latticed summer
house, curving in a spherical or cone shaped roof construction.
The roof work consisted of flexible poles whose lower ends were
connected to the upper edge of the wall.”
Gradually economic change took place. The
field cultivation was always of great importance as food for
livestock breeds. This development was extensively encouraged by
the proselytizing the Magyars to Christianity and through the
kingdom created by Saint Stephan in the year 1000. Church
organization and secular administration went hand in hand. The
Batschka was administered by three komitats (counties): the
northeast by the Csongrád Komitat, the northwest by the Bodrogh
Komitat, and the south by the Bach (Bács) Komitat. The land’s
church administration belonged to the Kalotschka archdiocese,
yet it had its own cathedral capital in Batsch, which was on par
with Kalotschka. Church and state troubled themselves equally
to shape a cultivated land. For this purpose foreign people
from different folk groups and languages were sent for who then
in the course of the year and generations came to the Hungarian
nation. In greater numbers especially came Petschenegs (Bessier),
Ismaelites (Chalisier), Kumans (Kuns), and Germans (called
Franconians and Saxons) in the Batschka. Among the nobility
which one finds in the three Batschka komitats among others are
the names Benz, Dether, Drach, Marhart, Einhard, Elber, Faber,
Kelz, Potz, Sasha, Theutus, which hint at a German descent.
Different secular and religious dignitaries
of the middle ages appeared to be German, sometimes also of
French or Italian descent. The first Obergespan (top dignitary)
of the Bodrogh Komitat known by name was called Lambert, the
first archbishop of the Kalotschka Ascherich, other archbishops
with origin from foreign lands were, among others,Fulbert,
Johann von Meran, Berthold von Meran, Johannes Gümes, Dionys
Hermann, Alois Helfenstein, Ladislaus Wingard.
The most important place was the castle
Bach (Bács) on the Moostung; a strong fortress, splendid bishop
city, administrative seat of the komitat. The following cities
in this komitat are also to be mentioned: Arnath, Derzs, Funow,
Futagh, Gyala, Kysdy, Parazthy, Pesth, Zentmarton, Zund, Thlek,
Titel, Varad, and Vaskapu. In the Bodrog Komitat to be
mentioned: Apathy, Baya, Bathmonastra, Bodrogh, Hayzenthlewrinz,
Halas, Madaras, Zabathka, Zenthgergh, Zeremlen, Thowankwth,
Wyfalw. In these cities are proven French, Wallonian, Italian,
and German commercial activities. All this shows how strong the
western influence was since the time of the first Hungarian
king, Saint Stephan, in the region of the central Danube.
The ruins of Batsch,
with its gothic towers and windows, shows the past magnificence
of the splendid middle age bishop’s seat.
On the flat land the field cultivation
always increased more. We really have little to introduce about
the individual settlements. It appears as if there are only a
few settlers from the west in these villages. At least we learn
that there were already some German villages at the time: Rad,
Lipolthfeld, Nemety, Nemdy, Wolfer, Vilmann.
The endeavor of the government was to make
a field cultivation region fom the Batschka. Thanks to the
favorable transportation possibilities on the Danube and Theiß
it was easy to provide the more remote parts of the land with
grain from here on. This endeavor opposed the interests of the
individual landowners. Through purchase, exchange, inheritance,
marriage, gifts, and forceful appropriations large land estates
formed on which more livestock breeds were carried on as
agriculture. Repeatedly imperial commissions were used to check
on the possessions without success. The large estates were
always more powerful. The social position of the farmers were
always worse from the rejection of the agriculture, and they
rebelled in the year 1514 under the leadership of Georg Dôzsa.
This farmers’ uprising was bloodily suppressed by the large
landowners but from their newly strengthened power they could
not be protected for long, with the battle of Mohatsch in the
year 1526 the Batschka came under the Ottoman Empire and from
1543 on it was administered by the Turks.
[Published at
DVHH.org 19 Sep 2005 by Jody McKim
Pharr]
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The Magyar Middle Ages
