Galanta ( Hungarian : Galánta , German : Gallandau ) is a town with about 15,000 inhabitants in the Trnava Region of Slovakia . It is situated 50 km due east of the Slovak capital Bratislava .
135-702: The House of Esterházy , also spelled Eszterházy ( Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈɛstɛrhaːzi] ), is a Hungarian noble family with origins in the Middle Ages . From the 17th century, the Esterházys were the greatest landowner magnates of the Kingdom of Hungary , during the time that it was part of the Habsburg monarchy and later Austria-Hungary . During the history of the Habsburg Empire,
270-516: A crushing defeat on the Ottomans at Vienna in 1683. The Ottomans were expelled from Buda in 1686 . Michael I Apafi , the prince of Transylvania ( r. 1661–1690 ), acknowledged the suzerainty of Emperor Leopold I , who was also king of Hungary ( r. 1657–1705 ), in 1687. Grateful for the liberation of Buda , the Diet abolished the noblemen's right to resist the monarch for
405-616: A noble class of individuals, most of whom owned landed property , from the 11th century until the mid-20th century. Initially, a diverse body of people were described as noblemen, but from the late 12th century only high-ranking royal officials were regarded as noble. Most aristocrats claimed ancestry from chieftains of the period preceding the establishment of the kingdom around 1000; others were descended from western European knights who settled in Hungary. The lower-ranking castle warriors also held landed property and served in
540-537: A charter of ennoblement, but not a single plot of land – and peasant-nobles continued to pay taxes, for which they were collectively known as taxed nobility. Nobility could be purchased from the kings who were often in need of funds. Landowners also benefitted from the ennoblement of their serfs, because they could demand a fee for their consent. The Diet was officially divided into two chambers in Royal Hungary in 1608. All adult male members of
675-484: A consultative body into an important institution of law making in the 1440s. The magnates were always invited to attend it in person. Lesser noblemen were also entitled to attend the Diet, but in most cases they were represented by delegates, who were almost always the magnates' familiares . Hunyadi was the first noble to receive a hereditary title from a Hungarian king, when Ladislaus the Posthumous granted him
810-403: A dozen castles were erected on the royal demesne. Most castles consisted of a tower, surrounded by a fortified courtyard, but the tower could also be built into the walls. Noblemen who could not erect fortresses were occasionally forced to abandon their inherited estates or seek the protection of more powerful lords, even through renouncing their liberties. The lords of the castles had to hire
945-483: A due legal process; furthermore, they were exempt from all taxes and were entitled to resist the king if he attempted to interfere with their privileges. Werbőczy also implied that Hungary was actually a republic of nobles headed by a monarch, stating that all noblemen "are members of the Holy Crown" of Hungary. Quite anachronistically, he emphasized the idea of all noblemen's legal equality, but he had to admit that
1080-454: A formal league with the aristocrats who had elected him king in early 1387. Initially, when his position was weak, he gave away more than half of the 150 royal castles to his supporters, although this abated when he strengthened his authority in the early 15th century. His favorites were foreigners, but old Hungarian families also took advantage of his magnanimity. The wealthiest noblemen, known as magnates , built comfortable castles in
1215-460: A hostage for himself. His authority ended only if he divided his estates with his sons, but the division could rarely be enforced. The "betrayal of fraternal blood" (that is, a kinsman's "deceitful, sly, and fraudulent ... disinheritance") was a serious crime, which was punished by loss of honor and the confiscation of all property. Although the Tripartitum did not explicitly mention it,
1350-415: A noble woman who was given in marriage to a commoner should receive her inheritance "in the form of an estate in order to preserve the nobility of the descendants born of the ignoble marriage". According to the local customs of certain counties, her husband was also regarded as a nobleman – a noble by his wife. The peasants' legal position had been standardized in almost the entire kingdom by
1485-480: A nobleman's wife was also subject to his authority. She received her dower from her husband at the consummation of their marriage. If her husband died, she inherited his best coach-horses and clothes. Demand for foodstuffs grew rapidly in Western Europe in the 1490s. The landowners wanted to take advantage of the growing prices. They demanded labour service from their peasant tenants and started to collect
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#17327652208641620-467: A patron of music. In 1728, his mother Maria Octavia, "probably at her son's instigation" engaged the composer Gregor Werner to be the family's Kapellmeister (music director), a post in which Werner served for several decades. Much later (1761), Paul Anton engaged Joseph Haydn to be his Vice-Kapellmeister in 1761, taking over most of the aging Werner's duties. At the same time, he upgraded the court orchestra, hiring several virtuosi who served under Haydn;
1755-494: A piece of land. Unlike a conditional noble, a familiaris remained de jure an independent landholder, only subject to the monarch. From the 1270s, the monarchs' coronation oath included a promise to respect the noblemen's liberties. The counties gradually transformed into an institution of the noblemen's local autonomy. Noblemen regularly discussed local matters at the counties' general assemblies. The sedria (the counties' law courts) became important elements in
1890-446: A professional staff for the defence of the castle and the management of its appurtenances. They primarily employed nobles who held nearby estates, which gave rise to the development of a new institution, known as familiaritas . A familiaris was a nobleman who entered into the service of a wealthier landowner in exchange for a fixed salary or a portion of revenue, or rarely for the ownership or usufruct (right to enjoyment) of
2025-455: A quarter of the territory of the kingdom when Corvinus died in 1490. A further tenth of all lands in the kingdom was in the possession of about 55 wealthy noble families. Other nobles held almost one third of the lands, but this group included 12–13,000 peasant-nobles who owned a single plot (or a part of it) and had no tenants. The Diets regularly compelled the peasant-nobles to pay tax on their plots. Average magnates held about 50 villages, but
2160-503: A reference to their (actual or presumed) common ancestor with the words de genere ("from the kindred"). Families descending from the same kindred adopted similar insignia. The author of the Gesta Hungarorum fabricated genealogies for them and emphasized that they could never be excluded from "the honor of the realm", that is from state administration. The new owners of the transferred royal estates wanted to subjugate
2295-419: A reliable source. Stephen I ( r. 997–1038 ), who was crowned the first king of Hungary in 1000 or 1001, defeated the last resisting tribal chieftains. Earthen forts were built throughout the kingdom and most of them developed into centers of royal administration. About 30 administrative units, known as counties , were established before 1040; more than 40 new counties were organized during
2430-615: A result of their ethnicity) and German (as they were aristocrats of the Austrian Empire). Esterházys living in parts of the Kingdom of Hungary where other languages were spoken by the population also spoke those languages, especially Slavic languages in Slavic areas. Some family members went by both Hungarian and (rather distinct) German names. Thus, Antal Pál (Hungarian) was the same person as Paul Anton (German), and József Miklós
2565-755: A significant group in the 10th century. The highest-ranking Hungarians were buried either in large cemeteries (where hundreds of their men were buried without weapons around their leader's burial place), or in small cemeteries with 25–30 graves. The wealthy warriors' burial sites yielded richly decorated horse harness, and sabretaches ornamented with precious metal plaques. Rich women's graves contained their braid ornaments and rings made of silver or gold and decorated with precious stones. The most widespread decorative motifs which can be regarded as tribal totems – the griffin , wolf and hind – were rarely applied in Hungarian heraldry in
2700-465: Is always dependent on the will of the kingdom's inhabitants, in whose consent both the effectiveness and the force of the crown reside". Vladislaus died fighting the Ottomans during the Crusade of Varna in 1444 and the Diet elected seven captains in chief to administer the kingdom. The talented military commander, John Hunyadi (d. 1456), was elected the sole regent in 1446. The Diet developed from
2835-500: Is in a state of disrepair and has been closed to the public since the late 1980s. The Renaissance castle was renovated in the 1990s and is being used as a museum, exhibition space and cultural center. According to the 2021 census , the town had 15,052 inhabitants. 60.07% of inhabitants were Slovaks , 27.72% Hungarians , 0.17% Roma and 0.50% Czechs . The religious makeup was 49.72% Roman Catholics , 32.62% people with no religious affiliation and 4.07% Lutherans . In 1910, 89.6% of
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#17327652208642970-459: Is well-documented from the 1170s. The monarchs granted immunities, exempting the grantee's estates from the jurisdiction of the ispáns , or even renouncing royal revenues that had been collected there. Béla III ( r. 1172–1196 ) was the first Hungarian monarch to give away a whole county to a nobleman: he granted Modrus in Croatia to Bartholomew of Krk in 1193, stipulating that
3105-580: The Communist era of Czechoslovakia (1948–1989) the architecture of the town has further deteriorated as historic buildings were razed and replaced by prefabricated concrete apartment complexes and buildings. There are two important historical buildings left. The first one is Esterházys ' Neo-Gothic Castle and the second one is the Renaissance castle (the two are often referred to as manor houses rather than castles). The Esterházys' Neo-Gothic Castle
3240-465: The Habsburg dynasty in Royal Hungary, but prevented the Transylvanian noblemen from challenging their own authority. Ennoblement of whole groups of people was not unusual in the 17th century. Examples include the 10,000 hajdú who received nobility as a group in 1605. After the Diet was divided into two chambers in Royal Hungary in 1608, noblemen with a hereditary title had a seat in
3375-648: The Ottoman Empire reached the southern frontiers in the 1390s. A large anti-Ottoman crusade ended with a catastrophic defeat near Nicopolis in 1396. Next year, Sigismund held a Diet in Temesvár (now Timișoara in Romania) to strengthen the defence system. He confirmed the Golden Bull, but without the two provisions that limited the noblemen's military obligations and established their right to resist
3510-494: The Saxon district of Bistritz (now Bistrița in Romania) with the title perpetual count in 1453. Hunyadi's son, Matthias Corvinus ( r. 1458–1490 ), who was elected king in 1458, rewarded further noblemen with the same title. Fügedi states that 16 December 1487 was the "birthday of the estate of magnates in Hungary", because an armistice signed on this day listed 23 Hungarian "natural barons", contrasting them with
3645-454: The borderlands . Official documents from the end of the 12th century only mentioned court dignitaries and ispáns as noblemen. This group had adopted most elements of chivalric culture. They regularly named their children after Paris of Troy , Hector , Tristan , Lancelot and other heroes of Western European chivalric romances . The first tournaments were held around the same time. The regular alienation of royal estates
3780-421: The siege of Vienna in 1683. He also played an important role in suppressing the autonomy of the existing Hungarian nobility. The line that descended from Paul, the first Esterházy prince, is given as in the following figure. The sequence of princes that follow him continues below. Son of Paul, he was the first to benefit from a 1712 decree of Emperor Charles VI , which made the title of Prince hereditary among
3915-508: The upper house , other nobles sent delegates to the lower house . After the Ottomans' defeat in the Great Turkish War in the late 17th century, Transylvania and Ottoman Hungary were integrated into the Habsburg monarchy . The Habsburgs confirmed the nobles' privileges several times, but their attempts to strengthen royal authority regularly brought them into conflicts with the nobility, who represented nearly five percent of
4050-490: The 1280s, Simon of Kéza was the first to claim that noblemen held authority in the kingdom. The counties developed into institutions of noble autonomy, and the nobles' delegates attended the Diets (parliaments). The wealthiest barons built stone castles allowing them to control vast territories, but royal authority was restored in the early 14th century. In 1351, King Louis I introduced an entail system and enacted
4185-559: The 1350s. The free peasant tenants were to pay seigneurial taxes, but were rarely obliged to provide labour service . In 1351, the king ordered that the ninth – a tax payable to the landowners – was to be collected from all tenants, thus preventing landowners from offering lower taxes to persuade tenants to move from other lords' lands to their estates. In 1328, all landowners were authorized to administer justice on their estates "in all cases except cases of theft, robbery, assault or arson" which remained under
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4320-461: The 13th century. Thereafter the division of inherited property became the standard practice. Even families descended from wealthy clans could become impoverished through the regular divisions of their estates. Medieval documents mention the basic unit of estate organization as praedium or allodium . A praedium was a piece of land (either a whole village or part of it) with well-marked borders. Archaeologist Mária Wolf identifies
4455-440: The 1630s. The Calvinist princes of Transylvania supported their co-religionists. Gabriel Bethlen granted nobility to all Calvinist pastors. The kings and the Transylvanian princes regularly ennobled commoners, but often without granting landed property to them. Jurisprudence maintained that only those who owned land cultivated by serfs could be regarded as fully fledged noblemen. Armalists – noblemen who held
4590-600: The 1670s. Mercenaries replaced the Hungarian garrisons, and they frequently plundered the countryside. The monarch also supported Cardinal Leopold Karl von Kollonitsch 's attempts to restrict the Protestants' rights. Tens of thousands of Catholic Germans and Orthodox Serbs were settled in the reconquered territories. The outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1715) provided an opportunity for
4725-485: The 17th century, after Nikolaus' acquisitions, the family split into four main family lines: In 1626 the Esterházys were granted the title of Count and in 1712, the older Forchtenstein line received the title of (Ruling) Prince from the Holy Roman Emperor. They had a Sovereign State when they obtained the former Edelstetten Abbey as an Imperial Principality in 1804. The success of the family arose from
4860-579: The 20th century) in 1687 by the Emperor. Paul was a poet, a harpsichordist , and a composer; a number of his cantatas survive; see Harmonia Caelestis . He also wrote a number of religious works. Under Paul the palace in Eisenstadt was rebuilt. Paul served as commander of troops in southern Hungary, during the struggle against the Turks, starting in 1667, and his troops were among the coalition that raised
4995-580: The Carpathian Basin in the 10th century, but fortresses were also rare in Western Europe during the same period. A larger log cabin – measuring five by five metres (16 ft × 16 ft) – which was built on a foundation of stones in Borsod was tentatively identified as the local leader's household. More than a 1,000 graves yielding sabres , arrow-heads and bones of horses show that mounted warriors formed
5130-617: The Commanders Cross of the Order of St. Stephen. His corps was later absorbed into other military formations. He was Colonel and Proprietor (Inhaber) of the 31st Infantry Regiment, from November 1777 to October 1780, and then Proprietor and Colonel of the 34th Infantry Regiment, from September 1780 until his death. He was initiated to the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1790, and also became an imperial Chamberlain . He disbanded
5265-558: The Crown's interests: only kin within the third degree could inherit a nobleman's property and noblemen who had only more distant relatives could not dispose of their property without the king's consent. Louis I emphasized all noblemen enjoyed "one and the selfsame liberty" in his realms and secured all privileges that nobles owned in Hungary proper to their Slavonian and Transylvanian peers. He rewarded dozens of Vlach knezes with true nobility for military merits. The vast majority of
5400-733: The Esterházy family were consistently loyal to the Habsburg rulers. The Esterházys received the title of Graf (Count) in 1626, and the Forchtenstein line received the title of Fürst (Prince) from the Holy Roman Emperor in 1712. The Esterházys arose among the minor nobility of the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary (today's southwest Slovakia), originally a branch of the Salamon clan ( de genere Salamon ) by
5535-650: The Esterházy family. At the end of the First World War , the Austro-Hungarian Empire was split up, and the family's land holdings thus came to be located in several different countries. In 1938, the legal instrument of fideicommiss , which had allowed families to hold property in foundations owned by the whole family, but governed by the head of the family alone, was abolished in Austria (aristocratic families had used this instrument to finance
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5670-547: The Esterházy musical establishment for the duration of his reign. Born in Vienna, on 12 December 1765, he was the son of Anton and his first wife Maria Theresia. He became reigning Prince on the death of his father in 1794. Like several of his predecessors Nikolaus II pursued a military career. He is remembered for his amassing a large art collection, for his musical patronage of Haydn and Beethoven , for his sexual debauchery, and for his high expenditures. Ultimately these led to
5805-656: The Esterházy-Forchtenstein estates were unequal to the burden of supporting his fabulous extravagance and had to be placed in the hands of curators." Owing to financial trouble, Nikolaus III sold the family art collection "on generous terms" to the Austro-Hungarian state in 1870. The collection is, as a result, on public view today in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The reign of Nikolaus IV
5940-450: The Esterházys was Kismarton (today Eisenstadt , Austria ), since the heads of the family chose to make a castle in this tiny village their primary residence. A fortified stronghold had been built there in the 14th century; after the Esterházys acquired it they rebuilt it 1663–1672 to what is now the princely Schloss Esterházy . Their practical reason for choosing to create and maintain the princely court at Eisenstadt may have been that while
6075-418: The Esterházys. Under him, the family seat at Eisenstadt evolved into a provincial musical center. He died 24 March 1721. Half-brother of Michael, he reigned for only 11 weeks, as he died on 7 June 1721. As his son Paul Anton was only ten, authority was assigned to two regents: Count Georg Erdödy , and his widow Maria Octavia von Gilleis (c. 1686 – 1762). The latter was responsible for introducing
6210-544: The German language to the court. The eldest son of Joseph. In his youth he studied in Leyden and also served as a soldier, rising to the rank of Field Marshal. He served as imperial ambassador to Naples from 1750 to 1752, and traveled extensively. Paul Anton was a musical prince; he played the violin , the flute , and the lute , and compiled a large inventory of musical manuscripts. Paul Anton also played an important role as
6345-546: The Golden Bull in 1318 and claimed that noblemen had to fight in his army at their own expense. He ignored customary law and regularly " promoted a daughter to a son ", granting her the right to inherit her father's estates. The King reorganized the royal household, appointing pages and knights to form his permanent retinue. He established the Order of Saint George , which was the first chivalric order in Europe. Charles I
6480-531: The Hungarian royal prerogative of prefection the kings could promote "a daughter to a son", allowing her to inherit her father's lands. Noblewomen who had married a commoner could also claim their inheritance – the daughters' quarter (that is one-quarter of their father's possessions) – in land. Although the Tripartitum – a frequently cited compilation of customary law published in 1514 – reinforced
6615-557: The Magyars spoke both Hungarian and "the tongue of the Chazars " (a powerful steppe people ), showing that at least their leaders were bilingual . The Magyars lived a nomadic or semi-nomadic life but archaeological research shows that most settlements consisted of small pit-houses and log cabins in the 10th century. Tents in use are only mentioned in 12th-century literary sources. No archeological finds evidence fortresses in
6750-649: The Székely and Saxon territories in Transylvania. Székelys and Saxons could only enjoy the liberties of noblemen if they held estates outside the lands of the two privileged communities. Most noble families failed to adopt a strategy to avoid the division of their inherited estates into dwarf-holdings through generations. Daughters could only demand the cash equivalent of the quarter of their father's estates, but younger sons rarely remained unmarried. Impoverished noblemen had little chance to receive land grants from
6885-548: The Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, and the occupation of Vienna by Napoleon in 1809. The family acquired its property in three principal ways: redistribution of lands taken from Protestants in the Counter-Reformation , redistribution of lands conquered from the Ottoman Empire , and felicitous marriages. Most of these lands were situated in present-day Austria, Slovakia and Hungary. The family ultimately became
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#17327652208647020-631: The Upper Hungarian "noble sons of servants" achieved the status of true noblemen without a formal royal act, because the memory of their conditional landholding fell into oblivion. Most of them preferred Slavic names even in the 14th century, showing that they spoke the local Slavic vernacular . Other groups of conditional nobles remained distinguished from true noblemen. They developed their own institutions of self-government, known as seats or districts . Louis decreed that only Catholic noblemen and knezes could hold landed property in
7155-727: The Vlach knezes (or chieftains) also endured. Neither of these hypotheses are universally accepted. Around 950, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus ( r. 913–959 ) wrote that the Hungarians were organized into " tribes ", and each had its own "prince". The tribal leaders most probably bore the title úr (now "lord"), as it is suggested by Hungarian terms deriving from this word, such as ország (now "realm") and uralkodni ("to rule"). The Emperor noted
7290-456: The administration of justice. They were headed by the ispáns or their deputies, but they consisted of four (in Slavonia and Transylvania, two) elected local noblemen, known as judges of the nobles. Hungary fell into a state of anarchy because of the minority of Ladislaus IV ( r. 1272–1290 ) in the early 1270s. To restore public order, the prelates convoked the barons and
7425-433: The amount of the taxes to be collected in Hungary and demanded almost one third of the taxes (1.25 million florins) from the clergy and the nobility. The palatine, Prince Paul Esterházy (d. 1713), convinced the monarch to reduce the noblemen's tax burden to 0.25 million florins, but the difference was to be paid by the peasantry. Leopold did not trust the Hungarians, because a group of magnates had conspired against him in
7560-433: The ancestral lands. Even if they could present documents, they were to pay a fee – a tenth of the value of the claimed property – as compensation for the costs of the liberation war. Few noblemen could meet the criteria and more than half of the recovered lands were distributed among foreigners. They were naturalized, but most of them never visited Hungary. The Habsburg administration doubled
7695-532: The battlefield and two claimants, John Zápolya ( r. 1526–1540 ) and Ferdinand of Habsburg ( r. 1526–1564 ), were elected kings. Ferdinand tried to reunite Hungary after Zápolya died in 1540, but the Ottoman Sultan , Suleiman the Magnificent ( r. 1520–1566 ), intervened and captured Buda in 1541. The sultan allowed Zápolya's widow, Isabella Jagiellon (d. 1559), to rule
7830-444: The central regions to the unoccupied territories. Peasants who lived along the borders paid taxes both to the Ottomans and their former lords. Commoners were regularly recruited to serve in the royal army or in the magnates' retinues to replace the noblemen who had perished during fights. The irregular hajdú foot-soldiers – mainly runaway serfs and dispossessed noblemen – became important elements of
7965-486: The composer recognized their ability by writing many solo parts in his early symphonies. The second son of Joseph and brother of Paul II, in his youth a decorated soldier. He was the primary patron of Haydn and builder of Esterháza (see above). Son of Nikolaus I, married first, in 1763, Maria Theresia Gräfin Erdödy e Monyorokerek et Monoszlo (1745–1782), and second, in 1785 Maria Anna Gräfin von Hohenfeld (1768–1848). He
8100-537: The condition that they were to equip jointly a fixed number of knights. The nobles of the Church formed the armed retinue of the wealthiest prelates. The nobles of Turopolje in Slavonia were required to provide food and fodder to high-ranking royal officials. Two privileged groups, the Székelys and Saxons firmly protected their communal liberties, which prevented their leaders from exercising noble privileges in
8235-411: The consent of the owner's kinsmen who could potentially inherit them. From the early 12th century, only family lands traceable back to a grant made by Stephen I could be inherited by the deceased owner's distant relatives; other estates escheated to the Crown if their owner did not have offspring or brothers. Aristocratic families held their inherited domains in common for generations before
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#17327652208648370-504: The consent of the royal council. After he died in 1439, a civil war broke out between the partisans of his son, Ladislaus the Posthumous ( r. 1440–1457 ), and the supporters of the child king's rival, Vladislaus III of Poland ( r. 1440–1444 ). Ladislaus the Posthumous was crowned without election with the Holy Crown of Hungary , but the Diet proclaimed the coronation invalid, stating that "the crowning of kings
8505-452: The countryside which became important centers of social life. These fortified manor houses always contained a hall for representative purposes and a private chapel. Sigismund regularly invited the magnates to the royal council, even if they did not hold higher offices. He founded a new chivalric order, the Order of the Dragon , in 1408 to reward his most loyal supporters. The expansion of
8640-443: The county level. In 1232, the royal servants of Zala County asked Andrew II to authorize them "to judge and do justice", stating that the county had slipped into anarchy. The king granted their request and Bartholomew, Bishop of Veszprém , sued one Ban Oguz for properties before their community. The first Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241 proved the importance of well-fortified locations and heavily armored cavalry. In
8775-424: The defence forces. Stephen Bocskai , Prince of Transylvania ( r. 1605–1606 ), settled 10,000 hajdús in seven villages and exempted them from taxation in 1605, which was the "largest collective ennoblement" in the history of Hungary. In addition to the Székely and Saxon leaders, the noblemen formed one of the three nations (or Estates of the realm) in Transylvania, but they could rarely challenge
8910-422: The defense of their liberties. In 1688, the Diet authorized the aristocrats to establish a special trust , known as fideicommissum , with royal consent to prevent the distribution of their landed wealth among their descendants. In accordance with the traditional concept of aviticitas , inherited estates could not be subject to the trust. Estates in fideicommissum were always held by one person, but he
9045-471: The delegates of the noblemen and the nomadic Cumans who had settled in Hungary to a general assembly near Pest in 1277. This first Diet (or parliament) declared the fifteen-year-old monarch to be of age in an attempt to put en end to the anarchy. In the early 1280s, Simon of Kéza associated the Hungarian nation with the nobility in his Deeds of the Hungarians , emphasizing that the community of noblemen held real authority. The barons took advantage of
9180-410: The development of heavy cavalry in Hungary. Their descendants were labelled as newcomers for centuries, but intermarriage between natives and newcomers was not rare, which enabled their integration in two or three generations. The monarchs pursued an expansionist policy from the late 11th century. Ladislaus I ( r. 1077–1095 ) seized Slavonia – the plains between
9315-552: The development of a "supranational aristocracy" in the Habsburg monarchy . Foreign aristocrats regularly received Hungarian citizenship , and Hungarian noblemen were often naturalized in the Habsburgs' other realms. The Habsburg kings rewarded the most powerful magnates with hereditary titles such as baron from the 1530s. The aristocrats supported the spread of the Reformation . Most noblemen adhered to Lutheranism in
9450-471: The discontented Hungarians to rise against Leopold. They regarded one of the wealthiest aristocrats, Prince Francis II Rákóczi (d. 1735), as their leader. Rákóczi's War of Independence lasted from 1703 to 1711. Although the rebels were forced to yield, the Treaty of Szatmár granted a general amnesty for them and the new Habsburg monarch, Charles III ( r. 1711–1740 ), promised to respect
9585-643: The district of Karánsebes (now Caransebeș in Romania) in 1366, but Eastern Orthodox landowners were not forced to convert to Catholicism in other territories of the kingdom. Even the Catholic bishop of Várad (now Oradea in Romania) authorized his Vlach voivodes (leaders) to employ Orthodox priests. The king granted the Transylvanian district of Fogaras (around present-day Făgăraș in Romania) to Vladislav I of Wallachia ( r. 1364–1377 ) in fief in 1366. In his new duchy, Vladislav donated estates to Wallachian boyars ; their legal status
9720-498: The family being placed under a sequestration order, roughly the equivalent of bankruptcy. Served Austria in a series of diplomatic posts, and in 1848 was briefly Foreign Minister. The family encountered financial trouble during his reign, and (according to the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition , ), "the last years of his life were spent in comparative poverty and isolation, as even
9855-432: The family name, Estoras , in 2009 is used to label fine Esterházy wines. The Esterházy family is known for its association with the composer Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), who served as their Kapellmeister . Haydn was hired by Prince Paul Anton in 1761, and from 1762 to 1790 served under Paul Anton's successor Nikolaus . During the following reign, that of Prince Anton (1790–1794), the Esterházy family mostly did without
9990-610: The family was Ferenc Zerházy (1563–1594), who was elevated to the title of baron of Galántha (an estate his family had held since 1421) and took the name Esterházy. Family history since this time is described according to three lines of descent, each originating in one of Ferenc's sons: the Fraknó (or Forchtenstein ) line, the Csesznek line, and the Zólyom (or Zvolen ) line. The Fraknó ( Forchtenstein ) line became "the most prominent of
10125-987: The family, with the historic family seat Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt as the centre of all activities. Her nephew Stefan Ottrubay acts as general manager. Prince Paul-Anton Nikolaus Maximilian , the heir to the line, born in Munich in 1986. The title of Prince has no legal standing in Hungary today, as noble titles were abolished in 1947 (for details see Hungarian nobility ). In Austria, aristocratic titles were abolished in 1919 . (1635-1713) Kingdom of Hungary , Palatine of Hungary (1671-1721) Royal Court Master Imperial and Royal Chamberlain Imperial and Royal Councillor (1688-1721) (1711-1762) (1714-1790) (1738-1794) (1786-1866) (1817-1894) (1843-1898) (1869-1920) Hungarian nobility The Kingdom of Hungary held
10260-506: The following centuries. Defeats during the Hungarian invasions of Europe and clashes with the paramount rulers from the Árpád dynasty had decimated the leading families by the end of the 10th century. The Gesta Hungarorum , a chronicle written around 1200, claimed that dozens of noble kindred flourishing in the late 12th century had been descended from tribal leaders, but most modern scholars do not regard this list as
10395-470: The following decades, Béla IV of Hungary ( r. 1235–1270 ) gave away large parcels of the royal demesne , expecting that the new owners would build stone castles there. Béla's burdensome castle-building program was unpopular, but achieved his aim: almost 70 castles were built or reconstructed during his reign. More than half of the new or reconstructed castles were in noblemen's domains. Most new castles were erected on rocky peaks, mainly along
10530-480: The freemen, castle warriors and other privileged groups of people living in or around their domains. The threatened groups wanted to achieve confirmation of their status as royal servants , emphasizing that they were only to serve the king. Béla III issued the first extant royal charter about the grant of this rank to a castle warrior. Andrew II's Golden Bull of 1222 enacted royal servants' privileges. They were exempt from taxation; they were to fight in
10665-404: The grantee was to equip warriors for the royal army. Béla's son, Andrew II ( r. 1205–1235 ), decided to "alter the conditions" of his realm and "distribute castles, counties, lands and other revenues" to his officials, as he narrated in a document in 1217. Instead of granting the estates in fief , with an obligation to render future services, he gave them as allods , in reward for
10800-441: The grantee's previous acts. The great officers who were the principal beneficiaries of his grants were mentioned as barons of the realm from the late 1210s. Donations of such a large scale accelerated the development of a wealthy group of landowners, most descending from a high-ranking kindred. Some wealthy landowners could afford to build stone castles. Closely related aristocrats were distinguished from other lineages through
10935-430: The high officers of state, who were mentioned as "barons of office". Corvinus' successor, Vladislaus II ( r. 1490–1516 ), and Vladislaus' son, Louis II ( r. 1516–1526 ), formally began to reward important persons of their government with the hereditary title of baron. Differences in the nobles' wealth increased in the second half of the 15th century. About 30 families owned more than
11070-435: The high officers of the realm, whom he mentioned as "true barons", were legally distinguished from other nobles. He also mentioned the existence of a distinct group, who were barons "in name only", but without specifying their peculiar status. The Tripartitum regarded the kindred as the basic unit of nobility. A noble father exercised almost autocratic authority over his sons, because he could imprison them or offer them as
11205-518: The highest-ranking royal official. The kings from the Árpád dynasty appointed their officials from among the members of about 110 aristocratic clans. These aristocrats were descended either from native (that is, Magyar, Kabar , Pecheneg or Slavic) chiefs, or from foreign knights who had migrated to the country in the 11th and 12th centuries. The foreign knights had been trained in the Western European art of war, which contributed to
11340-417: The idea that all noblemen were equal, the monarchs granted hereditary titles to powerful aristocrats, and the poorest nobles lost their tax exemption from the mid-16th century. In the early modern period, because of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire , Hungary was divided into three parts: Royal Hungary , Transylvania and Ottoman Hungary . The princes of Transylvania supported the noblemen's fight against
11475-411: The jurisdiction of the sedria . The kings started to grant noblemen the right to execute or mutilate criminals who were captured in their estates. The most influential noblemen's estates were also exempted of the jurisdiction of the counties' law courts. Royal power quickly declined after Louis I died in 1382. His son-in-law, Sigismund of Luxembourg ( r. 1387–1437 ), entered into
11610-476: The kings, because they were unable to participate in the monarchs' military campaigns, but commoners who bravely fought in the royal army were regularly ennobled. The historian Erik Fügedi noted that "castle bred castle" in the second half of the 13th century: if a landowner erected a fortress, his neighbors would also build one to defend their own estates. Between 1271 and 1320, noblemen or prelates built at least 155 new fortresses. In comparison, only about
11745-466: The lands east of the river Tisza on behalf of her infant son, John Sigismund ( r. 1540–1571 ), in return for a yearly tribute. His decision divided Hungary into three parts: the Ottomans occupied the central territories ; John Sigismund's eastern Hungarian Kingdom developed into the autonomous Principality of Transylvania ; and the Habsburg monarchs preserved the northern and western territories (or Royal Hungary ). Most noblemen fled from
11880-601: The largest landowners in the Habsburg Empire, and their income sometimes exceeded that of the Emperor. The family derived its name from the settlement Esterháza, Kingdom of Hungary . The settlement no longer exists, and is not to be confused with the later castle of the same name which they inhabited since the Middle Ages. Since 1421 they have been the owners of a property in Galánta . The most important seat of
12015-481: The last male member of the Árpád dynasty, died in 1301, about a dozen lords held sway over most parts of the kingdom. Ladislaus IV's great-nephew, Charles I ( r. 1301–1342 ), who was a scion of the Capetian House of Anjou , restored royal power in the 1310s and 1320s. He seized the oligarchs' castles mainly by force, which again secured the preponderance of the royal demesne. He refuted
12150-537: The long-term family strategy, allying himself with the Catholic religion and the Habsburg emperor. He fought against the Protestant champions Gábor Bethlen and György Rákóczi and sought to free Hungary from Turkish domination. Paul was the third son of Nicholas, born in Eisenstadt. Elected Palatine in 1681 and created Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (in Hungary the title of Prince did not exist till
12285-702: The lowlands along the Middle Danube , annihilated Moravia and defeated the Bavarians in the 900s. According to some scholarly theories, at least three Hungarian noble clans were descended from Moravian aristocrats who survived the Magyar conquest . Historians who are convinced that the Vlachs (or Romanians ) were already present in the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th century propose that
12420-404: The monarch if he ignored its provisions. Most provisions of the Golden Bull were first confirmed in 1231. The clear definition of the royal servants' liberties distinguished them from all other privileged groups, whose military obligations remained theoretically unlimited. From the 1220s, the royal servants were regularly called noblemen and started to develop their own corporate institutions at
12555-476: The monarchs. The Diet obliged all landowners to equip one archer for every 20 peasant plots on their domains to serve in the royal army. Sigismund granted large estates in Hungary to neighboring Orthodox rulers to secure their alliance. They established Basilite monasteries on their estates. Sigismund's son-in-law, Albert of Habsburg ( r. 1438–1439 ), was elected king in early 1438, but only after he promised always to make important decisions with
12690-568: The name Zerházi ( de Zerhásház / de Zyrház / de Zyrhas ). Their first known ancestor was Mokud (Mocud) from the Salamon clan, who was a military serviceman and landowner in the Csallóköz region of Western Hungary (today Žitný ostrov in southwestern Slovakia), and Pristaldus , a judicial office-holder in the court of Béla III of Hungary . The name Esterházy was first used by Benedict Zerhas de Zerhashaz (1508–1553), who in 1539 took over
12825-538: The new Hungarian government carried out a comprehensive land reform , "confiscating the land of gentry with estates of more than 50 hectares". Only the land in Austria remained in prince Paul's possession. Further, in the years after 1945 Hungary came under the rule of the Hungarian People's Republic , an authoritarian Communist regime sponsored by the Soviet Union . Prince Paul endured a show trial and
12960-456: The newly established Zselicszentjakab Abbey in 1061. The establishment of monasteries by wealthy individuals was common. Such proprietary monasteries served as burial places for their founders and the founders' descendants, who were regarded as the co-owners, or from the 13th century, co-patrons , of the monastery. Serfs cultivated part of the praedium , but other plots were hired out in return for in-kind taxes. The term "noble"
13095-404: The next centuries. Each county was headed by a royal official, the ispán . The royal court provided further career opportunities. As the historian Martyn Rady noted, the "royal household was the greatest provider of largesse in the kingdom" where the royal family owned more than two thirds of all lands. The palatine – the head of the royal household – was
13230-476: The peasant war were tortured and executed, but most rebels received a pardon. The Diet punished the peasantry as a group, condemning them to perpetual servitude and depriving them of the right of free movement. The Diet also enacted the serfs' obligation to provide one day's labour service for their lords each week. The Ottomans annihilated the royal army at the Battle of Mohács . Louis II died fleeing from
13365-748: The population. Reformist noblemen demanded the abolition of noble privileges from the 1790s, but their program was enacted only during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 . Most noblemen lost their estates after the emancipation of their serfs, but the aristocrats preserved their distinguished social status. State administration employed thousands of impoverished noblemen in Austria-Hungary . Prominent (mainly Jewish) bankers and industrialists were awarded with nobility, but their social status remained inferior to traditional aristocrats. Noble titles were abolished only in 1947 , months after Hungary
13500-494: The princes' authority. In Royal Hungary, the magnates successfully protected the noble privileges, because their vast domains were almost completely exempt from royal officials' authority. Their manors were fortified in the "Hungarian manner" (with walls made of earth and timber) in the 1540s. Noblemen in Royal Hungary could also count on the support of the Transylvanian princes against the Habsburg monarchs. Intermarriages among Austrian, Czech and Hungarian aristocrats gave rise to
13635-399: The principle of "one and the selfsame liberty" of all noblemen, but legal distinctions between true noblemen and conditional nobles prevailed. The most powerful nobles employed lesser noblemen as their familiares (retainers) but this private link did not sever the familiaris ' direct subjection to the monarch. According to customary law , only males inherited noble estates, but under
13770-622: The privileges of the Estates of the realm. Galanta The name is derived from a Slavic name Golęta (initially a collective name of a youth group selected from a kin and responsible for guarding). A pre-Hungarian origin of the settlement is documented by the Proto-Slavic nasal "ę" conserved in the name (GalaNta; compare with Czech Holetín and Holetice ). Galanta lies in the Danubian Lowland ( Podunajská nížina ),
13905-499: The region was in Hungary, it had been mainly settled by Germans, and was situated rather close to the Habsburgs' Imperial residence, Vienna. (The region remained part of Hungary until 1921, when it was handed over to Austria according to the Treaty of Saint-Germain , 1919, and the Treaty of Trianon , 1920.) The Esterházys maintained a number of other residences throughout the Kingdom of Hungary , including Transylvania (today part of Romania ), and those Esterházy princes who preferred
14040-400: The regular division of inherited landed property could lead to the impoverishment of aristocratic families. Strategies applied to avoid this – family planning and celibacy – led to the extinction of most aristocratic families after a few generations. The Diet ordered the compilation of customary law in 1498. The jurist István Werbőczy (d. 1541) completed
14175-403: The representative household of the head of the family as well as to maintain palaces and castles, and to pay allowances to family members without personal wealth.) After the dissolution of the Esterházy trust, prince Paul became the sole owner of the wealth accumulated therein so far. The Second World War proved disastrous: the family was scattered during the war years, and at the end of the war
14310-633: The river Drava and the Dinaric Alps – in the 1090s. His successor, Coloman ( r. 1095–1116 ), was crowned king of Croatia in 1102. Both realms retained their own customs, and Hungarians rarely received land grants in Croatia. According to customary law , Croatians could not be obliged to cross the river Drava to fight in the royal army at their own expense. The earliest royal decrees authorized landowners to dispose freely of their private estates, but customary law prescribed that inherited lands could only be transferred with
14445-430: The royal army without proper compensation only if enemy forces invaded the kingdom; only the monarch or the palatine could judge their cases. According to the Golden Bull, only royal servants who died without a son could freely will their estates, but even in this case, their daughters were entitled to the daughters' quarter . The final article of the Golden Bull authorized the bishops, barons and other nobles to resist
14580-616: The royal army. From the 1170s, most privileged laymen called themselves royal servants to emphasize their direct connection to the monarchs. The Golden Bull of 1222 established their liberties, especially tax exemption and the limitation of military obligations. From the 1220s, royal servants were associated with the nobility and the highest-ranking officials were known as barons of the realm. Only those who owned allods – lands free of obligations – were regarded as true noblemen, but other privileged groups of landowners, known as conditional nobles , also existed. In
14715-589: The seigneurial taxes in kind. The Diets passed decrees that restricted the peasants' right to free movement and increased their burdens. The peasants' grievances unexpectedly culminated in a rebellion in May 1514. The rebels captured manor houses and murdered dozens of noblemen, especially on the Great Hungarian Plain . The voivode of Transylvania , John Zápolya , annihilated their main army at Temesvár on 15 July. György Dózsa and other leaders of
14850-545: The services of musicians, and Haydn, retained on a nominal appointment, spent most of this time in trips to England. Finally, during the reign of Nikolaus II , Haydn worked for the family on a part-time basis. He spent his summers in Eisenstadt and annually composed a mass for the name day of the Prince's wife (and Haydn's friend), Princess Maria Josepha Hermenegild (1768–1845). Haydn continued to perform these duties until his health failed in 1802. The first prominent member of
14985-493: The small motte forts , built on artificial mounds and protected by a ditch and a palisade that appeared in the 12th century, as the centers of private estates. Most wealthy landowners' domains consisted of scattered praedia , in several villages. Due to the scarcity of documentary evidence, the size of the private estates cannot be determined. The descendants of Otto Győr , the ispán of Somogy County remained wealthy landowners even after he donated 360 households to
15120-625: The steady accumulation of land, and loyalty both to the Roman Catholic Church and the Habsburg Emperor, the latter factor being the most important. A consistent theme of Hungarian history was an ardent and sometimes violent wish to become free of Austrian rule, a wish that was finally fulfilled at the end of World War I . The Esterházy princes were consistently loyal to the Habsburg monarchy, on several occasions rendered vital services to it in times of crisis. These included
15255-477: The stylish life of the capital spent most of their time in Vienna. In the 1770s, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy , who disliked Vienna, had a magnificent new palace constructed in Fertőd , Hungary. It was built on the site of a former hunting lodge. Today this is the most admired of the Esterházy homes, often called the "Hungarian Versailles ." The main line of the Esterházy family were generally bilingual, in Hungarian (as
15390-533: The task, presenting a law-book at the Diet in 1514. His Tripartitum – The Customary Law of the Renowned Kingdom of Hungary in Three Parts – was never enacted, but it was consulted at the law courts for centuries. It summarized the noblemen's fundamental privileges in four points: noblemen were only subject to the monarch's authority and could only be arrested in
15525-586: The three". In the discussion that follows, Hungarian names are given in brackets. Nikolaus was born in Galanta . Raised as a Protestant , he later converted to Catholicism . Created Count by the Emperor in 1626, he achieved great wealth in part by marrying (twice) into money. In 1625, Nikolaus was elected Palatine of Hungary , the King's chief lieutenant within Royal Hungary . Nikolaus laid out what became
15660-698: The titled noble families had a seat in the Upper House. The lesser noblemen elected two or three delegates at the general assemblies of the counties to represent them in the Lower House. The Croatian and Slavonian magnates also had seats at the Upper House, and the sabor (or Diet) of Croatia and Slavonia sent delegates to the Lower House. Forces from the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth inflicted
15795-584: The town became part of the newly created Czechoslovakia . As a result of the First Vienna Award , it returned to Hungary between 1938 and 1945. On 31 March 1945, Galanta was captured by troops of the Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front and became again part of Czechoslovakia. Galanta is an old town where most historical buildings have unfortunately been damaged or destroyed in World War II . During
15930-625: The true noblemen. They held their estates conditionally, as they were required to provide well-defined services to another lord, hence their groups are now collectively known as conditional nobles . The noble Vlach knezes who had landed property in the Banate of Severin were obliged to fight in the army of the ban (or royal governor). Most warriors known as the "noble sons of servants" were descended from freemen or liberated serfs who received estates from Béla IV in Upper Hungary on
16065-486: The warm southern part of Slovakia. There are many agricultural fields around Galanta, where wheat, corn, and other vegetables and fruits are grown. The area around Galanta has been inhabited almost continuously since the Neolithic . From the second half of the 10th century until 1918, it was part of the Kingdom of Hungary . The first written record of Galanta is from 1237 in a Royal Decree by Béla IV of Hungary . Through
16200-402: The weakening of royal authority and seized large, contiguous territories. The monarchs could not appoint and dismiss their officials at will anymore. The most powerful barons – known as oligarchs in modern historiography – appropriated royal prerogatives, combining private lordship with their administrative powers. When Andrew III ( r. 1290–1301 ),
16335-475: The wealth of his wife, Ilona Bessenyei de Galántha. Their son, Ferenc Esterházy (1533–1604) inherited the coat of arms and title of his mother and the full surname of the family became Eszterházy de Galántha , Galanta being a small town east of Bratislava ( Hungarian : Pozsony , German : Pressburg ), now capital of Slovakia . The family rose to prominence under Count Nikolaus Esterházy (1583–1645) and his son, Prince Paul Esterházy (1635–1713). In
16470-704: The western and northern borderlands. The spread of stone castles profoundly changed the structure of landholding, because castles could not be maintained without proper income. Lands and villages were legally attached to each castle, and castles were thereafter always transferred and inherited along with these " appurtenances ". The royal servants were legally identified as nobles in 1267. That year "the nobles of all Hungary, called royal servants" persuaded Béla IV and his son, Stephen V ( r. 1270–1272 ), to hold an assembly and confirm their collective privileges. Other groups of land-holding warriors could also be called nobles, but they were always distinguished from
16605-482: The western regions of Royal Hungary, but Calvinism was the dominant religion in Transylvania and other regions. John Sigismund promoted Unitarian views, but most Unitarian noblemen perished in battles in the early 1600s. The Habsburgs remained staunch supporters of the Catholic Counter-Reformation and the most prominent aristocratic families converted to Catholicism in Royal Hungary in
16740-551: The years, the settlement was under the lordship of various noble families including the Esterházy de Galantha and the Fekete de Galantha . Beginning in 1421, the Eszterházy family ruled the town and the surrounding area. In 1613 or 1614, Galanta was promoted to a free market town. Before the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, Galanta was part of Pozsony County . After the break-up of Austria-Hungary in 1918/1920,
16875-481: Was a time of revival for the Esterházy family fortunes. The family estates were made into flourishing businesses, including a "traditional welfare net, providing security for employees." With the resulting improvement in the family finances, the family properties were finally released from decades of sequestration. In addition, the family palaces—including the long-abandoned Esterháza —were restored and provided with modern plumbing and electricity. In these efforts Nikolaus
17010-607: Was elevated to the status of Prince ( Fürst ) in 1783. He received the Order of St. Stephen in 1777. He was Captain of the Hungarian Noble Life Guard from September 1791 until his death in 1794, and commanded an autonomous corps on the Upper Rhine at the beginning of the War of the First Coalition . His Corps participated in various actions between July and October, 1792, after which he received
17145-655: Was greatly assisted by his wife, Princess Margit (1874–1910), née Countess Cziráky. Prince Nikolaus IV, his wife Margit , their son Anton († 1944) and other family members are buried in the Esterházy family cemetery in Fertőd , which is located in a small park around two kilometers northeast of the Eszterháza Palace (position: 47°38′08.1″N 16°53′04.8″E / 47.635583°N 16.884667°E / 47.635583; 16.884667 ( Esterházy family cemetery, Fertőd ) ). The lifetime of this prince witnessed momentous, often catastrophic changes for
17280-589: Was proclaimed a republic . The Magyars (or Hungarians) lived in the Pontic steppes when they first appear in written sources from the mid-9th century. Muslim merchants described them as wealthy nomadic warriors, but they also noticed the Magyars had extensive arable lands. The Magyars crossed the Carpathian Mountains after the Pechenegs invaded their lands in 894 or 895. They settled in
17415-532: Was rarely used and poorly defined before the 13th century: it could refer to a courtier, a landowner with judicial powers, or even to a common warrior. The existence of a diverse group of warriors, who were subjected to the monarch, royal officials or prelates is well documented. The castle warriors , who were exempt from taxation, held hereditary landed property around the royal castles. Lightly armored horsemen, known as lövők (or archers), and armed castle folk , mentioned as őrök (or guards), defended
17550-511: Was required to hold his own banderium (or armed retinue), distinguished by his own banner. In 1351, Charles's son and successor, Louis I ( r. 1342–1382 ) confirmed all provisions of the Golden Bull, save the one that authorized childless noblemen to freely will their estates. Instead, he introduced an entail system, prescribing that childless noblemen's landed property "should descend to their brothers, cousins and kinsmen". This new concept of aviticitas also protected
17685-499: Was responsible for the proper boarding of his relatives. The liberation of central Hungary continued, and the Ottomans were forced to acknowledge the loss of the territory in 1699. Leopold set up a special committee to distribute the lands in the reconquered territories. The descendants of the noblemen who had held estates there before the Ottoman conquest were required to provide documentary evidence to substantiate their claims to
17820-486: Was sentenced to solitary confinement for 15 years. Freed in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 , he moved to Zurich with his wife, Melinda Ottrubay, whom he had married in Budapest in 1945, and lived in Zurich, from there managing his Austrian domains, until his death. Paul's wealth was inherited by his wife Melinda . Since she had no children, she created several foundations to preserve the cultural and historic heritage of
17955-412: Was similar to the position of the knezes in other regions of Hungary. Royal charters customarily identified noblemen and landowners from the second half of the 14th century. A man who lived in his own house on his own estates was described as living "in the way of nobles", in contrast with those who did not own landed property and lived "in the way of peasants". A verdict of 1346 declared that
18090-435: Was the first Hungarian monarch to grant coats of arms (or rather crests ) to his subjects. He based royal administration on honors (or office fiefs), distributing most counties and royal castles among his highest-ranking officials. These "baronies", as the historian Matteo Villani (d. 1363) recorded it in about 1350, were "neither hereditary nor lifelong", but Charles rarely dismissed his most trusted barons. Each baron
18225-503: Was the same person as Nikolaus Josef. In discussions written in English, the Esterházy princes are occasionally given English versions of their names, as in "Nicholas". The family name is also rendered variously: Eszterházy (Hungarian spelling), Esterházy (German), and Esterhazy (typographic convenience). The full family name since the 16th century was Eszterházy de Galántha (later also styled von/of Galanta ). The Latinised form of
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