Poznan family

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Poznan was a Slovak noble house in the Kingdom of Hungary and at the same time the (entire) name of several members of the family. By marriage with the Hunt family in the late 12th century, they created the house of Hunt-Poznan.

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Some Hungarian authors give the name as "Pázmány", which is wrong, because the Pázmány is only the name of one of late branches of the house of Hunt-Poznan and because all contemporary sources cite the name as "Poznan(o)/Paznan".[citation needed]

According to some historical and genealogy research, the Poznans came from Germany, but according to others the ancestors of this family were already nobles at the time of Great Moravia and preserved their possessions after the incorporation of their territories into the arising Hungarian state.

In the 10th century, the (Nitra-) Poznans were one of the local noble families. This one ruled in the region of today's (north)western Slovakia. When Michael of the House of Árpád ruled the neighboring Principality of Nitra (soutwestern Slovakia; 970 - 995), the Poznans acknowledged his sovereignty over southern parts of their possessions and became nobles at the court of Michael in Nitra. Over the 10th century, the Poznans kept their Christian faith (the territory was christianized around 800 and then again by Cyril and Methodius after 864) took care of the famous, but in the mean time partly devastated, Benedictine monastery below the Zobor hill and became its secular patrons in the last quarter of the 10th century.

The new prince of Nitra after Michael's death was Vajk (Stephen I) (995-997). The young Stephen and the local nobles represented by Poznan and Hunt developed very close personal relationships. When fighting against the rebellious Koppány in 997, Stephen took shelter with "his magnates" Poznan and Hunt ("Poznano" and "Cuntio"), who made him a knight, added their troops to the retinue of his Bavarian wife Giselle consisting largely of German knights. The united forces then defeated Koppány, so that Stephen became the only ruler of the arising Hungarian state. As a reward, Stephen granted Poznan and Hunt estates in the Nitrian principality and former Koppány's possessions in Somogy, he appointed them as his body guards and throughout his rule they were constantly escorting him and influencing all his decisions. In the 11th and 12th century the Poznans owned estates mainly in the valley of the Nitra river.

In the subsequent period many side branches split from the family and they considered themselves separate families since around 1200. The old so-called Zobor deeds of 1111 and 1113 mention 12 nobles from Nitra who had to confirm by oath the privileges granted to the Zobor Abbey by King Stephen I. At least four of the nobles mentioned came from the family of the Poznans. ). Important member of the direct line were the prominent nobles of the kingdom Kozma of Poznan and his brother or cousin Moses of Poznan. Kozma, for example, led other nobles to revolt against King Stephen II on an expedition to Galicia in 1123.

One of the descendants of Kozma was "Poznan". His sons were:

  • Farkas (bequeathed his estates to the Benedictine monastery in Sväty Beňadik in around 1164-1165),
  • Csanád (owned estates around Nitrianska Blatnica), and
  • Ambróz (properties around the lower Váh and Hron rivers).

Ambróz is the oldest known ancestor of the Forgách Ivanč family and probably the father of the Nitra administrator Thomas, the ancestor of the counts of Svätý Jur and Pezinok. Thomas and his sons Alexander and Sebes occupied important posts in the kingdom and received immense estates, mainly in the region of Bratislava in 1206-1218, because they had been loyal adherents of Duke (later King) Andrew in his fights with King Emerich.

Moses' descendants were the nobles from Sek, Šišov-Hradná and the Gečs from Bučany.

The Poznans died out on the male side and in the middle of the 12th century the families were allied by marriage under the name "Hunt-Poznan".

[edit] Sources

  • Ján Lukačka: Beginnings of the formation of Aristocracy on the territory of Slovakia (available online)
  • Lukačka, Ján. 2002. Formovanie vyššej šľachty na západnom Slovensku.
  • Ján Steinhübel: Nitrianske kniežatstvo [Nitrian principality], Veda, vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied + Vydavateľstvo Rak, 2004, Bratislava [with several further Slovak and Hungarian genealogy and orher references listed in the book]
  • Hunt-Poznan in: Slovakia and the Slovaks - A concise encyclopaedia, Encyklopedical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, 1994
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