Pázmány family

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Pázmán/Pázmány (or Poznan) was an ancient noble house in the Kingdom of Hungary, as well as the surname of several members of the family. Contemporary sources also sometimes cite the name as "Patzmann/Pazman" (see source section below). By marriage with the Hunt family in the late 12th century, they created the house of Hunt-Pázmán.

The family might be Hungarian[1][2] (of Swabian[1] or Italian[2] origin) or Slovak[3]. According to some sources (like medieval chronicler Simon of Kéza), the Pázmáns came from Swabia[1]; other sources say 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.[3] In the 10th century, the Pázmáns were one of the local noble families, ruling in the region of today's north western Slovakia. When Michael of the House of Árpád ruled the neighboring Principality of Nitra (south western Slovakia; 970 - 995), the Pázmáns acknowledged his sovereignty over southern parts of their possessions and became nobles at the court of Michael in Nitra.[3]

During the 10th century the Pázmáns kept their Christian faith (the territory was converted to Christianity during the Great Moravian times, but the new Hungarian overlords were still pagans). They oversaw the famous, but now partly devastated, Benedictine monastery below Zobor hill near Nitra and became its secular patrons in the last quarter of the 10th century.[3]

After Michael's death Vajk (Stephen I) (995-997) became the new prince of Nitra . Young Stephen and the local nobility, spearheaded by the Pázmán and Hunt houses, developed very close personal ties. While fighting the Koppány rebellion in 997, Stephen took shelter with his "magnates" Pázmán and Hunt ("Poznano" and "Cuntio"); they in turn made him a knight and added their troops to the retinue of Stephen's Bavarian wife Giselle, which consisted largely of German knights. The united forces then defeated Koppány, making Stephen the sole ruler of the emerging Hungarian state.

As a reward Stephen granted Pázmán and Hunt estates in the Nitrian principality and Koppány's former possessions in Somogy, appointed them his bodyguards, and throughout his reign were in constant attendance and influenced all his decisions. By the 11th and 12th centuries the Pázmáns' estates were mainly in the valley of the Nitra river.

Subsequently many side branches split off from the family and considered themselves separate families beginning 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 Pázmáns.

Important members of the direct line were prominent nobles in the kingdom, Kozma of Pázmán and his brother or cousin Moses of Pázmán. Kozma, for example, led other nobles to revolt against King Stephen II of Hungary on an expedition to Galicia in 1123.

One of the descendants of Kozma was "Pázmán" (or "Pázmány"). His sons were:

  • Farkas (bequeathed his estates to the Benedictine monastery in Sväty Beňadik in around 1164-1165),
  • Tomas (Counts of Svätý Jur and Pezinok),
  • Csanád (owned estates around Nitrianska Blatnica), and
  • Ivanč (properties around the lower Váh and Hron rivers).

Ivanč is the oldest known ancestor of the Forgách family. And the Nitra administrator Thomas is the ancestor of the counts of Svätý Jur and Pezinok[citation needed]. Thomas and his sons Alexander and Sebes occupied important posts in the kingdom and received immense estates, mainly in the region of Pozsony (Bratislava) in 1206-1218, because they had been loyal adherents of Duke (later King) Andrew II of Hungary in his wars with King Emerich.

Moses' descendants were the noble Sek, Šišov-Hradná and the Gečs from Bučany[citation needed].

The Pázmán' male line died out in the mid-12th century; allied by marriage to the Hunts, the line became "Hunt-Pázmán".

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Hunt-Pázmán. Pallas Great Lexicon. Retrieved on 2008-04-20.
  2. ^ a b János Karácsonyi. A MAGYAR NEMZETSÉGEK A XIV. SZÁZAD KÖZEPÉIG. ISBN 9638116110. 
  3. ^ a b c d Lukačka, Ján (2002). Formovanie vyššej šľachty na západnom Slovensku. Bratislava: Minor. 

[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-Pázmán in: Slovakia and the Slovaks - A concise encyclopaedia, Encyklopedical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, 1994