Manorial Hospites in the Árpád Era

Abstract

The legal status of manorial hospites was fundamentally equivalent to that of the guests (hospites) residing in royal free villages and towns. However, their financial obligations were often more diverse and, at times, more burdensome. Within their communities, the autonomous judicial authority exercised by the hospites without restriction concerned the minor cases (causae minores). Jurisdiction over the major cases (causae maiores), that is, more serious criminal matters, was seldom granted by the landlord. Nevertheless, such full jurisdiction could also be conferred by the king upon the manorial hospites. The establishment of manorial hospes communities rested upon royal authorization. This was based on the judicial autonomy granted by the king to the landlord, whereby the respective estate of the landlord and the guests residing thereon were exempt from the jurisdiction of any other judicial authority – primarily that of the county-comes (megyésispán) i.e. the landlord’s independent jurisdiction extending over all legal matters. From the early thirteenth century onward, ecclesiastical institutions petitioned the king in order to acquire and preserve judicial authority over their dependents of varying legal statuses and conditions. As with their other rights, they endeavored to obtain recognition and reaffirmation of their jurisdiction, as previously granted by former kings. In the case of secular lords – at least with respect to the villages documented through charters of liberty issued by the “founding” lords discussed herein – no royal charters explicitly granting such independent jurisdiction are known. Nevertheless, it is evident that these “founders” also acted on the basis of royal exemption. Without exemption from the authority of judges or officials endowed with royal jurisdiction, no autonomously governed manorial hospes community could have existed, given that their autonomous judicial rights derived directly from the jurisdiction conferred upon the landlord by the king.