Két meghívólevél erdélyi tartománygyűlésre (1478, 1502)
Two Unpublished Letters of Summons to the Transylvanian Provincial Assemblies (1478, 1502)

Summary/Abstract: Before the conventional end of the Hungarian Middle Ages (1526), we know of only four letters of summons to provincial assemblies, issued by the voivodes and addressed to the county nobility. The present study publishes the two letters that have remained unpublished. One of them, the document of 1478, is the only one known so far which is not only addressed in general to the nobility of a county, but nominally lists the five “most prominent” (nobiliores) nobles of the county of Dăbâca/Doboka, who were expected to attend the consultation with the voivode. Among them we find a landowner of large estates, a member of the Bánff y family, but also small landowners (who may have represented other families in whose service they might have been). The smaller landowners nominalized in the letter of summons did not hold any offices in the county organization, but presumably they might have represented more influential families they were serving as familiares. Some data suggest the presence of county counts at such voivodal assemblies, who may not even have been invited, but were present ‘ex officio’. Including the latter, the number of nobles gathered from the seven Transylvanian counties seems to have remained below fifty. The procedure for the selection of the delegates is not known, but it is not excluded that they were appointed in advance by the community of nobles of each county.

• Details
• Contents