Voievozi şi vicevoievozi ai Transilvaniei la conducerea comitatului Alba în Evul Mediu
The Voivodes and Vice-voivodes of Transylvania as comites of Alba County (comitatus) in the Middle Ages

Summary/Abstract: The present study discusses the specific organizational traits of the medieval Alba County (from the eleventh century up to 1541), one of the seven counties in the voivodate of Transylvania of that period. Alba County, organized by the Hungarian ro¬yal¬ty, seems to have been the very first Transylvanian county and covered, in the be¬gin¬ning, almost the whole southern part of the province. The administration of Alba County has specific traits, which can be related to the circumstances at the early organization of the county: 1. During the reign of the Ar¬pa¬dian kings, in most of the known cases, the comes of Alba County was the voivode of Tran¬sylvania, the royal official appointed at the head of the province. 2. From the be¬gin¬ning of the fourteenth and up to the fifteenth century the vice-voivode of Transylvania held the office of comes of Alba County, while the notary of the voivode, at least in some cases, received the title of vice-comes of the county. 3. Starting with the fifteenth and until the first decades of the sixteenth century the comes of Alba County was not the vice-voivode anymore, but the office was occupied by one or two of his deputies, who were usually called “vice-comites”. 4. Even though the voivodeship/vice-voivodeship was related to the office of comes of Alba, the administrative structure of the comitatus Alba had all the characteristics of the other Transylvanian counties (there were two noble judges, elected from among the local nobility, and the sedes iudicialia discussed the cases of these latter).

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