guest, Hospes rights and rights for moving, libertine, mansion

Harvesting
Settler deforesting the land
Peasant wagon
Pécs - Shepherds in Bethlehem 2
Hoeing and ploughing
Szabadegyház - Festive banquet
Guest (hospes)

Originally in the 11-12th centuries it was a dignitary belonging to the upper, richer level of society, who left his country and arrived in Hungary as a guest to obtain a land possession in the royal court through his military or other services. From the second half of the 12th century the peasant guest tenants, who settled down in rarely populated territories in the hope of major or minor juristic or economic privileges, were also called guests. They came to Hungary from Northern-France, Bavaria, Swabia, Saxonia or Italy, and they usually settled down in one block. In the 13th century the peasants, who left their lords and moved to other landlords in the hope of privileges, were called guests as well.

SzK


hospes rights

Personal privileges of hospeses were obtaining movable and immovable property, selling property or leaving property by will to heirs. In case there were no heirs, then making a will. Hospeses had to pay a reduced tax and perform services after their cultivated lands. Socage did not belong to their duties. The hospes community itself had a local government with limited rights: the hospeses appointed a judge from among themselves, who made judgements in so-called 'small deals' (equivalents of today's civil actions). The so-called 'big deals' (criminal case proceedings) belonged under the authority of the local royal clerk (county bailiff). Hospes communities often had the right to organise markets, to elect parish priests, and they either did not have to pay customs duties at all or had to pay a reduced price. By the end of the 13th century the freedom of villein-peasants included several elements of hospes rights. The versions of medieval Hungarian city rights developed by extending average hospes rights with royal privileges.

ZSA


the right to move

The freedom of changing the place of abode and the landlord, which was the minimal requirement of common freedom. A decision made by the royal council at the turn of the 13-14th centuries - which was attached to the 1298 laws and survived this way - acknowledged the right of peasants or villeins living on estates of noblemen to move, but servants who lived on royal or ecclesiastic estates still depended on their landlords. Before moving a permission had to be asked from the landlord, and the payable taxes and a fixed duty had to be discharged.

ZSA


libertine

The name of a special servant. Its older Hungarian equivalent was the word "szabados" [free], but in modern literature it is not used any more in this respect. During the 12-13th centuries libertines were special types of people on secular (private) estates; they were very rare on royal or ecclesiastic estates. Legally they were servants; though they differed from servants called 'servus', as they had their independent peasant farms, they could get married legally, and they could buy their liberation. They had to pay tax in kinds and perform various services, but these latter ones were fixed - in contrast to servuses - and pushed back later. By the end of the 13th century the majority of them joined the layer of the personally free peasant-villeins - as a consequence of their liberation or buying their own liberation.

ZSA


mansion (Latin "curia, curtis")

An expression with several meanings:

1. The center of the allodium, which was based on the the work of servants providing court services; the permanent residence of the king's representative.

2. The center of a secular estate (praedium, allodium) till the first half of the 11-13th centuries.

3. Castles or palaces made of stone, in the center of big secular estates.

4. The center of small estates; residence.

5. Parcel of a villein and its products, the unit of taxation in the first third of the 14th century.

SGY