Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Introduction
- PART ONE COLOMAN AS CHILD RULER OF GALICIA
- Chapter 1 The Galician Context in 1205
- Chapter 2 The Agreement of Scepus
- Chapter 3 Coloman’s Coronation as King of Galicia: Date and Place
- Chapter 4 The Hungarian Elite and Coloman’s Court
- Chapter 5 Coloman’s Position in Halych, 1215–22: Campaigns and Opponents
- Chapter 6 Upholding the Galician Claim: Coloman’s Place in Hungary
- PART TWO COLOMAN, DUKE OF WHOLE SLAVONIA (1226–1241)
- Chapter 7 Coloman and Scepus, Before 1226
- Chapter 8 Coloman as Duke of Whole Slavonia from 1226
- Chapter 9 Coloman’s Status and the Inner Workings of the Duchy
- Chapter 10 Coloman’s Ecclesiastical and Secular Actitivities in Slavonia
- Chapter 11 Coloman’s Rule in Slavonia
- Chapter 12 Politics and Dynastic Affairs
- Chapter 13 Challenges in the Balkans
- Chapter 14 The Mongol Attack and Coloman’s Death
- Conclusion: Coloman in the Eyes of Posterity
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 8 - Coloman as Duke of Whole Slavonia from 1226
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Introduction
- PART ONE COLOMAN AS CHILD RULER OF GALICIA
- Chapter 1 The Galician Context in 1205
- Chapter 2 The Agreement of Scepus
- Chapter 3 Coloman’s Coronation as King of Galicia: Date and Place
- Chapter 4 The Hungarian Elite and Coloman’s Court
- Chapter 5 Coloman’s Position in Halych, 1215–22: Campaigns and Opponents
- Chapter 6 Upholding the Galician Claim: Coloman’s Place in Hungary
- PART TWO COLOMAN, DUKE OF WHOLE SLAVONIA (1226–1241)
- Chapter 7 Coloman and Scepus, Before 1226
- Chapter 8 Coloman as Duke of Whole Slavonia from 1226
- Chapter 9 Coloman’s Status and the Inner Workings of the Duchy
- Chapter 10 Coloman’s Ecclesiastical and Secular Actitivities in Slavonia
- Chapter 11 Coloman’s Rule in Slavonia
- Chapter 12 Politics and Dynastic Affairs
- Chapter 13 Challenges in the Balkans
- Chapter 14 The Mongol Attack and Coloman’s Death
- Conclusion: Coloman in the Eyes of Posterity
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
IN 1226 COLOMAN became ruler of a whole swathe of territory, far from Scepus on the border of today's Poland, at the opposite end of the Hungarian kingdom, more than 500 km to the south of Spiš castle, over what we knew till recently as Yugoslavia. From that point we know nothing of any involvement by Coloman and his wife in Scepus.
Coloman became ruler when his father, Andrew II, placed him at the head of the provinces of Dalmatia and Croatia, replacing his elder brother, Béla, who was simultaneously then transferred to Transylvania. Of course, we cannot speak of fully-fledged territories of these royal princes, and even the titles used were somewhat vague. From the second half of the twelfth century in the kingdom of the Árpáds it happened several times that a member of the family was entrusted with the governance of these southern territories (like King Emeric from 1194 to 1196), so he could acquire the necessary skills while governing the area in the name of the king. There was, however, no solid framework of how this operated, and the practice was still fluid in the early thirteenth century.
This transfer to Slavonia marked a significant change in Coloman's life, since the first charters under the prince's own name derive from 1226. Coloman travelled to the Dalmatian coastal cities that same year and his power, newly granted from his father, was proclaimed in the form of solemn entries into these towns.
The Question of Coloman's Residence in Scepus or Slavonia
Coloman stated in one of his charters—albeit, of questionable authenticity—that he became the duke of Croatia and Dalmatia thanks to his father's generosity. It is certain that the prince had visited his new territories by 1226. It seems doubtful if he moved south permanently, and lack of sources makes this impossible to answer. There is a three-year hiatus between Coloman's first extant charters (dealing with southern affairs) and a new batch in 1229. Matters dealt with in these charters are significant: two of them concerned donations in the Scepus region (Kecerovský Lipovec and Spišské Tomášovce). So, several years after his rise to the dukedom, Coloman was still concerned about the conditions of his estates and the circumstances of his supporters in Scepus.
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- Coloman, King of Galicia and Duke of Slavonia (1208–1241)Medieval Central Europe and Hungarian Power, pp. 69 - 78Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019