Hahót (genus)


Hahót or Hahót–Buzád was the name of a gens in the Kingdom of Hungary, several prominent secular dignitaries came from this kindred. The last noble family, which originated from the kindred, became extinct in 1849.

Origins

According to the fourteenth-century chronicle composition, the Hahót kindred descended from the Counts of Orlamünde, arriving to Hungary in the 1160s upon the invitation of Stephen III to help to defeat the rebelled Csák kindred. The first member of the clan was Hahold, who suppressed the rebellion with his soldiers. The chronicle says Stephen, who invited the Hahóts, was a son of Béla II, which description fits to Stephen III's uncle, Anti-king Stephen IV. However both historians János Karácsonyi and Elemér Mályusz argued, the Hahóts took part in the defeat of the rebellious Stephen IV in 1163, who took assistance from some clans, includings Csáks, in addition to the Byzantine Empire. Historian Endre Tóth considers the Hahóts' settlement and defeating the Csáks as two separate events, and the latter one only marked the Hahóts' first prominent presence in national politics.
Simon of Kéza's Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum referred to the Hahót kindred as "Buzad autem generatio de Mesn originem trahit, nobiles de districtu Wircburg". Karácsonyi identified Wircburg as Marburg in March of Styria, while Mesn was identical with the nearby Messendorf, he claimed. Mályusz identified the two geographical names with Wartburg and Meissen in Thuringia, noting that none of them were part of the estates of the House of Weimar-Orlamünde, which ruled Meissen from 1046 to 1067. Endre Tóth tried to reconstruct the origin of the kindred based on the spread of the name Hahold in German-speaking areas. Near Freising, the name was relatively frequently used since the 8th century, in addition, it appeared altogether with the name Arnold in the 13th century, which was also used for four generations in the Hahót kindred.

Seats and possessions

Following Stephen III's victory, Hahold received land donations and settled down in Zala County near the Austrian border. By the 13th century, his kindred possessed the most extensive estate in the county, along the rivers Kerka and Ledava, and in Prekmurje. In the early period, the family seat was Hahót, which was named after the kindred, between rivers Kanizsa and Pölöske. In 1192, Hahold II bought lands in Alsólendva and in the surrounding areas. His brother Buzád I was mentioned as a onetime owner of Újudvar, also in Zala County, by a royal charter of Béla III of Hungary, when he donated the estate to the Fehérvár monastery. Archaeologist László Vándor argued Hahold I was granted his coherent and extensive possession from a crown land after the cessation of the "gyepű" border system. Accordingly, the Hahóts' first lands were part of the so-called "gyepűelve", a mostly uninhabited or sparsely inhabited area beyond the Austrian border, comparable to the modern buffer zones. Vándor considered Újudvar , where stone buildings, churches, monasteries were excavated, was the centre of this territory until the donation.
By the 1230s, Buzád I's son Arnold I founded the kindred's monastery at Hahót, the namesake seat of his family, dedicated to Margaret of Antioch. Archaeologists argued the Hahóts erected their monastery on a basis of a royal convent founded by Ladislaus I of Hungary. However, in fact, the Hahót monastery was only a common burial place among the Hahót clan, as its branches moved away from each other by then. In 1248, Michael I of the Hahold branch founded a Franciscan friary in Szemenye, also dedicated to Mary the Virgin. Later the Bánfi de Alsólendva family, descendants of the Hahót kindred through his brother Hahold III, became patron of the monastery. One of the members of the more powerful Buzád branch, Atyusz erected a Premonstratensian monastery at Rajk around 1270.
Possibly it was Arnold II of the Arnold branch who built the castles of Pölöske and Sztrigó in Zala County in the 1240s, after Béla IV of Hungary abandoned the ancient royal prerogative to build and own castles in response to the Mongol invasion. After the 1270s the gradually marginalized Arnold branch, resided on the western part of the Hahót basin, lost the ownership of Pölöske and Sztrigó against Ottokar II of Bohemia then the increasing powerful Kőszegi family. Nicholas III also owned Purbach in Sopron County, but after his rebellion in 1270, Stephen V of Hungary confiscated the castle and donated to his loyal soldier Panyit Miskolc. Until confiscation, Nick was also a property of Panyit Hahót. In Somogy County, the branch possessed Sukoró, Mórichely, Osziágy, Surd and Kákonya. For a time, James also owned Kálmáncsa and Dobsza, formerly queenly estates.
By 1251, sons of Blessed Buzád built their own timber fortifications – Buzádtornya, Csáktornya, Terestyéntornya and Lankrédtornya. Among them only Csáktornya survived the following centuries. Ottokar's army captured all castles in the early 1270s, causing the Buzád branch's move into Center Zala. The eldest son Buzád III also inherited Buzádsziget and Szabar from his father who entered the Dominican Order. His son Atyusz resided in Szabar and thus became ancestor of the Szabari family. Csák I's branch settled down in Csány after Ottokar's invasion – their descendants, the Csányi family originated from there. After a praefectio in filium'' by his father Nicholas V in 1365, Klara, a descendant of Buzád IV granted the village of Buzádsziget, while its fort was already demolished by then. Following that Klara mortgaged the estate to her husband John Koltai and his brother George. Tristan's branch became extinct after a generation. Herbord, son of Lancelot, owned Falkos and Söjtör, his descendants were frequently named after both villages. The Lancelot branch also owned Szombathely, Podturen, Belica among others once a long time ago. After his victorious unification war, Charles I of Hungary donated the liberated and formerly Hahót-owned estates to the emerging Lackfi family. Descendants of the Buzád branch unsuccessfully attempted to regain their former possessions on the occasion of a lawsuit lasted from 1351 until 1376.
Hahold IV of the Hahold branch called himself "Lord of Alsólendva" in 1272, proving that he owned and possibly built the castle himself by then. The Kőszegis captured their castle around 1314, but Nicholas VII regained that in 1323. The Hahold branch owned villages and estates mostly the territory of today Slovenia. Nicholas VII received numerous land donations surrounding Alsólendva Castle, which became the domain of the Bánfi de Alsólendva family.

Notable members

Hahold I
Buzád I
Hahold II

Arnold branch

Arnold I
Panyit
Arnold II
Keled I
James
Nicholas III
Arnold III

Buzád branch

Buzád II
Buzád III
Csák I
Tristan
Lancelot
Thomas
Sal
Atyusz
Csák II
Michael III
Herbord

Hahold branch

Hahold III
Michael I
Hahold IV
John
Stephen I
Nicholas VII

Family tree

The illustrated and decorated family tree of the Hahóts and their descendants was compiled sometime between 1678 and 1718 by an unknown author.