Drugeth Province Explained

Conventional Long Name:Drugeth Province
Druget-tartomány
Common Name:Banate of Macsó
Subdivision:Province
Nation:the Kingdom of Hungary
P1:Aba Province
S1:Kingdom of Hungary (1301–1526)
Flag S1:Flag of Hungary (1301-1382).svg
Year Start:1315
Year End:1342
Life Span:1315–1342
Title Leader:Lord
Leader1:Philip Drugeth
Year Leader1:1315–1327
Leader2:William Drugeth
Year Leader2:1327–1342
Capital:Szepes Castle
Sáros Castle
Vizsoly (court of justice)
Today:Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine

Drugeth Province (Hungarian: Druget-tartomány) is a modern historiographical term of a semi-official autonomous administrative division in the northeastern part of the Kingdom of Hungary (today in Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine).

The formation of the province began in 1315, during the unification war of King Charles I of Hungary against the rebellious oligarchs. His protege Philip Drugeth gained large-scale domains and held the governance of various counties and castles in the region, also granting palatinal rights, which ensured judicial and administrative privileges for him. The existence of the province was based on the honor (or "office fief") system, introduced by Charles I. After Philip's death in 1327, the province was inherited by his nephew William Drugeth. At the peak of his power, William ruled over nine counties and twenty-three castles in Northeast Hungary, and the Drugeth Province was comparable with the three traditional provinces, the Voivodeship of Transylvania, the Banate of Slavonia and the Banate of Macsó in its size, the number of counties and forts and its institutions. Both Charles I and William Drugeth died in 1342. The new monarch Louis I – under the influence of their opponents – decided to abolish the Drugeth Province, confiscating the overwhelming majority of the wealth of the Drugeth family and also depriving them from political power.

Leadership

Central administration

Lords of the province
Name Period Titles Source
1315–1327 Royal judge (1315–1323)
Palatine (1323–1327)
1327–1342 Royal judge (1327–1333)
Deputy Palatine (1333–1334)
Palatine (1334–1342)
Judges of the Court of Vizsoly
Name Period Titles Source
Nicholas Perényi (1st) 1318–1323 "iudex curie"
John 1323 "iudex curie"
Nicholas Perényi (2nd) 1323–1334 "viceiudex"
The Court of Vizsoly did not function (1334–1339)
1339–1341 "viceiudex"
The Court of Vizsoly ceased to exist (1341–1342)
Treasurers of the province
Name Period Notes Source
1325–1326 from the gens (clan) Zoárd;
Latin: Stephanus dictus Oproud [...], Hungarian: "Apród" István
Gery "the Italian" 1330 Latin: Gery Gallicus, Hungarian: "Olasz" Gery

Sources