Banat of Severin

Banate of Severin Szörényi bánság Banatul Severinului Северинска бановина
banate of Kingdom of Hungary
13th century–16th century →   →
Banate of Severin, late 13th century
History
•	Established	13th century
•	Disestablished	16th century
Today part of		Romania

The Banate of Severin or Banate of Szörény (Hungarian: szörényi bánság; Romanian: Banatul Severinului; Latin: Banatus Zewrinensis; Bulgarian: Severinsko banstvo / Северинско банство; Serbian: Severinska banovina / Северинска бановина) was a political, military and administrative unit with a special role in initially anti-Bulgarian, laterly anti-Ottoman defensive system of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. It was founded by Prince Béla in 1228.

The Banate of Severin was a march (or a border province) of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary between the Lower Danube and the Olt River (in present-day Oltenia in Romania). A charter of grant, issued on 2 June 1247 for the Knights Hospitallers, mentioned the Olt as its eastern border. The Knights received the "Land of Severin" (Terra de Zeurino), along with the nearby mountains, from Béla IV of Hungary. The king had described the same region as a "deserted and depopulated" land in a letter to Pope Gregory IX on 7 June 1238. Modern scholars assume that either the Hungarian conquest of the territory or confrontations between Bulgaria and Hungary had forced the local population to flee. Historian László Makkai says, the population obviously began to increase by the end of the 1230s, because Béla requested the pope to appoint a bishop to Severin.

The 1247 charter of grant also mentioned that "Cumania" bordered the Land of Severin from the east. The same diploma listed two Vlach (or Romanian) political units—the kenezatus of John and Farcaș—which were subjected to the Hospitallers on this occasion. A third kenezatus, which was ruled by Voivode Litovoi, was not included in the grant, but it was left to the Vlachs "as they had held it". However, Béla gave the Hospitallers the half of the royal revenues collected in Litovoi's land, with the exception of the revenues from the "Land of Hátszeg" (now Țara Hațegului in Romania). Alexandru Madgearu says, the diploma shows that Litovoi's kenezatus bordered the Land of Severin to the north, thus the banate must have only included southern Oltenia in the middle of the 13th century. The kenezatus of Voivode Seneslau, which was located to the west of the Olt, was fully excluded from the grant.

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