County (Kingdom of Hungary)

A county (Hungarian: vármegye or megye; for the various names, their origin and use see here) is the name of a type of administrative units in the Kingdom of Hungary and in Hungary from the 10th century until the present day.

This article deals with only the period before the Treaty of Trianon of 1920. For lists of the individual counties, see Administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Hungary. For counties of Hungary since 1950, see Counties of Hungary.

The Hungarians settled in the Carpathian Basin in 895. The first counties were probably the counties situated in present-day northern Pannonia (Transdanubia) - they arose before 1000 or around 1000. The exact time of the creation of many other counties is disputed, many of them, however, arose not later than under the rule of Stephen I of Hungary. Initially there were also several small frontier counties (Latin: marchiae) established for military purposes only (e. g. comitatus of Bolondus), which however ceased to exist in the 14th century when royal counties were transformed to noble ones. Initially, there were also some small special castle districts, which ceased in the 13th century.

Each county was the responsibility of a county head, whose seat was a castle - a quasi-capital of the county. The county head was the representative of the king, the judge, and the supreme law observance supervisor on his respective territory. He collected the fees and payments in kind made by the subjects for the king, gave two thirds of them to the king and kept the rest. His castle had special fortification and was able to withstand even long-term besieges. The sources mention deputy county heads in the 12th century for the first time.

The royal county consisted of castle districts.

In the late 13th century, the royal counties gradually turned into noble counties. The reasons for this development were:

As a result, by royal decrees of 1267, 1290, and 1298, the king could only confirm that the royal counties turned into noble ones. Nobles (mostly former royal servant families) became quasi-rulers in the counties. The change from a royal to a noble county, however, was accomplished at different times in the particular counties.

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