Elefánthy family

The House of Elefánthy (also spelled Elefánty or Elefánti) were one of the oldest noble families in the Kingdom of Hungary. At their peak during the Middle Ages the family rose to an influential and wealthy position.

The exact origins of the family are unknown. Some authors believe the Elefánthy to be a branch of the Ludány kindred, which itself was a branch of the genus Hont-Pázmány. The eminent 18th-century polymath Matthias Bel, in his Notitia Hungariae novae historic-geographia, writes that a 12th-century ancestor of the family was part of King Coloman’s delegation to Sicily to propose a royal marriage. This ancestor was gifted an elephant in Sicily, which he brought back and presented to the King, who in return gave him the original estates in Nyitra County.

A more recent theory as to the unique name and coat of arms of the family suggests that Elefánth could have been a personal name, derived from the French Oliphant, an ivory horn made popular in court circles during the Middle Ages from the knightly romance Chanson de Roland. An ancestor of the family may have been named after some such splendid hunting horn.

An extensive study of the family name by Endre Tóth concluded that it originates from the personal, German name of Helfant. Due to the age of the family, Tóth suggests that the ancestor of the family came from Bavaria at the time of Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians or Stephen I of Hungary.

The oldest known member is Andrew the Red (Hungarian: "Vörös" András), mentioned in 1236 as lord of Elefánth.

Michael Elefánthy, documented in 1265, was Grand Master of the Royal Court.

From the 13th century the family owned a number of estates in Pozsony and Nyitra Counties. The family split into several branches early on and as a result, in 1323, the estates were permanently split between two of the major branches, the Felsőelefánt (today Horné Lefantovce, Slovakia) and Alsóelefánt (today Dolné Lefantovce, Slovakia) branches.

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