Hahold I Hahót

Hahold (I) Hahót
Hahold as depicted in the Illuminated Chronicle with false coat of arms
Noble family	gens Hahót
Issue Buzád I Hahold II

Hahold (I) from the kindred Hahót (Hungarian: Hahót nembeli (I.) Hahót), also known as Hahold the Great (Latin: Magnus Hahold), was a German mercenary knight possibly from Thuringia who settled down in the Kingdom of Hungary. Promoting to the Hungarian nobility, he became the first member of the gens Hahót, thus he was also the forefather of the late medieval powerful Bánfi de Alsólendva family.

As the 14th-century Illuminated Chronicle narrates the origin of the gens Hahót (or Buzád),

This clan was brought into Hungary by King Stephen, son of Bela II, in order to aid the said king. They are sprung from the counts of Orlamund. The first to come was called Hadolch, whose son was called by the like name of Hadolch and also Arnold. From them sprang Banus Buzad. The people of this country could not pronounce Hadolch, and so he was called by the similar name of Hohold. The clan of Chak conspired with some other clans against the King; it is said that they were defeated by Hohold and by the army which he had brought with him.

The Illuminated Chronicle preserved the narrative of the so-called gesta of the age of King Stephen V of Hungary (r. 1270–72), compiled by magister Ákos, who wrote Hahold was a descendant of the Counts of Weimar-Orlamünde. The first member of the family was Otto I, Margrave of Meissen, who ruled the territory in the 1060s. Historian Elemér Mályusz argued the family was familiar to chronicler Ákos, because King Béla I's daughter Sophia was engaged to Margrave William, Otto's brother in 1062, then she married their nephew Ulric. Ákos also wrote the original name of Hahold (or Hahót) was Hadolch but the Hungarian nobles could not pronounce it correctly during his arrival to the realm.