Între coroanele Arpadienilor şi Asăneştilor: implicaţiile unui document de la Béla III
BETWEEN THE CROWNS OF THE ARPADIANS AND THE ASEN FAMILY: IMPLICATIONS OF A CHARTER FROM KING BÉLA III

Summary/Abstract: Since the troubled late 12th century, when the Asen brothers separated the Romanians and the Bulgarians from the Byzantine Empire seems to have survived a unique document issued by Béla III of Hungary (1172-1196) in favour of Narad, his faithful count (earl). Unfortunately, however, the only version of this donation that has survived to the 20th century is an authenticated copy, with errors, dating from 1417. Although of progenie oriundus (i.e., a foreigner), the Teuton had stood out from the crowd. He had also fought for Béla (who at the time was at war with duke Henry II of Austria, a supporter of Géza, Béla’s brother and rival) in Austria (1173-1178), wherefrom Narad seems to have come, and had lost his properties. Then he had brought over 3,000 Germans (adduxit secum plus quam tria millia theotonicorum, per quos maximam partem regni nostri desertam fecit populosam) to Hungary. He was awarded the properties of Durugh, Cheh and Lenged in Abaújvár county (northeastern Hungary). Due to the location of these estates, the above-mentioned donation, confirmed by Béla IV (1261), was authenticated at the convent of Lelesz, near Kosice (1417). Only the authentication and the 1417 copy survived the centuries, until the arrival of the Soviet army, when the Bátthyányi archive in Körmend, where these documents were kept, was destroyed. Thus, destruction, a trait that is common to all periods in history, has deprived the researchers of what would perhaps be today the earliest document attesting the word Romanian.

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