ABENTEUERLICHER HERRSCHER ODER GÜTIGER PATRON?
RULER OF FORTUNE OR GRACIOUS PATRON?

Summary/Abstract: The fragments of a very fragmentary inscribed tombstone depicting an armed knight were found in the one-time Cistercian monastery of Pilis at Pilisszentkereszt (Pest county) during László Gerevich’s excavations (1967–1982). As certain fragments were uncovered in the debris heaped in the shaft of grave no. 59 in the centre of the chapter-house, the tombstone was associated with this grave (L. Gerevich). The man lying in the grave was identified as Robert de Courtenay (†1228), Andrew II’s wife Yolande de Courtenay’s brother, who was elected Byzantine Latin emperor then he was expelled and died at an unknown place (I. Takács). The author reviews the finding circumstances of the fragments and determines from radiocarbon measurements that there could be no direct contact between the late medieval body found in the centrally placed grave no. 59 of the chapter-house and the tombstone. The arguments that were raised to link the tombstone with Robert de Courtenay are not acceptable either: if he was ever buried in the medieval Hungary, his grave could rather be in the Cistercian monastery of Egres (to date Agriş, Romania) where Yolande de Courtenay was also buried. A secular nobleman must have been buried under the Pilis tombstone who could play an important role in the establishment of the monastery in the 13th century and who is called precium comitum (the most eminent of comites) in the very fragmentary inscription. There are no realistic data that would suggest that the pit of a heart burial was beside grave no. 59 in Pilis as it is suggested in the archaeological literature. This feature must have had a different function in the center of the chapter-house (foundation of a lectorium or a judicium).

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