Az örökös ispánságok Zsigmond király korában
Perpetual Ispáns in the Age of King Sigismund

Summary/Abstract: The institution of perpetual ispáns (comites perpetui, örökös ispánok) in the medieval Hungarian Kingdom is a well researched field thanks to the work of Imre Hajnik, and, more recently, András Kubinyi and Richárd Horváth. Basically, the responsibilities of a perpetual ispán were similar to those of an ordinary ispán of a county: it was his duty to preserve and defend the rights of the county nobility, to guarantee compliance with royal mandates, to control the collection of royal revenues, and to secure the transport of salt and the free circulation of coins. The only important difference was that whereas the removal of the ordinary ispán was dependent upon the royal will (durante beneplacito or usque beneplacitum), the perpetual ispán held his office onto death. If the perpetual ispán was an ecclesiastic, mostly archbishop or bishop, he was naturally succeeded as ispán by his successor in the church office. If, on the other hand, the person holding the title of perpetual ispán was a layman, the office descended upon his heir within the family.

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