Prefection, also promotion of a daughter to a son (; ), was a

royal prerogative The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, Privilege (law), privilege, and immunity recognised in common law (and sometimes in Civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy) as belonging to the monarch, so ...

in the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

, whereby the

sovereign ''Sovereign'' is a title that can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to ...

granted the status of a son to a

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

's daughter, authorizing her to inherit her father's landed property and transmitting noble status to her children even if she married a commoner. Such a daughter was called a ''praefecta'' in Latin.

History

The first prefection occurred in 1332, when King Charles Robert granted this status to Margaret Gersei. The Gersei family sided with the king during the early, tumultuous years of his reign, when he had to defeat the local oligarchs to consolidate his rule. The family was murdered by the Kőszegi oligarch family in 1316, with the exception of Margaret, who was saved by her nurse and was later married to Paul Magyar, a supporter of the king.

Louis the Great Louis I, also Louis the Great (; ; ) or Louis the Hungarian (; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370. He was the first child of Charles I of Hungary and his wife, Elizabeth of P ...

, the son of Charles Robert, continued to grant this status to noble daughters who were married to his loyal supporters, thereby redistributing the lands of the old aristocracy among the families on whose support he could count. Overall about 100 cases of prefection were recorded until 1526 (when most of Hungary fell to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and central rule became destabilized). In literature, prefection plays a role in the second part of

János Arany János Arany (; archaic English: John Arany; 2 March 1817 – 22 October 1882) was a Hungarian poet, writer, translator and journalist. He is often said to be the "Shakespeare of ballads" – he wrote more than 102 ballads that have been transl ...

's famous ''

Toldi trilogy The Toldi trilogy is an epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe ...

'' − both Toldi's beloved, Piroska Rozgonyi, and his niece, Anikó are granted ''praefecta'' status by Louis the Great.Botka Ferenc: Nagy Lajos király – Arany János – a Toldi szerelme nyomán Itáliában
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References

Sources

* * * Hungarian noble titles Legal history of Hungary {{Hungary-hist-stub

History

See also

References

Sources