Stephen (I) from the kindred Gutkeled (, ; died 1260) was a Hungarian influential lord, an early prominent member of the gens Gutkeled and ancestor of its Majád branch. He governed the Duchy of Styria on behalf of claimants Duke Béla and Duke Stephen from 1254 until his death.
Origin and family relations
Stephen was born into the Gutkeled kindred, a widely extended clan of German origin, which came from the Duchy of Swabia to the Kingdom of Hungary during the reign of Peter in the mid-11th century, according to Simon of Kéza's Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum. Stephen's father was a certain comes Dragun from the clan's Sárvármonostor branch. Powerful barons Nicholas I and Apaj Gutkeled were Dragun's cousins however all of their ancestors can not be identified thus there is inability to connect the Sárvármonostor branch to the other branches of the clan. Stephen was the only known son of Dragun. Based on his father's name, it is possible that the Sárvármonostor branch married into the local Slavic elite in Slavonia, where the aforementioned branch possessed acquisitions and increased its influence.
He is considered as forefather and first member of the Majád branch. He had four sons from his unidentified wife: Nicholas II, Joachim, Stephen II and Paul. All of them held important positions, e.g. Judge royal, Master of the treasury, Judge royal and Ban of Severin, respectively. Through his youngest son Paul, Stephen was also an ancestor of the Majádi, Butkai, Keszeg de Butka, Márki, Málcai, Csatári, Ráskai, Fejes de Ráska and Vidfi de Ráska noble families.Engel: Genealógia (Genus Gutkeled 5. Sárvármonostor branch)
Joachim, his second son was one of the most infamous early oligarchs during the chaotic reign of Ladislaus IV in the 1270s. He even kidnapped the young Ladislaus and established a dominion in Slavonia, excluding the royal power. Following his death in 1277, his province was divided between the Kőszegis and Babonići, thus the Majád branch declined while other branches of the Gutkeled clan (for instance Rakamaz branch, where the prestigious Báthory family originated) has become increasingly important.
Career Career in Hungary Stephen served in the royal court "since his childhood" ("in primevis puericie sue") and plausibly he belonged to the group of so-called "royal youth" (, ). He started his political career at the ducal court of Andrew, Prince of Galicia, the youngest son of King Andrew II, where he served from 1227 to 1230 and from 1231 to 1234. In this capacity, he fought against Daniel Romanovich and his allies. When the young prince died without child in 1234, Stephen left the Principality of Galicia. Following the death of King Andrew II in the next year, he became a loyal supporter of Béla IV, who ascended the Hungarian throne in 1235. He was a confidant of Duke Coloman as a member of his ducal court in Slavonia. When the Mongols raided Hungary in 1241, Stephen had participated in the Battle of Mohi where the Hungarian royal army suffered a catastrophic defeat against Batu Khan's troops. He was able to flee from the battlefield and later joined the companion of the escaping Béla IV who fled to Dalmatia after a short and unfortune bypass in the Duchy of Austria.
After the death of William of Saint Omer, the King's distant relative, Stephen was appointed Master of the horse around August 1242. He held the dignity until at least October 1244, but there is a non-authentic charter which suggests he served in that capacity until 1245. Beside that Stephen also functioned as ispán/župan of Vrbas (or Orbász) County from 1243 to 1244/5, otherwise he is the first known noble, who held that ispánate in Lower Slavonia. From 1245 to 1246, he served as Judge royal and ispán of Nyitra County. During his service, he was granted lands in the aforementioned county. At the time of his service as Judge royal, he participated in the Battle of the Leitha River in June 1246, where Frederick II, Duke of Austria was killed and the male line of the Babenbergs became extinct. Stephen was seriously injured during the skirmish.
In 1246, he was appointed Palatine of Hungary by Béla IV, replacing Denis Türje. He functioned in that position until 1247 or 1248. During that time, in 1246, he also governed Somogy County. Three charters preserved that Stephen judged in Bela, Szántó (Zala County) and Baksa (Baranya County) over litigation cases. From the 1230s, the monarchs occasionally entrusted the palatines, along with other barons of the realm, with specific tasks. For instance, Stephen Gutkeled and ispán Csák Hahót ordered to destroy mills built without permission on the river Rába on Béla IV's orders. This latter certificate is the only surviving document that Stephen issued during his service as palatine.
Ban/Duke of Slavonia In 1248, Stephen became Ban of Slavonia, a position which he held for a 12-year term, until his death. He adopted the title of dux in 1252, after Béla IV bestowed the title upon him, emphasizing the continuity of the ducal separate government over Slavonia. His proper title was "Ban and Duke of Slavonia", according to a royal charter issued in 1254. Sometime, he was also called as "duke of Zagreb" (dux Zagrabiensis), he appeared with this title in Styrian chronicles, therefore Austrian historiography frequently calls him "Stephan von Agram". It is plausible that Stephen's ducal title should not be considered a personal prestige, but it served to create the legal basis for large-scale supervision process of the possessions and social statuses in the province for the royal court. Stephen exercised sovereign rights in these. Following the Mongol invasion, the province of Slavonia and Croatia had an important function of border defense, as a result the royal title of Duke of Slavonia was transformed into the hands of powerful secular barons, like Denis Türje and Stephen Gutkeled, while the King's son, Duke Stephen was still a minor. In Slavonia, Stephen acted as Béla's viceroy, according to a royal charter in 1248. In a letter to the burghers of Trogir (Trau) in the same year, the king, who announced Stephen's appointment, referred to his protege as "a man after our own heart, who will not be a destroyer but a builder, not a spendthrift but a gatherer, not a destructive but rather a great preserver through his inherent loyalty and wisdom". With this appointment, Béla IV granted special rights to Stephen over the affairs of Trogir and Split (Spalato), in addition other cities of the Dalmatian coast. The king ordered Stephen not to violate the rights and freedoms of the burghers of Trogir in the course of administering justice in the lawsuit between Trogir and Šibenik (Sebenico) over the collection of some tithes.
Under Stephen's term, more and more sources identified the river Drava as the northeastern border of the Banate of Slavonia, but this was not a strict political boundary since the territories of southern Transdanubian counties (Zala, Somogy and Baranya) extended beyond the river line. Stephen resided in Zagreb and governed the region from his palace there, where he also had an own ducal court. He built up a vassal system in Slavonia, royal servants and familiaris were among his household. His most important familiares were Dominic, who served as vice-judge royal (1246) then vice-ban (1249) under Stephen, and Alexander, who was ispán of Podgorje, Zagreb and also served as vice-ban from 1252 to 1259. In 1256, Benedict, the Canon of Zagreb represented Stephen in the mintage and chamber at Pakrac.
Following the sudden death of Ugrin Csák, Archbishop of Split, King Béla IV installed Stephen as comes (ispán or župan) of Split in 1249, who thus became the supreme representative of secular affairs of the royal power in Dalmatia. Stephen's appointment clearly violated the rights of the burghers of Split to freely elect their leaders. Stephen temporarily handed over the title of comes of Split to a certain Mihailo in 1251 (who, however, acted "with the consent" of Stephen); he reassumed control of the city's administration from 1252 to 1258. Stephen is last referred to as comes of Split in September 1258. Stephen was also styled as comes of Trogir at least since 1253. He bore that title at least until 1257. Since 1259, certain Alexander and Butko (Butheco) appeared as bans of the maritime provinces (i.e. Dalmatia), implying Stephen's retirement from the region shortly before his death. It is possible that Stephen gave up both positions in 1258, when the Dalmatian affairs were transferred to the authority of the aforementioned bans. Consequently, Stephen outsourced the administration of the Dalmatian cities to his familiars, the (vice)-bans of the maritime provinces. Nevertheless, Ban Stephen was embroiled in conflict with several Dalmatian towns during his decade of rule, for instance, his son Ban Nicholas Gutkeled commemorated an event, when his father unlawfully usurped lands from the town of Trogir. According to historian Gyula Kristó, these were acts of domination of later oligarchic practices, but it is possible that Stephen was protecting the king's interests over the cities as he sought to increase the influence of royal power in the region.
In addition to Dalmatia, Stephen Gutkeled also brought order with hard hand to the warring Croatian lords beyond the Kapela Mountains. He acted in a similar way in the region between rivers Kupa and Una, defeating the progenitors of the Babonić family. Stephen built several castles (including Jablanac) along the borders as part of Béla's radical reforms introduced after the Mongol invasion. He also resettled with hospites ("guests" or "foreigners") the town of Križevci and donated privileges to the newly inhabited settlement. He granted city status to Križevci in 1252, with the same rights that Zagreb had. Stephen was the first secular landowner in Hungary, who founded a settlement, when he settled down the inhabitants of the Rab Island (Arbe) to along the walls of the Jablanac Castle in 1251. Stephen's re-settlements were highly valued by Béla IV, who considered them the basis of the stability of the province. Stephen granted the same privileges to its burghers as the people of Trogir, Šibenik and other coastal cities in Dalmatia (for instance, the free elect of comes, the local superior, exemption from customs duties and restricting external immigration). Béla IV mandated Stephen to supervise former royal land grants in the province Slavonia. He dealt with this task in the period between April 1255 and early 1257. This was necessary because after the death of Duke Coloman, chaotic conditions developed in the province.
Stephen Gutkeled was also notable for the first Ban, who minted his own marten-adorned silver denarius in whole Slavonia, the so-called banovac or banski denar. The first coins were issued in 1255 by the Pakrac Chamber, according to a 1256 royal charter of Béla IV. Stephen's coins marked Styrian influence, as historian Bálint Hóman writes in his high-impact work in 1916. Stephen's goal was to the displace of Austrian coins from his province. Later the mintage's seat moved from Pakrac to Zagreb by 1260. His banovac was considered a high quality currency and when the minting of golden coins began under Charles I of Hungary in 1323, Gutkeled's coins served as an example and base for the new florins. The self-coinage of the Ban of Slavonia (and Croatia) have persisted until the 1350s. Stephen also introduced a new economic measure called collecta, an extraordinary tax of 7 denari in Slavonia, also a kind of precursor for Charles' economic reform in the 1320s.
Captain of Styria Administration