Ják (Iak, Jaak or Thyak) was the name of a gens (Latin for "clan"; nemzetség in Hungarian) in the Kingdom of Hungary. They possessed estates in the western borderland along the river Rába, centered around their eponymous seat in Vas County. There, they erected an abbey church in the mid-13th century, which is the most significant surviving work of Hungarian Romanesque church architecture.
Origin
The Illuminated Chronicle, which incorporated texts from the 11–14th chronicles, claims that the forefather of the Jáks was Bavarian knight Vecellin, who, originating from Wasserburg, arrived in Hungary as a member of the entourage of Queen Gisela in 997 or 998. He played a decisive role in the defeat of Koppány, who contested the legitimacy of Stephen, Grand Prince of the Hungarians. The chronicle also notes that "the aforesaid Vecellin begot Radi, Radi begot Miska, Miska begot Koppány and Martin",The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle (ch. 64), pp. 112–113. The chronicle claims that the famous 11th-century warrior Opos the Brave was also a descendant of Vecellin. As a result, historical scholars have long considered that the passages of the Gesta Ladislai regis were written by a member of the Ják kindred, plausibly Bishop Koppány, at the end of the 11th century.
The Benedictine historian Lajos J. Csóka, however, showed that, instead of the Jáks, the gens Rád descended from Vecellin, who had been granted lands in the northernmost part of Somogy County after Stephen's victory. Consequently, the clan was named after Radi (or Rád), the son of Vecellin. György Györffy argued that the connection of Vecellin with the Ják kindred was a mistake by the mid-13th-century chronicler Ákos, who interpolated and supplemented the original chronicle text, often erroneously and anachronistically. Elemér Mályusz argued that the chronicler intended to add notable descendants to the knight Vecellin, but by then the Ráds could only be classified as members of the lesser nobility without political power. György Rácz considered that Ákos' contemporary, Zlaudus Ják was the driving force behind the chronicler's connection of the person of Vecellin with the emerging noble kindred, to make their arrival to Hungary earlier than it actually happened. Accordingly, Zlaudus brought the family's existing Bavarian connections and the gradually developing cult of Saint George (see below) into harmony with the tradition surrounding Vecellin. Tibor Almási considered that although the origin of the kindred has been erroneously traced back to the time of Vecellin, its Bavarian origin is certain.
Rácz considered that the Ják kindred was of Hungarian ethnicity, instead of their supposed foreign origin, which theory is strengthened by the frequency of Hungarian names within the clan (for instance, Csuna, Ebed, Kemény, Kopasz and Szabolcs) and the almost complete absence of German names. Györffy argued that the clan's lion crest confirms the same assumption, and he took into account that, due to the similar spelling, they were perhaps close relatives of the Csáks. József Dénes and István Herényi assumed identity between the two genera, but this could not be confirmed with sources. Rácz argued the name of the kindred formed from a given name, i.e. Ják, which was a diminutive form of Jacob or James. Accordingly, sometime in the 11th–12th century there lived a nobleman named Ják or Jakó, who possessed lands in Vas County. It is possible he is identical with that Jakó, father of ispán Achilles, who was a partisan of Coloman, King of Hungary in the 1110s. In the area of present-day Ják, archaeologists have also excavated 11th-century buildings and the predecessor of the St. James Chapel from the same period.
History By the early 13th century, when the Jáks first appear in contemporary records, approximately three main branches of the genus have developed, indicating that their settlement has been taking place for quite some time. The joint estates of the clan were divided among themselves sometime in the 12th century, only the ancient seat, Ják, remained in undivided ownership. The senior branch, whose members founded the monasteries in the region, possessed lands along the river Pinka, a tributary of the Rába. The so-called Rába-left bank branch possessed estates around Jákfa – they were relatively poorer and were considered royal servants only –, while the Rába-right bank branch, which was closer in relationship to the senior branch, centered around Sitke. Beside Vas County, the Ják kindred possessed landholdings in the neighboring Zala County, but also in other parts of the Kingdom of Hungary, in, for instance, Temes, Bodrog, Csanád and Valkó counties.
During the 13th century, the separation of the three branches had already begun: in 1259, Martin (II) from the senior branch handed over the estate Dabrapatak and paid 10 marks additionally to members of the clan's left-bank branch – Reynold, Mika, Tristan and Martin – in exchange for renouncing all their claims to the inheritance of the late Csépán (I). The two poorer branches then had no say in what estates the senior branch (extinct around 1292) acquired. The years-long lawsuit over the extinct Sebe branch represented a further separation. Despite Sebe and his kinship belonged to the clan's right-bank branch, but since they had estates in the territory of the left-bank branch (portions in Jákfa and Köröselő) too, the latter also had a claim to their wealth. Their aspirations were supported by the powerful lord Ivan Kőszegi, who ruled Western Transdanubia de facto independently of the royal power since the 1280s. Sebe's son, Stephen died without descendants in 1289; his inheritance passed to his brother, the similarly childless Nicholas. Under pressure, the right-bank branch renounced all their inheritance claims in that year. They later retracted this, citing that they made their statement in response to death threats from the Kőszegi family. They could not enforce their rights because of the influence of Ivan Kőszegi. In 1290, Nicholas announced that he makes the left-bank branch the sole heir to his lands with the approval of the right-bank branch. The treaty clearly defined Rába and the surrounding forest as the natural boundaries between the estates of the two branches: the right-bank branch (Lawrence and Csépán, and their offspring) owned lands to the south and east of it, while the left-bank branch (Ebed's offspring) possessed their estates to the north and west. The treaty prohibited the two branches from acquiring land and settling into the territory of the other branch.
After Nicholas bequeathed his aforementioned estates to John from the clan's Terestyénfalva branch in 1291, the conflict escalated between the two branches. Mutual damage, looting, and the forced displacement and killing of serfs became commonplace in the region. The two branches finally reconciled again in late 1293 and early 1294; the right-bank branch renounced all legal claims under the burden of losing their wealth and losing a decisive duel. This was the last time that clan affiliation appeared, because the document also stated that anyone who thereafter raised arms against any member of the kinship would be exiled and expelled from the Ják clan.
Senior branch Founders of monasteries The first certainly known member of the branch and the entire clan was Mika (I), or Mike, who rose to become one of the most influential supporters of Emeric, King of Hungary by the end of the 12th century. He supported the monarch during the rebellions of his younger brother Andrew against his rule in the late 1190s. For his role in the conflict, Elvin, Bishop of Várad (Andrew's partisan) even excommunicated him. He served as Master of the treasury, Judge royal, then Palatine of Hungary in the period 1198–1201. Beside these positions, he also administered Bihar and Bács counties in the eastern part of the kingdom.
Mika's only known son was Csépán (I). Some academic works consider that Ivan (Jovan), from whom later generations of the Jáks descended, was Csépán's brother, but it is more likely that he was his uncle (i.e. Mika's brother). Despite his father's affiliation, Csépán rose to prominence after Andrew II ascended the Hungarian throne in 1205. He served as Ban of Slavonia from 1206 to 1207. Beside that, he was also styled as ispán of Somogy County in 1207. He remained in both positions until 1208 and 1209 at the latest, respectively. The reason for his loss of influence was that after the first few years, King Andrew no longer needed the support and government experience of the former pro-Emeric lords. According to a royal charter from 1325, Csépán (I) erected the Benedictine monastery of Pornó. The settlement was his permanent residence, he lived in a mansion on an island at the confluence of the Pornó stream and the Pinka river. The abbey was dedicated to Margaret of Antioch. Since a 1221 charter attributes this merit to Mika, the process was probably started by his father, and his son, Csépán, completed the foundation of the abbey and its provision with donations (possibly around 1214). Prior to 1209, Csépán possessed the lordship of Szentgyörgy in Pozsony County (present-day Svätý Jur, Slovakia), but King Andrew II bought from him and donated it to his faithful partisan Sebes Hont-Pázmány in that year. Thereafter, the lordship became the eponymous seat of the Szentgyörgyi family from the Hont-Pázmány clan. Csépán was still alive in 1216, when Andrew II confirmed his donation to Sebes. He definitely died before 1221, but he was probably not even alive in 1219 (see below). He was buried in the abbey church of Pornó.
Csépán's only known son was Stephen (I), who was still an adolescent when his father died. He became a Cistercian friar. With the permission of Andrew II, he handed over Pornó Abbey and its right of patronage to the Szentgotthárd Abbey, where he himself moved, in a lengthy process in 1219–1223. With this act of incorporation, Stephen also renounced his inheritance in favor of the Cistercians, which consisted of additional four villages – Monyorókerék, Hétfőhely, Perwolf and Kölked – besides Pornó. This was preceded by the division of Csépán's estates among the branches of the Ják kindred.
Stephen's move contributed to Csépán's cousin, Martin (I) (who was the son of Ivan), starting the foundation of the Benedictine abbey of Ják and the construction of its Romanesque church, dedicated to Saint George, which took place around 1220. The construction took decades and it was consecrated in 1256, after the death of Martin. As a confidant of Duke Béla, who became king in 1235, Martin (I) served as ispán of Vas (1215, 1224, 1236) and Zala counties (1240–1241), and perhaps he was also Ban of Slavonia for a brief time in 1224. He was the most influential member of his kindred during his generation; his relatives were styled as "de genere Martini comitis", instead of naming the Ják clan, since the 1230s. Under his leadership, the senior branch became completely independent from the poorer branches of the family. Martin (I) and his brother James handed over their estate Köröselő (laid near Jákfa) to the left-bank branch, becoming geographically separated from their poorer relatives. In 1244, Martin, James and their sons were mentioned as neighboring lords near Đakovo (Diakovár) in Valkó County, since they possessed the lordship of Nevna (present-day Levanjska Varoš in Croatia). 14th-century documents (from 1325 and 1333) styled the late Martin with the epithet "the Great" (Magnus), which, in addition to his former social prestige, was primarily intended to clearly distinguish him from his namesake son and grandson by his descendants.