Joachim Gutkeled

Joachim from the kindred Gutkeled ( hu, Gutkeled nembeli Joachim, hr, Joakim Pektar; died in April 1277) was a Hungarian influential lord in the second half of the 13th century. As a key figure of the struggles for power between the powerful barons in the 1270s, he kidnapped Ladislaus, the son of and heir to Stephen V of Hungary in June 1272, which was an unprecedented case in Hungarian history during that time and marked the beginning of half a century of turbulent period, called "feudal anarchy". Joachim was one of the first provincial lords, who sought to establish an oligarchic domain independently of the royal power. He was killed in a skirmish against the Babonići.

He was Ban of Slavonia between 1270 and 1272 (with short interruption) and from 1276 to 1277, and three times Master of the treasury between 1272 and 1275. He was also ''ispán'', or head, of many counties, including Baranya and Pozsony.

Early life

Joachim was born around 1240 into the Majád branch of the ''gens'' (clan) Gutkeled, 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''. He was the second son of Stephen I Gutkeled, who was a faithful partisan and powerful baron of Béla IV of Hungary until his death in 1259. Joachim had an elder and two younger brothers.Engel: ''Genealógia'' (Genus Gutkeled 5. Sárvármonostor branch) Nicholas II served as Judge royal from 1273 to 1274, then Ban of Slavonia twice. Joachim's younger brothers, Stephen II and Paul were still minors in 1263. They were also elevated into high dignities in the 1270s.

His father, Stephen I governed the Duchy of Styria on behalf of claimants Duke Béla and Duke Stephen from 1254 to 1259, his death. It is plausible that the young Joachim did military service and made personal acquaintance with Duke Stephen there, who was the same age as him. After the defeat at Battle of Kressenbrunn in 1260, when Béla was forced to renounce Styria in favor of Ottokar II of Bohemia, tensions emerged in the relationship between Béla IV and his son, Duke Stephen. On the eve of their conflict, which caused a civil war lasting until 1266, Nicholas and Joachim were considered supporters of the monarch. Joachim served as cup-bearer in the ducal court of the child Béla, Duke of Slavonia, King Béla's favored son in 1263. According to historians László Zolnay and Jenő Szűcs, the Gutkeled brothers left Béla's allegiance and joined the partisans of Duke Stephen in early 1264, not long before the outbreak of the civil war. As a result, Joachim was granted the lordships of Hațeg, Miháld and Jeszenő (present-day Hațeg, Mehadia in Romania and Jasenov in Slovakia, respectively), which all laid in the eastern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary, governed by Duke Stephen after the division of the realm in 1262. In contrast, historian Attila Zsoldos doubts his colleagues' theory, considering there is no clear evidence of that, as Joachim had no prominent – if any – role in the subsequent civil war due to his relatively young age, and may have received the large estates later, after Stephen's ascension to the Hungarian throne in 1270.

Joachim married Ruthenian princess Maria Romanovna in the second half of the 1260s. She was the daughter of Roman Danylovich, Prince of Navahrudak and Gertrude von Babenberg (the general heiress of her family), who were married with King Béla's mediation in 1250, after he met and concluded a peace treaty with Roman's father, Daniil Romanovich, Prince of Halych. With this marriage, Joachim Gutkeled became a relative of three royal dynasties – the Árpáds, the Babenbergs, which were extinct on the male branch by then, and the Rurikids. The couple produced only a daughter, leaving Joachim without male descendants. Their daughter, Clara married Roland Borsa, who served as Voivode of Transylvania in 1282 and from 1284 to 1294. Her daughters' quarter was paid by Paul Gutkeled's sons in 1322. She was still alive in 1337.

Under Stephen's reign

Béla IV died on 3 May 1270. Stephen arrived to Buda within days and nominated his own partisans to the highest offices. On this occasion, Joachim Gutkeled was made Ban of Slavonia, replacing the late Béla's prominent partisan, Henry Kőszegi. The coronation of Stephen V caused a brief constitutional crisis in Hungary, some of the senior king's supporters had left the kingdom and gone into exile to Bohemia, where Ottokar placed them under his protection. It seemed that Joachim was a faithful and reliable supporter of the new monarch. He participated in the royal campaign, when Stephen V launched a plundering raid into Austria (Ottokar's realm) around 21 December 1270. He also fought on the king's side in the spring of 1271, when Ottokar invaded the lands north of the Danube and captured a number of fortresses in Upper Hungary. Joachim resided in the royal camp along the lowland river Dudvág (or Dudváh) in mid-June, then at Pressburg (present-day Bratislava in Slovakia) after Stephen's victory over his enemy. He was a signatory of the two king's agreement in Pressburg on 2 July.

Joachim took advantage of his dignity of Ban of Slavonia and his local inherited estates from his father to establish a private territorial domain between the rivers Drava and Sava, in the southwestern part of the kingdom. He acquired or built several castles and their surrounding lordships in the region, for instance Bršljanica (Berstyanóc) and Koprivnica (Kapronca) in Križevci County, and Steničnjak (Sztenicsnyak) in Zagreb County. His distant relative, Hodos Gutkeled