Farcaș,
also Farkas, Farkaș
or Farcas,
was a ''
cneaz'' (local chieftain or ruler)
mentioned in the
Diploma of the Joannites issued by king
Béla IV of Hungary
Béla IV (1206 – 3 May 1270) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia between 1235 and 1270, and Duke of Styria from 1254 to 1258. As the oldest son of Andrew II of Hungary, King Andrew II, he was crowned upon the initiative of a group ...
(1235–1270) on 2 July 1247; the diploma granted territories to the
Knights Hospitaller
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...
in the
Banate of Severin
The Banate of Severin or Banate of Szörény (; ; ; , ; , ) was a Hungarian political, military and administrative unit with a special role in the initially anti- Bulgarian, latterly anti- Ottoman defensive system of the medieval Kingdom of Hu ...
and ''
Cumania
The name Cumania originated as the Latin exonym for the Cuman–Kipchak confederation, which was a tribal confederation in the western part of the Eurasian Steppe, between the 10th and 13th centuries. The confederation was dominated by two Turk ...
''.
Farcaș held a ''
kenazate'' which was given to the knights by the king.
His ''kenazate'' lay in the northeast of modern
Oltenia
Oltenia (), also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions – with the alternative Latin names , , and between 1718 and 1739 – is a historical province and geographical region of Romania in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Da ...
(in
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
).
The diploma of Béla IV also refers to the ''kenazate''s of
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second E ...
and ''voivode''
Litovoi
Litovoi, also Litvoy, was a Vlach/ Romanian ''voivode'' in the 13th century whose territory comprised northern Oltenia in today's Romania.
He is mentioned for the first time in the Diploma of the Joannites issued by king Béla IV of Hungary (123 ...
and to ''voivode''
Seneslau
Seneslau, also Seneslav or Stănislau, was a Vlach ''voivode'' mentioned in the Diploma of the Joannites issued by king Béla IV of Hungary (1235–1270) on 2 July 1247. The diploma granted territories to the Knights Hospitaller in the Banate of ...
.
Seneslau and Litovoi are expressly said to be Vlachs ''(Olati)'' in the king's diploma.
Farcaș ''(Farkas)'' is a typical
Hungarian name meaning ‘
wolf
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, includin ...
’.
The Romanian historian
Ioan-Aurel Pop
Ioan-Aurel Pop (born 1 January 1955) is a Romanian historian. Pop was appointed Professor of History at Babeș-Bolyai University in 1996. He has since been Chairman of the Department of Medieval History and the History of Premodern Art at Babe� ...
suggests that his name is mentioned in Hungarian translation in the diploma, and Farcaș's ''kenazate'' was one of the incipient Romanian states south of the
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...
.
According to the Hungarian historian István Vásáry, Farcaș was either Hungarian or Romanian with Hungarian name, but the latter supposition is less probable, since ''Lupu'', the Romanian equivalent of Hungarian ''Farkas'', was used by the Romanians.
László Makkai proposes that the name of
Vâlcea County
Vâlcea County (also spelt ''Vîlcea''; ) is a county (județ) that lies in south-central Romania. Located in the Historical regions of Romania, historical regions of Oltenia and Muntenia (which are separated by the Olt (river), Olt River), it i ...
could indicate the land of Farcaș (
Slavic ''vlk'' (‘wolf’) > Vâlcea).
See also
*
Founding of Wallachia
The founding of Wallachia (), that is the establishment of the first independent Romanian principality, was achieved at the beginning of the 14th century, through the unification of smaller political units that had existed between the Carpathian ...
*
List of princes of Wallachia
This is a list of princes of Wallachia, from the first mention of a medieval polity situated between the Southern Carpathians and the Danube until the union with Moldavia in 1859, which unification of Moldavia and Wallachia, led to the creation of ...
References
Sources
*
Georgescu, Vlad ''(Author)'' – Calinescu, Matei ''(Editor)'' – Bley-Vroman, Alexandra ''(Translator)'': ''The Romanians – A History'';
Ohio State University Press, 1991, Columbus;
*Klepper, Nicolae: ''Romania: An Illustrated History''; Hippocrene Books, 2005, New York;
*Makkai, László: ''From the Hungarian conquest to the Mongol invasion''; ''in:'' Köpeczi, Béla ''(General Editor)'' – Makkai, László; Mócsy, András; Szász, Zoltán ''(Editors)'' – Barta, Gábor ''(Assistant Editor)'': ''History of Transylvania - Volume I: From the beginnings to 1606'';
Akadémiai Kiadó
Akadémiai Kiadó (, ) is the publishing house of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It is one of Hungary's most important publishers of scientific books and journals. Its majority-owner is the Amsterdam-based publishing conglomerate Wolters Klu ...
, 1994, Budapest;
*
Pop, Ioan-Aurel: ''Romanians and Romania: A Brief History''; Columbia University Press, 1999, New York;
*Rady, Martyn: ''Nobility, Land and Service in Medieval Hungary''; Palgrave (in association with School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London), 2000, New York;
*Spinei, Victor: ''The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth Century''; Brill, 2009, Leiden and Boston;
*Vásáry, István: ''Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185-1365'';
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
, 2005, Cambridge;
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farcas
13th-century Hungarian nobility
History of Oltenia