Banate of Macsó

The Banate of Macsó or the Banate of Mačva (Hungarian: macsói bánság, Serbian: Мачванска бановина / Mačvanska banovina) was an administrative division (banate) of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, that existed between the 13th and 15th centuries, and was located in the present-day region of Mačva, in modern Serbia.

Name

In Serbo-Croatian: Mačvanska banovina (Serbian Cyrillic: Мачванска бановина), Latin: Banatus Machoviensis, Hungarian: Macsói bánság. The banate was named after a town called Macsó (Mačva or Macho), but the location of this settlement has not been clearly established in modern times. It is suspected that the town existed a few kilometers down the river Sava from modern Šabac.[citation needed]

History

The region of Mačva or Macsó came under Hungarian administration shortly after the death of Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus (1180), but it was returned to emperor Isaac II Angelos upon conclusion of Byzantine-Hungarian alliance (1185). It was retaken by Hungarians (c. 1200) and later administered as part of the feudal domain of duke John Angelos of Syrmia. During that time, the region of Mačva was also known as the Lower Syrmia (lat. Sirmia ulterior).

Further Hungarian expansion in the Balkans was interrupted by the Tatar invasion in 1241-1241. The Balkan regions only became the focus of Hungarian foreign policy after 1246-1247. Exiled Russian prince Rostislav Mikhailovich became son-in-law of Hungarian king Béla IV, and was appointed as Ban of Slavonia by 1247. From 1254 onward he was also mentioned as the Lord of Macsó (in Latin, Dominus de Macho). One of his sons, Béla of Macsó ruled as duke over Mačva, while the other son, Michael of Bosnia, ruled over Usora and Soli (regions across Drina river in today's northeastern Bosnia). By that time, Macsó became apple of discord between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbia. King Stephen Uroš I of Serbia tried to conquer it in 1268, but was defeated and captured by the Hungarians. Duke Bela ruled over Mačva until death in 1272.

The Banate

In 1272, after the death of Hungarian king Stephen V, the strengthening of the defensive character of southern borders became a priority, and several new frontier districts (banates) were established to the south of rivers Sava and Danube. The first ban of Macsó was appointed in the same year, thus marking the beginning of the Banate of Macsó, that was governed by several powerful bans, appointed by the kings of Hungary.

Already in 1284, the former king Stephen Dragutin of Serbia (1276-1282), who was married to princess Catherine of Hungary, received Belgrade and Macsó from his brother-in-law, king Ladislaus IV of Hungary, and kept those regions until death in 1316.

During the Interregnum after the death of Hungarian king Andrew III (1301), the central power in the Kingdom of Hungary collapsed, Stephen Dragutin ruled over an independent realm centered in Belgrade and Macsó, which also included regions of Usora and Soli in northern Bosnia, as well as Rudnik and Braničevo. His realm was known as the Kingdom of Syrmia (Srem), and Stephen Dragutin ruled it as king until his death in 1316.

Macsó remained in the hands of Dragutin's son Stephen Vladislaus II until 1319. The northern part of the region along the river Sava was captured by King Charles I of Hungary while the southern part remained firmly under Serbian administration.

In the 14th century, the bans of the Garai family (Paul I Garai, Nicholas I Garai and his son Nicholas II Garai) expanded their rule not only to Bosnia but also to Upper Syrmia and the last one also became the ban of Slavonia and Croatia, which were also parts of the Kingdom of Hungary at the time.

In the 1370s it was captured by Serbian Prince Lazar who in 1377–1378 donated several villages in Macsó to his newly founded monastery of Ravanica. Lazars's son despot Stefan Lazarević was officially granted with possession of Macsó by King Sigismund of Hungary in 1403 as a vassal of the Hungarian ruler. The territory got back to Hungary with Lazarević's death (1427). The Hungarian bans of Macsó existed during this period as well but only as titular holders and the title of ban was usually granted to the ispáns (counts) of southern counties of the Kingdom of Hungary.

The territory was conquered by the Ottomans around 1459, after the fall of the Serbian Despotate. The region was regained for the Kingdom of Hungary in 1476, when the fortress of Zaslon (modern Šabac) was taken. By the end of the 15th century, title of ban was transferred to commanders of Belgrade, thus creating the Banate of Belgrade, that existed until final Ottoman conquest of Belgrade and Šabac in 1521.

Administrative divisions

According to the Treaty of Tata in 1426 Macsó was divided into several districts:

• Bitva (Bytthwa),
• Gornja and Donja Obna (Felsewatna and Alsowatna),
• Rađevina (Radio, Ragy),
• Nepričava (Neprichow),
• Ljig (Ligh),
• Kolubara (Collubara),
• Ub (Ubmelek),
• Tamnava (Tamlavamelek),
• Rabas,
• Pepeljevac,
• Debrc,
• Beljin,
• Toplica and
• castle of Bela Stena (castle) near present-day Valjevo.

Population

The population was mostly Serb and Orthodox, seen in a letter of pope Gregory IX dating 1229, where the pope had ordered the Archbishop of Kalocsa to convert the Orthodox Slavs in Lower Syrmia to the Roman rite.

List of bans

See also

• Mačva
• Banate of Barancs

Sources

External links