The Szécsényi was a noble family of the Kingdom of Hungary

Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

 in the 14-15th centuries. The ancestor of the family, Thomas descended from the gens ("clan") Kacsics

Kacsics (family)

Kacsics was the name of a gens in the Kingdom of Hungary. According to some historians, they might have been a descendants of a Croatian noble family of Kačić, dukes of Omiš. Their possessions were located around Szécsény on the Ipoly River...

. He was one of the most powerful barons of King Charles I of Hungary

Charles I of Hungary

Charles I , also known as Charles Robert , was the first King of Hungary and Croatia of the House of Anjou. He was also descended from the old Hungarian Árpád dynasty. His claim to the throne of Hungary was contested by several pretenders...

 and he hold several dignities during his reign. The family was named after its possession, Szécsény

Szécsény

-History :The valley of the Ipoly and especially the area of that around Szécsény was inhabited even in the prehistoric age. Findings attest that the region was peopled from the Neolithic period. Teutons, Avars, and Slavs appeared here in the first millennium BC....

. The male line of the family ended in 1460.

Notable members of the family

Thomas Szécsényi (cca. 1285-1354), the son of Farkas Szécsényi, joined King Charles I against the powerful Máté Csák in 1301; therefore, his relatives who followed Máté Csák occupied his inherited possessions in Nógrád county

Nógrád (former county)

Nógrád was the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in southern Slovakia and in northern present-day Hungary. The name Novohrad is still used in Slovakia as an informal designation of the corresponding territory...

. He fought at the Battle of Rozgony/Rozhanovce (15 June 1312) when the king's armies defeated the allied troops of Máté Csák and Amade Aba

Amade Aba

Amade Aba, sometimes Amadeus Aba was a Hungarian oligarch in the Kingdom of Hungary who ruled de facto independently the northern and north-eastern counties of the kingdom...

's sons. Shortly afterwards, the king granted Thomas the possession of Hollókő

Hollóko

Hollókő is a Palóc ethnographic village in Hungary, part of the World Heritage. Its name means "Raven-stone" in Hungarian.- Location :The village is located in Nógrád county, approximately 91.1 kilometres northeast from Budapest, the capital of Hungary. It lies in a valley of Cserhát Mountains,...

 that had been confiscated from his relatives. In 1316, he occupied the Visegrád

Visegrád

Visegrád is a small castle town in Pest County, Hungary.Situated north of Budapest on the right bank of the Danube in the Danube Bend, Visegrád has a population 1,654 as of 2001...

 Castle from Máté Csák. He became the head (ispán) of Arad

Arad (Hungarian county)

Arad is a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in western Romania and south-eastern Hungary. The capital of the county was Arad.- Geography :...

, Bács

Bács-Bodrog

Bács-Bodrog County was the administrative county of the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary from 18th century to 1918. Its territory is currently in northern Serbia and southern Hungary. The capital of the county was Zombor .-Name:The county was named after two older counties: Bács and Bodrog...

 and Szerém

Syrmia (former county)

Syrmia County was a historic administrative subdivision of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary. Croatia-Slavonia was an autonomous kingdom within the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen , the Hungarian part of the dual Austro-Hungarian Empire...

 counties (1318) and the Magistrate of the Cumans

Cumans

The Cumans were Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After Mongol invasion , they decided to seek asylum in Hungary, and subsequently to Bulgaria...

 (1319). In 1320, he was appointed to the Master of the Queen's Treasury (királynéi tárnokmester). Around that time, he married one of Queen Elisabeth's relatives, Anna of Oświęcim

Duchy of Oswiecim

The Duchy of Oświęcim , or the Duchy of Auschwitz , was one of many Duchies of Silesia, formed in the aftermath of the fragmentation of Poland....

 as his second wife. Following Máté Csák's death (1321), the king granted him several castles and possessions in Heves

Heves (former county)

Heves was the name an administrative county in the former Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory, which is presently in northern Hungary, was slightly larger than that of present Heves county. The capital of the county was Eger.-Geography:...

, Gömör

Gömör-Kishont

Gömör-Kishont is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its capital was Rimaszombat...

 and Nógrád counties; thus, he received Ajnácskő

Hajnácka

Hajnáčka is a village and municipality in the Rimavská Sobota District of the Banská Bystrica Region of southern Slovakia.-History:...

 (today Hajnáčka in Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

) , Baglyaskő, Bene, Somoskő (today Šomoška in Slovakia) and Sztrahora Castles. In the same year, he became the Voivode of Transylvania. He suppressed the rebellion of the Transylvanian Saxons

Transylvanian Saxons

The Transylvanian Saxons are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania from the 12th century onwards.The colonization of Transylvania by Germans was begun by King Géza II of Hungary . For decades, the main task of the German settlers was to defend the southeastern border of the...

 (1324) and the king granted him Salgó Castle (today Sibiel in Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

). In 1342, he was appointed to the office of Master of the King's Treasury (tárnokmester) and in 1349, he became the High Justiciar of the Kingdom (országbíró).

Sources

• Markó, László: A magyar állam főméltóságai Szent Istvántól napjainkig - Életrajzi Lexikon (The High Officers of the Hungarian State from Saint Stephen to the Present Days - A Biographical Encyclopedia); Magyar Könyvklub, 2000, Budapest; ISBN 963 547 085 1.
• Engel, Pál: Magyarország világi archontológiája (1301–1457) (The Temporal Archontology of Hungary (1301-1457)); História - MTA Történettudományi Intézete, 1996, Budapest; ISBN 963 8312 43 2.