Knez (Vlach leader)
A knez or kenez (Hungarian: kenéz; Latin: kenezius; Romanian: cnez/chinez) was the hereditary leader of the Vlach (Romanian) communities, primarily in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary.
Terminology
Official documents, written in Latin, applied multiple terms when they mentioned the Vlach leaders (or chiefs) in the Kingdom of Hungary in the 13th and 14th centuries.[1] The most widely used terms – kenezius and its variants – derived from the Slavic knyaz ("ruler").[2][3][4] The office was closely associated with communities living according to the "Vlach law", thus the term knez was replaced by the term scultetus in the northeastern regions, where German law prevailed.[5] A territory subjected to the authority of a knez was known as keneziatus (or keneziate).[6] Several keneziates formed a voivodate, which was subjected to a higher official, the voivode.[3]
References
- ^ Pop 2013, pp. 165–166.
- ^ Pop 2013, p. 165.
- ^ a b Makkai 1994, p. 196.
- ^ "cnez". Dicţionar explicativ al limbii române pe internet. dex-online.ro. 2004–2008. Retrieved 2018-03-11.
- ^ Rábik 2007, p. 36.
- ^ Makkai 1994, pp. 196–197.
Sources
- Makkai, László (1994). "The Emergence of the Estates (1172–1526)". In Köpeczi, Béla; Barta, Gábor; Bóna, István; Makkai, László; Szász, Zoltán; Borus, Judit (eds.). History of Transylvania. Akadémiai Kiadó. pp. 178–243. ISBN 963-05-6703-2.
- Pop, Ioan-Aurel (2013). "De manibus Valachorum scismaticorum...": Romanians and Power in the Mediaeval Kingdom of Hungary: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. Peter Lang Edition. ISBN 978-3-631-64866-7.
- Rábik, Vladimír (2007). "The Ruthenian and Wallachian population of Eastern Slovakia in the Middle Ages" (PDF). Historický Časopis. 55 (Supplement): 35–62. ISSN 0018-2575.
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