20/08/2024
I thought it would be a good idea to add a few more details to my previous article about the origin of the 🇭🇺 Hungarian Székely people in Transylvania as well.
Their importance can be traced back to the Árpád period, when they were mentioned in many places in the Kingdom of Hungary, or referred to in old place names.
Their peculiar traditions and their customary system, which could be called archaic even in the Middle Ages, are very different from those of any other ethnic group in Hungary. They marched under their own banner, with leaders of their own choice, in the king’s campaigns.
They had their own military administration, with lieutenants/leaders (later captains) at the head of the Seats (districts), over whom only the Székely Comes and the Transylvanian Voivode, appointed by the King, could command.
The lieutenants (in fact, military leaders, not petty officers), their judges and jurors were chosen from among themselves, and this office rotated annually between the various clans and their so-called branches, based on various blood ties. The right to call to arms, i.e. the right to carry the bloody sword, was also granted to the lieutenants.
In their village communities, land was drawn by lot among themselves and then rotated annually to ensure that no one was disadvantaged in farming. These plots of land, called arrow fields, were held together alternately in times of peace and war. In the border areas (Csíkszék, Gyergyószék, Háromszék) they served as border guards, scouts and spies.
The Saxon towns were eager to employ them as mercenaries, as shown by the mention in the account books of Szeben (Sibiu), where the Székely archers guarding the town walls were also used to fight robbers hiding in the mountains.
During the reign of the Árpád dynasty, the Székelyszáz, a military unit called the Székelys Hundred, were mentioned in the Bihar region, and they were preserved for us in the records of the Várad Regestrum of 1217.
Their village communities, organized in units of ten soldiers in the Székely seats, also followed this system of organization. They took part in several notable battles in defense of their homeland, and their units formed a wing of the Transylvanian army.
Four theories about their possible origin have been considered in recent research. The first one is that the Székelys were Hungarians from the beginning, who received their privileges in return for military service to the Hungarian king.
Thus, their separate name did not come from the fact that they were treated as a different people, but as a people engaged in a separate occupation.
The second idea is that the Székelys are actually descendants of the Huns who arrived in the Carpathian Basin five centuries before the conquest, around 400 AD. This concept was first mentioned by Anonymus in his Gesta and was adopted by most of the Székely people themselves.
The third view is that the Székelys were originally another people who joined the Hungarians as Turkic auxiliaries before the conquest. Later they became the vanguard and rearguard of the venturing Hungarians on the European battlefields.
Finally, the fourth idea is linked to the double conquest theory of László Gyula, who identifies them with a group of people who first arrived in the Carpathian Basin around 670 A.D., using griffin-flower motifs, and who are still unknown today.
However, a closer and more thorough examination of the four theories reveals factors that unfortunately call into question the historical accuracy of each of them.
You can read more about the Székelys on my page:
https://www.hungarianottomanwars.com/essays/who-were-the-szekelys/
Picture: Székely soldiers in the 16th-17th century ( by Somogyi Győző)
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