page_title: Alexander Köcski
section_title: Military career
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Köcski / Military career
caption_attribution_description: This media shows the protected monument with the number 511-12062/1 (other) in the Slovak Republic.Slovenčina: Starhrad
context_page_description: Alexander (II) Köcski was an influential Hungarian nobleman and soldier, who served as Judge royal from 1324 until his death.
  Initially, as a familiaris and possibly distant relative of the powerful Kőszegis, he did not involve in the conflicts of civil war which characterized the Hungarian kingdom in the first two decades of the 14th century. Ultimately, he took an oath of allegiance to Charles I of Hungary in 1316, therefore his lands were plundered and many of his relatives were massacred. Following that Köcski was a dedicated military general of the king in his war against the oligarchs. He belonged to Charles's "new aristocracy", who supported the king's efforts to restore royal power after half a century of feudal anarchy.
context_section_description: Alexander Köcski was first mentioned by contemporary records in 1309. He bought a land in the village of Sár from his maternal relative Marcellus Káldi in 1312, where he already possessed lands. During that time, he was considered a familiaris of the Kőszegi family, who de facto ruled significant parts of Transdanubia, including Vas County, independently from the royal power. Therefore, he did not participate any military campaign during the era of Interregnum, when a civil war between various claimants to the throne—Charles of Anjou, Wenceslaus of Bohemia, and Otto of Bavaria—followed Andrew's death and lasted for seven years from 1301 to 1308.
  When Charles launched a campaign against the Kőszegis in Transdanubia and Slavonia in the first half of 1316, Köcski and his kinship took an oath of allegiance to the king. Andrew Kőszegi, the head of the family responded it with a cruel revenge: he sent his familiaris Solomon the Red with a marauding army to Gerse, where Köcski's brother-in-law Ladislaus Nádasd and his three servants were killed in the local church, which was burnt down too. Ladislaus's brother Denis barricaded himself in the manor along with his wife, Ladislaus' widow (i.e. Köcski's unnamed sister) and six other relatives, including their children. The building was set on fire by the Kőszegi troops, where all but one of Köcski's relatives burned to death. Only his niece, the child Margaret managed to survive the massacre and fled the village with her nanny. In the same time, Köcski's lands and mills were also plundered and destroyed. Köcski left Vas County and joined Charles' royal army as a penniless nobleman, who thereafter could hope the recovery of lost family landholdings only from a successful restoration of the strong royal power.
  When Stefan Uroš II Milutin captured the Hungarian-proxy ruler Vladislav and invaded the Syrmia, Charles I launched a counter-campaign across the river Száva and seized the fortress of Macsó (present-day Mačva, Serbia) in the winter of 1317. Köcski and his servants, the Gencsi family participated in the campaign, where Köcski was seriously injured by falling rocks during the siege. Former historiography put this campaign to the year of 1319, but Pál Engel corrected the date, distinguishing two campaigns in a direction to Syrmia. By 1318, Köcski was made castellan of Pannonhalma (or Szentmárton), following its castle was recovered from the Kőszegis in the previous year. He held the position until 1323. On 3 May 1318, when Köcski was first referred to as castellan, he was granted the lands of Sebes, Takács and Egered in Sopron and Győr counties by Charles I, as a compensation for his earlier heavy losses. 1319 was a turbulent year for Köcski; following the rebellion of Andrew Kőszegi, Alexander Köcski and Nicholas Felsőlendvai led a royal campaign against the Kőszegi dominion in the first half of 1319. Fulfilling his vengeance, Köcski seized the Kőszegis' six fortresses within months; he overcame Andrew Kőszegi's army at Szalafő, also defeating the Austrian auxiliary troops, thereafter besieged and captured the forts of Kőszeg and Kapronca (present-day Koprivnica, Croatia). During the siege of Kőszeg, Köcski was wounded by an arrow. After the fall of Andrew Kőszegi, his relative, the pro-Charles Nicholas II Kőszegi ("The Rooster") was granted the ispánates of Zala and Vas. However, by early 1321, he became disgraced too at the royal court. Alexander Köcski and Lawrence Csornai again led a royal campaign in Transdanubia. At first, they captured Pölöske. Following its fall, the army seized Kabold, Rohonc (present-day Kobersdorf and Rechnitz in Austria, respectively) and Kanizsa (from which Csornai took his new family name). It is plausible that the two generals also occupied the castles of Tátika (located near Zalaszántó) and Szigliget in the same time. Nicholas Kőszegi could retain only Léka (present-day Lockenhaus in Austria).
  Köcski and other castellans, for instance Alexander Ozorai, led a Hungarian auxiliary contingent, which consisted of 2200 Hungarian cavalry and 4000 mounte
caption: The ruins of Starhrad (Óvár), present-day Slovakia. Köcski served as its castellan from 1323 to 1324, after its recovery from Matthew Csák
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D610", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2016:12:18 20:16:47", "Image ExifOffset": "220", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1034", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "12095", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:12:07 15:16:45", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:12:07 15:16:45", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "790241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "240", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "90", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "90", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1980", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1485", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "54886891/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "54886891/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "240", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "6029559", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[70, 300, 4, 28/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "TAMRON SP 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di VC USD A005N"}