page_title: Upper nobility (Kingdom of Hungary)
section_title: The tribal aristocracy (9th–11th centuries)
hierarchical_section_title: Upper nobility (Kingdom of Hungary) / The tribal aristocracy (9th–11th centuries)
caption_attribution_description: English: Lehel's horn, Jászberény, Hungary. Magyar: Lehel kürtje, Jászberény Polski: Róg Lehela, Jászberény
context_page_description: The upper nobility was the highest stratum of the temporal society in the Kingdom of Hungary until 1946 when the Parliament passed an act that prohibited the use of noble titles, following the declaration of the Republic of Hungary.
context_section_description: In the 9th century, the tribal federation of the nomadic Magyars (Hetumoger) was composed of seven (and later, after the Kabars had joined to it, of eight) tribes (Hungarian: törzs, Greek: phyle). The tribes were divided into 35-50 clans (Hungarian: nemzetség, Greek: genea). The Magyar clans must have been organized based on the real or fictitious kinship of their members; each of them had its own name (that may have been changing from time to time) and the clans possessed separate territories within the lands occupied by the tribe they were linked to. In the 9th-10th centuries, the kende, the gyula and the horka were the leaders of the Magyar tribal federation, while the tribes were headed by their own princes and each clan must have also had its own head.
  The Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos recorded that
  These eight clans /the eight tribes/ of the Turks /the Magyars/ do not obey their own particular princes, but have a joint agreement to fight together with all earnestness and zeal upon the rivers, wheresoever war breaks out.
  — On Administering the Empire
  Around 896, the Magyars invaded the Carpathian Basin and by 902, they occupied its whole territory. The Magyars made several raids to the territories of present-day Italy, Germany, France and Spain and also to the lands of the Byzantine Empire. The regular raids contributed to the differentiation of the tribal society because the leaders of the military actions were entitled to reserve a higher share of the booty for themselves. The military actions also contributed to the formation of the retinues of the heads of the tribes and the clans. The Magyars were obliged to stop their regular military actions westwards following their defeat at the Battle of Augsburg on the Lech River in 955; and in 970, the raids against the Byzantine Empire also finished.
  When the period of the military raids closed, the organization of the future Kingdom of Hungary commenced during the reign of Grand Prince Géza (before 972-997) who united the western parts of the Carpathian Basin under his rule. The establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary is connected to King Saint Stephen (1000/1001-1038); he defeated the (semi-)independent Magyar tribal leaders who endeavoured to resist his rule and thus he managed to expand his authority over the whole territory of the Carpathian Basin by the 1030s. King Stephen I organized several "counties" that became the basic units of the royal administration. Some scholars claim that King Stephen I organized the "counties" on the basis of the territories possessed by the clans, but other authors pointed out that the relationship between the "counties" and the Magyar clans cannot be proven.
  King Saint Stephen's acts ensured the private ownership of landed property; therefore, several families of the tribal aristocracy (i.e., the families of the heads of the tribes and clans) acquired the ownership of parts of the lands their clans had previously possessed. Consequently, several families of the future upper nobility descended from the tribal leaders who had surrendered to King Stephen I (e.g., the Aba and Csák families), and even the descendants of some rebellious tribal leaders (e.g., the kindred of Ajtony) could reserve a part of their ancestor's estates.
  Although King Stephen I made a concerted effort to strengthen the position of Christianity in his kingdom and he adopted severe measures against the followers of pagan customs, but several Magyar tribal leaders (including the king's nephew Levente, who died as a pagan around 1046) did not give up their former lifestyle.
  Vata, from the castle of Selus, was the first among the Hungarians who devoted himself to the Devil: following pagan costums, he shaved off his head and he wore his hair in three braids. Afterwards, much later, his son, called John, gathered plenty of magicians, witches and fortune-tellers following his father's example, and because of their incantation, he became favoured by the lords.
  — Chronicon Pictum
  On the other hand, the Christian missionaries' efforts were not in vain,
caption: The "Horn of Lehel" - a horn traditionally connected to one of the leaders of the raids
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