page_title: George Baksa
section_title: Lord of Sóvár
hierarchical_section_title: George Baksa / Lord of Sóvár
caption_attribution_description: Štátna prírodná rezervácia Zbojnícky zámok nad obcou Ruská Nová Ves, okres Prešov, región Šariš.
context_page_description: George from the kindred Baksa was a Hungarian lord and a distinguished military leader in the second half of the 13th century. He was a key supporter of Ladislaus IV of Hungary and participated in various military campaigns during his reign. He successfully fought against the Mongols in Hungary and Poland. After granting large-scale domains in Upper Hungary, he was also known as George of Sóvár or George the Salty and became eponymous progenitor of the Sós de Sóvár noble family.
context_section_description: Two royal charters, both dated to 8 January 1285, which preserved the first land donations to George Baksa, proved to be non-authentic after the philological research of historians Iván Borsa and György Györffy. Both were forged by George's descendants in the early 14th century. However, Györffy considered there was lost original donation letter, which served as basis for later falsifications. The first letter is acceptable in terms of content, only its anachronistic style and terminology reveal the fact of counterfeiting: Accordingly, on 8 January 1285, Ladislaus IV issued a letter of donation to his faithful and ardent partisan George Baksa, who was granted the royal lands of Sóvár (today Solivar, a borough of Prešov in Slovakia) with its salt well, Sópatak and Delne in Sáros County. Contrary to this, the second letter contains another two donated villages: the unidentified Chedezdeth and Zarbuith, in addition to the right of building a castle.
  In the autumn of 1288, Ladislaus IV confirmed his former land donation with the aforementioned privilege. Following that, George Baksa (or George of Sóvár, thereafter) separated his wealth from the other members of his kinship. He handed over his inherited wealth to his brothers, but, in exchange, he obliged them not to claim for his newly acquired properties. The Sós family was spectacularly omitted from later contracts within the Baksa kindred. Sóvár became the seat of George's surrounding landholdings, and his descendants adopted their family name after the local castle, which was built by George Baksa between 1288 and 1298. Andrew III confirmed the land donation in 1291. George donated to his nephew, Sinka Sebesi, a portion of Sóvár lordship, 100 marks from the annual income of the above-mentioned salt well and half cubic salt on Saturdays in 1299. In August 1314, George's son John confirmed his father's donation to Sinka, but he has earmarked the annual income of the salt in a lower amount (30 marks).
  The 1288 donation letter omitted the donation of Delna and the exact determination of the borders of the newly acquired lands. It contains only Sóvár and Sópatak with its accessories and the forest stretching to the river Tapoly (Topľa), "with their old borders, which were settled already during the reign of Béla IV". George successfully requested Andrew III to confirm his ownership over Delna in 1291. However the original 1285 donation contained the exact borders, which has become important by the early 14th century, during the national review of donations in the royal court.
caption: The ruins of Sóvár (Soliwar) near present-day Ruská Nová Ves in Slovakia
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