page_title: John Csák
section_title: Judge royal and betrayal
hierarchical_section_title: John Csák / Judge royal and betrayal
caption_attribution_description: Ecseg, Hungary, aerialphotography
context_page_description: John from the kindred Csák was a Hungarian baron at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. He served as Master of the horse in the 1290s. Following the extinction of the Árpád dynasty, he initially supported pretender Wenceslaus, but later joined the allegiance of Charles I. He was made Judge royal in 1311, putting end to a more than ten years of vacancy. He betrayed the King and joined his distant relative, the rebellious oligarch Matthew Csák in 1314.
context_section_description: John Csák was mentioned as "designate" (Latin: deputatus) Judge royal on 10 March 1311. His position's austerity indicator was already omitted in the following mention, on 7 May. Historian Pál Engel considered the dignity of Judge royal was vacant during the period of the Interregnum, at least since 1301, when the Kingdom of Hungary had disintegrated into autonomous provinces ruled by powerful oligarchs. Prior to John's appointment, a certain comes Peter was referred as Judge royal, who issued a charter in September 1301 in Buda in this capacity. Historian Iván Bertényi Sr. argues that nobleman served in the court of Wenceslaus. The 18th-century Liber Dignitariorum Saecularium also mentions a certain Stephen as a Judge royal (possibly for Charles I) from 1301 to 1304, who simultaneously held the office of ispán of Sáros County. A vice-Judge royal Thomas also appeared in contemporary documents in the same period, between 1302 and 1305, and styled himself as "king Ladislaus's [i.e. Wenceslaus] Judge royal". According to the often unreliable Liber Dignitariorum Saecularium, Ugrin Csák also served as Judge royal between 1304 and 1311, until his death. Bertényi has accepted this information, referring to some data which reflect Ugrin's jurisdictional role on isolated occasions. However, majority of historians, including John Csák's biographer Ildikó Tóth accept Pál Engel's theory and consider that the position of Judge royal was in a state of vacancy for a decade, until Charles's third coronation was performed in full accordance with customary law in August 1310. Tóth argues that Ugrin Csák performed his judicial role exclusively in his province in Syrmia, thus he did not held the dignity of Judge royal necessarily.
  During his tenure as Judge royal, John Csák resided in Buda and performed his judicial role with countrywide competence. For instance, he judged over the Valkó County nobles' abuse of power case in August 1313, while in other occasions, he instructed the cathedral chapter of Gyulafehérvár (present-day Alba Iulia, Romania) during a land property lawsuit, and the cathedral chapter of Győr during an investigation. Historian Ildikó Tóth emphasizes that many of John's legal cases were originally belonged to the judicial courts of the oligarchic provinces. Following the establishment of the strong royal power, John Csák took over and conducted these lawsuits. He was the first Judge royal, who has placed great emphasis on material evidences during his litigation processes.
  John Csák was last referred to as Judge royal on 12 July 1314. According to a royal charter from the next year, he betrayed Charles I and joined to the allegiance of his distant relative, Matthew Csák, who was the most ardent enemy of the king, and ruled de facto independently the north-western counties of the kingdom. John's motivation is unknown, but the year of 1314 saw a large-scale replacement of the former elite, when Charles decided to struggle the oligarchs' power (Palatine James Borsa was also dismissed during that time) and appointed his supporters to the dignities. As the monarch narrates in 1324, John Csák conspired with the oligarch against him, and tried to hand him over to Matthew Csák. As John's successor Lampert Hermán already appeared as Judge royal in a contemporary record on 29 September 1313, a scholarly debate emerged on the relevance of the aforementioned charter. Pál Engel declared the year of release is invalid and fixed it to 29 September 1314. In contrast, Iván Bertényi argued John Csák and Lampert Hermán simultaneously held the dignity for a time until 1315, similarly to that case, where many oligarchs were styled themselves palatines during the era of feudal anarchy. As this would be a unique solution in the history of the position, both Ildikó Tóth and Gyula Kristó refused Bertényi's theory and supported Engel's idea about the wrong date. Thus John Csák's betrayal happened in the summer of 1314. After his unsuccessful abduction attempt, he fled to the dominion of Matthew Csák, where he died  "miserably" sometime before 132
caption: The ruins of Ecseg Castle, which was owned by John Csák until his high treason
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