page_title: Theodore Vejtehi
section_title: Lord of Severin
hierarchical_section_title: Theodore Vejtehi / Lord of Severin
caption_attribution_description: Hungary in the late 1200s (including Kingdom of Croatia in personal union with Hungary)
context_page_description: Theodore Vejtehi, also Theodore Csanád, was an influential lord in the Kingdom of Hungary at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, who ruled the Banate of Severin de facto independently of the central royal power.
context_section_description: Theodore preceded Basarab I of Wallachia as lord of Severin as Basarab was first mentioned by one of the royal charters of Charles I of Hungary only on 26 July 1324. However, very little is known about Theodore's reign. During the period of feudal anarchy, when the kingdom was in a state of constant anarchy since the rule of Ladislaus IV, Theodore autonomously governed the territory of the Banate of Severin, between the Lower Danube and the Southern Carpathians by usurping  royal prerogatives in his dominion. Thus historian Gyula Kristó considered him as one of the so-called "oligarchs" or "provincial lords". Before the death of Andrew III of Hungary and extinction of the Árpád dynasty, the last known person, who held the title Ban of Severin, was a certain Lawrence, son of Voivode Lawrence in 1291, after that, as Pál Engel says, the dignity vanished by the end of the 13th century and only restored by Charles I with the appointment of Denis Szécsi from the gens Balog in 1335. However Szécsi was already appointed castellan of Zsidóvár and Miháld (today Jidoara and Mehadia in Romania) in 1322 which presumably was the antecedent position of the restored dignity. Thus there is no proof that Theodore had ever held the office of Ban of Severin, although some charters referred to him with the "ban" prefix.
  When Charles I signed an alliance with his cousin Rudolph III of Austria in Pressburg (today Bratislava, Slovakia) on 24 August 1304, Theodore was among the barons and prelates, who did the same thing in a royal charter, this source confirms that the Vejtehi family had supported Charles during the struggle for the Hungarian throne. Theodore, as most of the provincial lords, only guaranteed Charles with his support just then, when the Anjou prince finally took the upper hand over his rivals.
  The Vejtehi family, Theodore and his sons, governed their province from Miháld Castle (today in ruins near Mehadia) which presumably was built by themselves. There are no other known castles owned by Theodore, but György Györffy argued that they also had to possess the nearby fortress of Severin. Theodore gradually built up foreign relations with the Despotate of Vidin, which supported him in the struggle against King Charles I, who was determined to unite the kingdom following his victory over the rival pretenders, Wenceslaus and Otto. Following the Battle of Rozgony in 1312, Charles defeated the oligarchs one by one. The Vejtehis rebelled against the King in 1316 alongside the Borsa, Ákos and Kán kinreds in Tiszántúl and Transylvania.
caption: Banate of Severin, late 13th century
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