Prefection
Prefection, also promotion of a daughter to a son (; ), was a royal prerogative in the Kingdom of Hungary, whereby the sovereign granted the status of a son to a nobleman's daughter, authorizing her to inherit her father's landed property and transmitting noble status to her children even if she married a commoner. Such a daughter was called a "praefecta" in Latin. History. The first prefection occurred in 1332, when King Charles Robert granted this status to Margit Gersei. The Gersei family sided with the king during the early, tumultuous years of his reign, when he had to  defeat the local oligarchs to consolidate his rule. The family was murdered by the Kőszegi oligarch family in 1316, with the exception of Margit, who was saved by her nurse and was later married to Pál Magyar, a supporter of the king. Louis the Great, the son of Charles Robert, continued to grant this status to noble daughters who were married to his loyal supporters, thereby redistributing the lands of the old aristocracy among the families on whose support he could count. Overall about 100 cases of prefection were recorded until 1526 (when most of Hungary fell to the Ottoman  Empire and central rule became destabilized). Famous examples of "praefecta"s are: In literature, prefection plays a role in the second part of János Arany's famous "Toldi trilogy" − both Toldi's beloved, Piroska Rozgonyi, and his niece, Anikó are granted "praefecta" status by Louis the Great.