The Banate of Severin or Banate of Szörény was a Hungarian political, military and administrative unit with a special role in initially anti-Bulgarian, latterly anti-Ottoman defensive system of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. It was founded by Prince Béla in 1228.
Territory
The Banate of Severin was a march of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary between the Lower Danube and the Olt River. A charter of grant, issued on 2 June 1247 for the Knights Hospitallers, mentioned the Olt as its eastern border. The Knights received the "Land of Severin" , along with the nearby mountains, from Béla IV of Hungary. The king had described the same region as a "deserted and depopulated" land in a letter to Pope Gregory IX on 7 June 1238. Modern scholars assume that either the Hungarian conquest of the territory or confrontations between Bulgaria and Hungary had forced the local population to flee. Historian László Makkai says, the population obviously began to increase by the end of the 1230s, because Béla requested the pope to appoint a bishop to Severin. The 1247 charter of grant also mentioned that "Cumania" bordered the Land of Severin from the east. The same diploma listed two Vlach political units—the kenezatus of John and Farcaș—which were subjected to the Hospitallers on this occasion. A third kenezatus, which was ruled by VoivodeLitovoi, was not included in the grant, but it was left to the Vlachs "as they had held it". However, Béla gave the Hospitallers the half of the royal revenues collected in Litovoi's land, with the exception of the revenues from the "Land of Hátszeg". Alexandru Madgearu says, the diploma shows that Litovoi's kenezatus bordered the Land of Severin to the north, thus the banate must have only included southern Oltenia in the middle of the 13th century. The kenezatus of VoivodeSeneslau, which was located to the east of the Olt, was fully excluded from the grant. The bans initially had their seat at the fortress of Szörény. After Szörény was lost in the late 13th century, the fort of Miháld was the center of the province. In addition to Miháld, the banate included Orsova and the Romanian districts along the upper course of the Temes river.
History
occupied the region between the riversCerna and the Olt around 1199. The Kingdom of Hungary was also expanding over the Carpathian Mountains in the early 13th century, which gave rise to conflicts between the two countries. The Cuman tribes dwelling to the east of the Olt as far as the riverSiret agreed to pay a yearly tribute to the kings of Hungary in early 1227. The Hungarians captured the Bulgarian fortress of Severin during a military campaign against Bulgaria in 1231. After the 1526 Battle of Mohács, the Banate of Severin was divided. South-eastern part came under the jurisdiction of Wallachian princes and in the north-western part was gradually reorganized into the Banate of Lugos and Karánsebes.
