Joachim from the kindred Gutkeled (, ; died in April 1277) was an influential Hungarian lord in the second half of the 13th century. As a key figure of the struggles for power between the powerful barons in the 1270s, he kidnapped Ladislaus, the son of and heir to Stephen V of Hungary in June 1272, which was an unprecedented case in Hungarian history during that time and marked the beginning of half a century of turbulent period, called "feudal anarchy". Joachim was one of the first provincial lords, who sought to establish an oligarchic domain independently of the royal power. He was killed in a skirmish against the Babonići.
He was Ban of Slavonia between 1270 and 1272 (with short interruption) and from 1276 to 1277, and three times Master of the treasury between 1272 and 1275. He was also ispán, or head, of many counties, including Baranya and Pozsony.
Early life Joachim was born around 1240 into the Majád branch of the gens (clan) Gutkeled, a widely extended clan of German origin, which came from the Duchy of Swabia to the Kingdom of Hungary during the reign of Peter in the mid-11th century, according to Simon of Kéza's Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum. He was the second son of Stephen I Gutkeled, who was a faithful partisan and powerful baron of Béla IV of Hungary until his death in 1260. Joachim had an elder and two younger brothers.Engel: Genealógia (Genus Gutkeled 5. Sárvármonostor branch) Nicholas II served as Judge royal from 1273 to 1274, then Ban of Slavonia twice. Joachim's younger brothers, Stephen II and Paul were still minors in 1263. They were also elevated into high dignities in the 1270s.
His father, Stephen I governed the Duchy of Styria on behalf of claimants Duke Béla and Duke Stephen from 1254 to 1260, his death. It is plausible that the young Joachim did military service and made personal acquaintance with Duke Stephen there, who was the same age as him. After the defeat at Battle of Kressenbrunn in 1260, when Béla was forced to renounce Styria in favor of Ottokar II of Bohemia, tensions emerged in the relationship between Béla IV and his son, Duke Stephen. On the eve of their conflict, which caused a civil war lasting until 1266, Nicholas and Joachim were considered supporters of the monarch. Joachim served as cup-bearer in the ducal court of the child Béla, Duke of Slavonia, King Béla's favored son in 1263. In that year, Nicholas and Joachim donated the estate Szemefölde in Varaždin County to their servants, Ladislaus and Charles from the Básztély clan. According to historians László Zolnay and Jenő Szűcs, the Gutkeled brothers left Béla's allegiance and joined the partisans of Duke Stephen in early 1264, not long before the outbreak of the civil war. As a result, Joachim was granted the lordships of Hátszeg, Miháld and Jeszenő (present-day Hațeg, Mehadia in Romania and Jasenov in Slovakia, respectively), which all laid in the eastern parts of the Kingdom of Hungary, governed by Duke Stephen after the division of the realm in 1262. In contrast, historian Attila Zsoldos doubts his colleagues' theory, considering there is no clear evidence of that, as Joachim had no prominent – if any – role in the subsequent civil war due to his relatively young age, and may have received the large estates later, after Stephen's ascension to the Hungarian throne in 1270. Sometimes before his accession to the Hungarian throne, Duke Stephen donated Pelbárthida (or Vadaszt, today Parhida, Romania) and another unidentified estate to Joachim. In addition, a remark during an exchange of property between Roland Rátót and the Babonići in Slavonia (Deronicha, Boyna and Stoymerich) from August 1266 implies that Joachim indeed joined the partisans of Stephen, while his brother Nicholas remained loyal to Béla IV (that is why the latter did not gain a government role after 1270). During that time, Joachim's lands were mostly located in the eastern part of the kingdom, which may have motivated him to change parties sometime between 1263 and 1266.
Joachim married Ruthenian princess Maria Romanovna in the second half of the 1260s, most plausibly in 1269 or 1270. She was the daughter of Roman Danylovich, Prince of Navahrudak and Gertrude von Babenberg (the general heiress of her family), who were married with King Béla's mediation in 1250, after he met and concluded a peace treaty with Roman's father, Daniel Romanovich, the prince of Galicia. With this marriage, Joachim Gutkeled became a relative of three royal dynasties – the Árpáds, the Babenbergs, which were extinct on the male branch by then, and the Rurikids. The marriage of Joachim and Maria resulted that Gertrude was expelled from Styria by her rival Ottokar II. The couple produced only a daughter, leaving Joachim without male descendants. Their daughter, Clara married Roland Borsa, who served as Voivode of Transylvania in 1282 and from 1284 to 1294. Her daughters' quarter was paid by Paul Gutkeled's sons in 1322. She was still alive in 1337.
Under Stephen's reign Béla IV died on 3 May 1270. Stephen arrived to Buda within days and nominated his own partisans to the highest offices. On this occasion, Joachim Gutkeled was made Ban of Slavonia, replacing the late Béla's prominent partisan, Henry Kőszegi. His highly prestigious marriage may have contributed to this rapid rise. The coronation of Stephen V caused a brief constitutional crisis in Hungary, some of the senior king's supporters had left the kingdom and gone into exile to Bohemia, where Ottokar placed them under his protection. It seemed that Joachim was a faithful and reliable supporter of the new monarch. He participated in the royal campaign, when Stephen V launched a plundering raid into Austria (Ottokar's realm) around 21 December 1270. He also fought on the king's side in the spring of 1271, when Ottokar invaded the lands north of the Danube and captured a number of fortresses in Upper Hungary. Joachim resided in the royal camp along the lowland river Dudvág (or Dudváh) in mid-June, then at Pressburg (present-day Bratislava in Slovakia) after Stephen's victory over his enemy. He was a signatory of the two king's agreement in Pressburg on 2 July.
Joachim took advantage of his dignity of Ban of Slavonia and his local inherited estates from his father to establish a private territorial domain between the rivers Drava and Sava, in the southwestern part of the kingdom. He acquired or built several castles and their surrounding lordships in the region, for instance Bršljanica (Berstyanóc) and Koprivnica (Kapronca) in Križevci County, and Steničnjak (Sztenicsnyák) in Zagreb County. The fort Koprivnica functioned as the seat of Joachim's domain in Križevci County. His distant relative, Hodos Gutkeled administered Zagreb County on behalf of Joachim. Jenő Szűcs emphasized, the neighboring Somogy and Bács counties were also governed by Joachim's brothers Nicholas and Paul, respectively, in the same period, which expanded Joachim's influence over the region – albeit, Zsoldos does not share this view in his archontology. During his tenure as ban, Joachim began to establish an oligarchic domain – a coherent area of his landholdings – in the territory of Križevci and Zagreb counties (northwestern and eastern parts, respectively) based on his father's acquisitions. In addition, he increased the number of his possessions surrounding the ancient clan estates in Tiszántúl (in Szabolcs, Szatmár, Borsod, Bihar and Zemplén counties). Joachim also established a personal network of his familiares in his Slavonian lordship. In addition to some his relatives from the Gutkeled clan (Hodos, Cosmas), lesser nobles from the region (Bachaler Olaszkai, the Básztélys, Juris de Busan) belonged to his court which he held in his palace in Zagreb.
Feudal anarchy Abduction of the heir apparent Stephen V and his large companion, including his heir, the 10-year-old Ladislaus and the barons of the royal council, routed to Croatia in the late spring of 1272 to meet his ally and the father-in-law of his son, Charles I of Sicily. The royal march stayed in Zagreb on 26 May, then Topusko on 8 June. They had arrived Bihać (Bihács, present-day in Bosnia and Herzegovina) by 23 June. Two days later, Stephen still issued a royal charter, which reflected that everything went according to plan. However, over the next few days, both Joachim Gutkeled and prince Ladislaus had disappeared from the royal camp. Soon, it was revealed that Joachim abducted Ladislaus and held him in captivity in the fortress of Koprivnica in Slavonia. The young prince was guarded by Bachaler Olaszkai, Joachim's familiaris and castellan of Koprivnica. Stephen V immediately gathered an army and besieged the fort, but could not capture it, because the surrounding lands belonged to the heartland of Joachim's growing domain. Stephen returned to Hungary by mid-July in order to recruit a larger army to liberate his son. He dismissed Joachim Gutkeled as Ban of Slavonia and replaced him with his faithful partisan, Mojs. Simultaneously, Joachim's brothers had also become disgraced in the royal council. However, Stephen fell seriously ill by then, probably exacerbated by the humiliation and mental collapse triggered by Joachim's treason. The king was taken to the Csepel Island, where he died on 6 August 1272.
Due to lack of resources and inconsistency of partial information, Joachim's motivation and political goals remained unclear. Historian Tamás Kádár considers personal reasons, perhaps Joachim was afraid of marginalization or was dissatisfied with the office he held. Historian Pál Engel suggests that Joachim Gutkeled planned to force Stephen V to divide Hungary with Ladislaus. Zsoldos argues Joachim played an active role in a widespread conspiracy. Since the late 19th century, several historians considered – including Bálint Hóman and Gyula Kristó – that Ladislaus was abducted and imprisoned with the knowledge and consent of his mother, Queen Elizabeth the Cuman, who wanted to increase real government power alongside her husband, King Stephen V. In this relationship, Joachim was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth. Their goal was to divide the royal power through the affected Ladislaus, and ultimately to exert their influence in the royal council. 20th-century works of fiction hypothesized an adulterous relationship between Queen Elizabeth and Joachim, but no contemporary or later source has stated this. Jenő Szűcs argues that Joachim related to three royal dynasties through his marriage, thus he considered himself a personality, who rightly dictates in the upper sphere of politics.
Joachim's plot put an end to a political era in medieval Hungary, which was still governed by "the instrument of truth and successful results" until the reign of Stephen V. The abduction of Ladislaus, an unprecedented case in Hungarian history prior to that, and the subsequent events marked the beginning of a new half a century period, called "feudal anarchy", which lasted until 1323, and characterized by the weakening of royal power, anarchic conditions in the governance and civil wars and feuds between various rivaling baronial groups, who struggled for supreme power. The feudal anarchy also led to the emergence of so-called "oligarchs", who established independent territorial provinces in various parts of the kingdom, administering their domains independently of the king. Joachim Gutkeled was one of their first representatives. Jurist Balázs László called the abduction as an "act of terrorism". According to historian Gyula Kristó, Joachim had introduced "political brigandage" in Hungary with his act.
Struggle for power