Héder (also Heydrich or Hedrich) was the name of a gens (Latin for "clan"; nemzetség in Hungarian) in the Kingdom of Hungary, several prominent secular dignitaries came from this kindred. The ancestors of the kindred were two German knights from the Duchy of Swabia, brothers Wolfer and Héder. They were granted large-scale domains in Western Hungary. The powerful and influential Hédervári and Kőszegi noble families descended from them.
Origin
According to the Illuminated Chronicle, Wolfer and Héder belonged to the Counts of Hainburg. Mark of Kalt's work incorrectly – accidentally or intentionally – refers to Grand Prince Géza (c. 972–997), father of Saint Stephen, the first King of Hungary, in fact, Wolfer and Héder arrived to Hungary during the first regnal years of the minor Géza II of Hungary (definitely before 1146). The brothers' place of origin is in dispute. Simon of Kéza's Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum writes that Wolfer and Héder came from "Vildonia" with forty armored soldiers, referring to Burgruine Wildon in Styria, however the castle itself was built only after 1157 thus that identification is incorrect. Johannes de Thurocz says in his work Chronica Hungarorum that the two knights originated from Hainburg of "Alemannia", therefore the Duchy of Swabia. Presumably Mark of Kalt's version is closer to the truth, as there was a certain knight Wolfger von Erlach in the first half of the 12th century in Hainburg.
Due to the similarity between forenames within the family, the coat of arms and their frequent church dedications to St. James the Great, the Slovak historian Mária Feješová considers that the Héders presumably originated from the historical region of Picardy in the northwestern part of the Kingdom of France and perhaps they were related to the local Clacy medieval noble family. According to Feješová, knights Wolfer and Héder came to Hungary and permanently settled during the Second Crusade in 1147.
In 1157, Gervasius, Bishop of Győr contributed and permitted the foundation of the Benedictine Abbey of Küszén (later Németújvár, present-day Burg Güssing in Austria), to comes Wolfer, who donated several surrounding lands to the monastery. Gervasius subordinated the monastery to the Pannonhalma Abbey and dedicated the new monastery to Virgin Mary. Both Wolfer and Héder were considered strong confidants of Géza II. Héder was the ancestor of the prestigious Hédervári family, while the infamous Kőszegi family originated from Wolfer. As later the Héder genus was named after Héder and not after his elder brother, historian János Karácsonyi argued that Héder "was more talented than Wolfer or lived a very long time [after his brother's death]". Wolfer was buried in the Küszén Abbey.
Based on Alexander Köcski's seal, the Köcski family was presumably also related to the local powerful Kőszegi family and thus was a scion of the gens Héder too, at least from maternal side. Historian Pál Engel, however, considered that Alexander Köcski individually adopted his seal following his decisive victory over his ardent enemies, the Kőszegis, as a prominent general in Charles I of Hungary's unification war against the oligarchic domains.Engel: Genealógia (Köcski)
Members and their landholdings Wolfer's branch The brothers were granted their coherent and extensive possession from a crown land after the cessation of the "gyepű" border system. Accordingly, the Héders' first lands were part of the so-called "gyepűelve", a mostly uninhabited or sparsely inhabited area beyond the Austrian border, comparable to the modern buffer zones. The clan's lands concentrated mainly in the catchment area of the rivers Rába (Raab) and Lapincs (Lafnitz) in the southwestern part of Vas County at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. Most of the lands laid in the valley of stream Strém (or Strem) and centered around the hill of Küszén. According to historian Géza Érszegi, the Héders owned the whole territory between the streams Strém (and thus the parallel Királyút, lit. "King's Road") and Medves, i.e. southeast to Küszén. However, the Héders also owned contiguous lands towards the opposite direction and the mountain of Höheberg (or Hochberg) was considered the northwest border point of their territories.
Béla III of Hungary (r. 1172–1196) confiscated the Abbey of Küszén from the Benedictines and built a royal castle (called Németújvár, or simply Újvár, "New Castle", today Güssing in Austria) on top of the hill in the 1180s. He compensated its patron, comes Hencse I (Wolfer's son, also known as Heinz, Henc or Aenz) with the patronage of the newly constructed abbey of Kapornak in Zala County. Furthermore, Wolfer's descendants remained the owners of the nearby Szentelek and Szentkút (present-day Stegersbach and Heiligenbrunn in Austria, respectively). A document from 1198 refers to the vineyards of Szentkút as the accessory of the newly built castle (Újvár, or Novi Castri). Wolfer's great-grandson, Virunt (or Werenherth), who served as a canon of the cathedral chapter of Győr, still owned Szentkút itself and the surrounding villages, Mérhart, Szombatfalva, Újfalva and Pinka in the middle of the 13th century. In his last will, Virunt bequeathed the villages to Béla IV of Hungary and the Royal Crown, who soon donated them to Herrand, a representative of the Héder clan's other branch. The offspring Hédervári family possessed the area thereafter until its extinction. Beyond the Strém valley, the kindred also owned some lordships, for instance Rábagyarmat and two unidentified estates, Chegge and Podrag. According to a census of the Szentgotthárd Abbey from 1198, family members Simon and Lawrence I owned portions in Szentgotthárd and Battyán (once laid near Nagysimonyi), while Lawrence I, Denis I (from the Hédervári branch) and Hencse I also had interests in Almás. Battyán later was recalled Simonremetefölde (lit. "the land of hermit Simon"), which confirms that Simon became a friar in the last years of his life. Denis and Hencse also owned Pácsony until they donated it to the collegiate chapter of Vasvár sometime before 1217. The local wasteland is still called after Hencse.
Hencse's son, Henry I possessed lands along the river Lendva (Ledava) near the Western border with Austria. He appears in some documents in the period between 1208 and 1212. Henry I and his brother, Michael spent their childhood outside Hungary. It is plausible that Hencse was a supporter of Emeric, King of Hungary during his struggle against his younger brother Andrew. Accordingly, he and his family fled Hungary for Austria in the accompaniment of Constance of Aragon and her son Ladislaus III of Hungary in April 1205, fearing for their lives from Andrew, who abused his role as regent. Sometime later, Henry and Michael returned to Hungary and swore loyalty to Andrew II. It is possible that Hencse died in exile. His returning sons had inherited the right of patronage of the Kapornak Abbey, which was usurped by their some degree of relatives, Fabian and Benz during their absent, when they also plundered the estates of them. They unsuccessfully contested the right for themselves, but Andrew II of Hungary restored Henry and Michael as the rightful owners of the patronage upon their request in 1212. Henry I also owned an estate near Szentbenedek (present-day Kančevci in Slovenia). Michael died sometime after 1212; his widow married Michael Hahót later. Michael's sons, Hencse II and Virunt, and their cousin, Henry II were patrons of the Kapornak Abbey in 1237. Brothers John I and Wolfer II, whose parentage is uncertain, possessed portions in the northeast part of the lordship, near Prosznyákfalva (today a borough in Prosenjakovci, Slovenia). Summarizing, the sporadic data from the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century clearly state that Wolfer's branch had possessions on the originally uninhabited borderlands, along the lines of defense, or ones close to royal households. The granted possession of Küszén was the part of a larger clan possession covering the whole valley of the stream Strém as far as the Rába, but they also had lands along the Rába near Szentgotthárd and the Mura (Mur) near the estate of the fortress of Felsőlendva (present-day Grad in Slovenia).
The most ambitious and powerful member of the branch was Henry II. He entered the service of Béla IV and had gradually distanced himself from his relatives. Receiving large-scale personal land donations for his military career and loyalty, he was the founder and first member of the Kőszegi family (formerly incorrectly also called Németújvári in historiographical works), which had dominated the northwestern part of Vas County and their lands were arranged around significant fortresses, for instance Borostyánkő, Léka (today Bernstein and Lockenhaus in Austria, respectively) and the eponymous Kőszeg. Henry Kőszegi established his lordship independently of his kinship and did not rely on the clan's formerly acquired landholdings in the opposite parts of Vas County. Henry Kőszegi and his sons had become the dominant power of whole Transdanubia within decades, spreading from their paterfamilias' first acquired lands in Vas County.
Héder's branch The younger brother, Héder I was granted lands in the island plain of Szigetköz in Győr County. The centre of his estates, Hédervár was named after him. It emerged into the most important settlement in Szigetköz and became the eponymous village of the influential and powerful Hédervári family. Héder's only known son was Denis I, whose person was first identified by historians Gábor Kiss and Balázs Zágorhidi Czigány (formerly Pál Engel also considered an intermediate generation between Héder and his grandchildren). During the determination of borders of the estate of Novák in 1210, Héder II (Hederic or Hedrich) was referred to as the owner of the neighboring estate, Hédervár (it is also the first mention of the village by contemporary records). Héder II served as ispán of Győr County in 1223. He had two sons, James I and Lawrence III, and a daughter, who married Pousa Bár-Kalán. In 1255, James and Lawrence successfully recovered their sister's dowry from the late Pousa's son, Nana. Lawrence had a son, Héder IV (fl. 1309) and a daughter Margaret, who married Solomon Dárói.Engel: Genealógia (Mojs kinship 1.) After her husband's death, she strove to keep the estate of Déshida (today an area at Lake Deseda) in Somogy County for her daughter, Anne (wife of Stephen Gyovad) in 1309 and 1310. In the presence of her brother, Héder IV, Margaret pledged the land to the distant relative, Henry II Kőszegi, Ban of Slavonia on 23 October 1309. The powerful lord last appeared as a living person in that document. Henry died by 1 May 1310, when Margaret wanted to pay the loan and recover Déshida, according to a document issued by the Somogyvár Abbey four days later. As Nicholas Gutkeled, the envoy of Henry's sons did not bring the redemption certificate, Margaret refused to pay the pledge.