Back To Contents

MOG[H], OUR PRESUMED FOUNDING FATHER

Crusading Knight and Palatine of Hungary Under Three Kings

Comes Mog or Mogh was the highest ranking secular person for an unprecedented three times under three different kings in Hungary. For the first time King Bela the Third appointed him to this post (1192-1194), later Bela’s son King Imre decided to choose him (1198-1199) and a few years thereafter, when Bela’s second son King Andras the Second became the ruler, he too saw it wise to rely on Mog for a short while (1206). During these times Mog’s official title was Palatine (in Latin: Palatinus regni; in Hungarian: nadorispan or nador). He is estimated to be born around 1155 and died sometimes after 1210.

In today’s terminology the Palatine ’s duties approximated that of the prime minister, the chief justice and the military commander of the country (“elso zaszlosur”) combined. The positions he held repeatedly required wisdom, stoutness and interpersonal skills. He obviously was educated in law, was an experienced fighter and military strategist and a good organizer. A contemporary Russian manuscript refers to him as a person of imposing stature and with one eye missing (Hodinka 1916, page 279).

When he was not running the entire country and was not away on a military campaign, he functioned as administrator of selected geographic areas of Hungary (Marko 2000).As regional director (comes parochiae in Latin; varmegyei ispan in Hungarian) he was exercising executive, judicial and military powers over a portion of the country on behalves of the king (Ban 1989). When he was a Palatine his office was in the royal court and when he was a regional director his seat was the castle built by the king for the defense of the area whose supervision was his duty. His time was usually divided between his assigned seat and the royal court. When he was away at the royal court his handpicked deputy, the vicecomes, fulfilled his duties at the county seat (Fugedi 1998, pages 63-64).

In the case of Mog we know of two surviving documents describing his legal decisions, while his military prowess is attested to by being a leader of a victorious military expedition around 1206 against the Russian state of Holic (now Galicia ). There is also a record of his participation in a high level diplomatic mission while he took part as a knight in the Fourth Crusade. A letter written in early 1203 by papal emissary Cardinal Soffredo to Pope Innocent the Third reports on a peace mission that originated in the Crusader’s stronghold of Acre (now Israel) and was undertaken by him (i.e. Soffredo) together with the chiefs of the Knights Templars and the Johanniten Order, the Count Moncia of Hungary -the name is believed to be a Latinized version of Mog (Sweeney 1984) – and an unnamed delegate of the Marquis of Montferrat, to coordinate efforts between the competing factions participating in the crusade.

The last known historical documents place Mog to the county of Pozsony in Hungary where, he was territorial governor (comes parochiae) from 1208 to 1210.

It is most likely that it was during this last period that he established a county residence in the middle of Csallokoz in a strategically important point that was in the area of the present day village of Mad. Here the main road connecting the castles of Pozsony and Komarom, that had a roughly west to east course, was intersected by the road leading from the castle of Gyor in a largely south to north direction. This location provided good access to three important defense establishments of Hungary.

The aging soldier, apparently, could not help not to think strategically even when it came to the selection of his retirement residence.

At the time when people had no family names yet only given names, those who claimed descent from an illustrious ancestor, such as Mog, identified themselves and their family members by his name. They were the descendents of Mog, they were the Mogs. Thereby the geographic area that they occupied become referred to as “the place of the Mogs” or later simply as “Mog”. Then when someone called himself, let us say, John de Mog (John of Mog) he provided a dual identification. He was identifying himself as a member of the Mog clan and as a resident of the settlement of the Mogs, that is a resident of the village that is known as Mog.

In this fashion in Hungary the name of many localities preserved the personal name of their founder (Kristo 1973). Experts agree that the village in Csallokoz that is currently named Mad derived its name from a person (Kiss 1997, Makkai 1947). This settlement remained the property of the Mog/Mogh clan up until at least 1720. Nevertheless during the preceding centuries the name of the settlement underwent changes in its spelling from Mogh through Mod to Mad.

Scholars proposed that because during the first few centuries of Hungary’s existence uniform rules in writing did not yet exists, all of the following spellings might have referred to a person called Mog or that they represented extended versions of that name: Mad, Mag, Moch, Mod, Mog, Mogd, Mogdi, Mogh, Moghud, Moghudi, Moghudu, Mogud, Mogudi, Mogudu, Mogy, Mok, Monzh, and Moth. In sources originating from outside Hungary the Latinized variants of his name, Mogonis, Mozonis, Mokius, Mokian and Moncia also occured. The oriental philologists Armin Vamberi and Geza Nagy (1891) were of the opinion that the word Mod derived from the Turkic language, and that its meaning was elevated, majestic (Vambery).

We know that Mog was married and had children (Fejer,G.:1829). It is likely that the “praedium Dominici de Mogh” (the estate of Dominic of Mogh) mentioned in two letters written by Pope Innocent the Third (in 1212 and 1215; see Fraknoi 1896) refers to a son of Mog who was then the head of the clan.

References

Ban, P.: Magyar tortenelmi fogalomtar, 1989, Vol. 1, p. 214.

Fejer, G.: Codex diplomaticus Hungariae ecclesiasticus ac civilis. 1829, Vol. 3/1, pp.35-36(Jun 7, 1206)

Fraknoi, V.: Monumenta Romana Episcopatus Vesprimiensis, 1896, Vol. 1, pp. 23-26 and 31-33.

Fugedi, E.: The Elefanthy, The Hungarian Nobleman and His Kindred. Budapest , 1998, Central European University Press.

Hodinka, A.: Az Orosz Evkonyvek Magyar Vonatkozasai. 1916, Budapest , A Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia Kiadasa.

Kiss, L.: Foldrajzi nevek etimologiai szotara, 1997.

Kristo, Gy.: Adatok "korai" helyneveink ismeretehez. I. Acta Universitatis Szegediensis ...,1973, Szeged .

Makkai, L.: A Csallokoz telepulestorteneti vazlata, Szazadok, 1947, pp. 109-135.

Marko, L.: A Magyar allam fomeltosagai Szent Istvantol napjainkig, 2000.

Nagy, G.: Arpadkori Szemelyneveink. Masodik Kozlemeny, Turul, 1891, No. 3.

Sweeney, J.R.: Magyarorszag es a keresztes hadjaratok a 12-13. szazadban. Szazadok, 1984, pp.114-128.

Vambery, A.: Magyar Ered. 124.

Back To Contents