Nicholas VII Hahót

Charles I died on 16 July 1342. His sixteen-year-old Louis I succeeded him, inheriting a centralized kingdom and a rich treasury from Charles. On 18 May 1343, Louis appointed Nicholas Hahót as Ban of Slavonia (his proper title was "Ban of the Whole of Slavonia"), replacing Mikcs Ákos who died in office. According to a royal charter, Nicholas started his journey from Visegrád to Slavonia on the next day.[13] During the appointment, Nicholas was also granted castrum Lenti, a former estate of the disgraced Kőszegis.[14] In the previous decades, Charles unsuccessfully attempted to reinstate royal authority in Croatia and Slavonia. Although the dominion of Mladen II Šubić collapsed in 1322, his strongest rival John Nelipić expanded his dominance over South Croatia.[15] Charles ordered Ban Nicholas Felsőlendvai and Stephen II Kotromanić to launch a joint offensive against Nelipić, but their expedition eventually failed. Years later Felsőlendvai's successor Mikcs Ákos invaded Croatia to subjugate the local lords who had seized the former castles of Mladen Subić without the king's approval, but John Nelipić routed the ban's troops in 1326. Consequently, royal power remained only nominal in Croatia during Charles's reign, while Slavonia was integrated into the royal crown.[15]

John Nelipić ruled almost whole Croatia beyond Mount Gvozd de facto independently from Knin until his death in 1344.[16] Following that Louis ordered Nicholas Hahót to launch a campaign to Croatia in the autumn of 1344 (Nicholas did not issue any diploma from August to November because of his military mandate). His army unhindered marched until the fortress Knin which was defended by Nelipić's widow Vladislava in the name of their minor son and heir John II. Nicholas did not attempt to besiege the castle, instead plundered surrounding lands and villages. Fearing from possibility of a prolonged siege, Vladislava asked for peace and swore allegiance to Louis.[16] The Republic of Venice which took advantage of the Croatian feudal anarchy for decades, and gained control over Split and Nin, acquiring most of the coast from Zrmanja River to the mouth of the Cetina since the 1320s, tried to prevent the Hungarian expansion with diplomatic means.[16] The Venetians persuaded the widow not to hand over Knin to Nicholas' army, while aimed to establish an anti-Hungarian coalition among the Croatian lords and the Dalmatian coastal cities.[16] As a result, Louis personally marched across Bihać to Croatia in July 1345 and forced Vladislava and her son to surrender without any military action took place. Gregory Kurjaković, Count of Corbavia and other Croatian noblemen also yielded to him during his stay in Zagreb. In the name of his king, Nicholas Hahót negotiated with Vladislava on the terms of surrender, when she agreed to hand over four castles.[17] Thus Louis restored royal power in Croatia and pacified the country by the end of 1345.[6][18]

Image of Zadar (Zara) in the Late Middle Ages by Conrad Grünenberg

Since August 1345, Nicholas Hahót styled himself Ban of Slavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia, merging the two positions and extending his influence to the Croatian territories as well to represent the royal authority.[19] This meant the restoration of the dignity of Ban of Croatia, which title was arbitrarily held for decades by the Šubići. Before Nicholas, the last person who served as Ban of Croatia, was John Babonić for a short time in 1322.[20] The last one who was appointed by a Hungarian monarch and had actual function, was Nicholas Gutkeled in 1275.[21] Nicholas Hahót is the only known 14th-century ban, who concluded a chamber rental contract. He issued such a document on 11 November 1344 in Zagreb, when he leased the Slavonian chamber for 300 banovac to five burghers: James, son of Vlfardus from Zagreb, in addition to brothers Nicholas, Raphael and Michael, sons of Paul, and Zuetk, son of Staulen, all four originated from Koprivnica. Nicholas Hahót also signed a contract with them to transmit the banate's share of the collection of taxes for one-year deadline.[22]

The citizens of Zadar rebelled against the Republic of Venice and accepted Louis' suzerainty.[23] The city also sent its delegation to Zagreb, but delayed and Louis meanwhile returned to Visegrád. Venice decided to protect its interests in Dalmatia, obtained support or neutral positions of other Dalmatian – such as Nin, Dubrovnik, Trogir and Rab – ports, gathered troops and unexpectedly started to besiege the city and the surrounding castles on 12 August 1345.[18] According to reports, Nicholas Hahót personally mediated between Louis and Zadar, and encouraged the burghers to actively revolt.[24] Louis dispatched Stephen Kotromanić to assist the burghers of Zadar, but his army did not fight against the Venetians. According to a chronicle written by an anonymous Minorite friar, Venice bribed the Hungarian commanders, Stephen Kotromanić and Nicholas Hahót not to interfere in the skirmish.[25] Louis's brother, Andrew, Duke of Calabria, was murdered in Aversa on 18 September 1345, which caused the emergence of the Neapolitan issue, marginalizing the Dalmatian campaign. In April 1346, Louis marched to Dalmatia to relieve Zadar, but the Venetians again bribed his commanders, Kotromanić, Lackfi and Hahót, according to the above-mentioned chronicle. When the citizens broke out and attacked the besiegers on 1 July, the royal army failed to intervene, and the Venetians overcame the defenders outside the walls of the town. Although the king commissioned Nicholas to organize the city's food supply, the ban belatedly and slowly fulfilled the task. As a result, the citizens considered him as a traitor. Lacking military support from Louis, Zadar surrendered to the Venetians on 21 December 1346.[26]

According to a charter, Nicholas wounded in the clashes against Venice at Zadar.[25] Few days after the failure in July, Louis dismissed him as Ban of Slavonia and Croatia and replaced with Nicholas Szécsi, one of the most influential barons in the second half of the 14th century.[20][24] That fact could confirm the information of the Minorite friar in connection with the bribery. While historians Gyula Kristó, Pál Engel and Antal Pór accepted the friar's theory, B. Halász argued, Nicholas did not lost his political influence, as appeared as ad litem judge in several times at Buda throughout 1347, and also received land donations from Louis during that time. For Louis, the Kingdom of Naples became a more important scene than Dalmatia and Zadar, where Nicholas Hahót, who had decades of military experience, could have provided a much greater service to the king, B. Halász emphasized.[25]

The anonymous Minorite friar narrated in his work that Nicholas was among those barons who escorted Duke Andrew's posthumous son, the infant Charles Martel, who was transferred from Naples to Visegrád in February 1348. Louis recognised his nephew as the legitimate ruler of Naples and also laid claim to the regency of the kingdom during the minority of Charles Martel. The king appointed Nicholas as the tutor of little duke, but Charles Martel died only three months after his arrival on 10 May 1348.[19] Around August 1349, Nicholas was made ispán of Zala County for the second time. He held that position until December 1351.[27]

In 1351, Louis made his youngest brother Stephen as Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia, before finally trusting him with the government of Slavonia in 1353. Stephen's political role was nevertheless rather insignificant, despite that he was heir presumptive after Charles Martel, his nephew's death. Louis reinstated Nicholas to the combined dignity of Ban of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia to administer the province on behalf of Duke Stephen in April 1353, replacing Stephen Lackfi, who died in office.[28] In the summer of 1354, both Duke Stephen and Ban Nicholas participated in Louis' military campaign against the Serbian Empire, forcing Stefan Dušan to withdraw from the region along the river Sava. Duke Stephen died in a pandemic during the expedition on 9 August 1354.[19] The new-born John was installed Duke of Slavonia after his father's death, with his mother Margaret as nominal regent, but in reality, Nicholas governed the province, Margaret and her son even resided in Buda until mid-1355.[19]

Taking advantage of the inner war within the Šubić clan, Louis determined to acquire the remaining Dalmatian cities. After the death of Mladen III Šubić in 1348, Klis and Skradin were ruled by his widow Jelena, in the name of their son Mladen IV. She was unable to defend the cities from the many pretenders, she asked her brother Stefan Dušan for aid, who sent an army, led by knight Palman and Đuraš Ilijić, to defend Klis and Skradin, respectively. Louis entrusted Nicholas to launch a campaign against the forts in 1355. The Serbians were not able to hold out the pressure of the Hungarian army. Upon the king's order, Nicholas Hahót besieged and captured Klis and Omiš.[19][29] Following that Serbia started to disintegrate after the death of Stefan Dušan in December 1355.[30] A new war broke out between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Republic of Venice over Dalmatia in the spring of 1356 and the royal court decided to end the duchy of Slavonia's autonomy, Margaret was thus deprived of nominal regency. Despite his military success a few weeks ago, Nicholas was also dismissed from his dignity, replaced by Leustach Paksi.[28] In the next year, he was appointed Master of the treasury in the court of Elizabeth of Bosnia, the second queen consort to Louis I.[31] Beside that he also functioned as ispán of the Segesd queenly estate, laid in Somogy County.[32] Nicholas Hahót died in 1359.[22]