Simon I Nagymartoni

Coat-of-arms of Bajót, derived from the shield of Nagymartonis

Simon is referred to as with the epithets "Latinus", "Hispanus", "Yspanus" and "de Yspania" in contemporary Hungarian documents. His name first appears in Hungary as a member of the entourage of Duke Béla in 1220.[7] Subsequently, he was considered one of the faithful confidants of King Andrew II. He served as ispán of Bars County in 1221.[8] For his service, Simon was granted the land Röjtökör in Sopron County (Rahtukeuri, present-day Neudörfl, Austria) together with its local border duty by Andrew II in 1223. The settlement lay along the river Leitha, which determined its significance in Western Transdanubia. He was inducted to the possession by Maurice Pok.[5] However, Teha (or Teka), a royal chamberlain of Jewish origin, contested the monarch's decision; Teha relied on a charter issued before 1228 against the donation, but despite repeated requests, he did not present the alleged document at the royal court. Therefore Andrew II confirmed Simon's right of ownership over Röjtökör and declared Teha's charter as invalid and non-authentic in 1228.[9] Meanwhile, his sister Tota died childless sometime between 1221 and 1230. Her wealth – Bajót and Nagymarton – was inherited by Simon, who, however, was forced to prove the legitimacy of his ownership right over the latter place during a lawsuit against the sons of the original owner and disloyal Ayan in 1230. His family derived its surname – Nagymartoni and, less frequently, Bajóti – from these two villages until the first half of the 14th century.[10] Sometime around the late 1220s, Simon was also granted the land Csenke in Esztergom County (laid near present-day Mužla, Slovakia) by Andrew II.[11]

Andrew II permitted the aforementioned Teha in 1232 to sell his estate Besenyő (present-day Pöttsching, Austria), which had previously been acquired by his father as a royal donation, to Simon for 500 marks, in exchange for settling his debt to the royal chamber.[12] By that time, Simon belonged to the king's innermost circle. He served as ispán of Győr County from 1232 to 1234, but it is plausible that he held the dignity until Andrew's death in 1235.[13] Simon was a member of that three-member diplomatic delegation, along with Palatine Denis, son of Ampud and Rembald de Voczon, to the Holy See in the first half of 1232, which the king sent to complain against Robert, Archbishop of Esztergom, who put Hungary under an interdict in February, because of the employment of Jews and Muslims in the royal administration.[10] Simon was also among those barons, who swore to the oath of Bereg in September 1233.[14] Simon acted as pristaldus (royal bailiff) in 1235 in order to induct Andrew Igmánd as the new proprietor of a portion in Csanak near Igmánd in Komárom County.[6]

They [the Mongols] could not take the citadel of the city [Esztergom], because the Spaniard Simon [Symeon Hispanus] manfully defended it with his many crossbowmen.

— Master Roger's Epistle to the Sorrowful Lament upon the Destruction of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Tatars[15]

Béla IV ascended the Hungarian throne in 1235. Unlike many barons of his father Andrew, Simon did not fall out of the king's favor, although his land Csenke was confiscated from him and given to the chamberlain Teha by King Béla.[11] It is possible that Teha had some legal basis over the land Röjtökör, and Béla had compensated him with Csenke.[5]

The stone walls of Esztergom Castle, defended by Simon during the first Mongol invasion of Hungary

When the Mongols invaded Hungary in the spring of 1241, Simon played a major role in the forthcoming months. Both Simon and Bertrand participated in the disastrous Battle of Mohi on 11 April 1241.[7] While Béla IV and the royal court fled to Dalmatia thereafter, Simon was among those barons of noblemen, who organized the armed resistance against the Mongols in 1241–1242. The contemporary Roger of Torre Maggiore narrates in detail his role in the subsequent military operations. While the Mongols proceeded to lay waste to most of unfortified places in eastern Hungary, majority of the Hungarians took shelter in castles and fortified churches in Upper Hungary and Transdanubia. Simon commanded the garrison in Esztergom Castle. In early 1242, the Mongols crossed the frozen Danube, hoping to pillage the richest territories of Hungary, in addition to chase and capture King Béla. Batu Khan decided to assault Esztergom in January 1242. The invaders battered the walls of Esztergom with 30 catapults and stone throwers. They easily reduced the walls and wooden towers, and had prisoners fill the moat with earth. Master Roger states that when the Hungarians and foreigners in the city realized it was going to fall, they torched their houses along with huge amounts of dyed fabrics and any other valuable commodities. They also slaughtered the animals and buried their gold and silver, or sent it to the citadel, the only fully stone fortification in the city. Many burghers also retreated to the citadel. While the rest of the city was sacked, Simon and his soldiers successfully defended the citadel. Batu ordered his engineers to batter down the walls of the citadel, hoping to get at the valuables inside, but the catapults failed to do sufficient damage, forcing him to attempt to storm the citadel. The Mongols were beaten back time after time, with Roger noting the effectiveness of Simon's crossbowmen in inflicting enormous damage on the Mongol force (the exact term Roger used, "balistarii", was used in most contemporary sources to refer to crossbowmen; despite some confusion, he and other contemporary chroniclers usually referred to siege engines such as ballistas as "machina"). After heavy casualties, Batu lifted the siege and marched towards to western Transdanubia, leaving Esztergom behind.[16]

Following the siege of Esztergom, Simon and Bertrand have completed diplomatic missions several times throughout the year 1242 on behalf of Béla IV in order to seek military assistance and financial aid against the Mongols.[7] As a reward for his military merits, Béla IV returned the land Csenke with its accessory island in Esztergom County to Simon in January 1243.[11] The brothers were granted several lands from the king simultaneously – Béla detached the estate Gadundorf from Moson Castle in Moson County, Zolonta from Pozsony Castle (present-day a borough of Okoč, Slovakia), Pucyn from Sopron Castle, Kesző in Vágköz (the area between Danube and Vág [Váh]) from Komárom Castle and handed over these estates to Simon and Bertrand. Béla also entrusted the brothers to populate, cultivate and develop these lands, whose population has fled or died during the Mongol invasion.[6] Béla IV also confirmed Simon's right to possess Röjtökör in June 1243. It is possible he acquired additional landholdings in Esztergom County through a royal donation either in 1243 or 1244.[6]

Around November 1250, Béla IV sent Simon to the Holy See in order to deliver his famous "Tartar letter" to Pope Innocent IV. The Hungarian monarch sought assistance from the pope against a planned new Mongol invasion. Béla requested Pope Innocent to receive his emissaries, Simon Nagymartoni and Bartholomew le Gros, the Bishop of Pécs, who stayed in his family estates in Burgundy and never returned to Hungary after a former legation, and listen their report on the situation of Hungary and the difficulties in defending against the Mongols. For historical and philological reasons, historian Imre Szentpétery dated the letter to the year 1250. There are arguments for other dates, such as 1248, 1253 or 1254.[17] This is the last information on Simon, he died sometime after 1250. His marriage with an unidentified noblewoman produced two sons, Simon (II) and Michael, who first appeared in contemporary documents in the 1270s. The Nagymartoni family, which flourished until 1446, descended from the two sons of Simon. The family reached its peak in politics and elite, when his grandson Paul served as Judge royal for two decades in the first half of the 14th century.[18]