Hunt-Pázmán

Hunt-Poznan was a noble family in the Kingdom of Hungary that arose in the mid-12th century by marriage of the Pazman and Hunts (the Pazmans died out on the male side). Hunt and Pazman (Patzmann) were originally german knights.

Some authors give the name as "Hontpázmány", which is wrong, because Pázmány is only the name of one of the late branches of the house of Hunt-Pazman. But they never used "Poznan", there isn't any contemporary sources for this.

The family split into 8 branches in the mid-13th century. The 8 branches included:

• Svätý Jur - Pezinok branch
• branch founded by Ambróz (see Poznan family), represented by the brothers Peter, Marcel and Fabian
• Šišov-Hradná branch, represented by Becend.
• Sek branch
• Gečs of Bučany
• Gečs of Nevidzany
• Forgách (Forgáč), represented by Ondrej (the royal treasurer)
• Bin branch (arose from the Hunts) , represented by Kazimír and his sons Pangrác, Ugrin, Peter, Lampert, Ladislav and Štefan

The deployment of the estates of other Slovak noble families (Diviacký, Ludanický and Branč-Lipovnícky) suggests that these families had common origin with the Hunt-Poznans.

Many independent noble families in present-day south-western Slovakia gradually arose from the above 8 branches, especially the Forgách, counts of Jur and Pezinok, Batthányi, Pogányi, Szegi, Pázmány, Fanciskay, Ders, Bánki, Endrédy etc.

But according to Simonis de Keza (Gesta Hunnorum and Hungarorum (1282-1285)) Hunt (his name means captain in old German language) and Poznan were German knights and brothers, who came to the Carpathian Basin in Bavarian princess Giselle’s retinue and helped king Stephen I to strengthen his rule. Originally they departed to Sicilia to fight against Saracens, but Grand Prince Géza’s invitation to Hungary and emperor Otto II’s death made them change their mind. Due to their brave and effective help they got enormous region in northern part of nascent Kingdom of Hungary. The centre of this region and administrative area was Hont earth fort in the Ipeľ (Ipoly) valley. According to tradition Poznan built a separated fort in the vicinity of Hunt’s castle. The area governed by Hunt and Poznan knights contained area of later Hont, Nógrád, and Gömör-Kishont counties. After organising counties around Nógrád and Gömör castles the new administrative areas separated from Hont county and divided it into two parts (Hont, Small Hont).

Sources

• Ján Lukačka: Beginnings of the formation of Aristocracy on the territory of Slovakia (available online)
• Ján Steinhübel: Nitrianske kniežatstvo [Nitrian principality], Veda, vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied + Vydavateľstvo Rak, 2004, Bratislava [with several further Slovak and Hungarian genealogy and orher references listed in the book]
• Hunt-Poznan in: Slovakia and the Slovaks - A concise encyclopaedia, Encyklopedical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, 1994