Hahold IV Hahót

Hahold (IV) from the kindred Hahót (Hungarian: Hahót nembeli (IV.) Hahót; fl. 1251–75) was a Hungarian noble.

Hahold IV was born into the Hahold branch of the gens Hahót as the son of Hahold III, who served as ispán of Vas County between 1237 and 1239. Hahold IV had two children: Matthew and Stephen I.[1]

According to a diploma from 1255, Stephen Gutkeled, who functioned as Ban of Slavonia since 1248, ordered Hahold, who "then" was ispán of Rojcsa (today Rovišće, Croatia), to conduct a legal process. Thus Hahold held that position from around 1248 to 1255. Rojcsa was a border ispánate near Bjelovar, in the territory of Križevci County (Hungarian: Körös).[2]

In the 1260s, he had several conflicts with the Gyüre kindred, neighboring landowners in Zala County, when Hahold's soldiers killed Thomas Gyüre, who also acted as a royal emissary during that time.[3] Already in the 1250s, Hahold arbitrarily seized the right to collect tithe to the Cathedral Chapter of Zagreb in the Gyüres' land. Following that Hahold seized his neighbours' lands themselves, as a result King Béla IV of Hungary personally forced him to return the lands to the Gyüres. Through the mediation of Béla, Hahold made peace with the Gyüre kindred in 1267.[3][4]

In 1272, he called himself "lord of Alsólendva" (today Lendava, Slovenia), proving that he owned and possibly built the castle himself by then. During the Bohemian–Hungarian War, when Ottokar II of Bohemia invaded the kingdom in the spring of 1272, his forts Lenti and Alsólendva were besieged and demolished.[4]

Through his son Stephen, he was a forefather of the powerful Bánfi de Alsólendva noble family. In the same year, Hahold made land donation to the Vasvár monastery, and swore his son Matthew to reserve that.[5] Hahold died sometime between 1275 and 1278.[4]