### bailiff, noblemen, nobilisation
bailiff The title of a secular person who had the power of a judge. The Hungarian-Latin equivalent of the Slav expression (zupan) was the word comes, which was incorrectly interpreted as earl - especially in older historical literature. In the age of the Árpád dynasty bearers of various titles were called bailiffs, so, for example, the leaders of groups of royal servants, the leaders of ethnic governments (e.g.: Pechenegs, Székelys), the governors of castle districts and others. According to 13th century data the word was also used in connection with people who did not bear any title, in these cases the head of noble relatives was called bailiff. ZSA noblemen An expression referring to a social layer (nobilis). It appears in Hungarian Latinism in the last third of the 11th century and it refers to the group of dignitaries. The original criteria of being noble are not exactly known, but it is certain that they had special privileges, such as performing their lawsuits at the royal court. In the middle of the 13th century besides traditional noble dignitaries other social groups (e.g.: royal servants, castle villeins) also laid their demands for the name 'noble', but their nobility is only partial and specific. In 1267 royal power had acknowledged the nobility of the royal servants, so later in the 1222 Golden Bull the rights of the royal servants were identified with the privileges of the noblemen, the "real noble of the country" (veri nobiles regni), while other groups of particular noblity also survived. ZSA nobilisation A special form of awarding privileges, awarding the rights of the national nobility to someone. Its origin goes back to a certain type of liberating servants, which provided common freedom and land possession to the privileged person, but its direct preliminaries were the privileges of making someone a royal servant. The first examples of this latter one are known from the beginning of the 13th century. Legally only the King could make someone noble. ZSA