John (knez)

John,[1] also Joan[2] or Ioan,[3] was a cneaz (local chieftain or ruler)[2][4] mentioned in the Diploma of the Joannites issued by King Béla IV of Hungary (1235–1270) on 2 July 1247; the diploma granted territories to the Knights Hospitaller in the Banate of Severin and Cumania.[5] John held a kenazate which was given to the knights by the king.[5] His kenazate lay in southern Oltenia.[2]

The diploma of Béla IV also refers to the kenazates of Farcaş and voivode Litovoi and to voivode Seneslau.[5] Seneslau and Litovoi are expressly said to be Vlachs (Olati) in the king's diploma.[5]

The Romanian historian Ioan-Aurel Pop suggests that the kenazate of John was one of the incipient Romanian states south of the Carpathian Mountains.[2] In the diploma, his name is given in its Latin form (Johannes), and so contains no hint of the nationality of its bearer.[5]

  1. ^ Spinei, Victor. The Romanians and the Turkic Nomads North of the Danube Delta from the Tenth to the Mid-Thirteenth Century.
  2. ^ a b c d Pop, Ioan Aurel. Romanians and Romania: A Brief History.
  3. ^ Treptow, Kurt W.; Popa, Marcel. Historical Dictionary of Romania.
  4. ^ Rady, Martyn. Nobility, Land and Service in Medieval Hungary.
  5. ^ a b c d e Vásáry, István. Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1185-1365.