Grant to Theodoryk Buczacki in 1442

Nicholas Zharkikh

Shortened text of the section.
Full text in ukrainian version.

Theodoryk Buczacki, well known in the history of Podillja, traveled as an ambassador from the Polish and Hungarian king Władysław III to the Tatar khan (unknown by name) in 1442 and in September returned to Buda (the capital of Hungary), where the king was at that time.

Buchacki’s successes were rewarded with two grants, issued on September 29 and 30. The first of them granted Theodoryk the government of the Podillja general starosta (headman) and a huge territory, almost half of the voivodeship (among them we note Letychiv, Medzhybizh and Khmilnyk) [Kurtyka J. Teodorykowi z Buczacza z r. 1442 (from dziejów królewszczyzn na Podolu w XV and XVI wieku). – Annales Academiae Paedagogicae Cracoviensis, 2004, Folia 21, Studia Historica 3, p. 69 – 102]. This was only a plan of possession: some of the granted lands Theodoryk was to buy back from the owners to whom these lands had been granted earlier (and not all of them were bought back), and some had to be reconquered (as Medzhybizh and Khmilnyk in 1447).

The second grant from September 30, 1442 concerned the following objects:

[The king grants Theodoryk] castra nostra: Caravul, super Dniestr fluvio, Czarnigrad, ubi Dniestr fluvius dictus mare intrat, et Caczibieiow, in littore maris sita […] Sed ut ipsa castra, civitates, oppida, villas, portus, thelonea [telonea] et pertinencias [pertinentis] eorum universas nobis et illis terris nostris Podoliae possit ducere in perfectum edificetque et melioret […] [Hrushevsky M. S. Barskoe starostvo. – K.: 1893, note on p. 26; the text is printed from a copy contained in the book of privileges of 1564; new edition – Zbiór dokumentów małopolskich. – Wrocław: 1975, t. 8, No. 2429 – not available on the Internet, I could not use it].

This document was plan for the future, and in no way a fixation of the current state of ownership.

The war with the Turks did not go according to Vladislav’s plan. In 1444, in the Battle of Varna, the Turks crushed his army, and the king himself died. This canceled all the Black Sea plans, including the granting to Buczacki.

However, this paper ownership continued to live its paper life and in 1564 it was included in the copy book of Podillja land ownership acts, from where we have its text.