John II Drugeth

The Drugeth family belonged to those Neapolitan elite of Ultramontane (French or Provençal) origin, who arrived to Apulia (Southern Italy) with Charles I of Anjou in 1266.

On 7 January 1343, a court hearing was held, where Nicholas and John II – i.e. he had reached the age of majority by then – submitted a charter in order to prove their right to William's heritage.

As a result, the brothers were given back three castles – Barkó (Brekov, Slovakia), Jeszenő (Jasenov, Slovakia) and Nevicke (Nevytske, Ukraine)[5] – out of the nine that they used to have, and they were virtually pushed back within the territory of Ung and Zemplén counties, a relatively uninhabited area at the northeast corner of the kingdom.

[7] Following that John appeared in contemporary documents solely in his older brother's companion in various estate matters and litigations in the next decade, for instance during a pro-longed lawsuit between them and the chapter of Lelesz (Leles).

He had five sons from his unidentified wife: Sebastian, John IV, Nicholas II, Stephen I and Francis I, who have not held any offices in their lifetime.

[9] The declining period began in the life of the Drugeth family, which reached its lowest point during the reign of Sigismund (John V even joined the conspiracy against the king in 1403).

While Nicholas' descendants lived in Gerény (present-day Horjani, a borough of Uzhhorod), John and his sons administered the family estates in Zemplén County after a possible division of the heritage, establishing the lordship of Homonna, from which his descendants also took their noble prefix, fully integrating into the local Hungarian nobility.