Nicholas VII Hahót
Nicholas was born into the Hahold branch of the gens Hahót in the 1290s, as the only son of Stephen I, who was mentioned as ispán of Varaždin County in 1297,[1] and an unidentified daughter of Palatine Denis Péc.
Stephen Hahót was a loyal supporter of Andrew III of Hungary, participating in several military campaigns against Austria and the rival Kőszegi family in Transdanubia and Slavonia.
[4] Hahold's theory of origin had a long tradition, as the Illuminated Chronicle only preserved the narrative of the so-called gesta of the age of King Stephen V of Hungary (r. 1270–72), compiled by magister Ákos.
Following the extinction of the Árpád dynasty in 1301, royal power collapsed and a dozen lords, or "oligarchs", who had by that time achieved de facto independence of the monarch to strengthen their autonomy.
[6] As he participated in the unification war of Charles I of Hungary against the oligarchs according to a royal charter, historian Éva B. Halász considered Nicholas was born in the first half of the 1290s.
A "brave soldier", Nicholas was a loyal supporter of the young king as he could hope the recovery of lost family landholdings and castles only from a successful restoration of the strong royal power by Charles.
After the collapse of the Kőszegi dominion and restoration of the administrative function, his main task as ispán was to represent the royal authority and to ensure stability and military consolidation at the Western border.
When Otto the Merry sought assistance and protection from Charles against his own brothers, Frederick the Fair and Albert the Lame, Hungarian and Bohemian troops jointly invaded Austria in the summer of 1228.
Meanwhile, Nicholas Hahót commanded a smaller auxiliary unit into Styria to defeat Ulrich I of Walsee, who had earlier annexed the Muraköz (now Međimurje in Croatia).
[15] Charles ordered Ban Nicholas Felsőlendvai and Stephen II Kotromanić to launch a joint offensive against Nelipić, but their expedition eventually failed.
Years later Felsőlendvai's successor Mikcs Ákos invaded Croatia to subjugate the local lords who had seized the former castles of Mladen Subić without the king's approval, but John Nelipić routed the ban's troops in 1326.
His army unhindered marched until the fortress Knin which was defended by Nelipić's widow Vladislava in the name of their minor son and heir John II.
[16] The Republic of Venice which took advantage of the Croatian feudal anarchy for decades, and gained control over Split and Nin, acquiring most of the coast from Zrmanja River to the mouth of the Cetina since the 1320s, tried to prevent the Hungarian expansion with diplomatic means.
[16] The Venetians persuaded the widow not to hand over Knin to Nicholas' army, while aimed to establish an anti-Hungarian coalition among the Croatian lords and the Dalmatian coastal cities.
[6][18] Since August 1345, Nicholas Hahót styled himself Ban of Slavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia, merging the two positions and extending his influence to the Croatian territories as well to represent the royal authority.
Venice decided to protect its interests in Dalmatia, obtained support or neutral positions of other Dalmatian – such as Nin, Dubrovnik, Trogir and Rab – ports, gathered troops and unexpectedly started to besiege the city and the surrounding castles on 12 August 1345.
According to a chronicle written by an anonymous Minorite friar, Venice bribed the Hungarian commanders, Stephen Kotromanić and Nicholas Hahót not to interfere in the skirmish.
[25] Louis's brother, Andrew, Duke of Calabria, was murdered in Aversa on 18 September 1345, which caused the emergence of the Neapolitan issue, marginalizing the Dalmatian campaign.
[25] Few days after the failure in July, Louis dismissed him as Ban of Slavonia and Croatia and replaced with Nicholas Szécsi, one of the most influential barons in the second half of the 14th century.
For Louis, the Kingdom of Naples became a more important scene than Dalmatia and Zadar, where Nicholas Hahót, who had decades of military experience, could have provided a much greater service to the king, B. Halász emphasized.
[25] The anonymous Minorite friar narrated in his work that Nicholas was among those barons who escorted Duke Andrew's posthumous son, the infant Charles Martel, who was transferred from Naples to Visegrád in February 1348.
[28] In the summer of 1354, both Duke Stephen and Ban Nicholas participated in Louis' military campaign against the Serbian Empire, forcing Stefan Dušan to withdraw from the region along the river Sava.
[30] A new war broke out between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Republic of Venice over Dalmatia in the spring of 1356 and the royal court decided to end the duchy of Slavonia's autonomy, Margaret was thus deprived of nominal regency.
