Paul Geregye
Paul married to an unidentified granddaughter of Palatine Pat Győr around 1228 (while her sister was the wife of Stephen Csák, Ban of Severin).
[1] Historian Attila Zsoldos considers Pat was among those noblemen, who were plotting to dethrone Andrew and crown his eldest son, the eight-year-old Béla in 1214.
In September 1258, Béla IV rejected Conrad's accusations citing the two lady were granted the aforementioned possessions via daughters' quarter during their wedding approximately thirty years ago.
Paul participated in the recaptures of Borostyánkő and Lánzsér Castles (today Bernstein and Burgruine Landsee in Austria, respectively),[7] and also destroyed the dams erected by the Austrians which had blocked the flow of Mur to overflow the surrounding villages.
His former faithful servants during his ducal period were elevated to the highest courtly positions, in parallel with dismissals and imprisonments of Andrew's loyal barons.
Nevertheless, Judge royal Andrew, son of Serafin was killed in the battlefield and Béla IV, who managed to escape to Dalmatia, was installed Paul Geregye as his successor.
[6] Paul performed exceptional military and organizational skill during the process, his line of defense aimed to protect the right bank of the river and to cover the route of refugees to the westernmost part of Hungary.
[13] Without holding any specific office, Paul acted as the highest military and administrative leader of the region whose task was to gradually restore royal power, extending it to areas east of the Tisza in the wake of the withdrawal of the Mongols.
[11] During this time, Paul restored order, reorganized administration and the structure of noble properties, annihilated outlaw groups and gathered and resettled the dispersed and fleeing population.
[6][14] According to historian Jenő Szűcs, Paul also invited the Cumans to return to Hungary after their forced exodus on the eve of the Mongol invasion.
[16] Paul participated in the Battle of the Leitha River on 15 June 1246, where Béla IV defeated the Austrian troops and Frederick the Quarrelsome was also killed.
[19] The majority of his acquisitions laid in the region Kalotaszeg (Țara Călatei) – Bikal (Bicălatu), Füld (Fildu), Almás (Almașu) –, southeast of Várad (present-day Oradea in Romania) – Kér (Cheriu), Szaránd (Sărand), Hájó (Haieu) – and southwestern part of Bihar County (the aforementioned Berettyó lordship).
[20] Following the Mongol invasion, Béla IV abandoned the ancient royal prerogative to build and own castles, promoting the erection of nearly 100 new fortresses by the end of his reign.
His troops seized the landholdings of the neighboring Csanád clan along the Sebes-Körös: Telegd, Szabolcs, Sonkolyos and Bertény with its royal customs (today Tileagd, Săbolciu, Șuncuiuș and Birtin in Romania, respectively).
In the next year, Béla obliged him to return the acquired lands to the original owners,[22] retaining a half part of the custom at Berény.
Szűcs considered Paul retired to his estates in Bihar County because of his resentment, where he began to build his large-scale and coherent lordship as one of the forerunners of the late 13th-century oligarchic domains.
The document narrates that the property belonged to the Gutkeled clan until when Paul seized the village and its surrounding lands not long after the Mongol invasion.
[25][28][29] When his only daughter Agnes became a nun and donated her inherited lands to the Dominican monastery at Margaret Island in 1270, Paul was still referred as a living person.
