Thomas III Hont-Pázmány
[1] His father was Andrew (I), who erected castles near Turóc and Gímes (present-day Kláštor pod Znievom and Jelenec in Slovakia, respectively) following the First Mongol invasion of Hungary.
He was a faithful confidant of Béla IV, then Stephen V. Andrew served as count of the tárnoks (financial officials) from 1249 to 1256, and ispán of Bánya (Árkibánya) ispánate on several occasions, which laid in the territory of Nyitra County.
Through his elder son, Andrew was ancestor of the Forgács (or Forgách) noble family, which still exists and provided several magnates for the Hungarian elite in the following centuries.
Despite that he marched into Upper Hungary in order to provide assistance to his elderly father Andrew, whose castle of Gímes was besieged by Ottokar's another army after a capture of several other forts and settlements in the region.
[5] During that time, the child Ladislaus IV ruled the kingdom; during his minority, many groupings of barons — primarily the Csáks, Kőszegis, and Gutkeleds — fought against each other for supreme power.
He held the dignity until June 1276, when the Gutkeleds and Kőszegis again removed their opponents from power at the national diet after Peter Csák's brutal and bloody attack against the Diocese of Veszprém.
He acquired large-scale landholdings and estates in the region between the rivers Nyitra (Nitra) and Zsitva (Žitava) in the 1280s, when retired to his residence in order to establish his lordship.
Both Thomas and John were considered staunch partisans of Andrew III, whose whole reign were characterized by constant rebellions against his rule from a part of the Kőszegis and others.
[15] These functions became prominent, when Matthew Csák, who possessed and ruled contiguous lands in the north-western counties, turned against Andrew at the end of 1297.
This personally affected Thomas and his family, because their branch's landholdings laid in the region (Nyitra, Bars and Esztergom counties), in the neighborhood of the aggressively expanding lord's territory.
As ispán of Nyitra ans Bars, King Andrew III commissioned him to isolate Matthew Csák's realm from the southeast and to protect Pozsony and Zólyom counties from his expansionist raids.
Around the same time, other pro-Andrew lords, who owned significant estates in the region, for instance Demetrius Balassa, Stephen Ákos, Dominic Rátót and Paul Szécs were given a similar task, isolating the dominions of Matthew Csák and the Kőszegi family from royal territories and each other too.
[11] In early 1298, John Hont-Pázmány became head of the royal council and de facto the most powerful prelate of the kingdom, after Gregory Bicskei supported the claim of the pretender Charles of Anjou.
[17] One of the noble councilors was Thomas Hont-Pázmány, Archbishop John's brother, despite his magnate of origin, which reflects the influence of their clan over the royal court.
[17] John and the prelates had a virtually exclusive right to elect the four council members; both Thomas Hont-Pázmány and Henry Balog were considered supporters of the Hungarian clergy.
[18] Thomas and Henry were first identified as royal councillors (Latin: consiliarii) in February 1299, when Dominic Rátót exchanged his estates with Julius Sártványvecse in their presence.
Following a failed royal campaign led by Demetrius Balassa against the Csák territory, the oligarch's troops invaded the central parts of Upper Hungary.
Thomas Hont-Pázmány was present at his deathbed, alongside others lords of the royal court, including Dominic Rátót, Roland Borsa and Paul Szécs.
