Briccius Báthory was a Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 nobleman and the founder of the renowned Báthory

Báthory

The Báthory were a Hungarian noble family of the Gutkeled clan. The family rose to significant influence in Central Europe during the late Middle Ages, holding high military, administrative and ecclesiastical positions in the Kingdom of Hungary...

 family.

His father was Andrew of Rakoméz, surnamed the Bald, son of Nikolaus, from the Gutkeled

Gutkeled

right|thumb|The coat-of-arms of the Hungarian Gutkeled clanThe Gutkeled was a family or clan of Hungarian nobles, to which a number of Hungarian noble families owe their ancestry....

 clan. Andrew is mentioned in 1250 as a patron of the monastery of Sárvár in the county of Szatmár

Szatmár

Szatmár is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in north-western Romania and north-eastern Hungary, south of the river Tisza...

.

In 1279, Briccius (together with his brothers George (d. 1307) and Benedict (d. 1321) and his uncle Hados) was rewarded by King Ladislaus IV ) for military services by granting them Bátor

Nyírbátor

Nyírbátor /ˈɲiːɾbaːtoɾ/ is a town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. With its historic atmosphere, this city is known for its 15th- and 16th-century ecclesiastic and secular built heritage and for the family of the former landowners, the Báthory...

 in the county of Szabolcs

Szabolcs (county)

Szabolcs is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary in present-day northeastern Hungary. The capital of the county was Nyíregyháza.-Geography:...

.

In 1310, Bátor came into the sole possession of Briccius when he reached and agreement with his nephew Michael and his cousin Vid to divide the joint possessions. After this, Briccius and his descendants named themselves "of Bátor" or Báthory.

Briccius fathered five sons:

• John I, the first-born son of Briccius, became Count of Szatmár
  Szatmár
  Szatmár is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in north-western Romania and north-eastern Hungary, south of the river Tisza...
  
  .
• Andrew II (d. 1345) became Bishop of Varadinum
  Oradea
  Oradea is the capital city of Bihor County, in the Crișana region of north-western Romania. The city has a population of 204,477, according to the 2009 estimates. The wider Oradea metropolitan area has a total population of 245,832.-Geography:...
  
  .
• Laurence I died without issue.
• Nicolaus I (d. 1357/63) became Count of Csongrád
  Csongrád
  Csongrád is a town in Csongrád County in southern Hungary. Formerly, the city also had the alternate Slavic name of Černigrad, which, like the Hungarian version, means "Black Castle" or "Black Town".-History:...
  
  .
• Luke (d. 1330), the youngest son, who possessed wide estates in Szatmár
  Szatmár
  Szatmár is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in north-western Romania and north-eastern Hungary, south of the river Tisza...
  
   and was granted the lordship of Ecsed
  Ecsed
  Ecsed is a small village in Hungary. There is an old town of Ecsed in the eastern part of Hungary that has been renamed Nagyecsed, meaning "grand" or "great Ecsed"....
  
  .

Among these John was the ancestor of the Báthory of Somlyó, the elder branch of the family, while Luke was the ancestor of the Báthory of Ecsed, the younger branch.

External links

• A genealogy of the founders of the Báthory family
• A genealogy of the Somlyó branch
• A genealogy of the Ecsed branch

Literature

• Farin, Michael, Heroine des Grauens. Elisabeth Báthory. Munich: P. Kirchheim, 2003. ISBN 3-87410-038-3.
• Wertner, Moritz, "Urgeschlechter in Siebenbürgen.", in Archiv des Vereins für siebenbürgische Landeskunde. Neue Folge, Bd. 29, Heft 1 (1899), Hermannstadt 1899, pp. 156-235.