The Maylád de Szunyogszeg Family

The coat of arms of this noble family underwent major changes. According to J. Siebmacher the 1532 and 1538 arms were granted to Count Maylád István (1502-1550). The 1532 coat of arms was changed in 1538 because it was too similar to the Szilágyi family's. The 1547 coat of arms was granted to István's son, Gábor (Gabriel) with the rank of baron.

A place name in square brackets gives the [Hungarian, German, Rumanian] name whenever possible. Maylád István signed his name as MAYLAD and that form is used throughout this page.[REF.]

István's father, Mátyás who signed his name as "Maylád de Komána" settled in Fogaras county, Erdély (Transylvania) in 1480. The place called Komána can still be identified by the község (community) of [Alsokomána, Komondjen, Comana de Jos] and the falu (village) of [Felsökomána,, Comana de Sus] now in Rumania (see map below).

István had property in [Királyhalom,Königsberg,Crihalma] which is about 20 Km. from the city of [Fogaras,Fogarasch,Fãgãraº]. Királyhalom is also about 2.5 Km from Alsokomána and about 5.5 Km from Felsökomána.

He was a Transylvanian statesman who lived in that period in which Hungary was invaded by the Turks under the command of Süleyman I, the Magnificent. Click on the map for a larger view. After the fall of Mohács city in 1526 the Turks occupied Hungary for 150 years. In 1541, the capital Buda fell under Turkish occupation and Hungary was partitioned into three parts. The Habsburgs governed the western part of the country, the central area was ruled by the Turks, and the south-east Transylvanian principality (today part of Rumania) for a long time was the citadel of Hungarian culture.

Maylád István (Stephen) was Vojvod of part of Transylvania. He survived the battle of Mohács in 1526 and returned to Transylvania through upper Hungary. According to the work of Makkai László entitled "Joint History of Hungarians and Rumanians", the widow of King Lajos II who was slain at the battle of Mohács, fled to Pozsony (now Bratislava, Slovakia) and before returning to her home country, Spain, donated the estates of Szeben to Maylád István.

Maylád István was for a while the supreme commander of King János (John) Szápolyay's army against King Ferdinand of Hapsburg's invading army led by the mercenary commander Gritti, whom he defeated near Meggyes in 1535.

Another book by Kiss Gábor dealing with the history of the castles of

Transylvania relates another story. According to Kiss, King Ferdinand gave in 1527 half of Fogaras to Maylád István and the other half to Nádasdy Tamás (Thomas), who was then the Chief Justice of Hungary. The King's gift to István was a reward for the latter's support and surrender of the treasures of King Lajos II slain during the battle of Mohács.

To secure the whole of Fogaras, István changed sides and supported King John and married Nádasdy Anna (1530), the sister of Nádasdy Tamás. In 1532, Nádasdy gave his half of Fogaras to Maylád.

When the Turks became suspicious of István's dealings with the West, they tricked him into leaving his fortified castle of Fogaras. On the 20th. July 1541 István was betrayed by a Moldavian military commander and was delivered into Turkish hands. He spent almost 10 years imprisoned in the Jedikule (or Seven Towers) near Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey where he died the week before Christmas in 1550. [Ref.] His estates were confiscated by King John, who was always short of funds. István left two children, Margit and Gábor.

	Maylád Margit married Báthori András and their children - Erzsébet (1555), Gábor (1556), Boldizsár (1560), András (1561) and István (1562) were born at Szilágy-Somlyo in the county of *Szilágy, Erdély now in Rumania. Margit later re-married the younger Báthori* János.

In 1566, Maylád Gábor, under the Báthori family connection, regained Fogaras lost to his father. Gábor (Gabriel) became for a while the commander of King John's army. In 1547, he was created baron and later, apparently under the impression that he was to be handed over to the Turks, sold his estates in Transylvania in order to settle in Hungary but later moved to Moravia. He died there on July 22, 1577.

From Gábor's marriage to Alsó-Lindvai Bánffy Anna, two sons (Gábor and István - both died without children) and two daughters (Anna and Ilona)

resulted. Son István died in Esztergom county in 1595. Daughter Anna married Szentmiklosi Pongrácz Dániel. Ilona married Horkai Horeczky János and remarried Jeszeniczei Szunyogh Móses. It is believed that this family branch is extinct on the male side.

Historical sources all mention the place called Szunyogszeg from which the family derived its title. Szunyog means 'mosquito' while szeg means 'a nail or a spit of land'. This place could be Valea Gîrboulu, Cluj, Transylvania, Rumania (was Szunyogszeg, Szolnok-Doboka, Erdély, Hungary). The red area below represents the old Hungarian county of Szolnok-Doboka, and Szunyogszeg is approximately 8 Km north (north is up) of [Dés, Desch, Dej].

One source claims that three places in Erdély (Transylvania) paid taxes to the Maylád family - Szunyogszeg, Vledény and Komána . The first is in the historical Hungarian county of Szolnok-Doboka. The other two are in the historical county of Fogaras.

Confusingly, there exists a place with a very similar name of Szunyogszék much closer to the family's landholdings of Vledény and Komána in Fogaras. [Szunyogszék, Schnackendorf, Dumbrãviþa] is about 20 Km. from Komána - the home of Maylád Mátyás, and only 5 Km. from [Vledény, Wladein, Vlãdeni].

The following portion of a 1910 map of Fogaras county shows the district of Sárkány (dark green) in which Komána, Vledény and Szunyogszék are to be found. You can click on the map below for a much larger view, it is a huge map and takes a long time to load from a Hungarian site!

It seems strange, though not impossible, that the family title was derived from Szunyogszeg in Szolnok-Doboka several hundred kilometres away and not from Szunyogszék in Fogaras - the county this family called home.

Keeping in mind that place names do change for various reasons, and that all living languages change over time, the differences in the Hungarian language of 450 years ago may explain the confusion over the name of Szunyogszeg and Szunyogszék.

The following portion of a letter from
Nádasdy Tamás (the brother-in-law of Maylád István) to his wife, Kanizsay Orsolya, dated 23 August 1544 Vienna shows some of the differences between Hungarian in 1544 (black text) and 1889 (blue text):-

Since 1889 the Hungarian language has changed again through Government driven revisions of spelling in the 20th. Century.

Parts of the maps were produced with KIÚT 4.0 with some changes due to display constraints.