Zeman (title)

Zeman ( Slovak. Zeman , Hung. Nemes ) - the lowest noble title of small landowners in the medieval kingdoms of the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, which was below the title of baron . According to their social status, the Zemans were similar to the English gentry .

The Slovak name "zeman" comes from the word "zem" - "earth". The title was mainly distributed in the territory of Slovakia , which was then part of Hungary . The title "Zeman" was widely granted by King Belaya IV after the Mongol invasion of 1241 - 1242 as a token of gratitude for the service. This title was passed to all male Zemans children without exception. Zemans remained free people, although many of them eventually became so poor that they did not differ from peasants . The Zemans did not pay taxes , submitted only to the king , elected officials of the committee and were automatically members of the Hungarian parliament . Zemans were many prominent Slovaks , for example, Anton Burnolak , Jonash Zaborsky , Theresia Vansova, Janko Esensky and so on ^[1] . The title of Zeman was abolished in 1918 after the fall of Austria-Hungary . The memory of this title remained in a number of Slovak and Czech surnames, for example, Karel Zeman , Milos Zeman .