The first prefection occurred in 1332, when King
Charles Robert granted this status to Margaret Gersei. The Gersei family sided with the king during the early, tumultuous years of his reign, when he had to defeat the local oligarchs to consolidate his rule. The family was murdered by the
Kőszegi oligarch family in 1316, with the exception of Margaret, who was saved by her nurse and was later married to
Paul Magyar, a supporter of the king.
Louis the Great, the son of Charles Robert, continued to grant this status to noble daughters who were married to his loyal supporters, thereby redistributing the lands of the old aristocracy among the families on whose support he could count. Overall about 100 cases of prefection were recorded until 1526 (when most of Hungary fell to the
Ottoman Empire and central rule became destabilized). In literature, prefection plays a role in the second part of
János Arany's famous
Toldi trilogy − both Toldi's beloved, Piroska Rozgonyi, and his niece, Anikó are granted
praefecta status by Louis the Great. ==See also==