Kryve near Kozova is 183 years older: Martin the tivun, 1443

The entry, as printed

*754. Odrowansch ·/. Marcus. Iohannes Vyssoczsky Burgrab. castri Leopol. cum procuratorio mfi. dom. Petri Odrowansch de Sprowa Plti. et Captei. Leopol. actoris astitit primum terminum contra nobil. Marcum de Koszowa vathaman mfi. dom. Iohannis Cptei. Trebowl. pro repercussione pigneris alias czasza koszowska Regalem et stacionem non dedit, prout ipsum Ministerialis citavit. *755. Odrowansch ·/. Martinus. Iohannes Vyssoczsky Burgrab. castri Leopol. ex parte mfi. dom. Petri Odrowansch Plti. et Cptei. Leopol. actoris astitit primum terminum contra Martinum de Krzywe reum Thywn mfi. dom. Iohannis Cptei. Trebowl., quia repercussit pignoracionem Regalem et stacionem non dedit.

In English

No. 754. Jan Wysocki, burgrave of Lviv Castle, with the mandate of the magnificent lord Piotr Odrowąż of Sprowa, voivode and starosta of Lviv, the plaintiff, appeared at the first term against Marko of Kozova, otaman of the magnificent lord Jan, starosta of Terebovlia, for repelling the pledge, namely the royal “Kozova cup”, and for not giving quarters, as the court officer had summoned him. No. 755. Jan Wysocki, burgrave of Lviv Castle, on behalf of the magnificent lord Piotr Odrowąż, voivode and starosta of Lviv, the plaintiff, appeared at the first term against Martin of Kryve, the defendant, tivun of the magnificent lord Jan, starosta of Terebovlia, because he repelled the royal distraint and did not give quarters.

A date from a story

Of Kryve near Kozova, Wikipedia says “the first mention dates from 1626” and retells that in that year the Tatars burned an older village, Khomene, which stood by the forest. No source is given. Of neighbouring Kalne it says the first mention is from 1473.

In fact Kryve appears in the records two centuries earlier. And not alone, but together with Kozova.

May 1443: a tivun and an otaman

In May 1443, in the Lviv castle court, the burgrave Jan Wysocki appeared on behalf of the voivode of Ruthenia, Piotr Odrowąż, against two village officials at once. The first was “Marko of Kozova, otaman of the magnificent lord Jan, starosta of Terebovlia”. The second was “Martin of Kryve, tivun” of the same lord.

Both had repelled a royal distraint and refused quarters to the king’s men. In Marko’s case the clerk even gave the Ruthenian name of the tribute behind it all: the “Kozova cup”. A tivun was the steward of a lord’s estate. So by 1443 Kryve had its own official and belonged to Jan Buczacki, starosta of Terebovlia, one of the most powerful lords in the region.

1448: Artym of Kryve and the otaman of Kalne

Five years later, on 14 August 1448, the voivode’s deputy again complained about the same lord’s people. This time “Artym of Kryve and another, the otaman of Kalne, [men] of lord Jan of Lytvyniv” had refused quarters on the appointed day, again over the “Kozova cup”. The court found them in contempt and fined them three marks to the court and fourteen to the king.

This entry also gives neighbouring Kalne a date a quarter of a century earlier than Wikipedia’s: 1448 instead of 1473.

How we know it is our Kryve

There are several villages called Kryve in Galicia. But the 1448 entry ties our Kryve to Kozova and Kalne by a single debt: all three villages answer together for the same “Kozova cup” and belong to the same lord. Jan Buczacki styled himself “of Lytvyniv”, and Lytvyniv lies not far away, in the neighbouring Pidhaitsi hromada.

Today Kozova, Kryve and Kalne are neighbours in one Kozova hromada.

Otamans, tivuns and the story of Khomene

Who represented these villages in court is interesting too: an otaman in Kozova, an otaman in Kalne, a tivun in Kryve. Otaman was the title of a village headman, notably in villages under Wallachian law, settled by herders from the Carpathians. But an otaman could also lead an ordinary Ruthenian village, so these entries do not prove Wallachian law.

As for Khomene, the fifteenth-century records neither confirm nor refute the story: they simply know the village under its present name. Perhaps the name Khomene survives in a field or a tract. Those who remember it may know more than the documents.

Sources

• Akta grodzkie i ziemskie, vol. XIV (Lviv, 1888), p. 96, nos. *754–755 (Lviv castle court, May 1443).
• Ibid., p. 271, no. 2112 (14.08.1448).

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