Povelje kralja Vladislava o preseljavanju Srba iz Donjeg Kovina na Čepel,

Abstract

U proleće 1439. godine sultan Murat II je preduzeo pohod na Despotovinu, osvojio i poharao njen veći deo. Cilj pohoda je bio da se zauzme i Smederevo, prestonica Srbije. Opsada Smedereva je trajala oko tri meseca, a za to vreme turska vojska je dva puta prelazila Dunav i harala po južnom Banatu. Tom prilikom je stradao i grad Kovin, te su se njegovi preživeli žitelji upustili u bekstvo i konačno se naselili na dunavskom ostrvu Čepelu južno od Budima, na pustom selištu crkve Svetog Avrama. Kralj Vladislav je nastojao da svoje podanike zaštiti u njihovom zbegu i zato je u tu svrhu izdao tri povelje 1440. godine. U prvoj povelji se dostojanstvenicima Ugarskog kraljevstva zabranjuje da ugrožavaju izbeglice, a zatim i zapoveda da im omoguće nesmetan prolazak kroz zemlju, u drugoj povelji kralj preseljenicima dodeljuje selište crvke Svetog Avrama za naseljavanje, a u trećoj im dozvoljava da na pomenutom mestu podignu brod. Povelje sadrže i druge važne podatke o ovom događaju, pogotovo što se u dve povelje navodi da su te izbeglice Srbi, te je i novo naselje na Čepelu ponelo naziv Mali ili Srpski Kovin.

In the spring of 1439, the Ottoman sultan Murad II organized a military campaign on Serbian Despotate, conquering and plundering most of its territory. The aim of the campaign was to take over Serbia’s capital Smederevo. The siege of Smederevo lasted for approximately three months, enabling the Turkish army to cross the Danube on two occasions, desolating the territory of Southern Banat. The town of Kovin was also devastated in these operations, which forced its inhabitants who survived this devastation to flee to the north. After a long wandering they finally settled on the Danube island of Chepel south of Buda, in a deserted village near the church of St. Abraham. In order to protect his subjects in their misfortune, King Vladislav issued three charters in the 1440. According to the first chart, the Hungarian nobles are banned from oppressing refugees, and they are also commanded to allow them to move freely across the country. The second chart grants them the land near St. Abraham Church to settle on, and by the third one king allowed them to have ferryboat near their settlement. The Charts also contain other important information about this migration, including the fact that aforementioned refugees were Serbs, so the new settlement on Chepel was named Little or Serbian Kovin. These protective Charts, which were granted to the exiles of Kovin, have roots in the commercial privileges, previously donated to the inhabitants of Kovin in the time of King Sigismund. At that time Kovin was also inhabited by the merchants from Dubrovnik, the most active merchants on the territory of Serbia and southern Hungary in the Middle Ages. This migration of Serbs from Lower Kovin is the first organized and documented penetration of Serbs deeper into Hungary, and therefore marks the beginning of a phenomenon that will continue, becoming more frequent in the later period. The Serbs from Serbia, also driven by the Turks, would follow their way and settle at the southern regions of Hungary. The result of this process was a change in the ethnic structure of Southern Hungary that would open the way to the later political activity of the Serbs in Hungary, at the Military Border at first and then later in Serbian Vojvodina. Therefore, the aforementioned charts are considered to be rather important documents depicting that phenomenon. The charts are presented in Latin, according to the edition of Istvan Magdic, followed by their translation into Serbian, thus becoming more susceptible and useful.