Nana Nánabeszter

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Nana Nánabeszter was a Hungarian nobleman and soldier in the 13th century. He belonged to the gens Nánabeszter, a family with land along the Danube near Esztergom and Buda. His father, Nana I, may be the same noble who served as ispán of the udvornici in Esztergomváralja in 1184.

Nana II is first mentioned in 1228, when his family separated the Nána estate from the Esztergom cathedral lands. They also held lands at Berki in Pest County (near today’s Érd). In later records only Nana appears.

In 1231 he fought in the campaign against the Principality of Halych and took part in the siege of Jarosław. For this, King Andrew II granted him a portion of the village Sóskút near Berki in 1233. That same year he held the court title procurator and provisor of the royal horses, a minor royal position; no other offices are known for him. This is the last information about Nana.

Nana married Agnes Berki, daughter of Paul, a local lord from Berki. Agnes, who said she was born in 1226, joined the Dominican nuns on Rabbits’ Island in 1258 after Nana’s death. They had a son, Nana III.

Nana III later joined the Dominican friars around 1266. In 1258 Nana and Agnes donated the Sóskút estate to the Dominican nuns on Rabbits’ Island, a move that drew protests from distant relatives. Agnes is noted as the seventeenth nun during the canonization process of St. Margaret of Hungary, daughter of King Béla IV, in 1276.