Golden Bull of 1222

The Golden Bull of Hungary was issued in 1222 by King Andrew II. The laws laid down the basic rights of the nobility, including the right to disobey the royal will, if it was illegal. (ius resistendi, Article 31)

The bull guaranteed the tax exemption of the nobles and the Church ( Article 3); the nobles were, with the exception of the defense case, are not forced to go to war or to finance it ( Article 7).

The bull was made in seven copies: for the Pope, for the Templars, the Knights of Malta, for the king himself, for the two chairs Archbishop of Esztergom and Kalocsa and the Palatine of Hungary.

History

The struggles between king and nobility on the one hand and between the individual members of the royal family on the other hand peaked under the reign of Andrew II The king distributed his lands lightly on the nobles, so that their power has grown steadily, while decreased the revenue sources of the king to the same extent.

The thus expanding power of the aristocracy endangered also the owners of only small or medium-sized estates. King Andrew and his son, the future King Béla IV, were able to leave in the fight against the aristocracy only to the support of the lower and middle nobility. King Andrew called together about 1222 a Parliament which agreed the key points of the Golden Bull, a charter of freedom, which was the basis of the Hungarian constitution until 1848.

The bull was confirmed and supplemented in 1351 by King Ludwig I, 1384 by Queen Mary, and in 1464 by King Matthias. The resistance clause until then was abolished in 1687 on the request of the former ruling dynasty of Hungary, the Habsburgs, which was a sign of the Hungarian nobility gratitude to the Austrian army helped expel the Hungarians occupying Turkish armies.

Today, only a copy of the bull of 1381 is obtained. It is preserved in the Archiepiscopal Archives of Esztergom.