Universitas Valachorum
Universitas Valachorum (state of the Vlachs ) is the Latin name for an institution of self-government of the Romanians in medieval Transylvania.
The beginnings of this institution are unclear, but they should not be older than the Hungarian power extension to Transylvania in the 11th century to be.
Under the Transylvanian Romanians were Universitas Valachorum by their own nobles ( voivode, Knezen ) and is also enjoyed its own jurisdiction in its own right ( jus Valachorum ).
If Transylvania with external threats, such as the Tatars, Kumans, Saracens and other nations was ( omnino Tartarorum vel Cumanum Saracenum vel Meugarium ) faced, they called the state of the Romanians ( Universitas Valachorum ) together with the other booths Transylvania ( Universisque nobilibus Ungarorum, Saxonibus, Syculis et Volachis ) for the defense of the Christian faith - so Lodomerus, Archbishop of Esztergom, 1288th
When the king of Hungary or the voivode of Transylvania, the General Assembly of the Estates ( congregatio generalis ) convened, the Universitas Valachorum joined together with the other three stands of Transylvania on: the nobility, the Saxons and the Székely ( Universis nobilibus, Saxonibus, Syculis et Olachis in partibus Transiluanis ) - as King Andrew III in 1291, with the convening of the Estates of Transylvania to white castle / Alba Iulia.
The last date known document relating to the convening of the General Assembly of the Estates Universitas Valachorum to Transylvania in Thornburg / Turda dates from 1355th
Gradually, after 1366 the Romanians lost their status as state and were unloaded by the assemblies of the estates. In that year, King Louis I of Hungary adopted in the city of Turda / Torda / Thornburg, a law -and-order decree, which was partly directed specifically against the Romanians ( presumptuosam astuciam diversorum malefactorum, specialiter Olachorum, in ipsa terra nostra existencium - the bad lists various evildoers, especially Romanians who live in this our country; exterminandum ad seu delendum in ipsa terra male factores quarumlibet nacionum, signanter Olachorum - to drive or wipe out from this country, the perpetrators of any nation, strongly Romanians ).
By the same decree of belonging to the nobility of belonging to the Roman Catholic Church is conditioned. Consequently, the Orthodox are excluded from the nobility.
The main reason for this policy was political and ecclesiastical nature: for directed against Catholic missionary Angevin dynasty, the existence of a " schismatic " Orthodox nobility appeared unkompatibel with the Catholic Apostolic self-understanding of the Hungarian crown.
By the Decree of Turda the nobility status was defined not only by the ownership of land and serfs, but it requires also a royal confirmation in the form of a gift certificate. Since the Romanian elite, the majority of which from " iudices and knezes was who ruled over their subjects according to traditional Romanian law (ius valachicum ), mostly did not bring a state to procure the modern royal deeds of gift, many Romanian nobles saw their possessions and brought state.
Through this dual mechanism - Exclusion of the Orthodox from the nobility and the introduction of the royal gift certificates - the Romanians were no longer able to maintain their status and take part in the assemblies of estates.
In order not to lose their privileges and political survival, number of Romanians upper classes added to the decree of 1366 and went to Catholicism and then into the Hungarian nobility ( " nobilis Ungaris " ) below. The unconverted Romanian nobles could in the long run their not defend status and privileges and fell into Bauertum if not into bondage. , the mass of the Orthodox Romanians were left without political leaders, and thus without representation right.
The final sealing of the political and social exclusion of the Transylvanian Romanians came after the suppression of the peasant uprising of 1437, when the Unio Trium Nationum (union of three nations ) was proclaimed, which the Alliance and the sole political authority of the three estates of the nobles, of the Saxons and Székely proclaimed. Thus the Universitas Valachorum also a constitutional end was set.