Royal Free City

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Royal Free City (Latin libera regia civitas , Hungarian szabad királyi város , Slovak slobodné kráľovské mesto , Croatian and Serbian slobodni kraljevski grad ) was the official name for from the 15th century to 1871 (formally also until the beginning of the 20th century) with certain privileges the main cities in the Kingdom of Hungary .

These were communities that were taken out of the sovereign's sphere of influence by the king (hence the name "royal"), received certain privileges from them and exercised the right to self-government with regard to their internal affairs (hence the name "free"). Royal cities had existed in the Kingdom of Hungary since the 13th century, and royal free cities since the 15th century.

Characteristic

These were "royal" and "free" cities, that is, municipalities that were taken out of the administration and influence of landlords, existed "free" from them, were granted certain privileges by the king and (since) 1405 as members of the state parliament were allowed. As a rule, they exercised the right to self-government in relation to their internal affairs themselves.

A royal free city usually had (at least until the 17th century):

  • a freely elected city ​​judge (but approved by the king)
  • own city organs (above all a city ​​council ), which administered the city and independently disposed of the city's assets
  • full jurisdiction exercised by the city judge or city council (appeals were incumbent on the king)
  • a freely chosen pastor
  • a free market (the proceeds went to the king)
  • economic privileges (exemption from tolls in certain parts of the country or throughout the country, exemption from border tariffs, the right to stack , privileges when selling products from the city, etc.)

Special rights (at least until the 17th century) were:

  • the right to determine the units of measurement applicable in the city and to check that they are being observed
  • the right to act as landlord (in fact, many of the cities had subordinate villages)
  • the right of citizens to freely bequeath their property to their descendants

The duties included:

  • Tax payment to the king
  • Entertaining the king when he visits the city
  • New year gifts for the king
  • initially the duty to provide soldiers for the royal army

history

13th Century

The first settlements (de facto cities) in the Kingdom of Hungary received their city rights (de jure cities) from the king in the 13th century (for example Schemnitz / Selmecbánya / Banská Štiavnica before 1238, Tyrnau / Nagyszombat / Trnava 1238) and became today and then, among other things, referred to as "royal cities". At first, on closer inspection, it was the generally German “ hospites ” (“guests”, i.e. recruited settlers) who received these rights, but in the same century there were already cities (for example Altsohl / Zólyom / Zvolen ) in to which these rights were given to all residents. Most of the cities were in what is now Slovakia , with the cities of the Spiš even collectively receiving a single city charter from the king in 1271. In the Kingdom of Croatia, Perna (1225) and Zagreb (1242) were the first royal free cities.

Already in the same century there were (much less often) cities that received their rights from the sovereigns , especially from church officials ( archbishop etc.). At that time their rights were still similar to those of the royal cities, only the person of the king was replaced by that of the landlord in the respective city rights. These cities are now called "non-royal cities" (for example Jasov 1243, Heiligen-Kreutz / Garamszentkereszt / Žiar nad Hronom 1246). The mining towns (for example Schemnitz / Selmecbánya / Banská Štiavnica, Jasov / Jászó) formed a partially special and initially quite large group of royal and non-royal cities. The first attempts at differentiating the legal position of the cities existed as early as the 13th century when some royal and non-royal cities over full (Tyrnau / Nagyszombat / Trnava , Pressburg / Prešporok / Pozsony ( Bratislava ) ...), others only partially Jurisdiction rights (Jasov ...).

14th Century

In the 14th century the autonomous position of the cities increased, a city council with twelve members was established, city walls were built (for which the cities received various discounts and similar from the king), and the number of non-royal cities increased significantly , and the development of the complicated system of the (then usually German) town law was complete. To simplify matters, one can already distinguish between:

  • Cities of the first category (especially treasurer cities [see below], mining cities and Leutschau / Lőcse / Levoča ), that is, the future royal free cities and free mining cities
  • Cities of the second category (especially other royal cities) and
  • Small towns (especially non-royal towns)

1308 are mentioned as the four most important cities of the kingdom Tyrnau / Nagyszombat / Trnava , Pozsony / Bratislava / Pressburg , Schemnitz / Selmecbánya / Banská Štiavnica and Ofen / Buda .

15th and 16th centuries

In terms of the content of the term, one can speak of “royal free cities” (i.e. cities that were royal and in a certain way “free”) since the beginning of the 15th century, especially after the representatives of the royal cities, non-royal cities ( and “free municipalities”) was allowed to participate in state parliament sessions. In this century the term “free city” appears systematically in the city charter in the Latin form “civitas” as a designation for (really) free cities provided with city walls (other cities were denied city walls). All other cities (royal and non-royal) are referred to as "oppidum" (small town). From the end of the 15th century, these terms were in fact confirmed by resolutions of the state parliament:

  • In 1498 the king mentions the ten "most important cities" of the kingdom, that is, the royal free cities (six of them on the territory of today's Slovakia), for example Pressburg / Prešporok / Pozsony / (Bratislava), Kaschau / Košice , Tyrnau / Nagyszombat / Trnava , Leutschau / Lőcs / Levoča
  • In 1492, the rule, which had been ignored for 150 years, according to which all cities are obliged to pay their respective landlords in kind, was renewed, and only for cities without city walls (i.e. oppida)
  • In 1514 an exact categorization and designation of the cities (i.e. the royal cities) was finally established:
    • Royal free cities with full jurisdiction and the chief treasurer ( Tarnackmeister ) as the superordinate court of appeal (so-called "treasurer cities" or "tavernical cities", Hungarian tárnoki városok, Slov. Tavernikálne mestá): eight cities - Pressburg / Prešporok / Pozsony / (Bratislava), Kaschau / Kassa / Košice , Tyrnau / Nagyszombat / Trnava , Bartfeld / Bártfa / Bardejov , Eperies / Eperjes / Prešov , Ofen / Buda , Pest , Ödenburg / Sopron
    • Royal free cities with the court of the royal "personalis" as the highest court of appeal (so-called "Personalisstädte"): seven cities (for example Leutschau / Lőcse / Levoča , Skalitz / Szakolca / Skalica , Zeben / Kisszeben / Sabinov )
    • Free mountain towns (in principle with the court of the royal "personalis" - in mining matters but with the mining chamber - as the highest court of appeal): Kremnitz / Körmöcbánya / Kremnica , Banska Bystrica / Besztercebánya / Banská Bystrica , Schemnitz / Selmecbánya / Banská Štiavnica , Zvolen / Zólyom / Zvolen as well as "other mountain towns" (that is most likely Königsberg an der Gran / Újbánya / Nová Baňa , Pukanz / Bakabánya / Pukanec , Libethen / Libetbánya / Ľubietová and Dilln / Bélabánya / Banská Belá )

At the beginning of the 15th century there were a total of 23 cities (civitas) in the kingdom, of which 15 were royal free cities (7 of which became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1526 ) and 8 free mining towns. There were around 750 small cities / markets (lat. Oppidum , clothes. Mezöváros , slow. Mestecko ), some of which are still in terms of their legal rights as "free cities" were called. It should be noted that in the literature, the free mountain towns (lat. Liberae civitates montanae ) are sometimes referred to as "royal free towns" (that is, free royal mountain towns).

In the 15th century only 2-3% (in Slovakia 4%) of the population lived in the royal free cities. Compared to Western Europe, they were at most medium-sized cities. In the 15th-17th In the 19th century the Germans (but also Italians, French and the like) gradually lost the traditional upper hand in the cities in favor of Slovaks, other Slavs and Magyars in the respective ethnic areas. Very little information has survived about the situation in Transylvania .

Although the royal free cities had been allowed to take part in state parliaments since 1405, all cities had only one vote, so they hardly participated at first. Since the 1440s they took part more often, from 1490–1526 they again visited the state parliaments only irregularly, and even after that their influence in the state parliament was negligibly small.

The list of royal free cities grew a few longer, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries.

17th and 18th centuries

In 1608 the right to grant city rights was transferred from the king to the state parliament. According to Law XVII / 1687, the king was only allowed to make a city a free royal city with the consent of the state parliament, which, however, was often ignored by the kings if the consent was only obtained afterwards.

Probably due to the special development in the Kingdom of Hungary ( Royal Hungarians ) through battles with the Turks, the rights of self-government of the royal free cities in this country were retained for a relatively long time compared to the cities in Western Europe. Only after the suppression of the anti-Habsburg Wesselényi conspiracy (1670) did King Leopold I of Habsburg begin to interfere in the affairs of the cities, and in particular to recatholize them, since the inhabitants of the cities in Royal Hungary have been mostly Protestants since the 16th century were, but the Habsburgs were Catholic. Religious freedom was largely renewed at the Landtag zu Ödenburg in 1681 (again partially restricted after 1687), but the condition that at least 50% of the city councils of the royal free cities must be Catholics was enforced. In 1714 the state parliament in Pressburg passed a law according to which the cities were forbidden from electing offices without the presence of the royal commissioners sent from Vienna to the individual royal free cities. It often happened that the royal commissioner canceled the election if the favorite of the Habsburgs was not elected, or that he immediately appointed a candidate who was not a citizen of the city to the city council.

18th century

In the 17th century there were three systems of city organs in royal Hungary (i.e. largely in present-day Slovakia):

  • In western Slovakia, including the now Hungarian capital Pressburg, there was a city council (12 people + city judge) and a so-called elected municipality (60 to 100-member council), which were convened on serious occasions. The cities concerned had a magistrate , mayor and governor who were each elected for a year. The city council and elected parish were elected for life. All city charter holders were entitled to vote.
  • The following changes were made in central Slovakia: The city council was one person smaller, the elected municipalities were replaced by so-called external councils (24 members) and there was no mayor or captain.
  • In eastern Slovakia the city council was only elected for one year and only members of the so-called elected community were entitled to vote. The elected municipality was elected by the resigning city council and then elected the new city council.

After about a hundred years of multiple efforts, in the 1750s, when Kaschau / Kassa / Košice as the last royal free city finally gave in, the kings of Vienna succeeded in implementing a uniform system of city organs and city council elections in the cities. It was the system in force in the capital Pressburg, with the exception that only members of the elected community (40-100 members) were eligible to vote, with the elected community for life and the city councils, city judges, mayors, tribunes and city captains at least for 2 years were elected.

Since 1755, candidates for positions in the self-governing bodies were only selected from among the city council members, which was another important limitation of the old democratic traditions, since before that any citizen could become a member of the self-governing bodies. In 1765, the form of city council elections was standardized: it was now voted by throwing small balls with the candidate's name into the ballot box.

Since the end of the 18th century, the royal free cities have been ruled by the nobility (instead of by citizens and members of the guilds, as was the case up to now), as a regulation of the Hungarian Chamber required that only persons with a good education, who were able to speak the language and the law , To become city representatives, which most citizens were not able to fulfill at that time. The ordinance of the Hungarian Chamber also regulated the election of the organs of the royal free cities, the management of funds in these cities and other matters relating to them.

19th century

In 1848 the royal free cities were divided into small (under 12,000 inhabitants), medium (12,000–30,000 inhabitants) and large cities (over 30,000 inhabitants) according to their size by law (Law XLIII / 1848).

In 1869 (Law IV / 1869) the judiciary was separated from the administration in the kingdom, whereby the royal free cities lost their autonomy in the judiciary.

In 1870, Law XLII / 1870 added the category of “Towns with a Munizipium” (“Munizipalstädte”, Hungarian törvényhatósági jogú városok , or “ Towns with municipal rights ”, Hungarian törvényhatósági joggal felruházott ) to the category of “Towns with municipalities” in addition to the Royal Free Cities the so-called Munizipien (ung. törvényhátoságok ) was created, to which 20 (from 1873) 25 cities belonged. Munizipien was the term used in the Kingdom of Hungary to refer to autonomous regional authorities (counties, municipal cities and some special territorial units).

In 1877, Law XX / 1876 converted a considerable part of the royal free cities and cities with municipalities - specifically 28 royal free cities and 19 cities with municipalities - into municipalities ("cities with established magistrates", Hungarian rendezett tanácsú városok ).

However, these municipalities (municipalities that previously had the title of free royal city) retained the title of "free royal city" in a purely formal manner. With the exception of Gran / Esztergom and Güns / Kőszeg, all of these municipalities are outside of today's Hungary. In today's Austria , as can be seen from the list, the cities of Kismarton / Eisenstadt and Ruszt / Rust , which then belonged to Hungary (and now, as part of Burgenland, to Austria) were free royal cities. They were recognized as cities with their own statute in 1926 .

In 1886 the Royal Free Cities mentioned in the above list (except Budapest) were converted into cities with a municipality by Law XXI / 1886, which meant the end of the category of the Royal Free City in the Kingdom of Hungary. Formally, however, these cities retained their title of Royal Free City even after 1886. Budapest received a special position.

The list of towns with a municipality did not change until 1918 (the end of the Kingdom of Hungary) (only the town of Miskolc was added in 1907 ).

See also

literature

  • István Bariska: Eisenstadt and Güns as free royal cities. In: Wolfgang Gürtler (Ed.): Researcher - Designer - Mediator. Festschrift Gerald Schlag (= scientific work from Burgenland . Volume 105). Office of the Burgenland Provincial Government, Department 7-LM, Burgenland Provincial Museums, Eisenstadt 2001, ISBN 3-85405-142-5 , pp. 17–32, PDF on ZOBODAT
  • Ernő Deák: The urban system of the countries of the Hungarian crown. (1780-1918) . Volume 2: Selected materials on urbanism . A: Royal Free Cities, Municipal Cities. (= Austrian Academy of Sciences: Publications of the Commission for Economic, Social and Urban History. Volume 4, 1). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-7001-1556-3 .
  • András Kubinyi: Tavernikalstadt (Lexikonartikel) - In: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Munich / Zurich 1997, Vol. 8 Sp. 514