The Hungarian Golden Bull and its place among European legal sources

Balogh, Elemér (2023) The Hungarian Golden Bull and its place among European legal sources. In: Golden Bulls and Chartas. Legal Heritage . Ferenc Mádl Institute of Comparative Law; Central European Academic Publishing, Budapest; Miskolc, pp. 43-83. ISBN 9786156356246; 9786156356253; 9786156474261; 9786156474278

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Abstract

The Golden Bull, issued by King Andrew II of Hungary in 1222, was a milestone among contemporary Hungarian constitutional documents and a significant European document. It was drafted and published 800 years ago, and its significance lives on to this day, and is still a lively topic of modern constitutional law thinking. The 13th and 14th centuries were the age of the golden bull in Europe, as legal documents with similar content and character were produced not only in Hungary but throughout the continent, such as the Magna Charta Libertatum (1215) in England, the Danish constitutional charter (1282) and, a century later, the German Golden Bull (1356). The name “golden bull” itself refers to a kind of ceremonial exceptionalism; the use of the metal seal (bulla) was adopted from Byzantium. In the Middle Ages, the use of seals was in itself a highly important authentication procedure, since it provided a visible and tangible proof of the identity of the issuer to the largely illiterate members of society, and indirectly indicated the importance of the contents of the document. ...

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