HUNGARY

The Hungarian kings had close connections with other European rulers and attempted to imitate them, but their successes always proved to be temporary, for the powers of the nobles, attached to their traditional ways, were too strong; the fact that the population was predominantly Magyar, not Germanic, also made a difference.

In 1074, in the midst of civil war, King Geza appealed to Pope Gregory VII for aid. Gregory, attempting the same tactic that had proved successful in both Sicily and Croatiat, promised that he would recognize Geza's claim in exchange for papal suzerainty. But Geza refused, and instead had himself crowned with a crown sent from Byzantium.

Geza's successors, Ladislas ( 1077-1095) and his son Koloman ( 1095-1114), were Hungary's first lawgivers. Ladislas issued three sets of laws that dealt with penal measures against pagans, the administration of royal justice, penalties for theft, protection of property, and other matters. Koloman, who married a daughter of Count Roger of Sicily, issued a legal reform in eighty-four articles, some of which mitigated the harshness of his father's laws. He did away with trial for sorcery, increased the number of courts, restrained judicial combats, set down jurisdictional limits and procedure, and sharply distinguished between ecclesiastical and lay discipline.

It was not until 1172 that there appeared another strong ruler interested in internal reform, Bela III ( 1172-1196). He married Margaret of Capet, daughter of Louis VII of France and widow of Henry the Younger, son of Henry II of England. During Bela's reign many Hungarian intellectuals went to Paris to study.

-514-

However, Bela's successors were unable to carry on his centralizing policies. In 1222, in a reaction to the royal machinery, the nobles and small landholders forced King Andrew II to sign the Golden Bull, a document which, like the English Magna Carta of 1215 and the German Statute in Favor of Princes of 1232, relied on contemporary legal concepts to reduce royal power. Among its thirty_one provisions was one that made it illegal to imprison a noble until he had been properly tried and sentenced. Another forbade the chief royal judicial officer to hear cases involving life or property without the king's knowledge. Other provisions guaranteed the rights of small landholders and regulated other governmental abuses. The nobles' right of resistance against illegal acts of the king was also preserved. Partly as a result of the Golden Bull, royal law in Hungary remained weak in comparison with that of other Western countries in the early thirteenth century. And the Mongol invasion of 1241 left the whole country in devastation.