Folia archeologica 52.
Vörös István: Ló az Árpád-kori Magyarországon
214 VÖRÖS ISTV ÁN TRADING ANIMALS AT THE BORDERS (CONFINIUM). At the confines of the country, no home trader could sell or buy a stud horse with the exception of buying a horse for himself for military service 'expedicionem necessarium [...] equum' (L.II.15.). For selling the stud horse taken to the borders outside the country, special royal permission was needed (licentia regis). Offering horses for sale outside the border without royal licence resulted in locking up the person in jail and confiscating the horse till exonerated by his own landlord. Should he be proved guilty (reus), he was executed as thief; if not, he lost only the horse but was let pass free (L.III . 16). The trader (owner) of the horse was considered guilty if the horse was proved to be stolen (L.III. 11.) by robbery or illegal deal outside a fair (L.II.7. l.§). He was not considered guilty if he bought the horse on a fair and could prove it (L.II.7. 4. §), or the illegally bough horse was not stolen. In this latter case, the horse was taken (L.II.7. 2.§). The horse was also taken from the merchant if he wanted to sell it at, or across the border without royal licence. Ehe legal purchase of the horse could be proved by the magistrate of'the fair or the toll-person (L. II. 7., 3.-4. §). Foreign merchants arriving from other countries to buy a stallion from Hungary had to follow a certain procedure: the officer at the border escorted them to the king, and with his permission, in the front of the royal commissioner they could buy as much and the ones allowed for them (L.II.18.). The actual prohibition of taking animals outside the borders took place in the times of King Coloman (1095—1116.) when the first Crusader troops crossed Hungary. It was prohibited to buy or sell a Hungarian horse 'equum hungaricum' in Hungary and the regions adjacent to Hungary ('adiacentibus ') (C.I. 76.). II somebody bought a horse in spite of the prohibition, he was charged with theft; to find an excuse, he could only seek for the person he bought the horse from within the borders of Hungary (C.I.76.1.§), not abroad (C.I.76.2.§). If he was found innocent, he was not considered guilty of theft but he lost the horse and the price be paid for it (C.I. 76. 2.§). Innocence was judged by hot-iron trial and if proved guiltv he was condemned as thief. King Coloman prohibited the purchase of all domestic animals with the exception of cattle bulls ('boves masculos') outside Hungary ('extra Hungáriám') (C.I.77., 1 .§). "fhis restriction is generally interpreted as decrease in the animal stock during the 1 1/12th centuries. Archaeological bone finds seem to contradict this, same as the chartered evidence. For example, according to the memories of the Illustrated Chronicle from the 14 t h century, when King András I. made peace with Emperor Henry IV of Germany in 1058, he sent for the starving German army 'fifty large sturgeons, two-thousand bacons, thousand large oxen, sheep and cattle in herds' (SRI I L 350., KK. chapter 90. 118., footnote 340. p. 331.). The troops of the 1st Crusaders crossed Hungary in several waves during the summer of 1096. According to the description of Guibertus 'different kinds of meat and other vitals, in which their land abounds in, were available in large quantities' (Guibertus 62.). The chronicle of Albert of Aachen also stated that the food supply of the passing troops was adequately solved. In spite of this, goods were robbed from the Hungarians: 'sheep and cattle' driven away. In the Zimony fortress, occupied by the Crusaders 'there was plenty of food, (...) herds of sheep, cattle (...) and innumerable horses' (VESZPRÉMY 2005, 507-508.). At the Varasd toll (1209, Drava river bank, Varasd county) the duty paid after horse taken to German land was 2 denars; at the Buda-Castle — national fair -, the weekly market toll was both from buyer and seller of the horse, 2-2 denars each (1255). Liptó Castle - following the new chart of King Béla IV. (1265) - obtained the priv ilege to sell stallions free, with the exception of Germany and Bohemia.
