Magyar News, 1999. szeptember-2000. augusztus (10. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2000-04-01 / 8. szám

King Stephen as depicted in a codex.

from the 11th century and according to some historians, it may have served as part of a relic containing the skull of St. Stephen after the exhumation of his body and his canonization, in 1083.

We do not know when the present crown was made from the two parts: historians place it in the period from the reign of King Coloman (Könyves Kálmán) (1095- 1116) to the end of the 13th century. From then on, the history of the Holy Crown is fairly continuous and well documented.

The Evolution of the "Concept of the Holy Crown"

Practically every European country (except Switzerland) had been once a monarchy and naturally, their rulers also had crowns as a sign of their authority. Marty of these crown jewels still exist and demonstrate the superior workmanship of the goldsmiths of the royal courts. However, none of these ever had the veneration of St Stephen's Crown, not even the

two crowns which are definitely older: the crown of the Holy Roman Empire — made for the Emperor Otto I (936-73) and remodeled during the reign of Otto III (983-1002) -- and the so-called iron crown given to Queen Theodolinda of Lombardy by Pope Gregory 1 (the Great) (590-604) even although this crown includes the part of an iron nail supposedly from the cross of Jesus Christ (hence its name). The former is simply exhibited in the Hofburg of Vienna, together with a number of other crowns while the latter is displayed in the cathedral of Monza, in Northern Italy.

In Hungary the Crown started to acquire a separate life around the 13th century, when King Béla IV (1235-70) referred to the land of the country as the property of the Holy Crown, emphasizing in this way that the supreme power is of the Crown and not of the king: the king only acts in its name. This concept was further evolved during the 14th and 15th centuries, after the death of Andreas III (1290-1301), the last Hungarian king of the Árpád dynasty. This is best illustrated by the events during the reign of King Sigismund (1387-1437) who in 1401, was imprisoned for four months by the great magnates. In this period the great seal of the country indicated that it is the Sigillum Sacrae Coronae regni Hungáriáé. "Regnum" in this context meant the government as a whole: in other words, it was the seal of the Holy Crown in which name the country was governed. Parallel to this evolution it also became accepted that the king's reign is only legitimate if he is crowned with the Holy Crown, because his authority stems from it. This was illustrated by the complications associated with the reign of Charles Robert (1310-42), the first Hungarian king of the Anjou dynasty: he was crowned four times because his followers first could not acquire the Holy Crown and used other, surrogate crowns; however, coronation by these was not considered as legitimate.

Slowly the concept of "regnum" was broadened by including all the nobles of the land. This concept was then codified in the

Tripartitum, the fundamental collection of the basic

laws of the

Hungarian constitution, compiled in

1514 by Stephen Verböczy.

According to this all the nobles of

Left: Building the Parliament 1885- 1904. Right: The ceremony of bringing the Holy Crown into the new Parliament building in 1896.

King Géza I as shown on the Holy Crown

the land are members of the Holy Crown - - membrum corpus Sacrae Coronae — and the king exercises his power only after he was crowned by this crown: in this way he becomes part of the regnum, together with the nobles. This concept was then continued until 1945, with the eventual change that after 1848 all inhabitants of Hungary (and not only the nobles) were considered to be "members of the Holy Crown's body". Incidentally this was already advocated by Louis Kossuth in one of his early writings dated 1833. While proposing the liberation of the serfs he specifically expressed it in this way: elevate them from people without rights to members of the Holy Crown, with equal rights to the nobles.

The concept of the Holy Crown received a particular meaning after 1920, when Hungary became a paradox: a kingdom without a king. This was justified by emphasizing that the Holy Crown represents the continuity: laws were enacted in its name and the Courts of Law made their decisions in the name of the Holy Crown.

The concept of the Holy Crown did not only concern the inhabitants of the country but also the land itself: The land of

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