Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 29. (2001)

A BUDAI KIRÁLYI VÁR ÉS A VÁRNEGYED MINT POLITIKAI, GAZDASÁGI ÉS KORMÁNYZATI KÖZPONT - R. Várkonyi Ágnes: A korona és a budai vár 37-48

ÁGNES R. VÁRKONYI THE CROWN AND BUDA Summary This is a survey of the history of Buda, the capital and royal residence of medieval Hungary, and the royal crown, traditionally the Holy Crown of King István the Saint, founder of the state, and the associated ideas, covering the period of 1526 to 1867. It brings into focus the recapture of Buda in 1686 after 150 years of Ottoman rule, and the efforts made with a view to developing it into the capital of the country. It outlines the rituals of the royal coronations and the hectic history of the crown which was brought back to Buda as a result of a long political struggle of the Hungarians, after more than two hundred and fifty years of extreme and dangerous vicissitudes. The paper deals in detail with two works on the theory of the state published by Péter Révay (1568-1622) in Augsburg and Frankfurt respectively for the information of the western countries of Europe. Drawing on the principles of Jean Bodin and Justus Lipsius, Révay modernized the medieval theory of the crown, adjusting it to the demands of the 17th century. The paper also gives a survey of the various views held by the different layers of Hungarian society during the centuries when the country was, territorially and politically, split into three parts, and later during the period of bourgeois development, views which expressed, symbolically, the unity of the country in the concepts of the crown and Buda.