Századok – 2003
TANULMÁNYOK - Tringli István: A szent királyok szabadsága. A középkori történelmi tudat és a történelem-hagyományozódás sajátosságai 809
870 TRINGLI ISTVÁN kingdom from those donated by the knight-saint. The content of the liberties was modernised, and the privileges acquired later were added to those of Saint Stephen. It was no deliberate forgery: some of the older privileges were simply put alongside those thought to have descended from Stephen or Ladislas. Hence was born in the second half of the 13t h century the third type of the liberty of the holy kings. The expression remained the same, but the liberties were separated from the ruler who really granted them. The conception continued to be used within a relatively narrow circle, generally referring to privileges dating from the 11t h century, some of which in fact originated from one of the two saint kings. The expressions corresponding to the three phases lived alongside and mutually influenced each other. Consequently, the content of the liberty of Saint Stephen became less precise. The fourth phase in the development of the liberty of the holy kings came at the end of the 14t h century. The liberty of the holy kings was then separated not only from the privileges granted by the saint rulers but also from the holy kings themselves. This change manifested itself in the emergence of the expression of the liberty of the blessed kings. By the end of the 15t h century practically no difference was made between the liberty of the holy kings and that of the blessed kings; they were sometimes even used as synonyms (libertás sanctorum et divorum regum). This was the fifth type of the liberty of the holy kings. It remained as popular in the early modern era as it had been in the middle ages as an integral part of the historical mind and of the legal-political thinking.
