Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)
The Medieval Sister Cities
number of unenfranchised townsmen (journeymen, workers in the vineyards and building workers) were indeed no friends of the old patrician families, but their antagonism to the new families was still stronger, since many of them were in debt to them. By the end of the century the monopoly of power exercised by the old families had come to an end, and when the lesser burgesses, led by a few rich craftsmen, managed to seize power from the merchant families in 1402, and held it for eighteen months, they were apparently also supported by a few patricians that had become wealthy feudal lords, such as László Lórándfi, a member of the Council and lord of Palota. King Sigismund, however, regarded the seizure of power by the lesser burgesses as a threat, re-imposed the authority of the former Council, and issued a decree on the 9 December 1403, declaring that only owners of landed property could become mayor or members of the Council, that following their election they had to be confirmed by the sovereign or his representative, and that no meetings of citizens could be held without the permission of the mayor and the Council. (Document III.) The bid for power on the part of lesser citizens consequently failed, but the councillors found themselves faced with the sustained hostility of the citizenry. In the first half of the fifteenth century the dominant group consisted of German cloth merchants and drapers, and this gave the guise of a struggle between Hungarians and foreigners to the class war which was emerging in the city. For the majority of these middle-rank citizens were Hungarians—with a small élite among them approaching the level of the German patricians in wealth—and the great majority of the artisans and poorer townsfolk were also Hungarians. Yet the Ordinances of Buda (Ofner Stadt recht), which at that time were drawn up in the German language, laid down that only landed proprietors with four German grandparents could be mayor, and that the council of twelve members could include no more than two Hungarians. This Ordinance, however, could never be implemented, and between 1430 and 1440 the wealthier burghers of Hungarian extraction attempted a counter-attack, led by the scribe and Royal Deputy Treasurer, György Budai (the Deputy Judge of the Appeal Court of the burgher cities). The German patricians countered their moves by arousing antagonism to the Deputy Treasurer among a section of the common townsfolk, and in 1439 even attempted to settle accounts finally with the now vulnerable Hungarian leading and middle burghers, who abandoned city politics after the failure of their leader, the scribe György. The Germans then proceeded to elect a Hungarian cloth merchant, László Farkas, as mayor. As the son-in-law of the very wealthy Nuremberg merchant Ulrich Vorchtel, he could be counted on to represent the interests of the Buda patricians with South-German connections, yet his Hungarian origin helped to disarm the hostility of the leading Hungarians. Farkas tried to enforce his authority by rigorous means, and even had the new leader of the burgher opposition, the silversmith János murdered, whereupon fighting broke out in the city. The townsfolk, also influenced by the anti-feudal ideas of the Hussites, took up arms against the patricians. The fight was joined by Jacob of Marchia, the Papal inquisitor, sent to suppress heresy. The citizens drove the priest away, who tried to pacify them, shouting: “God is with us as well.” The end of the struggle was a compromise: the German merchant patricians came to an agreement with the leading Hungarian burghers, in the main royal officials, horse dealers and cattle dealers, together with a few of the richer craftsmen, and together they suppressed the popular movement. Thereafter the mayor was annually elected in rotation from patricians of Hungarian and of German origin respectively, 18
