Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)

The Medieval Sister Cities

and an equal number of Hungarians and Germans made up the Council. Dénes Kopácsi, the royal tax-gatherer,became the new mayor. The electoral system was arranged to preserve the power of the patricians and prevent any of the lesser burgesses or craftsmen being elected to the Council. Each year the outgoing Council nominated a hundred citizens, half from the Hungarian and half from the German communities, and this electoral body chose the new Council on Saint George’s Day, the 24th of April. Although in ordinances provision was made for the representatives of the craft guilds to be included among the electors, the outgoing Council was clearly in a position to nominate as electors only such as supported them and would vote for the former councillors, or men of similar interests. This system remained in force until 1529 and assured the unchallenged rule of the patricians. It was no accident that made János Münzer mayor nine times, János Pemfflinger eight, and the Hungarian Gergely Ádám at least seven. The disputes among the different parishes were also composed. In 1441, as we saw, the bounds were finally established between the three parishes, ending the claim of the German parishes to a predominating position. The mayor of the time was the German Peter Onwein, who, however, adopted a Hungarian version of his name and called himself Bornemissza.

Trade, Crafts, and the Cultural Life of the City

The second half of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century was the golden age of feudal Buda. At the beginning of the fifteenth century the royal court, all the central government bodies and the courts of law moved back to Buda, and as a result of this, many of the higher nobility and the great churchmen settled in the capital. The presence of the court and the courts of law drew many people with business to transact from all parts of the country providing a permanent clientele for the domestic market which developed to serve their needs.

It was at this time that the developing cattle-breeding and meat export trade to meet the growing demand of the South-German cities for meat began to bring increasing prosperity. The Hungarian merchants of Buda and, more especially of Pest, which had again become independent of Buda at the beginning of the fifteenth century, played a leading role in this trade, which in turn augmented the wealth of the burgesses of the two cities, still in law independent of each other. In the 1470s Pest was restored to the same status as Buda, i.e. a royal city. The municipal organization of Pest—with the exception of the privileges enjoyed by the Germans—was identical with that of Buda; and Pest, after Buda, ranked as one of the three or four great cities of Hungary. In terms of trade and commerce, however, contemporaries regarded the two cities as one. Their combined population has been estimated at something between twenty and twenty-five thousand, which was a considerable figure in the Middle Ages. They were both important entrepots for the import and export trade, the latter mainly cattle. The Buda markets on Whitsunday and on the Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and even more particularly the Pest markets on Iron Saint Peter’s Day and Saint Nicholas’s Day, were among the busiest and most important markets in Hungary.

The crafts also made progress. A number of craft guilds came into existence, not only to protect their particular interests, but also charging themselves with the important task of

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