The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)

NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL ARCHIVES OF NATIONAL COLLECTION - Hungarian National Archives by Géza Érszegi and István G. Vass

them, the courts of the royal presence and offices of two additional national judges: the offices of the palatine and the Lord Chief of Justice. Agricultural cases were arranged first by the Lord Chief

' Harvest

' Treasurer (this kind of treasurer collected only agricultural productions as tax-explanation of the translator) from the office of whom the courts of the royal free borough were formed, after which these cases were taken over by the treasurer (this kind of treasurer collected money as tax -explanation of the translator). The written materials originating from this period might have been the actual central archives of the medieval Hungarian state. According to the data these archives were kept in the buildings of the ' harvest ' treasurers. The most important sections of the royal archives are the registers, protocolla (name and tax index) that is the Royal Books which include the texts of the royal deed of gifts. We are only able to determine in which books and under what numbers the texts of different deeds of gifts can be found only with the help of the chancellery records. State and national administration underwent considerable change in the 15

th 16

th centuries throughout Europe. Most tasks of the chancelleries, which were formed at the turn of the 12

th and 13

th century, were taken over by new offices. One of greatest events in Hungarian history was the battle of Mohács on 29

th August, 1526 and as a result of Turkish victory, the country soon was divided into three parts. The Royal Hungary, with the help of the king chosen from the Hapsburg dynasty, developed the traditions of the medieval Hungarian state and new offices, mainly the Treasury, had a great influence on the economic life of the country. Following in the tradition of the former Hungarian state organization, the Principality of Transylvania came into being. The middle section of the country came under Turkish rule. The earlier public administration seemed to co-exist with the Turkish administration. Since then the administration of central governmental organizations of Hungary organized by the Hapsburg kings and administration of Principality of Transylvania that worked as an independent state for one and a half developed in different ways. From an archival point of view this stage can be mostly characterized by - the fact that deeds of gifts - both in Vienna and Principality of Transylvania were registered in the Royal Books such as in the case of the medieval town of Buda. This practice was followed even after the liberation of Turkish rule and with the reunification of the country in 1686. The Hungarian parliaments dealt with the questions of the documents of the country since the beginning of the 17

th century They did realize how important the documents of ensuring rights were - first of all, with feudal privileges - and second, in the fight against monarchiái power. The laws of the year of 1613 made it the duty of the current palatine to keep the important records of public law of the country according to the traditions formed in