The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)

MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES - Town, City Archives by András Horváth J.

1944) of the Bishop of Vác in the Town Archives of Vác. Our royal free boroughs - the number and status of which were fixed by the articulus of the feudal parliaments - secured 'freedom' through royal deeds of donation and were subsumed to the adjudicative power of royal Matrixes from the Archives of the Capital forums. For this reason, of Budapest these towns were excused from the jurisdiction of the feudal secular and ecclesiastical power. The town of Székesfehérvár founded by King Saint Stephen and considered as a prime example because of donated rights was also a town of Chief Justice by judicial forum of second degree since 1514 while Buda and Pest used to be considered towns of a 'harvest' treasurer. The treasurer that stored - originally - only agricultural products. The organizations of second degree was the Hungarian Chamber for the financial affairs of towns and their citizens. Due to the devastation by Turkish rule, very few data and even fewer original documents provide any evidence of the former privileges of these settlements. From the point of view of town development, the staple right was significant and essential. In this connection, we know that Győr - together with the free election of mayor -procured this right in 1271 and Buda in 1347 The towns continuously won back their old rights after the liberation from the Turkish rule. Buda and Pest won it back after the deed of donation in 1703, while Székesfehérvár in 1715 and later Győr in 1751 after the royal free borough deed of donation of 1743. The situation of the market-town of Vác, being a cathedral town as well, was a bit special. It ambitioned to get the status of the free royal city from the 1710s onward getting to be freed from the jurisdiction of the clergy - either the bishop or the chapter - but it ever failed. Morover these two landlords subdivided the settlement in respect of public administration into two parts (section of the bishop, and of the chapter) in 1742, which was existing up until 1859. Retention of the documents, which related to their legal situations, civil liberties and obligations, safety and their availability were of vital importance. Therefore establishing archives in towns was easier than establishing the county archives. However, their capitals were not changed. The work of royal commissioner, whose appoinitment dates from the beginning of the