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The Holy Crown of Hungary

The doctrine of the Holy Crown (in Hungarian: a Szentkorona-tan) is a tradition that underlies Hungary's historical, unwritten constitution, upon which the idea of the state of Hungary was based, that determined Hungary's peculiar constitutional development from the Middle Ages to the World War II, and which wields influence in the public cogitation over the constitution up to the present.

In the first part of the 11th century, the disintegrating tribal structure of society and the establishment of counties necessitated that King Stephen give the free peoples of the Carpathian Basin a guarantee for keeping their privileges and rights and for having a possibility to replace the king. In the spirit of this thought he lifted the Holy Crown above regality. As written in King Stephen's Admonitions to Prince Imre, the Holy Crown symbolizes the country as a territory, the citizens of the country, the administrative system, the apostolic Christian religion, the person of the sovereign, the sovereign's properties and abilities, the judicial institutions, the righteous judicial act, the tolerance of foreigners, the defence of the country as well as the received alien peoples living in the country.

On 15 August 1038 (on Virgin Mary's Day) in Székesfehérvár, King Stephen I offered his country to the Virgin in the likeness of the Holy Crown. His aim was to estabilish a treaty between Heaven and Earth which made the Carpathian Basin Virgin Mary's country in such a way that no earthly power be able to render it undone. The doctrine of the Holy Crown is King Stephen's conscious constitutional composition.

In course of time the doctrine grew refined, became detailed. In the 15th century the Hungarian nobility quarrelled with King Sigismund, captured him and governed the country in the name of the Holy Crown, independently of the king somewhile.

The doctrine was first committed to writing by István Werbőczy in his corpus of rights called the Tripartitum (published in Vienna, 1517). It declares that the body of the Holy Crown is the territory of the country, its members are the citizens of the country. The source of all the power and rights is the Holy Crown, the sovereign acts only in the Crown's name. Besides, in the case of forfeiture of property the estate escheats to the Crown and the king may bestow it again only because the rights of the Holy Crown were assigned to him when he was crowned.

The joined countries: Transylvania, Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia are the lands of the Holy Crown.

Péter Révay, a keeper of the Crown expounds the doctrine in his works Commentarius De Sacra Regni Hungariae Corona (Explanation of the Holy Crown of the Kingdom of Hungary, published in Augsburg, 1613) and De monarchia et Sacra Corona Regni Hungariae (About the Monarchy and the Holy Crown of Hungary, Frankfurt, 1659), and calls it the law of laws.

In 1848, by the emancipation of serfs each people of the country became member of the Holy Crown.

After the defeat suffered in World War I, despite having no king, Hungary kept its constitutional form, the Kingdom. The power was held by Regent Miklós Horthy in the name of the Holy Crown.

After the communists assumed power, in 1949 the doctrine was completely eliminated from the constitution and was not restored even after the democratic transformation in the early 1990s. But still, the doctrine of the Holy Crown has become a reviving tradition in certain circles.

Although Hungary is not a kingdom any more, the Holy Crown was restored to the coat of arms by a parliamentary vote in 1990. On 1 January 2000, within the frame of the Millennium celebrations, the Holy Crown was taken to the House of Parliament from the National Museum (together with the sceptre and the orb), expressing that it was no museum piece but a symbol of the state.

1. His Majesty the Holy Crown is a person. The Holy Crown embodies the state of Hungary.

As a legal entity, the Holy Crown is identical to the state of Hungary in a legal sense, the physical incarnation of the state which is an abstact, incomprehensible idea. Saint Stephen offered his country to Virgin Mary in the likeness of the Holy Crown.

2. The body of the Holy Crown is the body of the country, that is, the land of the country.

Assigning the land or generally the natural resources to the Holy Crown is the guarantee that the communal resources are owned by the whole of the community. No estate could be abalienated, if a noble family died out without a heir, the estate escheated to the Crown.

The body of the Holy Crown is the whole Carpathian Basin, namely Hungary and the joined countries: Transylvania, Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia.

3. The members of the Holy Crown are the citizens of the Crown's lands.

It concerns the Hungarian people and also the other peoples living in the country who are particularly defended by the doctrine. Thus, the Holy Crown is the politically organized people, namely the nation. And because the Holy Crown is the principal supremacy, it corresponds to the principle of sovereignty of the people, conceived by Rousseau in the 18th century.

4. The Holy Crown is the source of all the power and rights, the highest majesty

Whereas the Holy Crown is the principal supremacy, the doctrine doesn't acknowledge any person superior to the Crown. Hereby the members of the Holy Crown, the citizens are equal, none of them can dominate the others, so the doctrine excludes every form of dictatorship in advance. The right of resistance makes it possible that the members of the Holy Crown take steps against absolutism exceeding constitutionality.

5. The Holy Crown is superior to the sovereign, the sovereign rules in the name of the Crown.

Whereas the Holy Crown is the principal supremacy, the sovereign can not be superior to it, his power arises from the Crown. So the doctrine of the Holy Crown is an ancient idea based upon a democratic ground, which – ahead of his age – assured the equality of the people, obliged the supremacy to keep the constitution, made the supremacy electable and replaceable, assured the protection of minorities, the respect for aliens, defended the independence of the country and gave the state a legal personality.

• The Holy Crown of Hungary (images)