The 'Title of New Donation' in Medieval Hungarian Law

Abstract

SEER,Jol.79, \o. 4, October 2001 The 'Title of New Donation' in Medieval Hungarian Law MARTYN RADY Introduction FROM the I320s onwards,it was common for Hungarianroyalcharters to refer to propertygranted of the crown as being awarded 'by title of new donation' (titulonovaedonationis).'By the last decades of the fourteenthcentury,most royal donations of land were bestowed under thisterm, to such an extent indeed that the formulaappearsin charters as the normal accompaniment to royalgifts.Although referencesto the title of new donation decline during the first half of the fifteenth century,andthereafterbecome increasinglyrare,theformularemained a part of Hungarianlaw until I848. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as well as in the early modern period, the title of new donation was often combined in the texts of royal charterswith the so-called clausula. This explained that the present owner had declared himself to have long been in uncontested possession of an estate (incuius pacifcodominio ipsea dudum superstitisse eteciam depresenti persistere asserit), but that on account of some misfortunethe original charterattestingto his rightsof possession had been lost. Fire or the depredations of an enemy were often given as reasons for loss. In response to the petition, the chancellery would usually dispatch an inquisition. Depending on the inquisition'sreport, the chancellerywould issue a replacement-chartergiven subtitulonovae Martyn Rady is Reader in Central European History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, and General Editor of the SlavonicandEast EuropeanReview.In preparing this article, the author is most grateful for the advice and suggestions received from Professor Janos Bak of the Central European University, Budapest, Professor Laszl6 Pter of the University of London, and the anonymous readers of the SlavonicandEastEuropean Review. ' The earliest reference to the title of new donation is in a charter of 128I. Almost certainly, the charter, which survives only in a transcript of I324, is interpolated: see Imre Szentpetery, IvAn Borsa, RegestaregumstirpisArpadianae critico-diplomatica, 2 vols, Budapest, 1923-87 (hereafter,Regesta regum), ii, parts2-3, no. 3I I3. Otherwise,the earliestexample of which I am aware is from I3I7: Documentares HungaricastemporeregumAndegavensium illustrantia(Anjou-kori okleveltr),(eds) Gyula Krist6, Laszl6 Blazovich, Geza Erszegi, Ferenc Makk, vol. i etc. (in progress), Budapest and Szeged, I990 etc. (hereafter, DRHA), iv, no. 656; for some possible, earlier variants, see Gabor Beli, 'Az uj adomany eredete es onAll6 intezmenyye valasa', in (eds) MAth6 Gabor and Janos Zlinszky, DegreAlajos emlkkonyv, Budapest, 1995, pp. 59-66, and J6zsef Gerics and Erzsebet Ladanyi, 'Imperium merum et mixtum und nova donatio in Ungarn im I 3. Jahrhundert', AnnalesUniversitatis Scientiarum Budapestiniensis, SectioHistorica,26, 1993, pp. 14 I-53 (firstpublished in Hungarian in Levetari Szemle,I986, pp. 21-30). MARTYN RADY 639 donationis which affirmedthe currentowner's rightfulpossession of the estate. The use of the title of new donation as a way of compensating for the loss of deeds is affirmed in fifteenth-century and subsequent legislation, in later medieval formulariesand in the textbooks of early nineteenth-centuryjurists.2Eighteenth-centurylaws indicate that such remediesforlossmightbe readilyobtainedwithoutthe need to proceed throughthe centralcourtsof the realm.3 The role of the title of new donation in remedying lost deeds was, however, only one aspect of the device's larger function in redressing defective titles.As a consequence of the transitionfrom memory to the written record in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, many Hungarian landholders found that they lacked a formal instrument attestingto their rightsof possession. Their land had been obtained or occupied at a time before it was normal for rights of ownership to be recordedin writing.The conversion of estatesfrom enterprisesworked collectivelyby the kindredtoportiones possessionaria which were retained and managed by familygroupswithin the kindredpromptedin its turn a demand for new letters of title which affirmed the rights of these smallerunits.4 As written evidence became increasinglynecessaryproof of ownership , so mechanisms for converting customary titles into legally demonstrableinstrumentswere ever more in demand. The title of new donation filledthe gap. Aswas the casewithlost charters,an inquisition would take evidence from neighbours and fellow nobles as to past and present ownership of the estate. Providing the inquisitors'report was satisfactory, the chancellery would then issue letters affirming the currentowner's rightsof possession and would explain these as grants given under the title of...