The Decree of Turda was a 14th century decree by Louis I Anjou of Hungary that granted special privileges to the Transylvanian noblemen.

Background

King

Louis I of Hungary Louis I, also Louis the Great ( hu, Nagy Lajos; hr, Ludovik Veliki; sk, Ľudovít Veľký) or Louis the Hungarian ( pl, Ludwik Węgierski; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370 ...

stayed in

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

for six monthsfrom October to Aprilin 1366. On 28 June 1366, while residing in Torda (present-day

Turda Turda (; hu, Torda, ; german: link=no, Thorenburg; la, Potaissa) is a city in Cluj County, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in the southeastern part of the county, from the county seat, Cluj-Napoca, to which it is connected by the Europe ...

), the monarch issued a decree at the request of the Transylvanian noblemen. The latter had informed the King that they "have been suffering, day by day, many troubles because of the evil arts of many malefactors, especially Romanians, ...because of their way of being and their disorderly behaviour". The royal decree granted special privileges to the Transylvanian noblemen "in order to exterminate or remove, from this country, malefactors belonging to any nation. For this purpose, the decree determines the rules of the

legal procedure Procedural law, adjective law, in some jurisdictions referred to as remedial law, or rules of court, comprises the rules by which a court hears and determines what happens in civil, lawsuit, criminal or administrative proceedings. The rules are d ...

. On 28 June 1366, while residing in the

n town of Torda (present-day

), Louis enacted a decree to reinforce law and order, regulating some areas of social and public life, administration, criminal law and judicial practice. The conditions imposed by the decree for maintaining or acceding nobility (in particular, affiliation to the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and possession of a royal certificate of donation for the owned land) were to select and limit the noble class over a period of centuries, which in turn accelerated the decline of the Estate of

Romanians The Romanians ( ro, români, ; dated exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group. Sharing a common Culture of Romania, Romanian culture and Cultural heritage, ancestry, and speaking the Romanian language, they l ...

(

Universitas Valachorum ''Universitas Valachorum'' (''Estate of the Vlachs'') is the Latin denomination for an Estate, an institution of self-government of the Romanians in medieval Transylvania, which then belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary. History For a certain perio ...

).Pop I.-A.
''Nations and Denominations in Transylvania (13th - 16th Century)''
In ''Tolerance and Intolerance in Historical Perspective'', edited by Csaba Lévai et al., Edizioni PLUS, Università di Pisa, 2003, p. 111 – 125 The decree takes an explicitly negative action against

: ''propter presumptuosam astuciam diversorum malefactorum, specialiter Olachorum in ipsa terra nostra existencium (…) ad exterminandum seu delendum in ipsa terra malefactores quarumlibet nacionum, signanter Olachorum'' I. Dani, K. Gündish et al. (eds.) ''Documenta Romaniae Historica, vol. XIII, Transilvania (1366-1370)'', Editura Academiei Române, Bucharest 1994, p. 161-162 - because of the evil arts of many malefactors, especially

, who live in that our country (…) to expel or to exterminate in this country malefactors belonging to any nation, especially

. This was the first time in

that discriminatory law enforcement along ethnic cleansing was legally codified. Historians have not reached a consensual view of the exact circumstances of the issuing of the decree and its main purpose. István Petrovics writes that the mobile way of life of the increasing Romanian population caused their conflicts with the sedentary Hungarians. According to Ioan-Aurel Pop, the decree shows the Romanians' "muted resistance" against the monarch and the noblemen who had attempted to deprive them of their property, especially their inherited estates.

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{Refend Medieval Transylvania