Golden Bull

From the Latin bulla aurea, an edict given a golden seal. These were issued by monarchs in Europe and the Byzantine Empire during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Some examples: The Golden Bull of 1213 was issued by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. The Golden Bull of 1222 was a decree issued by King Andrew II of Hungary confirming the rights of the nobility; it was forced on him much in the same way that King John of England was made to sign the Magna Carta. Andrew also promulgated a Golden Bull of 1224, the Goldenen Freibrief, granting certain rights to the Saxon inhabitants of Transylvania. \nMost often, the term refers to the Golden Bull of 1356, a decree issued by a Reichstag in Nuremberg headed by Emperor Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor (see Diet of Nuremberg) that fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, an important aspect of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire.

External link

• Andrew II of Hungary's Golden Bull of 1222