Royal free city

Royal free city or free royal city (Latin: libera regia civitas) was the official term for the most important cities in the Kingdom of Hungary from the late 12th century^[1]^[2]^[3] until the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. These cities were granted certain privileges by the king to rule out the possibility of the control of the Hungarian nobility, hence "royal", and exercised some self-government in relation to their internal affairs, hence "free". From the late 14th century, the elected envoys of the Royal free cities participated in the sessions of the Hungarian parliament, thus they became part of the legislature. The list include also cities in the Kingdom of Croatia and the Banate of Bosnia, which were part of the Lands of the Hungarian Crown.

The term "royal free city" in the languages of the kingdom is:

Latin: Libera regia civitas
Hungarian: Szabad királyi város
German: Königliche Freistadt
Romanian: Oraș liber regesc
Slovak: Slobodné kráľovské mesto
Croatian: Slobodni kraljevski grad
Serbian: Slobodni kraljevski grad

The status was similar to the Free Cities in the Holy Roman Empire.

^ Katalin Prajda: Rapporti tra la Repubblica Fiorentina e il Regno d’Ungheriaa livello di diplomazia, migrazione umana, reti mercantili e mediazione culturale nell’età del regime oligarchico (1382-1434), che corrisponde al regno di Sigismondo di Lussemburgo (1387-1437)(Florence, 2011)[1]
^ Magyar történelmi fogalomtár, szerk. Bán Péter, Bp., Gondolat, 1989. ISBN 9632822021
^ Bácskai Vera – Nagy Lajos: Piackörzetek, piacközpontok és városok Magyarországon 1828-ban. Budapest, 1984.

[1] Katalin Prajda: Rapporti tra la Repubblica Fiorentina e il Regno d’Ungheriaa livello di diplomazia, migrazione umana, reti mercantili e mediazione culturale nell’età del regime oligarchico (1382-1434), che corrisponde al regno di Sigismondo di Lussemburgo (1387-1437)(Florence, 2011)[1]

[2] Magyar történelmi fogalomtár, szerk. Bán Péter, Bp., Gondolat, 1989. ISBN 9632822021

[3] Bácskai Vera – Nagy Lajos: Piackörzetek, piacközpontok és városok Magyarországon 1828-ban. Budapest, 1984.

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