Over 550-year-old royal charter of Hungary’s greatest king found in Transylvania

15th century document Matthias King Transylvania lost found
Photo: Facebook/National Archives Bistrita-Nasaud

A long-lost royal document attributed to King Matthias I (1458–1490), believed by historians to have been missing for over 130 years, has been discovered in Bistrița (Berszterce), Transylvania. King Matthias is widely regarded as one of the greatest Hungarian monarchs in history.

King Matthias’s long-lost charter discovered in Transylvania

The valuable document was put on public display on Tuesday in the northern Transylvanian city during International Archives Day, following its recent accidental discovery in the state archives of the Bistrița-Năsăud County branch. Historians had believed the document lost for more than 130 years, said Cornelia Vlasin, director of the archive, in a statement to the Romanian news agency Agerpres. She explained that the royal decree, dated 1470, was unearthed during the cataloguing of old records in the county’s archives. The letter was sent by Matthias Corvinus, then King of Hungary, to the ruling prince of Transylvania.

Written in Latin on 21 February 1470, the document urges the prince to uphold the freedoms previously granted to the Transylvanian Saxons. Vlasin stated that the document is regarded as a symbol of the success of their archival work and was exhibited for one day in honour of International Archives Day. She noted that the document would be sent to Bucharest for restoration, as it had been previously repaired with adhesive tape in some areas, which damaged both the paper and the seal. Once restored, it will return to Bistrița to become part of the archive’s medieval collection.

Speaking to the local newspaper Bistriteanul, Vlasin said that King Matthias’s letter is referenced in the multi-volume Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der Deutschen in Siebenbürgen, published in 1892, which chronicles the history of the Transylvanian Saxons. That edition refers to a 1552 copy currently held in Sibiu and notes that the original document, once kept at Bistrița City Hall, had been lost. In the Middle Ages, Bistrița served as the administrative and cultural centre of the Saxons in northern Transylvania.

The Transylvanian Saxons were first granted privileges by King Andrew II (1205–1235) of Hungary in the 1224 Andreanum charter. These rights were later reaffirmed by several monarchs, including Matthias Corvinus. The privileges guaranteed local self-government, judicial authority, and administrative autonomy, allowing the Saxons to govern themselves within the broader feudal system of Transylvania.

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