HUNGARIAN STUDIES 1. No. 1. Nemzetközi Magyar Filológiai Társaság. Akadémiai Kiadó Budapest [1985]

Péter Váczy: The Angelic Crown

P. VÂCZY country with the treasures acquired in this way. The hurry in which the army left the country with the two Wenceslases excludes the possibility that any of the royal insignia were left behind. The Austrian Rimed Chronicle (written in German) gives an exact list of the pieces Wenceslas was wearing when leaving Hungary. According to this, he was wearing the robe of Saint Stephen (einen roc heiligen), to his waist was belted the sword of Saint Stephen (sant Stephanes swert), the spurs of Saint Stephen were fastened to his feet (zwene sporn), and the Holy Crown was put on his head (die heilic krone) which, as the source says, had been worn by Saint Stephen; (the other kings, however, were allowed to wear it only on the three major ecclesiastical holidays). Finally, in one hand he was holding the gold spectre (daz zepter guldin) and in the other the relic made of pure gold and covered with precious stones of the arm of Saint Stephen (sant Stephans arm). Obviously, this was the way they tried to replace the orb already missing. According to the author of the Rimed Chronicle, the orb had not yet been lost when Andrew HI was crowned (1290). Therefore every word of the assertions of the other two sources (the Continuatio Zwetlensis III and Chronicon aulae regiae) is true, namely that the two Wenceslases had taken with them to Prague the full regalia of the Hungarian king. In spite of the fact that he never returned to Hungary, Wenceslas continued to regard himself king of Hungary. By taking possession of the regalia, he wanted to secure his royal rights against anyone else. When, following the death of his father he occupied the Czech throne, he made a solemn declaration, waiving all his rights concerning Hungary (1305), and handed the regalia over to another pretender to the Hungarian throne and a relative of his, namely to Otto, Prince of Bavaria, so that they should not find their way to his enemy Angevin Charles Robert. The Czech king correctly assumed that the Hungarians could only recover the regalia necessary for crowning a king, those much desired ancient relics, if they accepted Otto as their king—no matter how they hated the idea. All these signs go to show that Wenceslas did not keep any of the Hungarian treasures. It is quite certain that the so-called Saint Stephen sword to be found in Prague was not brought to Czech land on this occasion. The sword is mentioned also by the Rimed Chronicle among the objects Otto obtained from Wenceslas. We have to suppose that the relic of Saint Stephen's arm was also returned to Hungary, if not to the abbey named after the Holy Right then, with the other regalia, to Székesfehérvár. According to Osvát Laskai it was kept there around 1480. Once in possession of the Hungarian relics, Otto, prince of Bavaria pondered about his trip to Hungary with grave concern. Both the supporters of the emperor and those of the Angevins would have liked to stymie his plan and rid him of his treasures. The author of the Rimed Chronicle draws a vivid picture of how Otto hid the crown, the sceptre and the sword: the two latter pieces were hidden in a sheath which looked like a quiver and when he mounted his horse he hung it on his belt. He had a special little barrel made for the crown so that on his way people should think that it contained some kind of a drink. The Hungarian chronicler called this holder fiasco in Latin and its role was defined in the same way in German by the Austrian Rimed chronicler:

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