A királyi jog a Szent István korabeli jogforrásokban

The era of the first monarch of Hungary, István I the Saint is not only the beginning of the establishment of the (new) Hungarian state after the era of tribal society, but the first written legal sources of Hungary also date back to these decades. Among these written legal sources the two decrees of the monarch are widely wellknown as the statutes of István I. Besides however, historians and legal historians have found and studied ten more letters of privileges edited in the name of István I, mainly consisting of royal donations and privileges of monasteries and episcopates. As these letters also declare the legally binding will of the king, they can also be considered as statutes, some of which may be formally falsified (which means that the were written some decades or centuries later) but their content seems to be more or less valid. While all these statutes contain a lot concerning the elements of ius regium (royal privileges), unfortunately no more royal letters or other sources of case law (e.g. judicial verdicts or administrative decisions) were identified from that era. Four more pieces of written sources related to István I may be found however if we are to examine the elements of ius regium. The first of which is the so-called 'king's mirror' of István I, the king's Admonitions to his son, prince Imre. The Admonitions are mainly concerned with the requested behavior and administration of the good Christian king. Further written sources to get to know the administration, governance, society and royal privileges of the era of István I are the Legends (the Minor Legend, the Major Legend and the Legend by bishop Hartvik) of István I the Saint, all noted down decades after the death of the first king. All these sources had and have their own characteristics and purpose which must be carefully taken in consideration when examining the decrees, the letters of privileges, the Admonitions or the Legends. Finally, through these sources, we can also see and interpret the establishing of some kind of legal grounding and state-organization, and thus, some kind of constitution by the monarch for his country