2/2027: The Angevin “New Monarchy” in Fourteenth-Century Europe

The “new monarchy” is a term historian Pál Engel used to describe the transformation of institutions and processes in Angevin Hungary. Both Angevin rulers, Charles I and Louis I of Hungary, promoted an authoritative, centralized model of governance that strengthened internal stability and the kingdom’s international standing. The principles on which this system was built began to take shape during the reign of Charles I, while their full expression and tangible impact became evident under his son, Louis I. Upon closer examination, many of the reforms appear to be adaptations and refinements of earlier Árpádian-period practices, adjusted to the conditions of the 14th century, or representing a continuation and imitation of broader European developments. These changes brought not only positive effects but also entailed negative consequences; thus, in a certain sense, this “flourishing” also marked the beginning of a new phase of decline. The forthcoming issue aims to examine, evaluate, and comparatively reinterpret the phenomena of this period within the broader European context of the 14th century, based on specific case studies from the Angevin era in Hungary and across Europe. This includes developments in the social, legal, economic, demographic-urban, and political spheres.
Studies on selected topics may address the following thematic areas:
• The new aristocracy: its origins, insignia, family seats and estates (including issues of inheritance and division), familiares and their networks, as well as offices and functions held, and estates granted pro honore.
• The clergy and church policy: church revenues and property, appointments to ecclesiastical offices, forms of church administration, expressions of piety, monastic orders, and heresy.
• Economic policy: taxation and monetary measures, the support and expansion of precious metal mining, customs and tolls – including their organization and collection points – exemptions, and the development of both local and long-distance trade networks.
• Foreign policy: relations with the Italian states and the Papal Curia, with the Empire and neighboring states, wars and alliances in the Balkans, as well as eastern policy, including royal meetings, dynastic ties, and diplomacy and its representatives.
• Social transformations in the Angevin period, including mobility and changes in social structures.
• Legislation and judiciary: judicial and administrative reforms in the context of the new era, the jurisdiction of officials and landlords, procedural practices and their practical impact, as well as the right of appeal.
• Developments in the counties: the autonomy of counties and their limits, the characteristics and functioning of county structures in different parts of the kingdom.
• Towns and villages: settlement density, the completion of settlement networks, the differentiation of towns and market towns, types of privileges granted and their economic and political context, relations between towns and landlords, as well as social structure, topography, and urban law.