Master of the treasury

The master of the treasury^[1] or treasurer^[2][3] (German: Königlicher Ober-Schatzmeister^[4] or Tarnackmeister, Hungarian: tárnokmester,^[4][5] Latin: magister tavarnicorum, magister tavernocorum regalium or summus camerarius,^[4][5] Slovak: taverník^[2] Croatian: tavernik)^[6] was a royal official in the Kingdom of Hungary from the 12th century. Although treasurers were initially responsible for collecting and administering royal revenues, they adopted more and more judiciary functions and turned into the highest judges of the realm. From the 14th century, treasurers presided over the court of appeals for a group of the free royal cities, including Buda, Bártfa, Eperjes, Kassa, Nagyszombat and Pressburg (Pozsony) (today Bardejov, Prešov, Košice, Trnava and Bratislava in Slovakia). By the end of the Middle Ages, it gradually evolved into a judicial position, and by the 20th century it had become a title without function.

The name is derived from the Slavic word tovor ("casket", "strong-box").

Initially, the treasurer (taverník) was the administrator of the royal treasury (i.e. the financial manager of the royal Court (curia regis)) in the early Hungarian state. In the 12th and 13th century, besides the curia regis, he became also responsible for the remaining properties of the king. When the royal properties were considerably reduced under King Andrew II of Hungary (1205-1235; see Comitatus (Kingdom of Hungary) for details), the treasurer also became responsible for all royal income from royal régales (coinage, exchange of coins, precious metals management, mining monopoly, salt monopoly, customs duty), from the taxes of royal towns etc.

Under King Charles Robert (1308–1342) he became a kind of combined finance minister and minister of economy. In 1385, the actual treasurer function, i.e. administrator of the royal treasury, became the responsibility of a separate person, who was the treasurer (magister tavernicorum)'s deputy first, and later a separate royal officer.

The observance of rights and duties of royal towns was also the responsibility of the treasurer. Since the importance of these towns increased in the 14th and 15th century, the treasurer's importance increased as well. He became also the judge charged with appeals from major free royal towns (tavernical courts). Around 1400, the list of these towns was not stabilized yet, but from the first half of the 15th century, these towns stabilised (Buda, Kassa (Košice), Pressburg (Pozsony, Bratislava), Nagyszombat (Trnava), Eperjes (Prešov), Sopron and Bártfa (Bardejov)) and were called "tavernical towns". In the course of the 15th century, these tavernical courts became the only courts of the tavernical towns. By the late 15th century, the associate judges of these courts were representatives of the tavernical towns only (and no additional nobles as was the case earlier). The law applied in these courts was a special "tavernical law" (ius tavernicale), the first collection of which arose in 1412-18 (Vetusta iura civitatum sive iura civilia). It was used as special law system until the 18th century.

The treasurer was also a member of the Royal Chamber and later also of the Vice-regency council (see palatine).

After the Battle of Mohács on 29 August 1526, the Kingdom of Hungary was divided into two parts, while the central authority collapsed. John Zápolya and Ferdinand of Habsburg were both elected Kings of Hungary, on 10 November and 17 December, respectively. Ferdinand I reorganized the state administrative structure by the introduction of the Austrian practice; he established the Hungarian Chamber in 1528, a board functioning on a permanent basis. After its creation, the supreme financial and economic authority of the Kingdom of Hungary between 1528 and 1848, which was directly subordinated to the Court Chamber in Vienna, the influence of the Master of the treasury further decreased, because this authority took over many of his tasks.

From the beginning of the 16th century, the Master of the Treasury was the fourth highest rank of secular positions. In the event of the impediment of the Palatine or the County Judge, he presided over the meetings of the Upper Council, and later also of the seven-person Council.

The function (including the tavernical courts) was abolished de facto in 1848; the treasurer's function, however, continued to exist formally from 1867 till 1918 as the fourth highest royal dignitary, who was member of the Upper Chamber of the parliament of the Kingdom of Hungary and played a certain role in the coronation of the king.

• Palatine (Kingdom of Hungary)
• Judge royal