Golden Bull of 1222

The Golden Bull of 1222 was a golden bull, or edict, that King Andrew II of Hungary was forced by his nobles to accept at the 1222 diet of Fehervar, making it one of the earliest examples of constitutional limits placed on the power of a European monarch. It established the rights of the Hungarian nobility, including the right to disobey the king when he acted contrary to law, known as jus resistendi, and it freed nobles and the church from taxation and from any obligation to finance or take part in wars fought outside Hungary. Seven copies of the edict were distributed, to the Pope, the Knights Templar, the Knights Hospitaller, the Hungarian king himself, the archdioceses of Esztergom and Kalocsa, and the palatine, and the document is remembered for setting down principles of equality among the nation's nobility.