Page:Poetry of the Magyars.djvu/42

xx reign kings, the Hungarian was employed for laws and ordinances, and was used as the Court lan- guage under Charles and Louis of Anjou. There is a Magyar partition-document, dated 1339. There are, too, Hungarian oaths sometimes at- tached to Latin laws, for the better understanding of the people. The form of the Coronation Ap- peal, used at this epoch by the Primate of the kingdom, the Archbishop of Gran, to the assem- bled orders, is still preserved. Three times he demanded Akarjátok é hogy e' jelenlev&#xf6;&#x301; N. N. királyságra koronáztássék, "Will you that N. N. here present be crowned for our king?" And the answer thrice repeated was, Akarjuk éljen, éljen, éljen, a' király—" We will,—Live, live, live the king."

There have been from time to time royal de- clarations in favour of the Hungarian language. In 1527 Ferdinand the First publicly declared that "he would preserve the Magyar tongue and people with all his power and means;" and, in 1569, there is in the statutes of Maximilian the following words: "Et casu quo suam majestatem a regno longius abesse contingeret unum ex filiis loco sui et si usque possibile sit, in Ungaria ut linguam quoque gentis addiscant, relinquere."

The Princes of the Habsburgh House have