ABSTRACT
During the 15th century, the free royal and mining towns of Lower Hungary (northwestern part of the kingdom of Hungary) lost several of their charters of royal privileges due to various military conflicts. Efforts to regain them or to have new privileges confirmed by King Vladislaus II of the Jagiellonian dynasty were only partially successful. A strong opponent of the Lower Hungarian miningtowns was the noble family of Dóczy. When a great fire struck the town of Banská Bystrica (Neusohl) on 10 April 1500, the Dóczy family was considered the presumed culprit. However, the following investigation showed that the fire originated in a townhouse belonging to a copper mining company owned by the Thurzo and Fugger families. The town council used the fire as an opportunity to regain and extend the town's privileges, claiming that the royal charters had been burned in the April disaster. The town of Banská Bystrica fought a legal dispute with the Thurzo-Fugger mining company until 1524, when King Louis II of Hungary granted Banská Bystrica new and expanded privileges (e.g. ownership of townhouses on the main square reserved only for burghers of German origin and their monopoly on the wine trade, the townsmen's monopoly on the beer trade, etc.).
