Original patents of arms issued by King Charles IV—although the most recent of their kind—are nevertheless rare, and thus possess significant historical and heraldic value. This rarity is due in part to the monarch’s exceptionally brief reign, lasting only two years (1916–1918), but also to the fact that—presumably due to the wartime circumstances—the Royal Books no longer recorded the full text of the ennoblement documents along with the heraldic illustration, contrary to the practice of the preceding 150–200 years. Instead, they contain only the succinct royal decree. To date, the National Archives has preserved only seven such letters issued by King Charles IV. Fewer are extant only from Charles I (3), Albert (1), Wladislaus I (2), John Szapolyai (6), Isabella (4), John Sigismund (2), and John Kemény (1). The recently acquired document, issued to Dr. Adolf Rudolf András Schuster (1860–1941) by supreme decree dated 13 February 1918 and officially granted on 23 July 1918, has become the eighth known original patent of arms from Charles IV—and the last one known to have been actually delivered to its recipient.
According to the Hungarian Biographical Lexicon, Schuster was “initially a lawyer, later entered the judiciary; appointed to the Administrative Court in 1910, to the Supreme Court in 1912, became judge of the Patent Court in 1914, and served as president of the Supreme Patent Court from 1915 to 1928.” The charter grants Schuster Hungarian nobility, a coat of arms, and the noble predicate “of Medgyes,” after his place of birth. The document is modestly ornate, with medieval Hungarian knights illustrated in the illuminated initials, and a full-page coat of arms painted by Ervin Voit (1882–1932), painter and professor at the School of Industrial Design in Budapest. Accompanying the charter are the official notification of the decree and a 1937 certificate of nobility issued by the Ministry of the Interior. Donated by the Iratmentő Foundation, the patent of arms is now housed in the Hungarian National Archives under the reference: HU-MNL-OL-R 64-1.-1123.
Anton Avar