Kruja Charter of Ivan Stefan

Since the venerable bishop of Kruja and his honourable clergy of the same holy church, and the notables of this same town of Kruja, made known to us all the rights and privileges of the said town — both of those who live in it and of those living outside it, who possess wine-presses, lands, estates, olive-groves, fisheries and winter-pastures, and all the other rights they have and possess to this day, and above all the winter-pasture called Selmasho with its wine-store, the winter-store Kontelo, the winter-store Bezo, the winter-settlement Kastrato, the winter-pastures Palasho, St Euphemia with its surroundings, Zala with its surroundings and springs, Fentopleto with its land, Belitsa with its lands, Herenos, Metro, Hostrati, Koli, Ferza, Berva, Montemagno Kromi with its lands as far as neighbouring Nobal and Kudin, Kalamaskuti with its lands and vineyards and olive-groves, Tserkules with its lands and fruit- and non-fruit-bearing trees — all which rights they possess from of old and hold as a paternal inheritance from their forefathers, and by the privileges and testaments of the emperor Manuel Komnenos of good memory, and of our predecessors, and of Laskaris of happy memory, our grandfather, and of our father and our own: for this same cause, by the authority and right of this our privilege, we cede and grant to all of the said town of Kruja, both noble and non-noble, that they possess all these things freely and enjoy them without any hindrance or trouble at all times, in the manner contained in their privileges and rights.

II. And let it not be permitted to a prefect, or a captain, or a castellan to demand of them anything, whether as penalties, or as forced labour (angaria), or as tax, or as toll — that is, gabela — or any other payment; but let them be preserved and reckoned free and released from obligations in all that follows. III. Moreover we wish that they be under no obligation to pay any gabela wherever they are, whether in Durrës or elsewhere, but be wholly free and untaxable in any way, as is contained and ordained in the present privilege. IV. Likewise we wish that before the fortress-gates of the same aforesaid town nothing be exacted from these same people, whether as the bringing of wood or any other angaria; but even in this part let them be reckoned free and unbound by any toll or any other payment, whether they wish to enter or to leave.

V. And they are not to be detained by those in power, but for any fault and legal dispute of theirs to be punished only after a trial and inquiry have been held. VI. And let no one, in the presence of this our privilege, dare to do them wrong, insult or hindrance in all these things which the present privilege ordains and contains; for it is for their untroubled ease and protection that this our privilege has been ceded to them, and given them in the month of June, in the eleventh indiction, in the year from the creation of the world seven thousand eight hundred and fifty-one. “Stefan, faithful in Christ king of the Bulgarians.”