Diet of Hungary

For the post-1946 institution, see National Assembly of Hungary.

Diet of Hungary of 1830

The Diet of Hungary (Hungarian: Országgyűlés) was a legislative institution in the medieval kingdom of Hungary from the 15th century, and in its successor states, Royal Hungary and the Habsburg kingdom of Hungary throughout the Early Modern period. It convened at regular intervals with interruptions during the period of 1527 to 1918, and again until 1946.

The articles of the 1790 diet set out that the diet should meet at least once every 3 years, but, since the diet was called by the Habsburg monarchy, this promise was not kept on several occasions thereafter. As a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, it was reconstituted in 1867.

The Latin term Natio Hungarica ("Hungarian nation") was used to designate the political elite which had participation in the diet, consisting of the nobility, the Catholic clergy, and a few enfranchised burghers.^[1][2][3]

Development

Further information: Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages

The Hungarian Diet originates under Andrew II of Hungary with the Golden Bull of 1222, which reaffirmed the rights of the smaller nobles of the old and new classes of royal servants (servientes regis) against both the crown and the magnates and to defend those of the whole nation against the crown by restricting the powers of the latter in certain fields and legalizing refusal to obey its unlawful/unconstitutional commands (the "ius resistendi"). The lesser nobles also began to present Andrew with grievances, a practice that evolved into the institution of the Hungarian Diet.

An institutionalized Hungarian Diet emerged during the 14th to 15th century. Under Charles I of Hungary, and still under Matthias Corvinus, the Diet was essentially convened by the king to announce his decisions, and had no significant power of its own.

In 1492 the Diet limited the serfs' freedom of movement and expanded their obligations while a large portion of peasants became prospering because of cattle-export to the West. Rural discontent boiled over in 1514 when well-armed peasants preparing for a crusade against Turks rose up under György Dózsa. Shocked by the peasant revolt, the Diet of 1514 passed laws that condemned the serfs to eternal bondage and increased their work obligations.

When Vladislaus II died in 1516, his ten-year-old son Louis II (1516–26) became king, but a royal council appointed by the Diet ruled the country.

List of Diets

Royal Hungary (1527–1699)

Further information: Royal Hungary

Start date	End date	Location	Details
1527	1528	Buda
1532	1532	Buda
1536	1536	Várad
1537	1537	Pressburg (Pozsony, now Bratislava)
1542	1543	Besztercebánya
1545	1545	Nagyszombat
1547	1547	Nagyszombat
1548	1548	Pressburg
1550	1550	Pressburg
1552	1552	Pressburg
1553	1553	Sopron
1554	1554	Pressburg
1555	1555	Pressburg
1556	1556	Pressburg
1557	1557	Pressburg
1559	1559	Pressburg
1563	1563	Pressburg
1566	1566	Pressburg
1567	1567	Pressburg
1569	1569	Pressburg
1572	1572	Pressburg
1574	1574	Pressburg
1575	1575	Pressburg
1578	1578	Pressburg
1581	1581	Pressburg
1583	1583	Pressburg
1587	1587	Pressburg
1593	1593	Pressburg
1596	1596	Pressburg
1597	1597	Pressburg
1598	1598	Pressburg
1599	1599	Pressburg
1600	1600	Pressburg
1601	1601	Pressburg
1602	1602	Pressburg
1603	1603	Pressburg
1604	1604	Pressburg
1608	1608	Pressburg
1609	1609	Pressburg
1613	1613	Pressburg
1618	1618	Pressburg
1622	1622	Sopron
1625	1625	Sopron
1630	1630	Pressburg
1635	1635	Sopron
1637	1638	Pressburg
1647	1647	Pressburg
1649	1649	Pressburg
1655	1655	Pressburg
1659	1659	Pressburg
1662	1662	Pressburg
1681	1681	Sopron
1687	1687	Pressburg

Habsburg Monarchy (1700–1867)

Further information: History of Hungary 1700 – 1919

Start date	End date	Location	Details
1708	1715	Pressburg	Continuously interrupted
1722	1723	Pressburg
1728	1729	Pressburg
1741	1742	Pressburg
1751	1751	Pressburg
1764	1765	Pressburg
1790	1791	Pressburg	First phase not held in Pressburg
1792	1792
1796	1796		In 1796, the diet was convened again to be informed that "attacked by the impious and iniquitous French nation, the king felt the necessity of consulting his faithful states of Hungary, remembering that, under Maria Theresa, Hungary had saved the monarchy." The diet voted to supply a contingent of 50,000 men, and undertook to provision the Austrian army, amounting to 340,000 soldiers. The diet was dissolved after only nineteen sittings.
1802	1802		The diet of 1802 discussed demands on Hungary with regard to the French Revolutionary Wars.
1805	1805		The diet of 1805 resembled that of 1802.
1807	1807		The diet of 1807 was more remarkable. To the usual demands was added the royal proposition that an army should be raised, and ready to march at the first signal.
1811	1812
1825	1827	Pressburg
1830		Pressburg	Crowned Archduke Ferdinand as King of Hungary
1832	1836
1839	1840
1843	1844
1847	1847/8

Re-establishment 1867

In the course of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 a diet was called at Pest that was dismissed by decree of Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria in October; the next year an Hungarian assembly met at the Protestant Great Church of Debrecen, which declared the new Emperor Franz Joseph deposed and elected Lajos Kossuth regent-president. The revolution was finally suppressed by Austrian troops under General Julius Jacob von Haynau and the assembly dissolved.

Since 1902 the diet has been assembling in the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest

The Habsburgs again approached toward the Hungarian estates after the desastrous defeat at the 1859 Battle of Solferino and the loss of Lombardy. In 1860 Emperor Franz Joseph issued the October Diploma, which provided a national Reichsrat assembly formed by delegates deputed by the Landtage diets of the Austrian crown lands, followed by the February Patent of 1861, promising the implementation of a bicameral legislature. The Hungarian magnates however rejected to be governed from Vienna and insisted on an own parliamentary assembly with comprehensive autonomy in Hungarian affairs. The negotiations failed, predominantly due to the tough stance of Austrian Minister-President Anton von Schmerling.

Finally in the course of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the emperor appointed Gyula Andrássy Hungarian minister-president and the re-established national assembly convened on 27 February.

The legislative power was vested in this parliament, consisting of two houses: an upper house titled the Főrendiház ([føːrɛndihaːz], House of Magnates), and a lower house titled the Képviselőház ([ˈkeːpviʃɛløːhaːz], House of Representatives). From 1902 on parliament assembles in the Hungarian Parliament Building on the Danube in Budapest.

House of Magnates

Assembly hall of the House of Magnates

The House of Magnates (Főrendiház) was, like the current British House of Lords, composed of hereditaries, ecclesiastics, and, unlike the House of Lords, deputized representatives from autonomous regions (Similar to Resident Commissioners of United States territories). The House had no fixed membership size, as anyone who met the qualifications could sit in it. The official list:

• Princes of the royal house who have attained their majority (16 in 1904)
• Hereditary peers who paid at least 3000 florins a year land tax (237 in 1904) (at its 1896 exchange rate, £1 was worth 12 florins, so this comes to £250)
• High dignitaries of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches (42 in 1904)
• Representatives of the Protestant confessions (13 in 1904)
• Life peers appointed by the Crown, not exceeding 50 in number, and life peers elected by the house itself (73 altogether in 1904)
• Various state dignitaries and high judges (19 in 1904)
• Three delegates of Croatia-Slavonia

See also List of Speakers of the House of Magnates of Hungary

House of Representatives

Assembly hall of the House of Representatives

The House of Representatives (Képviselőház ) consisted of members elected, under the Electoral Law of 1874, by a complicated franchise based upon property, taxation, profession or official position, and ancestral privileges. The House consisted of 453 members, of which 413 are deputies elected in Hungary and 43 delegates of Croatia-Slavonia sent by the parliament of that Kingdom. Their terms were for five years and were remunerated.

The Encyclopedia Britannica Eleventh Edition considered the franchise "probably the most illiberal in Europe". The working classes were wholly unrepresented in the parliament, only 6% of them, and 13% of the small trading class, possessing the franchise, which was only enjoyed by 6% of the entire population.

The parliament was summoned annually by the king at Budapest. While official language was Hungarian, but the delegates of Croatia-Slavonia were allowed to use Croatian language in the proceedings. The Hungarian parliament had power to legislate on all matters concerning Hungary, but for Croatia-Slavonia only on matters which concern these provinces in common with Hungary. The executive power was vested in a cabinet responsible to it, consisting of ten ministers, including: the president of the council, the minister for Croatia-Slavonia, a minister ad latum, and the ministers of the interior, of national defence, of education and public worship, of finance, of agriculture, of industry and commerce, and of justice.

Post-1989

The democratic character of the Hungarian parliament was reestablished with the fall of the iron curtain and the end of communist dictatorship. Today's parliament is still called Országgyűlés just like in royal times, but in order to differentiate between the two phases is referred to as National Assembly of Hungary now, as opposed to the historical royal diet.

References

1. ^ John M. Merriman, J. M. Winter, Europe 1789 to 1914: encyclopedia of the age of industry and empire, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006, p. 140, ISBN 978-0-684-31359-7
2. ^ Tadayuki Hayashi, Hiroshi Fukuda, Regions in Central and Eastern Europe: past and present, Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, 2007, p. 158, ISBN 978-4-938637-43-9
3. ^ Katerina Zacharia, Hellenisms: culture, identity, and ethnicity from antiquity to modernity, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008, p. 237 ISBN 978-0-754-66525-0

• István Szijártó (2007). "The Diet: The Estates and the Parliament of Hungary, 1708–1792". In Gerhard Ammerer, William D. Godsey Jr., Martin Scheutz, Peter Urbanitsch und Alfred Stefan Weiss. Bündnispartner und Konkurrenten des Landesfürsten? Die Stände in der Habsburgermonarchie. Wien – München. p. 125. http://elte.academia.edu/IstvanSzijarto/Papers/382448/The_Diet_The_Estates_and_the_Parliament_of_Hungary_17081792. "The Diets of our period [1708-1792] were held from 1708 to 1715, then between 1722 and 1723, 1728 and 1729, in 1741, 1751, 1764–65, 1790–91 and 1792" .
• The Living Age. 1849. p. 554. http://books.google.com/books?id=RnUkAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA554. Retrieved 28 May 2011. "In 1796, the diet was called together again... the diet met in 1802... the diet of 1805... the diet of 1807..."  Some material from this work is included directly above.

See also

• Diet of Dalmatia