The
palatine was the highest dignitary in the
Kingdom of HungaryThe Kingdom of Hungary , emerged in 1000, when the Principality of Hungary, founded in 896, was recognized as a Kingdom. The form of government was changed from Monarchy to Republic briefly in 1918 and again in 1946, ending the Kingdom and creating the Republic of Hungary...
after the
kingA monarch is the person who heads a monarchy, a form of government in which the country or entity usually ruled or controlled by an individual who usually rules for life or until abdication...
(a kind of powerful
prime ministerA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
and supreme judge) from the kingdom's rise up to 1848/1918.
Initially, he was in fact the representative of the king, later the vice-regent (
viceroyA viceroy is a royal official who runs a country or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. His province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty. The relative...
). In the early centuries of the kingdom, he was appointed by the king, later elected by the
DietIn politics, a diet is a formal deliberative assembly. The term is derived from Medieval Latin dietas, and ultimately comes from the Latin dies, "day". The word came to be used in this sense because assemblies met on a daily basis which is reflected in the German language use of Tagung and -tag...
of the Kingdom of Hungary. After the
HabsburgThe House of Habsburg or Hapsburg was an important royal house of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1452 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian and Spanish Empire and several other countries...
s solidified their hold of Hungary, the dignity became an appointed position once again.
The
palatine was the highest dignitary in the
Kingdom of HungaryThe Kingdom of Hungary , emerged in 1000, when the Principality of Hungary, founded in 896, was recognized as a Kingdom. The form of government was changed from Monarchy to Republic briefly in 1918 and again in 1946, ending the Kingdom and creating the Republic of Hungary...
after the
kingA monarch is the person who heads a monarchy, a form of government in which the country or entity usually ruled or controlled by an individual who usually rules for life or until abdication...
(a kind of powerful
prime ministerA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
and supreme judge) from the kingdom's rise up to 1848/1918.
Initially, he was in fact the representative of the king, later the vice-regent (
viceroyA viceroy is a royal official who runs a country or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. His province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty. The relative...
). In the early centuries of the kingdom, he was appointed by the king, later elected by the
DietIn politics, a diet is a formal deliberative assembly. The term is derived from Medieval Latin dietas, and ultimately comes from the Latin dies, "day". The word came to be used in this sense because assemblies met on a daily basis which is reflected in the German language use of Tagung and -tag...
of the Kingdom of Hungary. After the
HabsburgThe House of Habsburg or Hapsburg was an important royal house of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1452 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian and Spanish Empire and several other countries...
s solidified their hold of Hungary, the dignity became an appointed position once again. Finally, it became hereditary in a cadet (junior) branch of the Habsburg dynasty after
King FrancisFrancis II was the last Holy Roman Emperor, ruling from 1792 until 6 August 1806, when he dissolved the Empire after the disastrous defeat of the Third Coalition by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz...
appointed his brother Joseph.
Name
The Latin word
palatinus means approximately imperial, royal, and
comes was a noble title having a number of meanings. The Hungarian word
nádorispán is derived from the Slovak/
SlavicThe Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
na dvor špan meaning approximately "at-the-Court count."
Middle Ages
The Hungarians settled in the Carpathian Basin around 896.
Initially the palatine was the leader (administrator, manager) of the
curia regis (Court of the king, in terms of persons and institutions); he was responsible for the functioning of the Court, for its economy and internal order. From 1002 onwards, leading members of the supreme nobility (the oligarchs) held the function. He was responsible for the royal properties ("courts", , ) scattered in the country with their "court" peasants .
From the 12th century onwards, the palatine was also a representative of the king in judicial affairs. He was the judge of all "free" persons (
oligarchOligarch may refer to:* A member of an oligarchy, a form of government* Business oligarch...
s,
servientes regis,
hospites and other land owners), especially the judge of the nobles outside the capital, but in 1222 nobles were exempt from his jurisdiction. He was also the judge of the Jászok (Alans), of the Cumanians and of the
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
s. Title of Palatine is abolished in 1848.
From 1200, he was also the
comesA comitatus is the name of an administrative unit in the Kingdom of Hungary and in the Republic of Hungary from the 10th century until 1949 when it was abolished by the new constitution.The area of the Kingdom of Hungary also included present-day...
of several counties, thus being entitled to one third of the county taxes. From the 13th century, his deputy (
vicepalatinus) was based in Pest (around 1300 temporarily in Old Buda), where he was simultaneously the county leader of the Pest county and judge of the middle nobility.
The Diet of the Kingdom of Hungary of 1455 and 1456 issued the decree "de officio Palatinus", which guaranteed the palatine's position as the representative of the king.
15th – 20th century
From around 1400 he was the
vice-regentA Vice-regent is a person who acts in the name of another, notably:*a person who acts for a Regent.*as a synonym of Viceroy*as a common misuse for Vicegerent...
of the king, a function which however only became important after 1526. He was allowed to command the royal army and to preside over the Diet of the Kingdom of Hungary instead of the king. When the king was not of age or if there was an
interregnumAn interregnum is a period of discontinuity of a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next , and the concepts of interregnum and regency therefore overlap...
, he also could convene the Diet. From around 1450 he had the right to grant royal property — like the king himself but with certain restrictions. An act of 1485 explicitly stipulated that the palatine shall be the vice-regent in the king's absence.
After 1526, when the Habsburgs became rulers of the kingdom and the
TurksThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
seized large parts of the kingdom, the palatine, as the vice-regent (viceroy), had his seat outside
Royal HungaryHungary is a state in central Europe, its history under this name dating to the early Middle Ages, when the region previously known as Pannonia was colonized by the Magyar nomad people from what is now central-northern Russia. For history of the area before this period, see Pannonian basin before...
in
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" , "city of a hundred spires", or Stověžatá Praha in Czech and "the golden city" or Zlaté město in Czech.Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the...
and later in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
. In 1526, the palatine became a life function. In 1527, the palatine
István BáthoryStephen VIII Báthory was a Hungarian noble.He was a son of Nicholas Báthory of the Somlyó branch of the Báthory family.In 1521, he was appointed deputy voivode of Transylvania, serving under the Voivoid John Zápolya...
created the Hungarian Vice-regency Council (a kind of government, seat in Pozsony (German: Pressburg, now
BratislavaBratislava is the capital of the Slovak Republic and, with a population of about 429,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River...
) since 1531) comprising also other noble representatives, which became a permanent institution headed by the palatine in 1549. In 1608, the functions of vice-regent and palatine were separated. The Vice-regency council was abolished in 1673, but renewed in 1723, when the palatine became the official president of the council.
After 1848, the palatine was only a symbolic function, but it was only in 1918 — with the end of Habsburgs in the Kingdom of Hungary (the kingdom continued formally until 1945) — that the function ceased officially.
Important palatines
Important families that provided several palatines were: in the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th century were the
AbaAba may refer to:For places:* Aba River, in Nigeria* Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, prefecture in Sichuan, China** Aba County, county in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan, China** Aba, Sichuan, main town in Aba County...
, Lackfi, in the 15th century the
GarayGaray or Garai were a Hungarian noble family in the Kingdom of Hungary, a branch of the Dorozsma clan, with notable members in the 14th and 15th centuries. They were lords of Csesznek.-Name and origin:...
, afterwards the
BáthoryThe Báthory were a Hungarian noble family of the Gutkeled clan. The family rose to significant influence in Central Europe during the late Middle Ages, holding high military, administrative and ecclesiastical positions in the Kingdom of Hungary...
and the Zápolya,
EsterházyThe House of Esterházy was a Hungarian noble family in Hungary beginning in the Middle Ages. From the 17th century they belonged to the great landowner magnates of the Kingdom of Hungary, during the time it was part of the Habsburg Empire and later Austria-Hungary.-History:Initially, the...
, Pálffy, and ultimately the Joseph branch of the Habsburg.
Prominent palatines have been: in the early 17th century, István Illésházy of
TrenčínTrenčín is a city in western Slovakia of the central Váh River valley near the Czech border, around from Bratislava. It has a population of more than 56,000, which makes it the ninth largest municipality of the country and is the seat of the Trenčín Region and the Trenčín District...
, then up to 1616, György Thurzó and János Zakmárdi. Thurzó is the palatine who arrested
Elizabeth BáthoryCountess Elizabeth Báthory , was a Hungarian countess from the renowned Báthory family...
, the countess accused for killing numerous girls and young women. The position was occupied in the remaining 17th century by members of the families
EsterházyThe House of Esterházy was a Hungarian noble family in Hungary beginning in the Middle Ages. From the 17th century they belonged to the great landowner magnates of the Kingdom of Hungary, during the time it was part of the Habsburg Empire and later Austria-Hungary.-History:Initially, the...
, Pálffy, Francis Wesselényi and others. The last palatines at the end of the 18th and the first half of the 19th century were the Habsburgs
ArchdukeThe title of Archduke denotes a rank above Grand Duke and under King. It was rare and has uses too diverse to be given a fixed relative position within the former Holy Roman Empire to which it was restricted...
s
Alexander LeopoldArchduke Alexander Leopold of Austria was the fourth son of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Maria Louisa of Spain. After the accession of his father to the Imperial throne in 1790, Alexander Leopold was appointed Palatine of Hungary...
, Joseph and his son
StephenPalatine Stephen of Hungary or Archduke Stephen Francis Victor of Austria...
, who resigned in 1848. Following Stephen's death in 1767 without issue, his half-brother
Archduke Joseph August of AustriaArchduke Joseph August Viktor Klemens Maria of Austria, Prince of Hungary and Bohemia was the eldest son of Archduke Joseph Karl of Austria and his wife Princess Clotilde of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...
inherited the title, though the post by that time was symbolic only.