Upper Nobility (Kingdom of Hungary)

Upper Nobility (Kingdom Of Hungary)

The upper nobility (Hungarian: főnemesség, Latin: barones) was the highest stratum of the temporal society in the Kingdom of Hungary until the 20th century. In the course of the 11-15th centuries, only people who held specific high offices in the royal administration or in the Royal Households were distinguished by law within the nobility, but from the 16th century, families whose ancestors had been authorized by the monarchs to use a distinctive noble title (e.g., baron, count) formed a hereditary social class.

Its first members descended from the leaders of the Magyar tribes and clans and from the western knights who immigrated to the Kingdom of Hungary in the course of the 10-12th centuries. They were the "men distinguished by birth and dignity" (maiores natu et dignitate) mentioned frequently in the charters of the first kings. From the 1210s, the dignitaries of the central administration and the Royal Households were referred to as "barons of the realm" (barones regni) in official documents but their legal status was exclusively linked to the office they held and their offsprings could not inherit it.

In 1193, King Béla III granted Modruš County in Croatia to Bartolomej, the ancestor of the Frankopans (Frangepán) family; thenceforward, he and his descendants used the hereditary title count but no specific privileges were connected to it. Quite to the contrary, the theory of the "one and same liberty" (una eademque libertas) of the nobles strengthened and finally, it became enacted in 1351. From 1397, the descendants of the "barons of the realm" were referred to as "barons' sons" (filii baronum) or magnates (magnates) in official documents and from the 1430s, they received the honorific magnificus, an expression that had earlier been used only when addressing the "barons of the realm".

Besides the Counts Frankopan, the members of foreign ruling houses and the nobles of foreign origin who held offices in the royal administration or owned estates in the Kingdom of Hungary (e.g., Duke Ladislaus of Opole, Prince Fyodor Koriatovych, the Despot Stefan Lazarević and Count Hermann II of Celje) were the first individuals who used noble titles, but in theory, their legal status was still equal to that of the poorest members of the lesser nobility. Similarly, the status of the brothers Szentgyörgyi did not change when they were rewarded with the hereditary title count of the Roman Empire in 1459 by Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor who had been claiming the throne for himself against King Matthias I.

King Matthias I also rewarded his partisans with hereditary titles when he appointed them to hereditary heads of counties (hæreditarius supremus comes) and authorized them to use red sealing wax (similarly to the counts of the Roman Empire). In 1487, a new expression appeared in a deed of armistice signed by King Matthias: the document mentioned 19 noble families as "natural barons in Hungary" (barones naturales in Hungaria) in contrast to the "barons of the realm" whose position was still linked to the high offices they happened to be holding. During the reign of King Vladislaus II, the special legal position of certain noble families was enacted and the act referred to their members as "barons" even if they were not holding any high offices at that time.

Although in the 16th century, the Tripartitum (a law book collecting the body of common laws that had arisen from customary practise) declared again that all the nobles enjoyed the same liberties independently of their offices, birth or wealth, but in practise, even it acknowledged that some differences had been existing within the nobility. Nevertheless, the Tripartitum still distinguished between the "true barons" (veri barones) who held the highest offices and the "barons only by name" (barones solo nomine) who did not hold any high offices but used noble titles. From 1526, the Habsburg kings rewarded their partisans with hereditary titles such as baron and count and the members of the families wearing such titles were invited to attend in person at the Diets. This costumary practise was confirmed by legislation in 1608, when the Diet passed an act prescribing that the monarchs were to send a personal invitation to the members of the upper nobility (i.e., to the "true barons" and to the nobles authorized by the kings to use hereditary titles) when convoking the Diet; thenceforward, the prelates and the members of the upper nobility formed the Diets' Upper House.

The Habsburg monarchs endeavoured to establish an "international" aristocracy within their empire and they granted several estates in the Kingdom of Hungary to their followers descending from their other realms and provinces; the Estates, however, managed to reserve the right that the kings could not grant offices and estates to foreigners without their authorization. From 1688, the members of the upper nobility were entitled by law to create an entail (fideicommissum) which ensured that their estates were inherited without division in contrast to the common law that prescribed that a noble's inheritance was to be divided equally among his heirs.

The "cardinal liberties" of the nobility were abolished by the "April laws" in 1848, but the members of the upper nobility could reserve their hereditary membership in the Upper House of the Parliament. In 1885, aristocrats who did not meet all the financial criteria set up by legislation, lost their seat in the legislative body. The Upper House was dissolved in 1918 and it was reorganized only in 1926, but thenceforward, the members of the upper nobility were only entitled to elect some representatives to the Upper House.

In 1945, the land reform liquidated the financial basis of the special status of the upper nobility. And finally, following the declaration of the Republic of Hungary, the Parliament passed an act that prohibited the use of noble titles in 1946.